Red Rockers
Encyclopedia
Red Rockers were a musical band from New Orleans, Louisiana
, active from 1979 to 1985. They are best known for their 1983 hit single "China
".
(rhythm guitar
and vocals), James Singletary (lead guitar
), and Darren Hill (bass guitar
). Under the short-lived pseudonyms of "Stunn", "James Jett", and "Derwood", with various stand-ins as "Drummur", they played punk rock
as The Rat Finks. The group members were deeply influenced by the relatively new punk scene, and they were particularly moved by the radical
political songs and styles of The Clash
and The Dils
. After a period of reassessment, they took on a permanent drummer, Patrick Butler Jones, and resumed use of their real names. They changed the name of the band itself, drawing on Darren Hill's favorite song by The Dils – "Red Rockers Rule". (In their live performances, The Dils in fact performed two different songs, "Red Rockers" and "Red Rockers Rule", but neither one was committed to vinyl until well after Red Rockers had released their own first record.)
, Guns of Revolution. The 45rpm EP
, with the title track on the A-side
and its B-sides of "Teenage Underground" and "Nothing to Lose", was a loud, anthemic cult favorite. The brash new band was heralded in punk fanzines as "America's Clash"
Guns of Revolution was only the third release by a fledgling New Orleans record label called Vinyl Solution. Sales outstripped the small company's supply of its striking war-themed cover art, and subsequent pressings were distributed in plain white sleeves. (A third cover, with a photo of the band themselves, exists in extremely limited quantities). On the strength of the EP, Red Rockers became regular concert partners for every punk band that toured through the New Orleans area. The group honed a harsh hardcore
sound as they gigged relentlessly for the next two years.
. Their tour through California led them to a prominent new record label, 415 Records
, which released the 12-song LP
in 1981. The record included a newly redone version of "Guns of Revolution" as well as the popular live track "Dead Heroes", which had appeared on a local New Orleans punk compilation
and quickly became a signature song for the band. Condition Red was very well-received in the national rock music press and revealed the band's growing integration into the punk rock elite. A special guest appearance was made by Dead Kennedys
singer Jello Biafra
who lent background vocals to the cover version of Johnny Cash
's "Folsom Prison Blues
". In early 1982, Red Rockers opened for The Clash as they toured Louisiana and Texas.
Condition Red yielded scant commercial profit, but its enthusiastic reception greatly bolstered the confidence of the band's new managers at 415. The San Francisco recordmakers were considered one of the most important independent record labels of the time, and their favor would prove decisive. They assisted the band in relocating to their city, and set upon drastically altering their musical style.
, and Romeo Void
were all New Wave
bands, accomplished and popular, but with evident non-punk character. When they were not playing gigs, the band worked long hours in the recording studio with the exacting producer David Kahne
. Amid the strain and dissension, drummer Patrick Butler Jones left the band, and by late 1983 he had been replaced by another ex-punk band member, Jim Reilly
, who had drummed for the Northern Irish punk rock
band Stiff Little Fingers
. The "new" Red Rockers were filmed in two different videos in anticipation of the record's release.
When Good as Gold was released by a partnership of 415 and the major label Columbia
, the distribution change was indicative of a change in the values of the band. What surprised critics more, however, was the change in music: from the rough, raging sound of the past, Red Rockers had become a polished, almost gentle-sounding band, fitting in easily with the softer New Wave styles of the time. By the end of the year, Red Rockers surpassed all their labelmates in commercial success.
Kahne had put the band in the studio for unexpectedly long hours, and the work that received the biggest investment of time was the new song "China
". Described by rock critic Ira Robbins as a "startlingly pretty pop song", it was a huge success – the single became a hit on the US music charts and the music video became a long-running staple on nascent MTV
. A second single, the title track "Good as Gold", followed as Red Rockers crossed North America opening for major tours including The Cars
, The Kinks
, The Go-Go's
, Joan Jett
and Men at Work
.
but lacked a group cohesion. To its critics, the album drifts among musical forms and relies heavily on a high percentage of cover songs: the quasi-psychedelia of "Good Thing I Know Her" (which bears the album title in its lyrics) conveyed yet another new departure for the band's sound, "bewildering" to some. With some difficulty, Dave Marsh
of Rolling Stone
described Schizophrenic Circus as "postpunk folk-rock with garage-band propulsion and longhair tunefulness."
