Ramblings and Reflections on music inspired by my promo poster collection

I have a bunch of free record label promo only posters from back when I worked at a record store from '87 to about '94. They have been in a box up in my garage since I moved to this house in '94. A few weeks back, inspired by the Punk Rock memorabilia thread in beyond tiki, I cracked open the box to see what was inside.

I decided to do a bilge thread of recollections that I have about the album, band, or time period for each poster that I find in the box.

I'm taking pictures of the posters as the came out of the box and they are in no order other than by order of discovery. I have maybe a couple hundred? It's hard to tell because they are all rolled up together.

Here are some of the first ones in a roll I pulled out of the box and photographed:

I have more Zappa Cds than any other artist. I think about 80, give or take. I also have all his original vinyl pressings of all his albums, as well as the Old Masters vinyl reissue boxes. The first album I heard that got me into him was One Size Fits All. I liked the funny album cover with the red couch and slapped a used copy of it on one night at work. By the time the guitar solo from Pajama People was over, I was hooked. After that, I took a long road of discovery of all of zappa's albums. Next one I listened to was Mother's at Fillmore. After that, Overnight sensation, Uncle Meat, Thing Fish, Mothers of Prevention, and Jazz from Hell. My 5 favorite zappa albums would probably be in order: One Size fits All, Bongo Fury, Mother's live at fillmore east,Hot rats, and Live in New York. Honorable mention goes to the not a catalog double live album You Can't do That on Stage any More volume 2.

I don't really remember this album.I saw the Violent Femmes a bunch of times live. I think I saw them this tour at the Sports Arena when they opened for the b-52's.

This was when the Jimi catalog went from WEA to MCA. I have an old import CD of the naked lady cover for Electric Ladyland. It has nasty analog hiss on it, but the cover makes it worth it. I never got any of these reissues because I already had the WB versions. I had to draw the line somewhere. For some reason, I have a few of this poster. I remember taking posters we got and trading them to people. I had a whole second job selling and trading free stuff I got at the store for several years.

There was a time when I really liked New Order, but by the time this album came out, it was past that time for me. I couldn't name one song one this album. I don't think I went and saw them on this tour. I think the Brotherhood tour was the last one that I saw them on. The Lowlife tour was one of my favorite shows of all time.

I think they played with Sugarcubes and Public enemy at the stadium on this album's tour. I'm not really a big U2 fan but I liked Joshua Tree and WAR when they came out. Now I think they're annoying. This was the last album they did that paid any attention to.

I really liked Body Count a lot. I played their first album constantly for a few months after it came out. I saw them when they opened up for Metallica and Gun's n Roses and when they headlined at Iguana's in TJ. For the TJ show, here was a huge El Nino rainstorm and the power went out in Iguana's. they got big cords and ran power in from the nightclub next door. there were barely any lights on and the crowd was standing in about two inches of water on the floor. It ended being a real good show, despite the fact I was constantly worried about being electrocuted the whole time.

there are a bunch of posters I'm finding that I have no idea why I have them. This would be one of them. The only Siouxsie songs I know are Dear Prudence and Cities in Dust. I was never into her. I don't think Siouxse fans even bought this album.

My good friend Kenny used to say: "Crosby, Stills, and Nash minus Young equals shit!" I think I might have seen this tour at the SDSU Open Air Amplitheatre. It's hard to remember all the details of the crappy shows. I might have seen just Crosby stills and nash on a later tour. I just remember being annoyed by Nash and Crosby at some show. The only reason Stills wasn't so annoying was because Nash and crosby were. I don;t even remember Young being there at all...

Cool album cover. i liked them as Dukes of Stratosphere better. I never owned or listened to this album. Took the poster because I liked the cover. Never saw them live.

Old Pink Floyd promo poster. it's tough to choose a favorite Pink Floyd album. They were my favorite band for a long time before I worked at the store. Maybe the Final Cut. Hard choice.

