Review: The Screamers – “Demo Hollywood 1977”

Superior Viaduct – 14 May 2021

A long lost punk classic makes its debut over 40 years late.

The Screamers were an LA punk band formed in 1975 that had no guitars. The band’s core lineup featured just a drummer, two keyboards, and an absolutely manic singer in vocalist Tomata du Plenty. Unlike their New York contemporaries, Suicide who were also a keyboard-centric band with no guitars, but whose music was primarily long, lavish experimental synth compositions that got lumped in with punk because of the music’s abrasiveness and the band’s style and attitude, The Screamers’ music more closely resembled the typical punk song format but did it with different instruments than most rock bands. They were planning to hold out for a major label contract for their first release, turning down many smaller labels who wanted to sign them, but sadly that major label contract never came and they only recorded a handful of demos before breaking up. Tomata du Plenty then passed away in 2000, quashing any hopes of a reunion. Those demos have been floating around on bootlegs for a very long time now but the new EP, Demo Hollywood 1977, is the first release to ever be authorized by the surviving band members, making this their first official release.

I pre-ordered my copy back in January as this EP was originally scheduled to be released and shipped on January 21^st, but after multiple delays of the release date it finally came out on May 14^th. I normally don’t go into the specifics of the actual physical album, but I feel it is warranted in this case: I managed to snag the red translucent vinyl, which is gorgeous and sold out a lot faster than the black vinyl. Record label Superior Viaduct did a great job putting together liner notes with anecdotes about the band from the surviving members and from music journalist Jon Savage, coupled with old photos of the band. The record also comes with a small glossy poster and a digital download code. All in all, as frustrated as I was with the multiple delays of the release date, this record was well worth the wait.

The EP has the exact same songs as a 2009 bootleg that came out on vinyl, but this EP has the songs in a different order and with much better recording quality than most of the bootlegs as it was made from the original reel-to-reel tapes. The album kicks off with my favorite Screamers track, “Magazine Love,” with its great chorus “You don’t love me you love magazines!” Tomata du Plenty’s snotty vocals really shine through on this crystal clear recording. “Punish or Be Damned,” which the label put out as a single, is a beautifully haunting track with the keyboards and du Plenty’s voice both slowly rising into a terrifying sense of foreboding and musical anxiety. That anxiety continues on side B of the record, which kicks off with “Anything,” which was sometimes incorrectly labeled on the bootlegs with the much more wordy title, “If I Can’t Have What I Want, I Don’t Want Anything.” The shortest song on the EP at only 90-seconds in length, “Anything” is a statement of unbridled hedonism. “Mater Dolores” gives us a brief respite from the anxiety of previous tracks with a song that’s downright catchy and, dare I say, pleasant and fun? Finally “Peer Pressure” is a pretty traditional punk song, minus the guitars, but you’ll hardly miss them as the keyboards are played like punk guitars. One thing I love about this song is du Plenty’s casual mention of queer people that’s completely non-judgmental and even inclusive. This was a pretty big deal for the 1970’s, but also unsurprising considering that du Plenty and keyboardist Tommy Gear worked together in a drag performance group in Seattle prior to starting the band.

All of the vinyl copies of this album that were being sold through Superior Viaduct’s website have sold out by now, but there are copies in record stores and the EP is also available on streaming services. There are more demos and live tracks floating around out there beyond these five, but these seem to have all been recorded in the same recording session and thus that’s why they were released together like this. Perhaps this is a sign that there are more official releases to come? Regardless, if you find a copy of this gem somewhere, don’t hesitate to buy it. It’s a beautiful artifact of a forgotten moment in punk history that will be forgotten no longer.