Member Since: 12/30/2007
Band Members:
July 21, 2008
Our MySpace friend, formerly known as PUNX NOT DEAD, who now signs on as an elipsis asks: Why do you think the hardcore movement died out like it did?
[Tony]: I don't think it ever really died. It has relocated to Europe and Japan, and it is very much alive on MySpace.
[Pat]: I don’t agree that it “died out.†I think the hardcore punk ethos still exists out there, there’s certainly a lot of bands still flying the flag. Just like today, the early days were just a product of everyone’s environment and individual perspectives. Popular music got all confused in the late eighties and 1990s by overhybridization (rap metal, yechh!,) then with the acceptance of Grunge as the new punk, and the suits and ties co-opted the underground ethos. Now they use it to sell Jaguars and dish soap to upwardly mobile young professionals.
*****
June 27, 2008
Three More Questions from Jeff Buzzcrusher, Austin, TX:
1). All-time favorite punk album?
[Pat] Let Them Eat Jellybeans Compilation – 1980
[Tony] Since you said "Punk" and not “Hardcore,†I will have to go with any Stranglers records
2). All-time favorite musicians?
[Pat] Lemmy, Glenn Tipton, Louis Armstrong, J. S. Bach
[Tony] Leslie West, Jeff Buzzcrusher
3). Favorite thing to do in Austin?
[Pat] Swimming at Windy Point Park on Lake Travis
[Tony] Smoke in the non-smoking areas.
*****
June 20, 2008
Three Questions from Jeff Buzzcrusher, Austin, TX:
1. Best show you ever played?
[Tony] All the shows that did not suck. The New Years Eve 83 show in L.A. with the Dead Kennedy's was a standout tho'
[Pat] Woodshock Festival, August 1986, Austin Texas. Our last official show.
2. Favorite album or song?
[Tony] Endless Struggle
[Pat] The eternally unanswerable question.
3. Memorable moment?
[Tony] a)When da cops came bustin' in in St. Louis. b) Opening for the Ramones and hanging with them after the show backstage. The Slayer/Offenders show in San Antonio where it rained beer cans.
[Pat] The morning we awoke to copious amounts of Mikey’s feces smeared across several of Tony’s brother-in-law’s walls in Croton, New York, July 1985.
*****
May 25, 2008
Q [paul, Haarlem, Netherlands]: Why this sudden Offenders (myspace)revival (all the flyers/posts/trivia/Q&A etc)? Why not years ago (perhaps zines)?
A [Tony]: Well, we just got this page up just a few months ago. While we may not have been a working band for many years, we all felt that the music was great and that it would always be listened to and enjoyed. That's why we always tried to keep our stuff available. Working with independent labels can be limited, since they tend to distribute to a given region. The Offenders never had any trouble making new fans and friends: we became more popular after we broke up in the late 80's than we were while we were a band. Mainly, it was just a matter of getting the music to those who would like it. MySpace has been great for that. We have gotten so many new friends and fans I'm honored and humbled. And kids dude! The kids are listening to us as well. So the music has transcended generations.
My only wish was that, perhaps, things could have been different for us back then; we didn't get too many "breaks," and I wish we could have produced a couple more LP's. Offenders will never fade into the sunset of the past, as long as there are MySpace friends, kids like Charlie Brown, and Josh and Miss Bill S. Preston Esq. We will live on.
*****
May 16, 2008
Q [Craig Legg, Birmingham, AL]: Tony, how did you learn to play guitar? Chet Atkins correspondence course? Mel Bay how-to books? Classical lessons? Who are your influences and/or guitar heroes?
A [Tony]: I picked up my first guitar when I was living in West Germany in the 70's as an Army Brat. My best friend Larry Gilbert and I wanted to be cool and we were both really getting into rock music at the time (~'72); and we both wanted to learn to be guitarists, so maybe some girls would talk to us. We were both working as bagboys in the Commisary in Bad Kreuznach so we had money to buy our own guitars with.
We went down to the local music store in Bad K, and both of us bought matching 6 and 12 string Framus acoustic guitars. An okay brand of guitar, but it was my first instrument and I was really stoked to learn. We knew this fella who hung around the base, an American named Allen Simon: he always use to use the expression "DYNOMITE" so we called him Funky Allen Simon. Allen was a pretty decent guitarist, so we asked him if he would give us some lessons. So Allen would come over to Larry's once a week and he would teach us some chords, show us how to fingerpick, ("Blackbird" by the Beatles) and other odds and ends. We took lessons for several weeks, then Allen went back to the States. After that it was all self-taught. I learned a lot of acoustic style songs back then, because I only had the acoustic. It wasn't until I got to Texas at Fort Hood that I found the music store in Killeen and bought my first electric guitar, a Gibson, the "Midnight Special," it was called; they only produced them for a few years in the '70s. Mine was blond and had a two octave neck. My first amp was an Ampeg VT-22 100 watt self-contained unit -- very loud, loved it for it's loudness.
Not too long after I got the Ampeg, I had the chance to buy a used Marshall stack cheap, $700: I jumped on it. Once I had the Gibson and the Marshall, my playing improved, and once I was playing with Mikey and Pat, my playing got even better. So that's how I learned guitar.
My guitar hero: Leslie West of Mountain; always has been always will be, Mr. Tone himself.
*****
May 9, 2008
Q [n!k, West Covina, CA]: Do you guys still play? If not, why not?
A [Pat]: Aside from a brief reunion in 2002, no. The reunion experience did not go particularly well and reminded some of us of why the band disintegrated in 1986.
A [Tony]: We have not played as a working band since the late 80's. We did have a reunion in 2002. Played a great show at Emo's here in Austin, we had thoughts of remaining as a band at that time. But J.J. got busted yet again, and was sentenced to two years in jail. We tried to continue with a new lead singer Anthony Willamson, a.k.a. Anthony Combatant, who gave it all he had, but it just was not the same without J.J. Plus, Mikey still had some personal issues which sadly eventually lead to his untimely death. Like Pat said, unfortunately it wasn't much different than the issues we faced in the 80's.
Record Label: Kangaroo Records (Amsterdam), Reflex Records (Belgium)
Type of Label: None