I cannot think of Bob Dylan without singing the Minutemen song "Bob Dylan Wrote Propaganda Songs." No idea why i have this poster. I think I have "Times they are a Changing" and "John Wesly Harding." I had` the greatest hits but got rid of them during one of my many collection downsizings. He's too whiny and mellow for me.

Grant Hart's post Husker Du band. I really liked Grant's first solo album he did on SST where he played all the instruments. Nova mob wasn't even close to being as good as that album or as good as the Huskers were, but they were better than nothing and I never could get into Bob's band Sugar.

Morrissey's one time favorite band. They had a few early singles, an ep, and an album on Rough Trade before this album on Polygram. Those early works were damn good. This album was lame. A total disappointment for me, and early James fan

Buffalo Tom started on an import label I can't recall, then SST, and then went to Beggars Banquet/RCA. They were one of my favorite bands back then. The first album on RCA was one of my all time favorite albums. I saw them live a few times. Grabbed a hand written set list when they played at SoundEFX(Baccanal) with Three Mile pilot. This poster is autographed by them. I can't remember when I got it autographed, but I have a bunch of signed junk from them.

Last one for this post:

No idea why I have this one either? Probably got it for my friend Jeff and never gave it to him. I think this album was produced by David Gilmore of Floyd. Life in a Northern Town is all that I recall of them. I liked that song when my buddy Jeff played it for me, but they were too mellow for me overall.

many more later
Buzzy Out!

[ Edited by: Bay Park Buzzy 2009-07-02 00:54 ]

[ Edited by: Bay Park Buzzy 2009-07-02 09:33 ]

that bamboo in the background is perfectly aged.

cool stuff buzz. i have a few vintage dead posters, including the first use of a skeleton, and a few rare blues traveler, phish, u2, etc. i'll have to dig 'em out and take some pics. i saw ice-t and body count back in the day. there were about 500 cops there and about 300 fans! i like that zappa poster but not as much as frank on the toilet. i'm a big neil young fan, about 25 shows over the years. i'll take crazy horse, shocking pinks, bluenotes, stray gators, pearl jam, or solo (seen them all with neil) over csny (seen them too).

Buzzy sez: "I have more Zappa Cds than any other artist. I think about 80, give or take. I also have all his original vinyl pressings of all his albums, as well as the Old Masters vinyl reissue boxes. The first album I heard that got me into him was One Size Fits All. I liked the funny album cover with the red couch and slapped a used copy of it on one night at work. By the time the guitar solo from Pajama People was over, I was hooked. After that, I took a long road of discovery of all of zappa's albums. Next one I listened to was Mother's at Fillmore. After that, Overnight sensation, Uncle Meat, Thing Fish, Mothers of Prevention, and Jazz from Hell. My 5 favorite zappa albums would probably be in order: One Size fits All, Bongo Fury, Mother's live at fillmore east,Hot rats, and Live in New York. Honorable mention goes to the not a catalog double live album You Can't do That on Stage any More volume 2."

And this is one of the many reasons we love you Buzz!

I knew KTD was a Zappa fan...You in Da Club too, Squid?

On 2009-07-02 22:56, kingstiedye wrote:
i saw ice-t and body count back in the day. there were about 500 cops there and about 300 fans!

Hey Bullet! Thanks for joining in...
Here's one of my favorite themed promo items of all time, from the Body Count "Born Dead" album:

The Body Count baby rattle!
Labels used to make all kinds of themed promo items for their bands. At one time I had a Warner Brothers car emergency kit. It had jumper cables, a gas syphon, flares, tire presure guage, a foam mat for car repair comfort, and a custom WEA logo on everything!
When I saw Body Count first time with GnR and metallica, it was in the Murph with about 60,000 fans. When they played Cop Killer, all the fans were flipping off the cops and yelling and screaming at them. No violence ensued, however. The most exciting thing that happend was during Metallica, when one of the banners on stage caught on fire. There were 30 foot high flames running up it and most people thought it was part of the stage show. The fire pretty much burned itself out before it was a big issue and the stage hands quickly extinguished the burning embers. More importantly, the show went on!

i like that zappa poster but not as much as frank on the toilet.

