199434443

Hi. My name is Bill. People call me Joe. I'm so insane, I'M SANE!!!!!Toxic Ranch Records started out as a little place in Death Valley, USA . Charlie Manson used to come by every now and then to sell us some emu eggs and pyrite and GG Allin memorabilia. Told us if we ever made it out to Tucson to look up his cousin Smitty. Not sure what happened to that poor fella. Boy, those were the days.We moved to Pomona and started selling yahoos and slankies just to try to support our punk habit. People loved us so much there, we decided to make the big move to Tucson, Alabama as we were creating such a ruckus. Little did we know there was no Tucson Alabama and we had to backtrack by way of New Orleans just to get to the desert oasis of Tucson Arizona, which is where we live today in all our glory. When we're not picking scorpion poo out of our ears, we're setting our heads on fire just to spite ourselves cuz it's so hot. It's great here.Please buy a yahoo or a toodle putt so we can buy some ice for our piss-ovens in the summertime where the heat can climb up to 237 degrees Farenheit.Thanky! and now for the long version: Born the youngest of 6, in 1955 in Springfield Illinois when Rock n Roll was an infant and Elvis was king. Our family drifted west with a pit stop in Phoenix on the way to California, where I grew up.I listened to AM Radio in the sixties, bought my first vinyl LPs in the late 60's-70's when Creedence, Hendrix, Sabbath ruled my turntable. Spent most of my high school years in the desert nowhere of tiny, isolated 29 Palms, where the only cheap thrills were watching the local Marine jarheads get in fights with the local hippies at the A&W root beer stand and camping in the desert. After leaving this wasteland behind, my first real job at age 16 was dish-washing at a convalescent hospital and was introduced to smoking weed by a co-worker who had a '58 Oldsmobile low-rider equipped with an 8 track player. On breaks, we would listen to Savoy Brown and Hendrix bootlegs in his car. After graduating from Baldwin Park H.S. I left home for Spokane, Washington where I saw my first live music, such as bands like ZZ Top, Steve Miller Band, Blue Oyster Cult,B.T.O., Focus, Brownville Station, Grand Funk, Edgar Winters, Foghat and Kiss (who were 3rd on a bill headlined by Manfred Mann!!)among others at the local non-descript concrete arena. Further dabbling in recreational drugs would lead me to getting fired from my job managing a burger stand at the 1974 Worlds Fair and doing a short stint in the Spokane jail followed by probation, during which I was on an experimental work release program where I spent 8 hours washing steak and lobster platters at Black Angus and the rest of my time locked up. In 1976, moved back to So. Calif, lived in a polyester catacomb (trailer park)while working at El Monte Car Wash when my daughter was born. After 6 short months, her mother would disappear with her without advising me her whereabouts. I struggled unsuccessfully to regain custody for several years to no avail, but the courts decided she was better off with her adoptive parents, and after a failed summer attempt to be closer to her in Oregon, I would reluctantly agree with their verdict. I wouldn't see her again until she turned 19. In a late '70's, I drifted around Orange County, Calif. for several years, with various odd jobs to support myself, eventually driving a ice cream truck in the poorer 'hoods of Anaheim and Fullerton for Tropical Ice Cream, then my first DIY venture began when I bought my first truck (basically an old, used,rusty utility van) and Captain Frosty was conceived! In between peddling cold confections and sugar water, I had picked up a renewed interest in the Yippie Party, founded by Abbie Hoffman and Ed Sanders in the '60's, which by 1978 consisted of a group of outcasts and freaks loosely organized in the Lower East Side of New York City. Encouraged by Aaron Kay, the infamous "pieman", I would distribute their national newspaper, the Yipster Times to record stores and head shops along my ice cream route and in Pomona where I lived with my brother for a time. A summer (4 days cross country on a Greyhound bus, pee yu!) visit to Washington DC (squatted at an abandoned building called the Yippie Hilton) for their annual smoke-in at the White House would also bring me to New York City's Lower East Side Yippie house on Bleecker St, just across the street from CBGBs. Although I had just missed my chance to pay a visit