The Skabbs

Photo

Thu, 07 Feb 2013 16:56:43 -0800

Haven’t posted to good ol’ Tumblr in a long time....

Thu, 07 Feb 2013 16:56:11 -0800

Haven’t posted to good ol’ Tumblr in a long time. Here’s the show we’re promoting currently, featuring Randy Stodola (of Alley Cats and Zarkons fame) with his new band Alley Cats S.O.B. and the skatetastic Mike Smith’s Ape Rock. It’s punk rock Hermosa Beach style at Suzy’s.

http://www.jackpotrecords.com/products/view/5348/7

Mon, 27 Feb 2012 15:35:19 -0800

http://www.jackpotrecords.com/products/view/5348/7

Idle Threat Idle No Longer

Thu, 16 Feb 2012 12:09:44 -0800

Today, Jackpot Records (www.Jackpotrecords.com) announces the release of “Idle Threat” by The Skabbs on April 10, 2012. Like fine wine, Skabbs get better with age. Or something.

Saturday, February 25 The Skabbs return to the legendary Max...

Tue, 24 Jan 2012 17:08:25 -0800

Saturday, February 25 The Skabbs return to the legendary Max Steiner’s in Long Beach. Not rocking is not an option.

The next night, Sept. 16 @ The Park Bar in Burbank. Another fine...

Wed, 28 Sep 2011 17:43:29 -0700

The next night, Sept. 16 @ The Park Bar in Burbank. Another fine establishment and a great time had by all. Photo by Skabbs staff photographer, Mark Salazar.

@ Max Steiner’s in Long Beach, Sept. 15, 2011. Photo by Ed...

Wed, 28 Sep 2011 17:38:00 -0700

@ Max Steiner’s in Long Beach, Sept. 15, 2011. Photo by Ed from Sterile Jets who played a fine, fine set that night. Max Steiner’s was great. The real deal. Can’t wait to go back.

…And thanks to our friends in Tahiti Shuttle Experiment,...

Tue, 06 Sep 2011 17:12:39 -0700

…And thanks to our friends in Tahiti Shuttle Experiment, we’ll be playing the next night in Burbank at The Park Bar. Friday, Sept. 16 at 9 (TSE goes on at 7 and will be playing until we kick them off stage).

Thanks to our friends, Sterile Jets, The Skabbs will perform at...

Thu, 01 Sep 2011 08:01:40 -0700

Thanks to our friends, Sterile Jets, The Skabbs will perform at Max Steiner’s in Long Beach on Sept. 15. Psyched!

January ‘08

Sat, 18 Jun 2011 02:49:17 -0700

January ‘08

Super 8mm by Mark Salazar 1978 (silent). Transfered to VHS in...

Tue, 29 Mar 2011 14:08:00 -0700

Super 8mm by Mark Salazar 1978 (silent). Transfered to VHS in the early ’80s. Sound edited by Andy Gonzalez.

Go ahead. Don’t come to this show. I dare you.

Wed, 02 Mar 2011 11:50:29 -0800

Go ahead. Don’t come to this show. I dare you.

Air guitar.

Wed, 23 Feb 2011 07:37:19 -0800

Air guitar.

Same month The Skabbs recorded at the same studio. Don’t...

Wed, 05 Jan 2011 17:58:08 -0800

Same month The Skabbs recorded at the same studio. Don’t remember Dave Tarling, but he may have worked with us. I remember Spot because he rolled around the studio on skates.

Photo

Thu, 11 Nov 2010 15:50:28 -0800

Here’s a version of Salazar’s “Have A Drink...

Tue, 12 Oct 2010 17:45:00 -0700

Here’s a version of Salazar’s “Have A Drink With Me”.

Among some of the early, and now lost Skabbs treasures was a...

Tue, 12 Oct 2010 17:43:59 -0700

Among some of the early, and now lost Skabbs treasures was a song Steve Salazar brought to the band called “Have A Drink”. I think it was something Steve wrote just prior to the knowledge that he would soon be joining a punk rock band (something that would have been about as foreign a notion to him as jumping out of a plane), and it showed. Still, it added a bit of variety to our fledgling act, which was a good thing.

Have A Drink was intended almost as a lounge song. Indeed, Salazar’s invitation, “Testing 1-2-3, Have a drink with me, Sugar” was sweet, intoxicating and hard to resist. Unfortunately no recordings exist of The Skabbs performing or at least rehearsing this number, but Salazar’s demo is around here somewhere…

I do recall rehearsing it though in Steve Evans’ practice space in Lawndale. We had rigged the 10 X 11 foot room with a decent PA system, utilizing a pair of speakers called “Sound Caddies”, which looked like something your elementary school might’ve used for rallies in the cafeteria. 9/10s of the rehearsal recordings of The Skabbs currently in existence feature unfortunately muffled vocals as originally heard through the Sound Caddies.

As with the demo of Have A Drink, Salazar insisted on playing guitar, and as far as I know this is the only song Steve Salazar played guitar on in The Skabbs. I don’t recall exactly what Steve Evans and Andy Thoreson did on this song because Salazar even played the solo. Unlike most other Skabbs songs, the beat on this one was light and breezy with Salazar playing a bright rhythm over Andy Gonzalez’s snare clicks.

Another song lost to the ages is our vocal take on the theme from “Bonanza”. Why we did that I have no idea, but we did, complete with the dum da da dum dum bass line and ascending slide guitar runs. Some sample lyrics: (during the bridge) “Here comes Pa, There goes Hoss, Here comes Little Joe” (then, ending the song) “We are the Cartwrights living on the Ponderosa, Happy and clean and I’m a closet queen, How do you like my vest?, Crushed velvet from France!”

I do recall performing both of those songs at our first ever gig at a house party in Sierra Madre sometime around Halloween of ‘77. I think a recording of that show did exist, and I found about a 2 second snippet of Bonanza on a reel to reel tape once, but the rest was recorded over at a later rehearsal. Damn us and our tape recycling ways.

Kind of random, but as it happens the bass guitar I’ve...

Fri, 24 Sep 2010 14:54:00 -0700

Kind of random, but as it happens the bass guitar I’ve been playing since the late 70s is exactly like this one. Other than that, no connection.

consciousburning:

My dad’s the bass player. His punk band (not famous) Algo, in the late seveties/early eighties.

Revised flyer to include our buddies Sterile Jets who have been...

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 10:28:00 -0700

Revised flyer to include our buddies Sterile Jets who have been added to the lineup, and to correct the name of one of the other bands. Oops!

Ok, just about time to kick out the jams, mofckrs!

Mon, 06 Sep 2010 16:20:45 -0700

Ok, just about time to kick out the jams, mofckrs!