Perhaps the most glaring stylistic change of all was the unlikely design of the album cover. Redolent of The Doors
' Strange Days
, the circus-themed cover art
was inevitably compared most unfavorably. John Thomas Griffith has said that the cover was disparaged by the bandmembers themselves, and he cites it as a main factor in the album's lukewarm commercial reception.
Three different singles were released from the album, but the only significant success was on college radio, where a cover of Barry McGuire
's 1966 folk rock
protest song
"Eve of Destruction" was a minor hit. The second single was another cover song, "Blood from a Stone", which had been performed by The Hooters
on their album Amoré
(1983), and Trouser Press
acclaimed the Red Rockers version as a big improvement over the original. In the wake of this notoriety, the Hooters remade the song again the following year, on their album Nervous Night
(1985).
The 12-inch single
featuring two versions of "Just Like You" was the band's last release. In early 1985, while still relatively well-known and touring with U2
on their Unforgettable Fire tour, Red Rockers disbanded and never reformed.
which he co-founded in 1990 with Paul Sanchez
and Fred LeBlanc
. James Singletary currently plays guitar for the New Orleans-based band Alexander Fly. Jim Reilly and Darren Hill joined the Boston-based Raindogs
in 1985. Eventually Reilly moved back to the UK and currently plays with Scottish band The Dead Handsomes. Hill stayed in Boston, forming Klover
in the mid-1990s; he now runs a management company, Ten Pin Management, which has represented Paul Westerberg
, Roky Erickson
, The Mighty Mighty Bosstones
, The New York Dolls, and others.
Louisiana
Louisiana is a state located in the southern region of the United States of America. Its capital is Baton Rouge and largest city is New Orleans. Louisiana is the only state in the U.S. with political subdivisions termed parishes, which are local governments equivalent to counties...
, active from 1979 to 1985. They are best known for their 1983 hit single "China
China (Red Rockers song)
-History:"China" was originally one of the ten songs on Red Rockers' second full-length album, Good as Gold. The single was released by the joint label Columbia/415....
".
Origins
The band was formed as a trio in 1979 by John Thomas GriffithJohn Thomas Griffith
John Thomas Griffith is an American singer-songwriter best known as a guitarist and vocalist for the band Cowboy Mouth. John Thomas Griffith first established himself on the American music scene in the early 1980s as lead singer and guitarist for the Red Rockers, co-writing their 1983 MTV hit...
(rhythm guitar
Rhythm guitar
Rhythm guitar is a technique and rôle that performs a combination of two functions: to provide all or part of the rhythmic pulse in conjunction with singers or other instruments; and to provide all or part of the harmony, ie. the chords, where a chord is a group of notes played together...
and vocals), James Singletary (lead guitar
Lead guitar
Lead guitar is a guitar part which plays melody lines, instrumental fill passages, guitar solos, and occasionally, some riffs within a song structure...
), and Darren Hill (bass guitar
Bass guitar
The bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick....
). Under the short-lived pseudonyms of "Stunn", "James Jett", and "Derwood", with various stand-ins as "Drummur", they played punk rock
Punk rock
Punk rock is a rock music genre that developed between 1974 and 1976 in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia. Rooted in garage rock and other forms of what is now known as protopunk music, punk rock bands eschewed perceived excesses of mainstream 1970s rock...
as The Rat Finks. The group members were deeply influenced by the relatively new punk scene, and they were particularly moved by the radical
Revolutionary socialism
The term revolutionary socialism refers to Socialist tendencies that advocate the need for fundamental social change through revolution by mass movements of the working class, as a strategy to achieve a socialist society...
political songs and styles of The Clash
The Clash
The Clash were an English punk rock band that formed in 1976 as part of the original wave of British punk. Along with punk, their music incorporated elements of reggae, ska, dub, funk, rap, dance, and rockabilly...
and The Dils
The Dils
The Dils were an American punk rock band of the late 1970s, originally from Carlsbad, California, and fronted by brothers Chip Kinman and Tony Kinman...