to the sacred halls of this punk venue, this trip was an eye opener for me. I did get to meet the infamous David Peel! It wasn't long after that I discovered records by the Sex Pistols, Blondie, Devo and the Ramones. I even had an 8 track of Devo's first album blasting from the ice cream truck instead of the usual nursery rhymes, which got many confused looks from the kids and low rider types. After a couple of fun and successful summer seasons, my truck broke down for good and I took a job at a Pomona smoke shop that was carrying the Yipster Times. It was a fellow yippie, (Steve Morris of Benedict Arnold & the Traitors) who invited me to my very first punk rock show in LA, at Chinatown's Hong Kong Cafe. It was headlined by D.O.A., with the Bags and Catholic Discipline. The first of many shows in 1979 and 1980 that changed my life. X, Dez-era Black Flag, Germs, Middle Class, Adolescents, Stranglers, Sham 69, Dead Kennedys, Wall of Voodoo, Nervous Gender, Slits, Plasmatics, Gang of 4, Plugz, Cramps, Public Image, and Fear were some of the many highlights. I persuaded the head shop owners to let me open a tiny record shop in their back room, so I could try my hand peddling some punk records and merchandise, which mostly consisted of the Deadbeats "Kill the Hippies" 7" single, studded leather wristbands and a few buttons. After that venture failed to generate any profit margin for the owners, I was back to selling rolling papers up front. I later on managed to opened my own record store, just down the road. Toxic Shock Records was born sometime in the summer of 1980 on a fairly nondescript street in suburban Pomona and in a tiny corner shop wedged between a hair salon and a car repair shop, across from a Der Weinerschnitzel hot dog stand. Pomona was mostly known for the annual L.A. County fair and because of that for decades it was the butt of jokes from the likes of William Holden and Jack Benny. It was this "hick" town that was the honeymoon destination choice for Lucille Ball and Desi Arnez, who knows why. Maybe they ran out of gas on the way to Palm Springs? I knew I couldn't compete with the bigger, trendier record stores in glitzy Hollywood out here in drab Pomona, with its ugly suburban sprawl and a decaying historic district, but I was hoping by refusing to carry major labels,and being forced to stay within the limits of my tiny start-up budget I could find a niche catering to the local malcontents. So, instead of carrying the obvious punk superstars, the Clash and Sex Pistols, I tried to offer a meager selection of lesser known, local Southern California independent labels like Dangerhouse, SST, Upsetter, Slash, Frontier, Posh Boy, plus some other west coast labels like Subterranean, distributor Systematic from Berkeley and Friends Records from Vancouver B.C., plus a few things from New York. I also stocked a few UK imports on Industrial Records, Rough Trade, 4AD, Malicious Damage, Crass,and Stiff, all on vinyl, naturally. I rounded it out with a smattering of punk/new wave related punk merchandise. The lowly shop with the melting red and black Toxic Shock logo painted on the glass exterior would attract people mainly by word of mouth, and the curiosity seekers would root around the record bins, read magazines on the couch and help me fill up the ashtray with cigarette butts. Since I lived in the back of the store, the business hours were never set in stone and the door would be open until late at night. People would just hang out and listen to whatever was on my turntable at the time, which could be the Fall, Blurt, D.O.A., Bauhaus, Flipper, Magazine, Minimal Man, Cabaret Voltaire, the Residents, Throbbing Gristle, the Plasmatics or Saccharine Trust, depending on my mood. at the time, none of it was particularly radio friendly but the suburbs had a small, but steadily increasing amount of people who were hungry for more than what was currently being offered at the big chain record stores. One of these people would be my future wife, Julianna who would bring her sister over with a bottle of wine, so they could escape the stifling confines of their mother's authority for awhile. Pomona was a bit isolated from the whole Hollywood scene, being a good 60 minute ride on the freeway from Los Angeles itself and another 45 minutes north of Orange County, where droves of teen suburbanite punks were now growing in numbers, creating lots of violence and destruction not only in hip Hollywood venues like the Whisky and the Starwood, but