That Frank on the crapper photo is a classic! I have two or three more Zappa posters in the rolls that I haven't got to yet. In the meantime, here's a RYKO in store sampler CD I have:


Also, a Zappa and Dead CD bin card:

these were from back in the day when CDs came in "longboxes." Then a few years later, the "Ban the Box" grassroots campaign and shoplifters around the world rejoiced as cd were shipped sans the longbox! And those long boxes with printed graphics used to make such neat cassette covers, too.

Hey Bullet! Does this venue look familar to you?(Speaking of the Dead...)

Here I am, fixing breakfast at the Cal Expo shows in 1989:

Wonder if I saw you there?

the next year, 1990 we camped in the grass:

Looks like I was sportin' a free Marlboro hat in that picture. I worked one day a week at a liquor store/deli back then too. I was underage still and kept the liquor store job after I got hired at the record store so I could sell myself booze, and get it at an employee discount. I milked that scenario for about six years. My job at the deli for several years consisted soley of the saturday morning shift, 9-2. We (all my best friends, surf buddies, and bandmates worked there too) used to help ourselves to all the free cigarette promo stuff that was there. I was probably wearing camel shorts and had a Newprt wristwatch on in that picture too. we actually had whole outfits of cigarette promoclothes, and none of us smoked. We looked like big smoking fans.
Back to the DEAD: I remember cleaning out the entire record store's stock of Dead merchandise and selling it in the parking lot in 1990. I had a bunch of "Dead in A Decks" that did real well for me. I sold out of stuff after only walking down one and a half rows of campers. It's how I paid for my whole trip, and a few days after in Berkely as well.

i'm a big neil young fan, about 25 shows over the years. i'll take crazy horse, shocking pinks, bluenotes, stray gators, pearl jam, or solo (seen them all with neil) over csny (seen them too).

Bluenotes tour was the first time I saw Neil, at the California Theatre, or maybe Golden hall in downtown SD. I think he played an acoustic set and then the Bluenotes set. I probably saw him 10 times after that. I think the best tour I saw was when he played with Social D. I saw that tour in SD at the sports arena and I think at the Greek theatre? can't remember the exact LA venue, but it has grass in the upper level. Is there a place in Costa Mesa like that, if it wasn't the Greek that they played at?

Some more promo posters to end this post with:

Prince Lovesexy: I never was much into Prince. I got this one strictly for resale value later on. I remember at the time a lot of people really went crazy for this album cover. Right about the time this album came out, bootleggers were making the Blackalbum on vinyl like crazy. I used to be the bootleg buyer at the store for many years. the bootleg seller guys would show up on their regular day, usually about once every two weeks. They'd use the wink wink signal with me and a few minutes later I'd be in the back alley digging through a car trunk, or sitting in a motorhome, pulling out bootleg vinyl we'd want. The Blackalbums went like crazy. I probably sold 20 a month for close to a year.

Meat Puppets Mirage on SST: this poster is thrashed because it hung in one of our "jam rooms." I think this one hung in this basement we rented from some hippies in Vista. We paid $100 a month for a underground room in an old house in the sticks of Vista. They hippy guys used to give us a good deal because we'd always bring females and booze to practice. We fixed up the basement into three rooms. One was where we played, one was a lounge with couches and a tv, and the third room we made was an indoor hockey rink. We used to spend a lot of time there. definitely got our money's worth. We even had parties and shows there too. One of the parties was a crossdressing party with us and another band, and it made a couple segments on a Blockhead skate video that came out in the early 90's.

Let's Active? The only explanation for why I have this is that I got it for my friend Jeff and never gave it to him. He liked Let's Active because he was a REM freak and Mitch easter of Let's active produced some early REM stuff. They had one semi hit, Every word means no.

