Attitude Adjustment

The Bay Area band Attitude Adujustment got it's name from a friend of the band named Mike Kennet, in the winter of 1984. Mike was messing with a drunk on the street while skating who told him that he was going to get an "Attitude Adjustment" if he did not fu_k off!!
Chris Kontos and Eric McIntire(then Smith) started to jam in the summer of 1983 as a two-man band (fu_K the White Stripes) at first, playing the imfamous "S.F. VATS" with Fang and The Burning Witches. Just a short time later with singer Nick Colgien they were called "Homicidal Youth" and went on the air on Maximum Rock'n Roll on KPFA. Tim Yohannon and Jello made fun of the name but played the song anyway.
Then came in Rick Strahl on bass, Rick was fresh in the USA from Germany, Eric is German and had been there a few times because his mother is full blooded. They all met at a store called "The Record Exchange" in Walnut Creek Ca. The guy that ran the place "Bob", was like a young, quiet Lemmy. This place had EVERYTHING on import vinyl. From The Exploited to the unheard of Voi-Vod , all at your fingertips. Rick was a euro Metalhead and Eric and Chris both hard-core punkers, this meshing along with others around Northern California would lead to The Bay Area Crossover Music Scene. Remember : In LA, NYC, Texas...etc...you could get killed going to a metal gig with a huge mo-hawk, or smashed to death at a punk rock show with Long Hair!!! The punks, while in small numbers mind you, went to see the Metal bands play all the time.....Exodus, Slayer, Motorhead, Venom, Mercyful Fate,....and the same thing was going on with Metal kids at punk clubs. This Hybrid of Hard-Core and Metal spawned Attitude Adjustment. 1984: Eric ,Chris, and Rick would hook up with Kevin Reed , ex-singer of Teenage Warning. In the den of a good friends fathers house in Alamo Ca. A.A would now find its' way as a band. Kevin's huge voice and hostile text was a dead on look back in the mirror for pissed off kids in a crazed and violent world. We played as A.A. for some months until Kevin was sent on a state camping trip for some months. Leaving the band without a singer on the brink of something huge.
On the other side of the bay in S.F. was the other great import record store....."The Record Vault" This was the work place of Rich Burch R.I.P. who is quoted on the back of KILL'EM ALL "Bang The Head That Does Not Bang" along with Ron Quintana who also ran the legendary late night radio show "RAMPAGE RADIO" on KUSF. It was through the Vault that Rick Knew Andy. These two metal guys Andy and Chris S. went to school with Chris K. in Concord. Rick thought it would be a quick fix and they would get a second guitar play along with the new singer. So in stepped Andy Andersen and Chris Scaparo. This was the true start of the true blend of hard-core and metal for A.A.
Recording the first demo in early 1985, the "Dead Serious Demo" would become one of the heavily traded tapes in historyy to date and would set in stone the bands mark on the fledgling Cross Over world. The summer would see the band signed and losing a founding member. Right before recording for Pusmort records Eric would be asked to leave the band. A hugely regretable thing for the band to this day. Eric's guitar style would be sorely missed on the recordings.
In the the fall of 1986 the "American Paranoia" LP would hit the stores world wide on Pusmort Records and sell tens of thousands of copies. But the band would split up just days before the LP came out. It is a bench mark of the Cross-Over music dawning. Yet, that first A.A. LP would never tour in the US or Europe.
A.A. would suffered from member change from Kevin Reed on. Re-forming in 1987, it was Kevin, Eric, Chris Kontos., and Keith Medeira on bass. A.A. embarked on small tours on the west coast. Then in 1988 recording the classic LP "No More Mr. Nice Guy" with Ray Vegas from Social Unrest was added on this LP, and then "Out Of Hand" in 1990, with Sean Sutton on guitar and Ray on Guitar and Eric now on bass. Attitude Adjustment played on bills with just about every great band to come through, their blended sound enabling them punk and metal gigs; Discharge to Danzig, Testament to Poison Idea. Wherever they played, the place would come unglued. The East Bay House Parties were infamous, but these were superb years for Bay Area club shows. Ruthie's ,New Method,Mabuhay garden, On Broadway, River Theater, all 3 Keystones,the Farm, Chatterbox, Your Place Too, RealRock, Berkeley Square, even a little co-op named Gilman St. (who banned A.A. for being I quote Tim Yo "DRUG CRAZED YOUTH...a good name for a band I might add) was born. Funny because soon drugs, fights, girlfriends, egos, musical differences would hold the band down and out for the count in the end of 1991.
Today, the members of A.A. are in a wide range of work and music. Kevin Reed and Eric Mcintire are in "Deathtoll" and live in the BayArea, Chris Kontos is in "Spiralarms" lives with his wife in Oakland, Ray Vegas is back in Social Unrest and has a lovely family in the North Bay, Andy "Airborn" Anderson does comedy, Rick Strahl is (always was) a true computer WIZ and is highly regarded for his applications, and lives in Maui/Oregon, Chris Scaparo is a family man in Oakland as well. The rest of the guys this reporter has no information on. If you do have info on Keith Medeira or Sean Sutton please send it in to this site.
It would be SO killer to see the band live again at some point. I think the band not ever doing a full USA or Europen tour is a travesty. I bet if the right shows for the right timing were offered to the members of the band they would unleash again....let us hope for that day to come soon.
-Marcello Umipig Jr.