The Angry Samoans - Fun with the Samoans: Retrospective (CD Collection) RESTORED

Angry Samoans are an early Los Angeles, CA hardcore punk band, formed by rock critics "Metal" Mike Saunders and Gregg Turner after the demise of Vom, with fellow critic Richard Meltzer in 1978. Along with X, Black Flag, Fear and the Circle Jerks, the savagely satirical Angry Samoans rode the first wave of Los Angeles punk.

The first Angry Samoans gig was opening for Roky Erickson and the Aliens in Richmond, CA on October 30, 1978. Roky actually didn't make the show but remained a friend and inspiration to Gregg Turner and the band throughout their span. In January 1979 grudges against influential KROQ DJ Rodney Bingenheimer caused them to write a song called "Get Off the Air", which caused many Los Angeles clubs to avoid booking them until the mid 1980s. The band's particularly offensive, politically incorrect attitude and lyrical content probably contributed to this situation as well.

The Samoans' first album, Inside My Brain, was one of the early hardcore punk albums to come out of the LA hardcore punk rock scene. Between this and Back from Samoa, the band released an EP as "The Queer Pills", allegedly using the pseudonym because the vocals were done by the bass player. Their seventeen-minute long hardcore album, Back from Samoa, released in 1982, featured lyrics on such themes as the trendiness of poking your eyes out ("Lights Out") and finding Adolf Hitler's penis ("They Saved Hitler's Cock") over thrashing guitars and catchy pounding drum beats.

In the middle 1980s Angry Samoans returned to their roots in 1960s garage rock (they had always cited the 13th Floor Elevators as being their major influence) and put out two releases, Yesterday Started Tomorrow EP and STP Not LSD. Singer/bassist Todd Homer left in 1989, and formed The Mooseheart Faith Stellar Groove Band with Larry Robinson, formerly of 1970s teen pop-soul band Apollo. Turner left soon afterwards, putting out an album in 1993 with the Mistaken before forming his current band, the Blood Drained Cows, featuring autoharp player Billy Angel (nee Miller) from the Aliens. Metal Mike formed a series of bands. Vince Neil's Windshield, with Lisa Lombardo and Julia Altstatt of the Gargoyles, and Bob Fagan from Mood Swing, played mainly covers, including the The Nervebreakers' "My Girlfriend Is A Rock" and "Slave to my Dick" by the Subhumans (from Vancouver, Canada.) Saunders' played in guitar duos named The Clash Brothers (with Fagan) and the Sons of Mellancamp (with Turner) performed around this same time as well.

The Angry Samoans continued with Saunders, drummer Bill Vockeroth, and a wide variety of other individuals, sporadically active throughout the 1990s and into the new millennium. They perform mainly along the West Coast. They have done extensive tours in the 2000s, with the likes of the Dead Kennedys and other older hardcore bands. As of 2007 they are still playing weekends, usually all-ages shows in the Southern California area.

The Unboxed Set is exactly what the title implies; a single disc compilation that includes all four of the Angry Samoans' official pre-breakup 12" releases, including their classic 1982 release, Back from Samoa. One of the truly great '80s punk bands, the music of the Angry Samoans contained all the right elements: juvenile humor, raging barre chords, snotty vocals, and most importantly, a strong sense of justice and the everyman (except, unfortunately, when it came to homosexuals). In addition, they also had an unusually tight rhythm section and great pop songwriting instincts that placed them several notches above their contemporaries. All this is in evidence here, from vocalist "Metal" Mike Saunders' primordial screams on "Ballad of Jerry Curlan" to the hilarious faux-folk of "STP not LSD". Also included in the package are truly inspired liner notes from guitarist Gregg Turner, which perfectly capture the band's recklessness, nihilism and uncompromising punk attitude.

~ Pemberton Roach, all media guide

Tracklist:

01. Right Side Of My Mind
02. Gimme Sopor
03. Hot Cars
04. Inside My Brain
05. You Stupid Asshole
06. Get Off The Air
07. My Old Man's A Fatso (Demo, October 1978)
08. Carson Girls (Demo, October 1978)
09. I'm A Pig (Demo, October 1978)
10. Too Animalistic (Live at Rhino Recors, May 12, 1979)
11. Right Side Of My Mind (Live at Rhino Recors, May 12, 1979)
12. Gas Chamber
13. The Todd Killings
14. Lights Out
15. My Old Man's A Fatso
16. Time Has Come Today
17. They Saved Hitler's Cock
18. Homo-Sexual
19. Steak Knife
20. Haizman's Brain Is Calling
21. Tuna Taco
22. Coffin Case
23. You Stupid Jerk
24. Ballad Of Jerry Curlan
25. Not Of This Earth
26. Different World
27. Electrocution
28. It's Raining Today
29. Unhinged
30. Psych-Out 129
31. Somebody To Love
32. I Lost (My Mind)
33. Wild Hog Rhyde
34. Laughing At Me
35. STP Not LSD
36. Staring At The Sun
37. Death Of Beewak
38. Egyptomania
39. Attack Of The Mushroom People
40. Feet On The Ground
41. Garbage Pit
42. (I'll Drink To This) Love Song
43. Lost Highway


All songs written or co-written by members of The Angry Samoans except "Time Has Come Today" (W. Chambers/J. Chambers), "Homo-Sexual" (J. Falwell), "Somebody To Love" (D. Slick) and "Laughing At Me" (A. Cooper/M. Bruce/D. Dunaway/N. Smith/G. Buxton).

