Group of Individuals – Destroyer of Fun 7″ (1984 Single Records)
In all my participation in the older punk scene, I don’t think I ever ran into anyone nicer, or more active than Mike Lazuka of Group of Individuals. He was always supporting some thing, partaking of putting on shows, handing out flyers, and of course, playing in his band. To prove just what a nice guy he was, once after seeing them play Mike gave me a handful of Group of Individuals singles for my mailorder, and when I asked what he wanted for them he told me he didn’t want anything for them, it was to help me out. This was totally unsolicited and stood out to me as a really nice gesture from one member of the punk scene to another.
The band started in the early 80s and lasted until somewhere around 1990. They put out three 7″ singles in that time, and also gave me a track for the Immense Decay compilation. I’m sure they were on a couple other cassette comps during that time too. The first two singles were on their own label and the third was on the now defunct Underdog Records. All the copies of this record had had written generic sleeves. With all the time Mike must have taken to hand write them all, and to use two colored markers to boot, he probably would have been better off making real picture sleeves but oh well.
A few years later, in the early 1990s, Mike put together a CD retrospective of all the recorded works of Group of Individuals and sent me a copy. What was odd, was that one or two of the songs were different versions than that of the vinyl. After that, the band, and him, seemed to have vanished, at least off my radar as its been years since I have heard from him. I’d like to know what he’s up to these days.
As always, if you were in the band or have further information, please get in touch.
Dude, are you always looking for collector’s item vinyls?? I should e-mail you my list
I’m always looking for more records for the vault that I may not have! If you are unloading some, please email them to me at the email on the link on the main blog, not at the one from this post.
i d/led the song. rocks out more or less, though the vocals don’t really do it for me.
Additional Info for ya: Two tracks from Group of Individuals (“The Sellout” and “genetic Engineering”) appeared on a vinyl compilation LP entitled “We Did It Ourselves”. There were only 200 copies of this record pressed. I worked with them and the other bands on the comp to have the 200 copies pressed. It was released in either 1985 or 1986, can’t remember. Broken Records.
Jeff,
Thanks for the info. I never heard of this record before. Any chance you may have a spare for sale/trade?
Hey there. Just wanted to repsond to some of the inquiries and the really nice comments made about Mike. I am AndyE, the bassist on the original Destroyer/$ellout 45, and a childhood friend of Mike’s. He would be absolutely thrilled to read this thread, and I will forward it on to him. As stated above, Mike has been keeping a low profile for well over a decade now, as he went on to earn a Masters degree in speech pathology and teaches children with developmental disabilities. Yes, he’s taken all the fire and committment he had as an artist and applied it to something even more tangible and immediate for the greater good of man. Definitely consistent with everything he’s done throughout his life. I have tried (unsuccessfully) to coax him back into doing performance and recording for quite some time now, to no avail. Certainly not for lack of interest, but perhaps with some other coaxing from the rest of his fanbase, he might be persuaded to deliver some more of his clever, insightful, and entertaining work.
As for available vinyl/CDs, there is definitely a short supply, if any, left. Of course, there are always means for there to make more, and I have been discussing building a web site for the group with Mike so that there is a common portal for this information. We’ll see what happens. Fingers crossed.
Andy,
Thanks for the update. I’m really glad to hear Mike is doing well and I’m glad you found the writeup and the site. Please tell Mike I’d love to hear from him again.
If you happen to have a copy of the compilation mentioned in a post above, I’m in need of a copy for the vault and would be happy to buy it.