This Lloyd Cole poster must have been for Jeff too. Jeff was a good friend of mine, indy record collector, and fellow musician. He met a girl at JC one day and dropped his whole former life for her in an instant and became a married with kids, had to get a real job dude. I wore a Minutemen Roar of the Masses could be Farts tshirt when I was the best man at his wedding. His wedding was probably the last time i saw him. He's in a band called 17th pygmy now, which used to be 17 pygmys , but if they use that name then the 17 pygmy guys not in 17th pygmy will sue them.
I don;t remember ever selling a Lloyd cole album. He must have had a big following in England. Or maybe somewhere...

I think this poster does a good job of illustrating the randomness of all the poster that I have. I really do have some more interesting stuff than this.

Feel free to ad any recollections that any of these bands, posters,or comments inspire.

Buzzy Out!

"Buffalo Tom started on an import label I can't recall, then SST, and then went to Beggars Banquet/RCA. They were one of my favorite bands back then. The first album on RCA was one of my all time favorite albums. I saw them live a few times. Grabbed a hand written set list when they played at SoundEFX(Baccanal) with Three Mile pilot. This poster is autographed by them. I can't remember when I got it autographed, but I have a bunch of signed junk from them."

Buffalo Tom?!? Are you kidding me, no way did I ever expect to find them on this web site. Ok I am impressed. Anyway, probably my favorite band of all time. Saw them last year on a road trip I had to Chicago. Thanks for this post. My faith in real music has been restored.

buzzy, i went to every show the dead played at cal expo. i probably saw you and thought "look at that punk with the ringo hairdo wearing all that cigarette shit". :lol:

i found a few. i have some more older ones but they are in tubes, inside a box, in the garage rafters. i've already wasted enough time fooling around today though!




autographed by original band members. scored this through their fan club.

amazing show! john fogerty and neil young both played with the dead. carlos santana played with los lobos.

first use of a skeleton by the dead. art by wes wilson. i've had this one so long i don't even remember where i got it.

incredible free show in '80 at william land park: muddy waters and sippie wallace headlined!
a very young robert cray played too.

[ Edited by: kingstiedye 2009-07-03 16:08 ]

On 2009-07-03 13:26, dewey-surf wrote:

Buffalo Tom?!? Are you kidding me, no way did I ever expect to find them on this web site. Ok I am impressed. Anyway, probably my favorite band of all time. Saw them last year on a road trip I had to Chicago. Thanks for this post. My faith in real music has been restored.

Hey Dewey-Surf:
Big Buffalo Tom fan here!
Here is some more Buffalo Tom stuff I acquired over the years:
set list from the SoundEfx club show:

I have few promo albumflats from this album:

The front was usually a 12" x 12" glossy reproduction of the album cover with the back being a matte paper with other graphics on it for store display purposes:

the label would usually send about 20 flats and 5-10 posters for most releases

I was mistaken previously, the import label they were on was after SST. Here's the Situation 2 12" for BirdBrain, autographed:

Another 12" on Beggars banquet in the back, with the five albums I have by them in front:

I have promo posters for most of these albums to post later on

Import CD singles pt 1

Import Cd singles pt 2, and a RCA promo instore comp they were on:

And finally, a 7" on atlantic/Beggar's Banquet, printed at Independent Project Press:

IP press was located in the Nate Starkman & son building. It's an old brick building somewhere in LA. It's been in the background of dozens of movies. Once you recognize it, you notice almost as often as that big donut in LA based movies. At one time, there was a record label in that building called Nate Starkman & Sons. They had all their stuff printed at IP. I was in a band that had two albums on that label. long before that, I was aware of IP because Camper Van Beethoven started out on Independent Projects Records, which was located at the Nate Starkman and Sons building. They also printed a lot of show flyers, and a bunch of stamps and crazy stuff for bands like Savage Republic. One of the dudes in Savage Republic ended up producing the two albums on Nate starkman and managed us as a band for a time. I have a big pile of crap from IP because I dug a bunch of stuff out of their trashcans when I went up there. I was also on their mailing list forever and they used to send me a bunch of crap. It was all on this cool rough industrial cardboard with a neat-O printing job like this single:

In the middle it says graphic design by Bruce Licher:

He was THE IP guy.