. After a period of reassessment, they took on a permanent drummer, Patrick Butler Jones, and resumed use of their real names. They changed the name of the band itself, drawing on Darren Hill's favorite song by The Dils – "Red Rockers Rule". (In their live performances, The Dils in fact performed two different songs, "Red Rockers" and "Red Rockers Rule", but neither one was committed to vinyl until well after Red Rockers had released their own first record.)
Guns of Revolution: 1979–1980
Red Rockers quickly joined the punk milieu in late 1979 with their first vinyl recordGramophone record
A gramophone record, commonly known as a phonograph record , vinyl record , or colloquially, a record, is an analog sound storage medium consisting of a flat disc with an inscribed, modulated spiral groove...
, Guns of Revolution. The 45rpm EP
Extended play
An EP is a musical recording which contains more music than a single, but is too short to qualify as a full album or LP. The term EP originally referred only to specific types of vinyl records other than 78 rpm standard play records and LP records, but it is now applied to mid-length Compact...
, with the title track on the A-side
A-side and B-side
A-side and B-side originally referred to the two sides of gramophone records on which singles were released beginning in the 1950s. The terms have come to refer to the types of song conventionally placed on each side of the record, with the A-side being the featured song , while the B-side, or...
and its B-sides of "Teenage Underground" and "Nothing to Lose", was a loud, anthemic cult favorite. The brash new band was heralded in punk fanzines as "America's Clash"
Guns of Revolution was only the third release by a fledgling New Orleans record label called Vinyl Solution. Sales outstripped the small company's supply of its striking war-themed cover art, and subsequent pressings were distributed in plain white sleeves. (A third cover, with a photo of the band themselves, exists in extremely limited quantities). On the strength of the EP, Red Rockers became regular concert partners for every punk band that toured through the New Orleans area. The group honed a harsh hardcore
Hardcore punk
Hardcore punk is an underground music genre that originated in the late 1970s, following the mainstream success of punk rock. Hardcore is generally faster, thicker, and heavier than earlier punk rock. The origin of the term "hardcore punk" is uncertain. The Vancouver-based band D.O.A...
sound as they gigged relentlessly for the next two years.
Condition Red: 1981–1982
Along the way, the band assembled its first full-length album, Condition RedCondition Red
Condition Red, Red Rockers' first full length album, was released in 1981 on 415 Records. It was recorded at the famed Automatt studio in San Francisco. The Dead Kennedys' Jello Biafra sings background vocals on Folsom Prison Blues...
. Their tour through California led them to a prominent new record label, 415 Records
415 Records
415 Records was a San Francisco record label created in 1978. The label focused its efforts on local punk rock and new wave music acts of the late 1970s through the late 1980s, including The Offs, The Nuns, Romeo Void, and Wire Train...
, which released the 12-song LP
LP album
The LP, or long-playing microgroove record, is a format for phonograph records, an analog sound storage medium. Introduced by Columbia Records in 1948, it was soon adopted as a new standard by the entire record industry...
in 1981. The record included a newly redone version of "Guns of Revolution" as well as the popular live track "Dead Heroes", which had appeared on a local New Orleans punk compilation
Compilation album
A compilation album is an album featuring tracks from one or more performers, often culled from a variety of sources The tracks are usually collected according to a common characteristic, such as popularity, genre, source or subject matter...
and quickly became a signature song for the band. Condition Red was very well-received in the national rock music press and revealed the band's growing integration into the punk rock elite. A special guest appearance was made by Dead Kennedys
Dead Kennedys
Dead Kennedys are an American punk rock band formed in San Francisco, California in 1978. The band became part of the American hardcore punk movement of the early 1980s. They gained a large underground fanbase in the international punk music scene....
singer Jello Biafra
Jello Biafra
Jello Biafra is an American musician, spoken word artist and leading figure of the Green Party of the United States. Biafra first gained attention as the lead singer and songwriter for San Francisco punk rock band Dead Kennedys...
who lent background vocals to the cover version of Johnny Cash
Johnny Cash
John R. "Johnny" Cash was an American singer-songwriter, actor, and author, who has been called one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century...
