Classic punk from the Archives--
...In the summer of 1987 The Idiots were formed. Guitar maestro Paul Liedel (brother of Mike Liedel from "The Attitudes" with Bruce Green and future "Warrior Soul" frontman Kory Clarke) hooked up with a human pogo stick/bass freak Steve Bauer and highly sought-after drummer Glynn Scanlan. Scanlan being best known as a drummer/songwriter caved in to singing duties for the mere fact that nobody else in the band would do it. They played all the stages in Detroit and did a few short tours around the midwest to enlightened audiences at every stop. Not only were The Idiots great musicians, they were quite adept at causing trouble. By the end of shows there were kicked over drums, broken guitars and basses, and the infamous "shoe incident"... Sure, breaking shit was nothing new. But they just did it better. And usually played faster. Sometimes it was hard to keep Paul away from the "Night Train" and the girls...Glynn away from the girls and his drums...and Steve from playing classical interludes on his bass in between numbers in their sets. But all was well. With The Idiots backlog of songs being all original, they manged to perform some of the most twisted, quirky, and blistering fast versions of cover songs out there in the rock and roll abyss. "Windy", "Song Sung Blew" and a version of "Communication Breakdown" that would peel Jimmy Pages' face off. "Alot of bands in our home town didn't really want to play with us." exclaimed Glynn Scanlan in a 1988 interview. "We keep blowing people off the stage."
The Idiots had three collections/recordings...
"No Name", "Guess You Had To Be There" and "Larry's Workshop."
Band Photo's by Jim Ransweiller III.
1987/2008 Cabbage Head Records.
THIS WEBSITE IS DEDICATED TO THE MEMORY OF IDIOTS GUITAR PLAYER, THE LATE, GREAT, PAUL LIEDEL... MAY 11TH, 1967 TO MARCH 18TH, 1990. IT'S SAD TO SAY THAT PAUL NEVER GOT TO HEAR SOME OF THESE SONGS COMPLETED. Amen.
Circa 1988 - The Idiots - "Guess You Had To Be There" Review
This blows away everything the dead milkmen, and everyone remotely similar, have ever done in their lives. That's a gross understatment too.
This little unkown band has rediscovered everything forgotten about what made punk rock great and has added dementions no one ever tried the first time. Words fail. Request these songs on your local alternative station and decide for yourself. It's hard to tell whether these idiots are deliberate geniuses or idiots savant that have stumbled unkowingly into rock godhood.
Every song is brilliant, yet unpretentious. If the world music press doesn't canonize these scruffy voltaires, we'll know who the real idiots are.
-The Metro Times