also beach haunts like the Cuckoos Nest and the Fleetwood. Out in the eastern outskirts of L.A. County, Pomona, we had a few bands started up in the area, such as the Dull, and Modern Industry from just over the hill in Covina to our west, Kent State and the Stepmothers hailed from Ontario to our immediate east and Manson Youth who came from the real boonies, Chino, to our north. They had cows grazing, out there in Chino. Pomona itself, had only a metal/punk band called Bondage, who were a bunch of macho coke-heads, Although we had nothing like the beach gang violence that followed bands like T.S.O.L.and Black Flag, there was some petty rivalry between the towns, like fistfights at backyard parties. The closest thing we had to a live music venue in Pomona was Arts Building, run by a mild-mannered arts enthusiast named appropiately enough, Art. Just about any artist in the area could get an art showing there and a band could get a gig there just by giving Art a phone call. The space was so tiny that a crowd of a dozen music fans could be considered a sell out show. This led me to thinking some bigger shows could be brought to Pomona, if only there was a cheap to rent building somewhere. In early 1981 that somewhere turned out to be the P.A.L. Boxing Gym, a huge dilapidated old building where the boxing platform would be disassembled and converted to a space for a stage. After renting a PA system and selling tickets at Toxic Shock, soon bands like China White, Adolescents, Middle Class and Social Distortion would come up from O.C. and other bands like the Cheifs, Rik L Rik, Bad Religion and and even true out-of-towners like the Red Rockers from New Orleans and the Subhumans from Vancouver would also headline shows there. I remember when all the members of Black Flag came to see their Canadian friends the Subhumans, before sharing a bill with them later that week at a rented hall in LA. After 4 well-attended shows organized at the boxing gym, we finally got ourselves banned from the Gym due to some overly rambunctious "music fans" tearing all the plumbing from the bathroom walls. After that venture, I tried to concentrate more on the shop, and placed a couple classified ads in rock magazines Trouser Press and Rolling Stone for a mail-order catalog and I got flooded with requests, which kept me busier at the shop, once some catalogs finally got mailed off.. George Belanger, Jay and James McGearty would also be among the hangers on at the shop and they would tell me of this new band they were starting with Roger, (who had by now changed his name to Rozz Williams. Despite his claims that it originated from a gravestone, I figured years later he most likely stole his new moniker from Ricky Williams of the Sleepers, a great little obscure San Francisco band) and it was going to be called Christian Death. One of George and James favorite catch-phrases went something like "that's Spa, dude!" , a reference to anything they considered gay or stupid, so I was a little surprised to hear of their association with Rozz, who was known to frequent the restrooms at a public park along with Ron Athey as male prostitutes for drug money. I know they used to get their kicks stealing flowers from the local cemetery and supposedly they stole some gravestones as well, which is hard to believe considering how physically frail Rozz was. Maybe George was talked into being the actual culprit, as he was a strong drummer and a fairly big guy. George was a cool kid though, finding out he was a fan of Keith Moon, we got along just fine. James and Jay were a bit more secretive, aloof and coy. They all seemed to have high hopes that their new band was going to go places, at the very least get them out of Pomona on weekends. There was another character who would frequent the shop, who we called Crazy Ray, a native American dude who was seemingly filled with anger and rage constantly, He had a humorous side to him as well, as he took great joy in antagonizing people and pushing their buttons. Although he claimed to be anti-social, it seemed he was also intrigued by the shop and the "customers", who he would loudly berate to test their responses. Being a "anything goes as long as nobody get hurt" brand of anarchist myself, I accepted Ray as another of Pomona's harmless eccentrics. One time, he got in George Belanger's face and was giving him a bunch of shit over god knows what. Next thing I knew, George had put his fist through the glass door entrance to