's "Folsom Prison Blues
Folsom Prison Blues
"Folsom Prison Blues" is the title of a song written and recorded by American country music artist Johnny Cash. The song combines elements from two popular folk genres, the train song and the prison song, both of which Cash would continue to use for the rest of his career...
". In early 1982, Red Rockers opened for The Clash as they toured Louisiana and Texas.
Condition Red yielded scant commercial profit, but its enthusiastic reception greatly bolstered the confidence of the band's new managers at 415. The San Francisco recordmakers were considered one of the most important independent record labels of the time, and their favor would prove decisive. They assisted the band in relocating to their city, and set upon drastically altering their musical style.
Good as Gold: 1982–1983
The band toured heavily with their label colleagues, quickly finding a harmony with their styles: Translator, Wire TrainWire Train
Wire Train was a United States based group who produced six albums in the 1980s and early 1990s. The band was originally formed as the Renegades in April 1983 in San Francisco...
, and Romeo Void
Romeo Void
Romeo Void was an American rock band from San Francisco, California, formed in 1979. The band primarily consisted of saxophonist Benjamin Bossi, vocalist Debora Iyall, guitarist Peter Woods, and bassist Frank Zincavage. The band went through four drummers, starting with Jay Derrah and ending with...
were all New Wave
New Wave music
New Wave is a subgenre of :rock music that emerged in the mid to late 1970s alongside punk rock. The term at first generally was synonymous with punk rock before being considered a genre in its own right that incorporated aspects of electronic and experimental music, mod subculture, disco and 1960s...
bands, accomplished and popular, but with evident non-punk character. When they were not playing gigs, the band worked long hours in the recording studio with the exacting producer David Kahne
David Kahne
David Kahne is an American record producer. Kahne started his musical career as a working musician and then became notable for his role as in-house producer and engineer at 415 Records, the first American new wave music label, and for his subsequent roles as Vice President of A&R at Columbia...
. Amid the strain and dissension, drummer Patrick Butler Jones left the band, and by late 1983 he had been replaced by another ex-punk band member, Jim Reilly
Jim Reilly
James G. "Jim" Reilly is the second drummer for the Northern Ireland based punk band Stiff Little Fingers, with whom he played from 1979 to 1981. He played on the LPs Nobody's Heroes, Go for It and Hanx. In 1981 he moved to the United States, where he played in two bands, Red Rockers, followed by...
, who had drummed for the Northern Irish punk rock
Punk rock
Punk rock is a rock music genre that developed between 1974 and 1976 in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia. Rooted in garage rock and other forms of what is now known as protopunk music, punk rock bands eschewed perceived excesses of mainstream 1970s rock...
band Stiff Little Fingers
Stiff Little Fingers
Stiff Little Fingers are a punk rock band from Belfast, Northern Ireland. They formed in 1977, at the height of the Troubles. They started out as a schoolboy band called Highway Star , doing rock covers, until they discovered punk. They split up after six years and four albums, although they...
. The "new" Red Rockers were filmed in two different videos in anticipation of the record's release.
When Good as Gold was released by a partnership of 415 and the major label Columbia
Columbia Records
Columbia Records is an American record label, owned by Japan's Sony Music Entertainment, operating under the Columbia Music Group with Aware Records. It was founded in 1888, evolving from an earlier enterprise, the American Graphophone Company — successor to the Volta Graphophone Company...
, the distribution change was indicative of a change in the values of the band. What surprised critics more, however, was the change in music: from the rough, raging sound of the past, Red Rockers had become a polished, almost gentle-sounding band, fitting in easily with the softer New Wave styles of the time. By the end of the year, Red Rockers surpassed all their labelmates in commercial success.
Kahne had put the band in the studio for unexpectedly long hours, and the work that received the biggest investment of time was the new song "China
China (Red Rockers song)
-History:"China" was originally one of the ten songs on Red Rockers' second full-length album, Good as Gold. The single was released by the joint label Columbia/415....
". Described by rock critic Ira Robbins as a "startlingly pretty pop song", it was a huge success – the single became a hit on the US music charts and the music video became a long-running staple on nascent MTV
MTV
MTV, formerly an initialism of Music Television, is an American network based in New York City that launched on August 1, 1981. The original purpose of the channel was to play music videos guided by on-air hosts known as VJs....
