Portland, Oregon brothers Tim,Chris and Barry Brusseau had been striking around the punk scene for some time, by the time their band ‘The Jimmies’ (along with two other members Jason and Eric) were brought to the attention of Ben Weasel and Jughead at Panic Button Records. The band had formed as far back as 1989, following the demise of two local band ‘Dread’ and ‘M.I.S’. With the band all having a shared friendship and brotherhood, the move to begin a new band would also help fuel their love of punk rock and alcohol. Connecting with The Queers, and being an important part of bringing the band to Portland, The Jimmies would play alongside Joe King and company (as well as the Groovie Ghoulies) a second time when they returned to the brothers hometown.
Barry Brusseau (The Jimmies) : “ The roadie for the Groovie Ghoulies had been sent on a mission by Ben Weasel to look for good bands for the Panic Button label. I forget the roadie’s name, but he loved us and took a CD back to Ben. Ben and Jughead both loved our CD "Countdown", and Jughead contacted me about doing our next album. We had already started recording "Let the Fat Men Plunder" and submitted that for John and Ben's approval. Ben didn't like the album, but Jughead did. It was John that took a chance on us, and pushed Ben on releasing the album. I've never met Ben in person, but did have a couple phone conversations with him - we share panic attack problems amongst other things. He thought "Countdown" was brilliant, but just never liked "Fat Men".”
The Jimmies Panic Button release (LK 242) brought together a great combination of Queers type punk with a definite looser rock n roll sound, creating a memorable batch of tracks, adding a more ‘in your face’ vibe to the four chord punk formula. The CD only release also brought in some favourable reviews, and after a decade of plugging away, would appear to be a breakthrough for the already thirtysomethings that were providing the tunes. A successful tour alongside label mates Moral Crux followed the albums release.
Barry Brusseau (The Jimmies) : “ It was really cool that all those years listening to Lookout releases we now had a cd out that said "Panic Button/Lookout" on the back. Dealing with Jughead and Panic Button was a dream come true. Those guys ran the label with real integrity, and truly cared about us. Even with all that good stuff happening The Jimmies were on there last legs. Everyone in the band had dealt with substance problems - some getting clean, some not. This all just added to the tension, and musically I don't think it was inspiring anymore. Less and less people came to see us, and it just felt like we were beating a dead horse. We kept plugging along though, kicking Jason (RIP) out of the band and bringin in a new bass player. We still had some real good times, but it was becoming less and less fun. When John told me the label was going to be sold to Lookout I thought it was not good for us. He said Lookout wanted to do the next album, but I don't think it was ever going to happen. Now I had to deal with Christopher Appelgren. This was a real nightmare. I new we didn't generate any real cash for Panic Button, and didn't expect to be treated like a real priority. We spent out own money and recorded our last album. I sent it to Chris and he said "yes" we see this coming out on Panic Button. I asked him if he had listened to it and he said he hadn't had a chance to really sit down and listen to it. John always returned my messages, but getting Chris to speak to me was almost impossible. I just wanted him to tell me yes or no. This whole thing went on for 6 or 7 months. I'm sure he had a lot on his plate, but we held out hope that it would eventually happen. It didn't and we released our last cd ourselves. We did two monster last shows in Portland and our home town Longview. We sold our new cd at the shows and called it a day. It was a burden relieved.”
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