So that's my story about Nate Starkman and Sons, IPR, Bruce Licher, and some Buffalo Tom stuff...

Buzzy Out!

On 2009-07-03 14:38, kingstiedye wrote:
i've already wasted enough time fooling around today though!

I hear you on that one! :wink:

Thanks for sharing them posters. Robin Williams and Journey on the same bill too!

Buzzy Out!

Awesome collection. I use to have a ton of stuff but it disappeared throughout my years in college. I took a year off between high school and college and worked in a record store back in '91-'92. Every inch of my dorm room... and just about every other dorm room on my floor was covered with my posters and record flats. Of my stuff was obviously less extensive cuz I only worked there for a year. In other words, the second floor of my dorm looked like a Lalapalooza festival. Rollins Band, Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, Jane's Addiction, Beastie Boys, Nirvana, Social D, Beastie Boys, etc.

I remember pulling up to the dorm and unpacking... I brought box loads of stuff. I was passing it out to everyone.

Wish I still had a few of those promo's.

Very nice collection Buzzy. Did you pick up 'Three Easy Pieces' by Buffalo Tom yet? There are 3 or 4 real gems on that. I even heard rumors they are going to back in studio for another album soon.

Buzzy,
That collection is insane.
Definitely cover those with plastic or frame them.

On 2009-07-03 19:55, Unga Bunga wrote:
Buzzy,
That collection is insane.

You have no idea!

Zaya

Well here is my tribute. Quite possibly the most influential band in my life, included in the scan are three ticket stubs from my college days, when I had the honor to see the Mats! The Replacements to be exact. Autographs obtained a few doors down from the Cabaret Metro Chicago, circa 1991.

On 2009-07-03 22:04, dewey-surf wrote:
Quite possibly the most influential band in my life, The Replacements

Hey Dewey-Surf, looks like we have some similar musical likes. :)
I have a couple more Buffalo Tom things I found to post tomorrow. I don't have that album you mentioned.

Replacements are pretty high on my list too. Maybe top 5, definitely top 10 of all time.

Here's a short thread on the Replacementsfrom a while back

I put my photos from that thread of my Replacements stuff here:

A couple WB radio promos, advance WB promo cassette of Please To Meet Me, Import double 12" of Please to meet me bsides..., and stamped promo vinyl of Don't Tell a Soul

Pre Sire Vinyl: Sorry Ma... and 12" of I Will Dare, import of Boink!, and two bootlegs

CD's, early twin tone 7", a couple Warner era singles, and Bob magazine 7" flexi disc

Somewhere have the original magazine too. here's the label close up:

And here's a promo poster of Don't tell a Soul:

I didn't like the Replacements much after Bob left the band. Too much Westerberg for my liking. I barely listened to anything after Pleased to Meet Me. I played the heck out of everything before that, though.

One more for Bullet:

Funny thing about those cal expo shows was that I never made it in to see the band. I just partied in the parking lot for the three days each time. A lot of my friends at that time were Deadheads and I just followed the party.

I remember when this album came out I was like WTF? I totally hated it. This one guy I worked with loved it though, and he used to play it all the time. We had a rotation thing worked out for in store stuff where each person got to play anything he/she wanted for one album's worth of time. He kept playing that album for his choice everytime, a few times a day for a couple months. He would always interrupt someone elses turn when a customer asked him if it was a good album. He'd say, "Here, let me play it for you!" and crank it. I would just cringe from the opening riffs because that album sucked and i'd hear it all the time.