the store. His friends rushed him off to get medical attention for his hand and I had a bloody mess and glass repair to deal with. The next day, Rozz and gal pal Mary came to the shop pleading with me to let them have the now blood stained poster that once hung on the door, the one with the severed hand caught in barbed wire, from the "Your Country Needs You" subtitle, that came with the Crass "Feeding of the 5000" album. Evidently, the raven-haired duo needed a souvenier to add to their collection of morbid relics. At some point, Ron Athey made the shop's couch a regular pit stop where he could listen to the latest Throbbing Gristle 12" , between his rounds of hustling Holt Ave for dope money. Again, being the naive anarchist at heart, with no particular homophobic hang ups and finding out both of us were T.G. fans, I saw no harm in him hanging around. I would joke with him when I thought certain bands were too dramatic or cheesy, and tag them as having too much "Bowie damage". A highlight for me that year was finally seeing Throbbing Gristle live in Culver City, the day before their last performance in San Francisco. Chuck Dukowski (of Black Flag) opened the show with his concept troupe, SWA and Vox Pop also played that night. Sometime in the summer of 1981, I noticed a "for rent" sign at a much bigger building just 2 stores down from us, that used to be an appliance store that came complete with an air conditioning showroom, separate back rooms with a kitchen area and real bathroom with a shower. It was, naturally more rent,but I took a gamble with business seemingly improving. Small labels were putting out records that were selling like crazy. For awhile, we were selling a box of 50 Circle Jerks albums a week , with Adolescents debut LP, Black Flags "Jealous Again" 12 " EP, Angry Samoans "Inside My Brain" 12" and Rodney on the Roq compilations were hot on their heels flying out the door. As punk rock was getting more and more accessible to the masses thanks in part to more radio exposure on KROQ, the film release of Decline of Western Civilization in the theatres and fanzines like Flipside.There was no Internet, it was word of mouth and flyers picked up at shows and record shops like ours, Zed's in Long Beach and Poobah in Pasadena. Ron Athey helped persuade me that the move was a good idea when he said he would pitch in by renting out one of the rooms with the help of Rozz, as well as help take care of customers. So we walked our stuff over in boxes down the sidewalk and into our new digs. I recall when Rozz and Ron invited all their creepy little friends from Hollywood over for a party at the store and how alienated I felt by their presense as the night dragged on. The building filled with strange faces and amplifying chatter and cackels of laughter. I spent most of the night on the roof waiting for daylight to arrive. It probably didn't help matters that I was high on LSD at the time. Other drugs and decadence would regularly occupy Ron and Rozz' room, as they often had their personal plaything, a kid from Ontario, hanging from a rope while they took turns whipping him between heating their spoons with candles. The smell of melting wax was omnipresent. I myself, had a pretty low opinion of heroin, as I considered it, along with speed, a death drug. One day at our kitchen table, while he was working on the artwork for "Theatre of Pain", Rozz was admiring an album cover (T.S.O.L.'s "Dance with Me") he had gotten from Frontier. He told me he liked the artwork better than the music. For me, it was the exact opposite. Living with the 2 R's got weirder still, when Ron found a dead cat hit by a car and stored it in our freezer, because he wanted to use it for an upcoming "performance art" thing he was planning with Rozz at Arts Building. I had seen Christian Death's debut show in Ontario the previous December, where the big "sensation" was Rozz appearing onstage in a white wedding dress. Other than George's powerhouse drumming, the band seemed lackluster. They hadn't yet developed their sound which Rick Agnew would flesh out later on. I was underwhelmed at best on that night, and skipped their show supporting 45 Grave at Art's Bldg in January,but I was a little curious as to what would transpire at this other "Premature Ejaculation" event. Can't say I was glad I went, because by the time they pulled the defrosted cat out of the bag and Ron proceeded to tear the carcass apart with his hands and teeth, the smell in the room was