Escape From Planet Earth
The Zarkons - I'm Lovesick of the World
Hello internet pals of music. Today we’re kicking off the goddamn weekend with the 80s LA punk / post punk / dirty rockers formerly known as The Alleycats.
Fred & Toody.
Randy & Dianne.
One of the best clips in the amazing film-document Urgh! A Music War is of the Alleycats playing Nothing Means Nothing Anymore, probably their best known single. Best known to like, anyone who has ever actually heard of them. They deserve way more recognition but get lost in the many, many retellings of early LA punk the same way so many great bands get left out of the now accepted “official” history of NY punk. And never you no mind about Cleveland.
As a band, they were creative and extremely tight. There’s no real reason they shouldn’t be better known.
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They, like Fred & Toody were also a married couple. In the band, Dianne played bass and Randy guitar, while trading off on vocals. But if the music of The Rats era Fred & Toody is played with a raw looseness, Randy and Dianne were wound up, poised to strike. Together they balanced each other, Dianne moves calmly, while her bass playing is propulsive and mercilessly steady. Randy, goes for big sharp riffs and rips out scorching solos and has intense eyed madness. Both have strange warbling voices, with haunting rock n roll sneering affectations.
Pictured: Randy Stodola & Dianne Chai of The Alleycats / The Zarkons
The above pic speaks their stage persona perfectly. It’s a fucking great photo. They seem like a collision of two perfectly matched halves. They sound like a collision of two perfectly matched halves, each keeping the sonic sturm und drang in check.
The Zarkons is basically the Alleycats with a different drummer, and the music is darker, a bit more fizzled and dangerous. Like when a habit hits that slippery slope of addiction.
This isn’t maybe the kick off the weekend good time rager you thought it might be. But it’s an absolute howler of post punk pathos and everyone should know how good The Alleycats / The Zarkons were.
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