. A second single, the title track "Good as Gold", followed as Red Rockers crossed North America opening for major tours including The Cars
The Cars
The Cars are an American rock band that emerged from the early New Wave music scene in the late 1970s. The band consisted of lead singer and rhythm guitarist Ric Ocasek, lead singer and bassist Benjamin Orr, guitarist Elliot Easton, keyboardist Greg Hawkes and drummer David Robinson...
, The Kinks
The Kinks
The Kinks were an English rock band formed in Muswell Hill, North London, by brothers Ray and Dave Davies in 1964. Categorised in the United States as a British Invasion band, The Kinks are recognised as one of the most important and influential rock acts of the era. Their music was influenced by a...
, The Go-Go's
The Go-Go's
The Go-Go’s are an all-female American rock band formed in 1978. They made history as the first all-female band that both wrote their own songs and played their own instruments to top the Billboard album charts....
, Joan Jett
Joan Jett
Joan Jett is an American rock guitarist, singer, songwriter, producer and actress.She is best known for her work with Joan Jett & the Blackhearts including their hit cover "I Love Rock 'n' Roll", which was #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 from March 20 to May 1, 1982, as well as for their other popular...
and Men at Work
Men at Work
Men at Work are an Australian rock band who achieved international success in the 1980s. They are the only Australian artists to have a simultaneous #1 album and #1 single in the United States . They achieved the same distinction of a simultaneous #1 album and #1 single in the United Kingdom...
.
Schizophrenic Circus: 1984–1985
The success of Good As Gold brought mixed fortune to Red Rockers. They felt the sting of their punk rock audience, who scornfully rejected the band's sudden conversion to commercial rock. Disunity over the band's direction was rampant and eventually led to the exit of guitarist James Singletary. The band's next album showed an even greater fragmentation in their musical approach: Schizophrenic Circus (1984) featured a new guitarist, Shawn Paddock, and a new producer Rick ChertoffRick Chertoff
Rick Chertoff is a five-time Grammy-nominated producer responsible for such hits as Joan Osborne’s “One of Us”, Cyndi Lauper’s “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun” and “Time After Time” and Sophie B...
but lacked a group cohesion. To its critics, the album drifts among musical forms and relies heavily on a high percentage of cover songs: the quasi-psychedelia of "Good Thing I Know Her" (which bears the album title in its lyrics) conveyed yet another new departure for the band's sound, "bewildering" to some. With some difficulty, Dave Marsh
Dave Marsh
Dave Marsh is an American music critic, author, editor and radio talk show host. He was a formative editor of Creem magazine, has written for various publications such as Newsday, The Village Voice, and Rolling Stone, and has published numerous books about music and musicians, mostly focused on...
of Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone is a US-based magazine devoted to music, liberal politics, and popular culture that is published every two weeks. Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and music critic Ralph J...
described Schizophrenic Circus as "postpunk folk-rock with garage-band propulsion and longhair tunefulness."
Perhaps the most glaring stylistic change of all was the unlikely design of the album cover. Redolent of The Doors
The Doors
The Doors were an American rock band formed in 1965 in Los Angeles, California, with vocalist Jim Morrison, keyboardist Ray Manzarek, drummer John Densmore, and guitarist Robby Krieger...
' Strange Days
Strange Days (album)
Strange Days is the second album released by American rock band The Doors. The album was a commercial success, earning a gold record and reaching No. 3 on the Billboard 200 albums chart. Despite this, the album's producer, Paul Rothchild, considered it a commercial failure, even if it was an...
, the circus-themed cover art
Cover art
Cover art is the illustration or photograph on the outside of a published product such as a book , magazine, comic book, video game , DVD, CD, videotape, or music album. The art has a primarily commercial function, i.e...
was inevitably compared most unfavorably. John Thomas Griffith has said that the cover was disparaged by the bandmembers themselves, and he cites it as a main factor in the album's lukewarm commercial reception.