disgusting, and I for one failed to see what the artistic statement was in this exhibition of depravity. I also remembered how gleefully Ron relayed a story to me when he bragged that he got the local coke dealer (the singer in the band Bondage) so high, that he was able to flip him over and rape him in the ass without him being aware of what was going on. I was beginning to realize I really didn't want these two as roomates any longer. Especially as a few months had gone by and the promised help with rent had failed to materialize. I also started noticing our store inventory was shrinking and money wasnt being accounted for the sales made whenever I wasn't behind the counter. By this time, Julianna had also moved in and was trying to help me keep our mail-order business organized and afloat as our walk-in traffic was dwindling, In spite of our efforts, we were falling behind on rent payments and utility bills. My generosity was quickly turning to animosity, fueled by finding a huge chunk of my personal record collection in Rozz and Ron's room, when they were out scoring drugs. We decided something had to be done and quickly, so after being left empty handed once again when we asked for help on our delinquent rent, the next time the pair went out galavanting, we took all their belongings out of their room and put them outside the rear entrance and locked the door. A few days went by peacefully enough, until a loud, crashing sound awoke us one late morning. Our neighbors were able to I.D. both Rozz and gal pal Mary jumping out of their car and smashing our storefront windows before they jumped back in and dashed away. We had no money to repair the glass, so we boarded it up and went back to trying to regain our customers that we lost over the previous months and doing our best to keep our utilities from being shut off. With a few phone calls, we organized a benefit show Oct 22 1981 at a club out in Riverside. Eddie and the Subtitles, the Abandoned, Social Distortion, Manson Youth and Red Brigade played to help raise money to keep Toxic Shock from closing down. We had also started a band, with myself on vocals, Julianna on guitar, our friend Scott on bass and we borrowed the drummer of Manson Youth. We had worked out a short set of songs that included a couple Flesheaters cover songs and some original material, including "Horror Snores" and came up with a band name, Moslem Birth. With white pancake make-up, black wigs, eyeliner, plastic jack-o-lanterns and a couple styrofoam tombstones, we were soon ready to play our debut show at Art's Building! The few people who showed up were treated to a messy set of seethingly sarcastic "goth/punk". It would be our one and only live performance. A couple years later, "Horror Snores" would be resurrected on vinyl. Before too long, with our phone disconnected, our electricity shut off and no inventory left to attract any customers, we were finally forced to close down Toxic Shock. We spent the next year running the mail-order business out of a spare bedroom and working at the local smoke shop. The owners decided they wanted to sell off their shop and since we easily could make weekly payments until it was paid off, we were soon owners of a truly profitable business. There were some legal hassles though, with undercover cops always trying to bust us for selling drug paraphenalia. They finally succeeded, but not before we were able to set aside enough money to re-open Toxic Shock Records in a new location, in the "Antique Mall" in downtown Pomona. Thanks to the money made serving the needs of thousands of potheads and coke fiends, this time our inventory at the record store was much expanded. Inspired by the work ethic and tenacity of the people behind SST and Subterreanean, this time I knew it was going to work. My dealings with all the indie labels of the time had grown immensely and not only was our international mail-order business booming, but we also became a full fledged wholesale distributor ourselves, selling to other record shops around the country! One of the few records we refused to stock was "Theatre of Pain". We simply ignored Christian Death and had no interest in promoting any Rozz related project. We were itching however to start our own record label, which we also called Toxic Shock and for our first release we put together a 7" EP, titled "Noise from Nowhere", a compilation featuring 4 area bands, Kent State, Modern Industry, Manson Youth and Moslem Birth. I always liked