I went to three Rod Stewart shows and only saw him twice. At the first one at Southwestern College, the ratio of women to men was about 90 to one. Half of those guys that were there dressed up and did their hair to look like 70's Rod. I saw one guy hanging out next to a limo before the show by will call and he looked more like Rod Stewart than the real Rod did at the time. I know that guy had to have gotten laid that night. I was sober and I thought he was the real deal. Some toasted chick must have fallen for it. the guitar player for that tour was a local guy named Steve Salas. He was in a local band a few years earlier called This Kids that played at my eighth grade graduation dance. They had to stop playing to Romantics What I like About You because we kept "slamming" to it. I went to Rod shows because I got free tickets to them without even asking. The label would call the day of the show and ask if anyone wanted to go. Turned out three times on three tours I had nothing to do the night of a Rod show. The last show I went to was at the Sports Arena and I never went to our seats. My friend and I just walked the walkway around the outer edge of the arena and looked at skanky women all night. That was the tour he was sponsored by Miller genuine Draft and wore a gold suit and had a big ensemble with him. First and second show I stayed for some of the songs. Left after maggie may first time I saw him.

I'll end this post with one of the worst posters ever:

Talk about the Who selling out! Look at that horrible outfit Roger Daltry is wearing . Urban English Cowboy. Someone on the set of that photo shoot should have walked up to him and punched him in the nuts when he was posing and said "What the hell are you doing? Look at yourself! You can't be the guy that was on Who's Next!" I liked Keith Moon Who, but never anything after him. they really bugged me when they were doing the alternating Reunion tour/ farewell tour every couple of years.

TikiShaker: I purged a lot of stuff over the years and after a couple of moves. Surprised I have as much as I do still.

Unga Bunga: I've barely scratched the surface so far. All those I posted so far were in one big roll, and I have several more rolls to go.

Anyone else have anything to add, please do!
Buzzy Out!

Some more Buffalo Tom Goodies:
Birdbrain two sided skinny promo poster


I saw them only a couple times live. The best show was an acoustic one they played at McCabes guitar store.
I have one more album i forgot about, a live show bootleg CD, and advence cassette of Big red Letter, and a huge pile of stickers from Sleepy Eyed

I think I nabbed the stickers at a distributor's trade show thing one year. I went for a few years as the stores "General Merchandise Buyer" with the intent of "checking out new product lines on display." My real intent was to absolutely loot the place every year. I used to come back with the car stuffed full of free promo stuff and lots of other stuff I really wasn't supposed to take. It actually ended up turning into a game for us.

One of the highlights of the convention was seeing who the labels would make go and sign stuff. I used to actually ask/tell the autographers what to write to me. All the up and coming stars would sign whatever was asked, and even some of the bigger stars would too. I was really surprised when I met members of Anthrax and they played along with my requests:

I asked the first guy to write "Longhairs rule!" and he hesitated for a moment and signed it the way I asked

Emboldened, I asked the second guy to write "Jazz Sucks!" He did and embellished my request a bit:

"Jazz sucks big fuckin penal tissue." I think he meant "penile" tissue, but penal makes it even funnier.

Good times indeed!

A few more posters for today from solo dudes who were in bands before they went solo

first up from the Rolling Stones:

Not this album again! looks like it had two promo posters. One of my friends really liked this album. He drew a huge picture on his bedroom wall of the ring when he was feeling impulsive one night. I remember thinking at the time that this friend of mine had no taste.

If this album was good I would have remembered its existence.

A lot of Beatle fans thought of him as a genius. Something about an album called Smiley's Smile. Supposed to have been the Beach Boys Sgt Pepper's. The only people I remember buying this album were weirdo Beatles collector guys. They were the same guys lined up at the door the morning the Traveling Wilbury's album was released.

From Echo and the Bunnymen...I like Echo a lot. Ocean Rain was one of the first CDs I ever bought and one of my all time favorite albums. I remember having an aftershow backstage meet and greet pass to an Echo, New Order, and Gene Loves Jezebel show. When Ian came out, everyone flocked to him. New Order was just walking around with no one coming up to them at all. I got a free can of budweiser and an Echo set list I grabbed off the stage as I walked by while I was there. I didn't get the set list autographed because too many people were around him. I did get a vinyl copy of Brotherhood autographed by New Order.

And finally, from the Bongos:

I used to take any free albums the store got in that had Beatle covers on them. This was one I got because it had a cover of Cry Baby Cry and a Bowie song, Man Who Sold the World on it. It turned out to be a real good live acoustic album.