Three different singles were released from the album, but the only significant success was on college radio, where a cover of Barry McGuire
Barry McGuire
Barry McGuire is an American singer-songwriter best known for the hit song "Eve of Destruction", and later as a pioneering singer and songwriter of Contemporary Christian Music.-Early life:...
's 1966 folk rock
Folk rock
Folk rock is a musical genre combining elements of folk music and rock music. In its earliest and narrowest sense, the term referred to a genre that arose in the United States and the UK around the mid-1960s...
protest song
Protest song
A protest song is a song which is associated with a movement for social change and hence part of the broader category of topical songs . It may be folk, classical, or commercial in genre...
"Eve of Destruction" was a minor hit. The second single was another cover song, "Blood from a Stone", which had been performed by The Hooters
The Hooters
The Hooters is an American rock band from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. By combining a mix of rock and roll, reggae, ska and folk music, The Hooters first gained major commercial success in the United States in the mid 1980s due to heavy radio and MTV airplay of several songs including "All You...
on their album Amoré
Amore (The Hooters album)
Amore is the first studio album by American rock band The Hooters and was released in 1983.-Background:The Hooters got their start with their independently released album Amore...
(1983), and Trouser Press
Trouser Press
Trouser Press was a rock and roll magazine started in New York in 1974 as a mimeographed fanzine by editor/publisher Ira Robbins, fellow Who fan Dave Schulps and Karen Rose under the name "Trans-Oceanic Trouser Press" ...
acclaimed the Red Rockers version as a big improvement over the original. In the wake of this notoriety, the Hooters remade the song again the following year, on their album Nervous Night
Nervous Night (album)
Nervous Night is the second studio album by the American rock band The Hooters, released in 1985 by Columbia Records and on CBS Records in Europe.-Background:...
(1985).
The 12-inch single
12-inch single
The 12-inch single is a type of gramophone record that has wider groove spacing compared to other types of records. This allows for louder levels to be cut on the disc by the cutting engineer, which in turn gives a wider dynamic range, and thus better sound quality...
featuring two versions of "Just Like You" was the band's last release. In early 1985, while still relatively well-known and touring with U2
U2
U2 are an Irish rock band from Dublin. Formed in 1976, the group consists of Bono , The Edge , Adam Clayton , and Larry Mullen, Jr. . U2's early sound was rooted in post-punk but eventually grew to incorporate influences from many genres of popular music...
on their Unforgettable Fire tour, Red Rockers disbanded and never reformed.
Post-breakup: 1985–present
Lead singer John Thomas Griffith now plays guitar and sings in the band Cowboy MouthCowboy Mouth
Cowboy Mouth is a rock band based in New Orleans, Louisiana. Their name usually means "One with a loud and raucous voice". The nucleus of the band formed in the 1990s, and they have become a powerhouse live act whose performances have been likened to "a religious experience."Some of their most...
which he co-founded in 1990 with Paul Sanchez
Paul Sanchez
Paul Sanchez is a New Orleans-born and based American guitarist and a singer-songwriter. Sanchez is best known as one of New Orleans' finest song writers and was also founding member of the New Orleans band Cowboy Mouth. Sanchez was a guitarist and one of the primary singers and songwriters for the...
and Fred LeBlanc
Fred LeBlanc
Fred LeBlanc is currently the lead singer/drummer for the New Orleans based rock band Cowboy Mouth, as well as a freelance songwriter, record producer, short story author, and acoustic performer...
. James Singletary currently plays guitar for the New Orleans-based band Alexander Fly. Jim Reilly and Darren Hill joined the Boston-based Raindogs
The Raindogs
The Raindogs were a band formed in Boston, United States around 1985 after several members had disbanded the rock band The Schemers. They combined Celtic and American music to form their own hybrid of rock and roll...
in 1985. Eventually Reilly moved back to the UK and currently plays with Scottish band The Dead Handsomes. Hill stayed in Boston, forming Klover
Klover
Klover was a short lived Boston punk band consisting of Mike Stone on vocals and guitar, Chris Doherty on lead guitar, Darren Hill on bass and Brian Betzger on drums.They released only one album, "Feel Lucky Punk?" and an EP, "Beginning To End" on Mercury Records in 1995 and...
in the mid-1990s; he now runs a management company, Ten Pin Management, which has represented Paul Westerberg
Paul Westerberg
Paul Westerberg is an American musician, best known as the former lead singer, rhythm guitarist, and songwriter of The Replacements, one of the seminal alternative rock bands of the 1980s. He launched a solo career after the dissolution of that band...