the 4 bands on one 7" record concept that Subterreanean had done with the SF Underground series. Although Moslem Birth wasn't an active band, it did quickly morph into Peace Corpse, but not before documenting "Horror Snores" in the studio. This time Julianna played guitar, I "sang" and Tracy Garcia (of East L.A. pre-Goth band Thee Undertakers played the drums, his girlfriend Angie on bass. "Noise from Nowhere" was graced by the infamous "exploding penis" artwork provided by my penpal from Boise, Brian "Pushead" Schroeder, who would later also design the sleeve for our Peace Corpse "Quincy" 7" EP. Looking back, I wouldn't say I was all that impressed with the early L.A. goth scene. Outside of 45 Grave, who were far more entertaining because they at least were campy and had a sense of humor, most of these bands seem contrived outside of a Halloween night costume party. Far more interesting bands with a goth edge would service later in Arizona with Mighty Sphincter and in San Francisco with the Toiling Midjits, not to overlook Scratch Acid in Austin. But, just like the "bat-cave" movement in the U.K., goth/punk in LA came off as just plain silly. Some people like Rozz and Patrick Mata of Kommunity Fk couldn't turn their Bowie damaged art into a pot o' gold where the likes of a Perry Ferrell of Psi-Com/Janes's Addiction and Valor Kand of Christian Death (phase two) certainly could. Seeing the tiny insular "Goth" scene evolve over the decades to become this huge fashion and music industry never fails to amaze me, as evidenced by the glut of goth drek as cranked out by the likes of Projekt. When I think of all the legal troubles and frustration Rozz had to contend with over the years regarding the rights to the name of Christian Death and to see other people making money off his creation, I could only think to myself, "couldn't happen to a nicer guy".Although it wasn't until 1987 when the "Vicious Circle" LP was reissued by Toxic Shock, the ZERO BOYS serves as proof that trailblazing American punk wasn't exclusive to the big cities on the east and west coasts.Hailing from Indianapolis, the ZERO BOYS with their melodic hooks and sheer energy were recogonized by Maximum Rock'n'Roll among others as one of the most important bands to emerge from the hardcore punk explosion happening in the early '80's.Their singer, Paul Mahern was to become quite influential to the label over the years an artist who called himself Pushead also contributed a great deal to the early years of Toxic Shock with his creative support and grisly artwork which graced the sleeve of our very first release, Noise from Nowhere, a 7" compilation of 4 Pomona-area bands.Brian Schroeder's band SEPTIC DEATH came from Boise, Idaho and are captured in their vinyl debut with a live track on the Barricaded Suspects compilation LP. Pushead also designed the album cover, along with the PEACE CORPSE EP and the early Toxic Shock logo. The DULL were an atypical southern California punk band with their musical minimalism and the Nietzsche philosophy of their singer, Sirdar Dizaye who is a descendent of Kurdish rebels. The DULL were an incredible live band and later spent no less than 100 hours with producer Geza X , recording their "She's a Nuclear Bomb" single. What can I say about my own band PEACE CORPSE? We had fun poking fun at the absurdities of the time including the media's stereotypes of punk culture. Our early history is documented with our 6 song "Quincy" 7"EP. We managed to play several shows in L.A.'s suburbs,(we opened for both F.U.'s and Die Kreuzen!) driving up to San Francisco to play with Social Unrest at the On Broadway and Toxic Reasons at the Tool'n'Die on Valencia, as part of the "Noise from Nowhere" package with Kent State and Modern Industry. We can claim to have opened up for Black Flag as well, at the July 4th Legalize Marijuana rally held in front of the Federal Building, although Ginn/Rollins didnt actually speak to us, or even look at us, it looked good on our punk rock resume! After, some band members changes, we even ventured up to Las Vegas for a well received show with Decry, who we also toured with later on, with gigs strung together in Phoenix (with Mighty Sphincter, our heroes!), Santa Fe, Denver, St Louis, Bloomington, Indiana and finally Cleveland where our tour would end abruptly, as we had to head back to California due to lack of funds. The later Peace Corpse years are somewhat embarassing when we began to take ourselves a little too