Buzzy Out!

Here are few more by some well known artists:

I think a lot of people are familar with this album. I remember being pissed at them after they sold 100 gazillion albums and appeared live on tv wearing rags. With the amount of money those dudes had at that point, they should have been wearing tuxedos on stage. I saw them at Iguana's in TJ on this tour. I rememeber being real surprised when I found out there was a hidden track on the CD. I was in Santa Cruz on a road trip for a Meat Puppets show, when my friends were talking about the first time they heard the song. I was puzzled because I heard that album a hundred times and knew for sure mine had no extra track. I went to their dorm room and heard it. I went back to work the next week and told a couple coworkers who also never heard the track about it. We pulled all the stock of cds of that album that we had, probably about 300 copies, and started opening them looking for a cd with the extra track. We noticed that one in about 25, or one in each box had a 1/4" black strip on the edge that were not on the other 24. Those cds were the ones with the extra track, which I think was called endless nameless. About a week or so after this discovery, all the cds we got in of this album forever after that, all had the extra song on them.

For the longest time all of bowies stuff was out of print in all formats. People used to happily pay $30-50 for a used copy of one of his catalog CDS on RCA. RYKO, a label I fully supported because they were the zappa label, reissued the Bowie catalog after a few years of it being unavailable. I was happy when they did it because they did all the reissues right with extra tracks and album graphics and stuff. I have all his Ryko reissues, most of his albums on RCA cd versions, a couple Mobile Fidelity vinyl albums, and just about everything on original RCA vinyl as well. Hunky Dory kicks ass. Man who sold the world rules. David Live, Pinups, and Diamond dogs are my favorites of his as well.

I saw Floyd twice on this tour. Once at the LA Sports Arena, and once at the LA Coliseum. At the coliseum show, my friend and I got separated from our ride on the way out. We walked straight to the car by a direct route and the car was gone. We looked forever and didn't find the car, so we walked to south freeway omramp and tried to hitch. Some dude in a bug stopped after about two minutes and told us to hop in. He told us he'd take us to Redondo Beach. We said sure, since it was south. When I sat in his back seat, the seat sagged and the metal seat springs made contact with the battery under the seat. It started smoking, but I knew from experience that vws always smelled like smoke in the back seat. But, right as he said,"Do you smell smoke?" flames shot up from under my legs. It seemed the fibers in the cushion caught fire from the spring/battery contact heat. I stomped the fire out on the side of the freeway. While doing this, the battery contact wire broke, so we had to bump start the car. He took us to redondo, where we went on a bizarre errand with him to a hotel that involved one of the most beautiful women I had ever seen in my life wearing hardly any clothes, who he claimed was his brothers girlfriend and was just getting off work. we took her home and he said he'd take us all the way home. At some point, it started getting real hot in the back seat. Eventually, the guy says, "Hey, that's weird, I'm flooring it and only going 50 miles per hour!" we pulled over in Costa Mesa, we thanked him, I gave him all my leftover cash($10) and wished each other luck. We bump started his bug one more time and watched it slug out of the Denny's parking lot heading back north. from there, help was only 40 minutes south and on the way for us. I got home at 8am and had to work at the deli at 9. I always felt bad for that guy, helping us out and having his car catch on fire and the engine blew. That's why you should never pick up hitchikers.

I saw them on this tour and the tour before, the red ball album tour? I never liked RUSH. The head of promotions at radio station KGB was a regular at the store and he got me some tickets for the first Rush show because they promoted the show. It was at the Sports arena. My seats ended up being second row, dead center. I remember when I got to my seats thinking, "Wow! These are great seats. Too bad I don't like Rush. I bet some rush fan would appreciate these seats. To bad they were wasted on me" I watched the whole show from there and they failed to win me over as a fan. the second time I saw them, we walked around the outside walkway the whole show and only went to the seats for the drum solo.

