Archive - February 2005

Ill Repute – Omelette LP (1985 Mystic Records)
I first heard Ill Repute on either Mystic Sampler #1 or We Got Power: Party or Go Home, I forget which, but I do know I was instantly taken with the song I heard and of course went out and got all the records they had at the time or would put out for awhile. They put out a few 7″s on Mystic, and three LPs before some lineup changes and a label change would occur and after a hiatus, the band put out an album on Dr. Strange Records in the early 90s. Throughout their career they went from hardcore, to rock, and back again.
Ill Repute was from the Oxnard, CA and along with a few other bands such as Dr. Know, RKL and Stalag 13, they coined the term Nardcore to describe their scene and music. All of those bands formed within a couple years of each other and they were all friends.
Thanks to the Nardcore board, I was able to get in touch with John Phaneuf of the band and he was kind enough to put together a band history for me to use for this entry. It was very nice that after all the heat I got on the Nardcore board, that someone was willing to open up and share their stories with me and I appreciate it. So here is the history according to John…
Ill Repute were all high school friends. Jim, Carl and Tony were a grade ahead of me(John), and we all discovered punk rock the summer before my senior year.(1980) They were out of school and I remember I had to be a bit more creative to go to the Starwood in LA on a “school night”. We would go and see Black Flag, Fear, Circle Jerks..etc and eventually decided to start our own thing.
I came back from a year in San Diego to find Tony and Jim had the name “Ill Repute” and I think 2 or 3 songs. We had our first practice in my mom’s mobile home(she was out of town) in Lemonwood in central Oxnard. Tony on guitar, and Jim on vocals. I played bass, and Carl on drums. I sucked on the bass, so Jim and I switched and the line up was set. It was fall of 1981. Tony and Jim wrote the tunes for the most part..the good ones anyway.
We would practice every night, every song. Always in Carl’s garage. Looking back his parents were super cool about the noise we made. Our first paying gig was a new years eve party at the local Alcoholics Anonymous club. They hated us.
I don’t remember how I met the guys in Dr. