Phoenix New Times
Audio By Carbonatix
Growing up in Arizona, I have spent nearly four decades seeing bands. Yes, I know I sound like the “Back in my day…” guy, but I have no problem reflecting on the past. It’s been a privilege to see it all.
When we’re in the moment, soaking up bands we love, we wish they would never break up. We want all the good things to last forever, right? The sad truth, though, is that it doesn’t work that way. That’s what memories are for. So, watch your eyeballs as I pop the cork and pour a toast to several bands that I could never shake. Arizona sees new bands popping up all the time; there’s always the chance someone will steal your musical heart. Make time and take it all in.
I think Ed Helms’ character on The Office, Andy Bernard, said it best: “I wish there was a way to know that you are in the good old days before you’ve actually left them.”
Here are nine bands that have literally rocked my world.
1. Mother Helper
Driven by the late, legendary Danny Petersen on a feedback guitar and accompanied by Kim and Jeremy Beson on drums and bass, Mother Helper was a punk rock force in the late eighties and early nineties. When Danny was able to retrieve his guitar from the pawn shop in time for the show, they were often seen playing alongside other well-known Phoenix bands, such as JFA, Mighty Sphincter and Sun City Girls. Highlights of their career include causing a riot in a Flagstaff club and pissing off Ian MacKaye by chugging beer on stage and making fun of straight-edge kids while opening for Fugazi. Stealing food out of the kitchen at The Hollywood Alley was another caper. Getting the cops to shut down house parties in record time was also part of their package. Sadly, they never recorded anything, and there is no evidence of their existence anywhere online.
2. Ultramaroon
This Tucson band should own exclusive rights to the term ‘power duo.’ This two-piece was loud, fast and sounded like a ten-piece. They were always revered and respected by other local musicians. Comprised of Tucson drum badass Dick Solomon and guitarist Mike Pierson, who played an acoustic guitar out of a giant pair of stereo guitar cabinets, Ultramaroon was good for your heart. Seeing them live was literally like seeing and hearing pure energy. Nothing in the way and full steam ahead. You can find a couple of videos of them on YouTube, and their album “Lifeless Like Blood” is available on Discogs. If you listen closely enough, you can still hear stories about their shows and whispers of their greatness in the alleyway behind Wooden Tooth Records on Congress Street.
3. The Growth
Take four kids from Chandler who love hard street drugs. Raise them on Pink Floyd, The Melvins, Alice Cooper and Sun City Girls. Have them skateboard around Phoenix all day. Make sure they bring all the tree trimmings and grass clippings from their house and cover the stage at The Sun Club. Then add just a touch of stolen ceramic sun faces from local houses, light them on fire while performing, and you have The Growth. The Growth was the breeding ground of lifelong Valley musicians who still play in local bands today. Bands like Burn Victim, Hillbilly Devilspeak and The Vinegar Sting.
Chad Carnahan
4. Jeff Hornacek and The Smiles
This cantankerous group of boys and girls was known for playing their shows only in downtown Phoenix alleyways and behind local stores after closing time. Jeff Hornacek and The Smiles were what you would call a noise band, I guess, although that was only a mirage. They would often go into breathtakingly beautiful and ethnically ambiguous ballads halfway through the middle of an ear-screeching noise piece. Seeing them live meant being blinded by the portable spotlights that they would clip to their guitars and even themselves. Mitchell Swaart, a.k.a. “Jeff Hornacek,” looked almost exactly like the Phoenix Suns shooting guard that the team drafted in 1986. After he was arrested for assaulting a police officer while he was trying to break up a show, the band never played out again.
5. Royce Union
Royce Union was a band named after a bicycle company that was founded in 1904 and sold to Huffy in 1989. Their sound varied widely, consisting mainly of improvisational guitar music. A Royce Union show could be anything from them taking acid and pissing off the sound guy to doing the score for an ASU dance troupe live at Gammage. Nobody actually led the band but members, including Steve Stone, J.D. Saari and Derek Monypeny. The latter has released many records and has played his version of worldly white-boy improvisations all over the planet.
6. Johnathan’s Duty
One of the tightest bands I’ve ever seen live. Johnathan’s Duty was named after killer Johnathan Doody, who was responsible for the infamous Waddell Temple murders that occurred on the early morning hours of August 10, 1991. Led by Brett Halas, who I hear has become a pretty renowned psychologist, Johnathan’s Duty was the closest thing Tucson ever had to a true Washington, D.C.-style punk band, born from the sounds of bands like Nation of Ulysses and Jawbox. They proudly employed a two-bass player and dual-singer attack. Johnathan’s Duty was the talk of the town in the hardcore community down south from 1992 to 1995. Unfortunately, the untimely death of Brett’s brother, Barron, led to the group’s disbanding in January of 1996.
7. Domino Theory
In the early 1980s, when new wave was all the rage, few Phoenix bands could explore it quite like Domino Theory. Part Oningo Boingo, part weird Phoenix art music, their demo tape, “Weather Report,” made the rounds locally for many years. The oldheads of the Valley will undoubtedly recognize the name Thomascyne Ryther from the band Burning Bush. Singer David Tholfsen moved from Tempe early on and settled in the Bay Area, where he formed the band U.S. Saucer and released records on Amarillo Records. The record label that was owned by another former Tempe resident, Gregg Turkington, aka Neil Hamburger. Gone but never forgotten, Domino Theory’s demo tape serves as a great memory of the Phoenix music scene of the past.
8. The Phoenix Sons
This band was most notably defined by a street art project that made the news and damn near got them arrested. A promotion that saw the group cover over 200 stop signs with the old Phoenix Suns logo, but instead of a basketball, it was the Gerber baby. The Phoenix Sons were a noisy sort of racket-y punk rock band. Known for mostly playing house parties in the Tempe area. Sadly, their time in Arizona was short-lived as they moved to San Francisco and changed their name to The Nervous System, which is way less cool, if you ask me. It wasn’t long before they disappeared into the abyss of the 1990s experimental music scene, never to be heard from again.
9. The Mechams
A plush and fun little pop band, The Mechams, was always a joy to see. Brian Harris and his sister, Melanie, could spread pop joy like no one else. So many cute song titles like “Licking Bitty Bunnies” and “Unicorn on the Cobb.” The Mechams always made me chuckle. Don’t get it twisted, though, cute didn’t mean they couldn’t deliver the poppy goods. Named after the famous Arizona governor Evan Mecham, who served from 1987 to 1988 before getting impeached (it’s worth the Google search, trust me), and they even named their record “The Cotton Picking Job.” An Arizona band taking down an evil man in their own special way. That’s the way we like it.