seriously (I dont know if you should steer clear of our "terror of history" 12"!, but it was a departure from the "Quincy" days) There was the Neil Young/ZZTop cover from the ill -fated Budget Ranch box set (delayed for at least a year with only 350 made of the intended 1000) is worth looking for, for a cheap giggle.DECRY were another band from L.A.'s suburbs brought to my attention by an enigmatic character named "O" who some of you will recognize as the guitarist for Olivelawn and Fluf. In 1984, DECRY's album "Falling" was hailed by Flipside magazine as a hardcore classic. Unfortunately, they later regressed into a glam rock outfit, but in their prime they were incendiary.RED TIDE were a Canadian trio from Victoria B.C. Toxic Shock released their "Kelp and Salal" 7" EP. Red Tide's drummer, Ken Jensen is later spent time pounding the skins for another Canadian trio, D.O.A. before tragically he was killed in a fire at his basement home several years later on.MASSACRE GUYS emerged fro the Mormon stronghold of Salt Lake City and the "Behind the 8 Ball" 7" EP from 1984 was another early Toxic Shock 7". Karl Alverez and Steve O'Reilly later moved to L.A. to join the Descendents which shortly evolved into the band ALL.I first saw Italy's RAW POWER at the Olympic Auditorium during a international punk festival headlined by the Dead Kennedys, during the Olympics held in L.A. in 1984. Suffice to say I was totally blown away! I later found out that they had recorded an LP at Paul Mahern's Hit City Midwest studio while on their first U.S. tour. After "Screams from the Gutter" was released they returned to the states for another 3 tours playing more cities in the country than most U.S. bands at the time. Their second LP "After Your Brain" came out in 1986. They continued releasing albums for other labels and survive to this day with tour plans extending beyond Europe and the USA.No anthology of the Toxic Shock years would be complete without the ZIMBO CHIMPS, another release on our subsidiary label, Budget Ranch. Although the band (featuring ex-members of Savage Republic and Peace Corpse) played only one disasterous live show, they almost changed forever the face of music as we know it. I guess you had to be there.th'INBRED came highly recommended to me by Jello Biafra and when the band sent a demo tape my way, I was hooked. A band from West Virginia, they dared to fuse progressive rock with hardcore and took a cynical stab at the then just emerging straight-edge movement with "the Positive Song" on their debut "A Family Affair". By the time the posthumous LP "Kissin Cousins" was released it was clear that they , like myself,had become disillusioned with the limitations of the hardcore punk genre. I first caught wind of Austin, Texas legends the HICKOIDS when Toxic Shock obtained some copies of "We're in it for the Corn" LP on Matako Mazuri. They were undisputed masters of beer-fueled country-punk mayhem long before the Hollywoood imitation cow-punk phase. I met the band when I was in New Orleans 1986 during our ill-fated Toxic Shock expansion into the French Quarter and agreed to reissue the then out of print "Corn" LP and subsequently the "Hard Corn" EP. After bringing their brand of lunacy on the road they converted befuddled masses to their music. "Animal Husbandry" showcases the talents of guitarist Jukebox. After his departure, the band regrouped in 1988 with the "Waltz" LP. The anthem to their lifestyle, "Brand new Way" comes from that LP.I used to hear "Systematic Shutdown" on a Pomona-area college station KSPC and couldn't get it out of my mind. I finally tracked down JESUS CHRYSLER in Oak Ridge, Tennessee (the birthplace of the A-Bomb) and asked if they wanted to record an LP. After Toxic Shock moved to Tucson in 1988, the album "This Years Saviour", loaded with their infectious songwriting, was released and the band did quite a bit of touring before breaking up. Growing tired of Southern California and how the frat boys had taken over punk with the worship of bands like the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Jane's Addiction, we moved to Tucson, Arizona in the summer of 1988 and ran the record label and mail-order operation out of a spare room of our rented house, before opening up a retail shop in April of 1989. Billy Atwell used to rave about this Seattle band called SKIN YARD. Their self-titled LP didn't exactly bowl me over, but when they sent a demo tape, I was impressed enough to release the "Stranger" single and it's follow-up "Hallowed Ground" at a time when the "Seattle sound" had yet to become household words. Skin Yard's guitarist, Jack Endino had recorded just about every band that the burgeoning Sub Pop label was signing at his Reciprocal Studio and between sessions had himself amassed a batch of home recordings. Those songs were more distinctive to me than the next Skin Yard LP to be subsequently released by Cruz and I opted to release his solo "Angle of Attack" LP on bobok.A demo tape that arrived at my P.O. Box in 1988 immediately caught our attention. The band was HOUSE OF LARGE SIZES from Cedar Falls, Iowa and they had a powerful and engaging sound that was irresistable. their debut "One Big Cake" was on Toxic Shock. One of the hardest touring bands on the label since Raw Power, their follow-up "Heat Miser" came out in 1990 and The H.O.L.S. are the first Toxic Shock band to make it to the major leagues with their "My Ass Kickin Life" LP on Columbia in '94. We couldn't be prouder if we had given birth to a two-headed calf. These days, Dave and Barb run a cool shop in Cedar Falls called "Mohair Pear".Another Indianapolis band, SLOPPY SECONDS managed to blend '70's pop/junk culture with catchy songs that should have brought punk rock to the Top 40 in a perfect world. Their Mahern-produced Toxic Shock LP, "Destroyed" that has since been reissued on Metal Blade Records and a few others, while the band put out later albums on Taang! with a 1998 release on Nitro Records. I organized a Arizona/California tour for them and had a blast driving with them.Paul Mahern emerged once again in 1989 with his new band the DATURA SEEDS who demonstrated a sharp pop sensibility. Unfortunately the stigma of Toxic Shock's hardcore reputation probably prevented many from discovering a great power/pop band. "S&P'69" was the single from their now out of print "Who Do You Want it To Be" LP and the video was rejected by MTV for airplay.Julianna Towns merged her personal vision with an otherworldly cabaret sound to create SKINNERBOX. Over the course of 3 years she recorded three LPs for bobok. Her second album "The Playhouse" and should serve as a good introduction to her work.Yet another unsolicited demo tape was to catch me off-guard. The fact that the band hailed from the tame college-rock capital of Boston was a surprise. HULLABALOO's gritty, blustering and unrestrained approach to music seemed vitally needed and I set my sights on convincing the world of their importance. "Beat Until Stiff" is the title track from the first of 2-LPs recorded for Toxic Shock."Guilt Regret Embarrassment" was an appropiate title for TREEPEOPLE's Toxic Shock release and summarized the relationship between the band and the label. I was guilty in delaying its release due to financial constraints, the band may have regretted signing the recording contract with us, and Daniel House is probably embarrassed to admit we showed an interest in the band long before he did. Regardless, "G.R.E." stands the test of time as the band's best album.It seemed appropiate to round out our 1994 "Decade of Disaster" compilation with one of Tucson's best punk bands. FEAST UPON CACTUS THORNS were featured on the very last edition (#10) of Noise from Nowhere, a series which started the whole mess and which was revived in '89 after a six year hiatus. F.U.C.T.'s guitarist, John Husok continues the legacy in a sense by playing an old Fender Mustang from the Peace Corpse days.This brings Toxic Shock full circle back to it's origins as a regional label. Noise from Nowhere #10 is the last release to bear the Toxic Shock label imprint. After ten years, I came to the realization that it was time for a change. The name Toxic Shock had become associated in most people's minds are a hardcore label due to the success of our early releases, but no longer seemed appropiate in 1993. Besides, the name was overused by bad speed metal bands and others. To me, it became hackneyed and outdated. With a new focus in local bands, we decided to change the labels moniker to Westworld, while adapting the record stores' name to Toxic Ranch, maintaining some of our history, but with a regional twist. Hard to believe we've been in Tucson for 21 years now! We hope you've enjoyed this trek down our memory lane and hope we can continue exposing great music to more ears via Westworld and our shop Toxic Ranch, "the record store too tough to die!". If you made it this far, thanks for paying attention! Bill Sassenberger