, Roky Erickson
Roky Erickson
Roky Erickson is an American singer, songwriter, harmonica player and guitarist from Texas. He was a founding member of the 13th Floor Elevators and a pioneer of the psychedelic rock genre.-Biography:...
, The Mighty Mighty Bosstones
The Mighty Mighty Bosstones
The Mighty Mighty Bosstones are an American ska punk band from Boston, Massachusetts, formed in 1983. Since the band's inception, lead vocalist Dicky Barrett, bassist Joe Gittleman, tenor saxophonist Tim "Johnny Vegas" Burton and dancer Ben Carr have remained constant members...
, The New York Dolls, and others.
Studio albums
- Condition RedCondition RedCondition Red, Red Rockers' first full length album, was released in 1981 on 415 Records. It was recorded at the famed Automatt studio in San Francisco. The Dead Kennedys' Jello Biafra sings background vocals on Folsom Prison Blues...
(1981, 415 Records). - Good as Gold (1983, Columbia/415 Records).
- Schizophrenic Circus (1984, Columbia/415 Records).
Singles and EPs
- Guns of Revolution (EP) "Guns of Revolution" b/w "Teenage Underground" and "Nothing to Lose" (1980, Vinyl Solution Records).
- "China"China (Red Rockers song)-History:"China" was originally one of the ten songs on Red Rockers' second full-length album, Good as Gold. The single was released by the joint label Columbia/415....
b/w "Voice of America" (1983, Columbia/415 Records). - "Good As Gold" b/w "Till It All Falls Down" (1983, Columbia/415 Records).
- "Eve of Destruction" b/w "T.D.F. The Truth" (1984, Columbia/415 Records).
- "Blood From a Stone" b/w "Burning Bridges" (1984, Columbia/415 Records).
- "Just Like You" b/w "Just Like You (edit)" (1984, Columbia/415 Records).
Songs on compilations
- No Questions, No Answers compilation (1980, Vinyl Solution Records) features "Dead Heroes" and "Red Star".
- Rodney on the ROQ, Vol. 2 compilation (1980, Posh Boy RecordsPosh Boy RecordsPosh Boy Records was a Hollywood, California based record label owned by Robbie Fields, a high school substitute teacher and former copyboy at the L A Times who took an interest in the emerging punk rock scene in Orange County, California during the late 1970s...
) features "Dead Heroes". - D.I.Y. Magazine presents "Han-O-Disc" compilation (1981, D.I.Y. magazine promo) features "Can You Hear Them".
- King Biscuit Flower HourKing Biscuit Flower HourThe King Biscuit Flower Hour was a syndicated radio show presented by the D.I.R. Radio Network that featured concert performances by various rock artists.-History:...
(The Best Of The Biscuit) live split LP with Stevie Ray VaughanStevie Ray VaughanStephen Ray "Stevie Ray" Vaughan was an American electric blues guitarist and singer. He was the younger brother of Jimmie Vaughan and frontman for Double Trouble, a band that included bassist Tommy Shannon and drummer Chris Layton. Born in Dallas, Vaughan moved to Austin at the age of 17 and...
(1983). - The Best of Rodney on the ROQ compilation (1989, Posh Boy Records) features "Dead Heroes".
- The Best of 415 Records compilation (1994, 415 Records) features "China", "Guns of Revolution" and "Dead Heroes".
- Just Can't Get Enough: New Wave Hits of the '80sJust Can't Get Enough: New Wave Hits of the '80sJust Can't Get Enough: New Wave Hits of the '80s is a series of compilations issued by Rhino Records, on both CD and audio cassette, featuring various artists from the new wave era 1979-1985....
(Vol. 10) compilation (1994, Rhino Records) features "China". - Into the Anxious '80s compilation (1995, Sony/Risky Business) features "Eve of Destruction".
- Just Say New Wave compilation (1996, Sony/Risky Business) features "China".