Tracks:
# 01-11 from "Inside My Brain" (LP '1980)
# 12-25 from "Back From Samoa" (LP '1982)
# 26-31 from "Yesterday Started Tomorrow" (EP '1986)
# 32-43 from "STP Not LSD" (LP '1988)

• "Metal" Mike Saunders - lead vocals, guitar
• Gregg Turner - vocals, guitar
• Todd Homer - bass, vocals
• Bill Vockeroth - drums
• P.J. Galligan - first guitar (tracks 1-6), guitar (tracks 12-25)
• Kevin Eric Saunders - lead guitar (tracks 7-11)
• Steve Drojensky - lead guitar (tracks 26-43)
• Larry Robinson - guitar (tracks 26-31)
• Stan Lee - guitar (tracks 32-43)

Producers: Lee Ving (tracks 1-11); Bill Inglot (tracks 26-43).

Release Date: June 13, 1995
Format: Original Recording Reissued
Label: Triple X Entertainment
Catalog No.: 51190-2


The 90's Suck and So Do You is an album by punk band Angry Samoans. It was their first studio album since 1988 STP Not LSD, but featured only two of the original members - vocalist Mike Saunders and drummer Bill Vockeroth.

Is this really the Angry Samoans? This late incarnation of L.A.'s nerdcore heroes includes singer/guitarist Metal Mike Saunders and drummer Bill Vockeroth, but not singer/guitarist Gregg Turner, who co-wrote a bunch of their classic tunes like "They Saved Hitler's Cock" and "The Ballad of Jerry Curlan". The songs on The '90s Suck and So Do You are somewhat smarter than the moronic Samoans fare of old, while they also sound more Ramones influenced and poppier than their early-'80s masterworks. And they're just as infectious. This 13-minute-long record has eight simple, cute songs that will get stuck in the listener's head (and which the listener will not be able to remove) including "Suzy's a Loser", "I'd Rather Do the Dog", and "In and Out of Luv", Metal Mike's hilarious Casanova-like fantasy, where he repeatedly sings, "All the girls are after me/oh yeah".

~ Adam Bregman, all media guide

Tracklist:

01. I'd Rather Do The Dog
02. Letter From Uncle Sam
03. Suzy's A Loser
04. In And Out Of LUV
05. Mister M.D.
06. My Baby's Gone Gone Gone
07. Beat Your Heart Out
08. Don't Change My Head


Produced by Mark Le Maire. Recorded at Canyon Studios, Oakland, CA

• "Metal" Mike Saunders - vocals, guitar
• Alison "Wonderslam" Victor - guitar
• Tony Palmer - bass guitar
• Bill Vockeroth - drums
• Julia Altstatt - bass on tracks "1-2, 7-8"

Release Date: February 19, 1999
Format: CD-EP, Original Recording
Label: Bad Trip Records / Triple X Entertainment
Catalog No.: BT 202 / 51257-2

Ok well it's like this, so this CD-ЕP is a carefully thought out "Rock opera" about a hypothetical country that woke up one day on Election Day to find out that they had accidentally elected a complete dumbfuck for their President, who decided on January 1st that all the citizens of any particular country he wanted would/could be sent to the Gas Chamber, so he sent a Letter To Uncle Sam across town to make sure we had the necessary 450,000 troops to properly occupy the first country he had in mind as an internationally inspiring "model for democracy" (ah I forgot to mention that the President was a reformed cokehead and general purpose bom-again dry-drunk) but…well ok this upset a bunch of people when the country he had Gas Chamber'ed retaliated with small nuclear weapons taking out large parts of New York and half of the state of Wyoming (when they overshot Chicago with their suicide B-52 Bomber) so a lot of people started thinking hey man, Let's Burn The Flag, not just one ours or anyone's but ALL of them and this was a fine and dandy symbolic "protest" until the bonfire of all 279 flags of the world caught a Mendocino tailwind and took out roughly 50 acres of northern California logging forest which of course brings to mind the famous Mike Love saying: "If you say you watched the movie, you're a couple of liars so remember only you can prevent forest fires!"

~ Wayne Davis, Panorama City Feb 2005

Tracklist:

01. Election Day
02. Gas Chamber
03. Letter To Uncle Sam
04. Let's Burn The Flag
05. Rat And Captain Talk Philosophy With Kickface
06. Trev Daddy - Daisy I'll Be Missing You
07. WLVR Radio Spot

It's a neat EP:
F–K the War EP contains four Samoans songs plus 3 bonus tracks.

1. Election Day (great Bush administration bashing)
2. Gas Chamber (same version as Back From Samoa)
3. Letter to Uncle Sam (same version as from 90's Suck…)
4. Let's Burn The Flag (same version found on Metal Mike's "Next Stop Nowhere")
5. (bonus) Loooong interview with Rat Scabies & Capt.Sensible of the Damned back in Aug. 1979 at the Whiskey A Go-Go in Los Angeles, CA from an interviewer called "Kickface" who "talk philosophy". It's quite funny! Ripping on the Sex Pistols among other things.
6. (bonus) Trev Daddy "Daisy I'll Be Missing You" (quite funny parody of The Police's "Every Move You Make" with twisted lyrics.)
7. (bonus) WLVR Radio Spot (spoofing Ted Nuggent and punk rockers.)

By the way, since this isn't in stores that I've seen I bought my CD at an Angry Samoans show for a few bucks. Even if you have the listed songs, it's worth it for the collector. Election Day is awesome and the bonus tracks make it well worth it. Also the EP has a hilarious insert story.

~ Customer review, amazon.com

Release Date: October 3, 2006
Format: CD-EP, Original Recording
Label: Bad Trip Records / Triple X Entertainment
Catalog No.: BT 203 / 51334-2