After I found this poster, I had absolutely no recollection of this album ever existing. I went to the record collection and actually found it, and a promo 12" of the hit. I played it and it was horrible.

Buzzy Out!

Some promo posters of chicks:

Artsy because it's black and white. Nice uplight on the camel toe. Who cares about the music, right? I think the New Order bass guy was in this band. I remember listening to the album for that reason and not liking it as much as the cover photo.

What's up with her? I can't figure out in this photo if she is sexy or not? If she wants to be, she should lose some of the clothes. She's sending mixed signals like "I'm all nasty half naked ready and wet but I'm actually a modest good girl too, with my white long sleeves and unprovocative pose!" I mean she was the dethroned Ms America known for a lesbian layout in Penthouse, right? She should have stepped it up a little.

I always thought she would have been better looking if she had a tan. I got a promo album and 7" single from this album. Haven't listened to it since 1987 or 88, when it came out.

Speaking of "out"
Buzzy Out!

I'll start this post of with a few concert posters:

This is a nice thick heavy card stock poster. I'm surprised I've kept it nice for so long. I saw them at this show. They opened up for Iggy Pop on one of his A+M album tours. We had seats in about the eigth row, right on the aisle. When the band came out, we joined the crowd in moving up to thw stage. I ended up about three people back from the front. The Jam Chain played really well this night, and the show was ended in a typical set ending near riot. Jim Reid got his guitar cord and mic cord all wrapped around himself and the mic stand and he was stumble singing all over the place. Eventually he dropped his guitar and was dragging it around behind with a wall of feedback resulting. He started smashing the stage monitors with the mic stand and suddenly most of the stage power was cut. You could hear the drums and not much else as security came and pulled him off the stage. Then everyone started yelling and throwing stuff at the stage. A couple people from the crowd got up and started smashing stuff up on stage too. I was hoping there was going to be a riot, but things settled down quickly ater that. I wasn't into Iggy's new album so I left after the JAM Chain's set. I took my ticket stub up to the balcony and went to the very last row. I found some dude and his friend wearing brand new Iggy tour tshirts sitting in the shittiest seats in the house. From where I was just watching the show, this was the polar opposite. I handed the guy our stubs and said we're not Iggy fans, looks like you guys might need some better seats for the show. He thought we were trying to sell them to him, and when he found we were comping them, he was so happy he looked he was going to cry. I did that at a lot of shows where I just wanted to see the opening band. I was like a seat placement Robin Hood.

This one was sent by a silkscreening company as a sample of their product line. It has a stamped limited edition number on the back. I never checked to see if it was a real show or not. I saw the Pixies on this tour at the UCSD Price Center ballroom. They played with Bob Mould and maybe Cracker? they played really well that night. That show/album/tour was probably when they were at their peak IMO, and the last time I would see them in a smaller venue like that.

I had this one for a long time a nd cannot remember what the heck it was for? I know I didn't go to it.

last ones, non show posters:

Here's an older one I got when we were cleaning up the loft in the store. First time I heard of the B52s was in late '80 when my best friend Willie dressed as a punker for Halloween and had B52's, Gogo's and Punk Rules written on his ripped tshirt. I saw the B52s a few times, most of the details I forgot. I was done with them completely after Whammy. The times I'm sure I saw them were at Xfest at SDSU's old stadium and another at the Sports Arena with the Violent Femmes. I watched one song by them at the Sports arena show and did the walk around the outer hallway and look at skank for the rest of the show. I met some young lady there I ended up hanging out with on and off for the next year or so. I probably should have stayed in my seat or just left after the Femmes.

Another one from the Ryko reissue of the Bowie catalog. I think I only saw Bowie once, and it was an acoustic show at Mountainview called the Bridges. I think it was a two day affair. Neil Young and Pete Townsend played as well as a bunch of others I can't remember. Bowie was so good it didn't matter who else played. I'll always remember his acoustic version of Lets Dance. It made me actually like that song for the first time. I eventually got a bootleg of the show that I've been looking for for a couple days now....

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Buzzy Out!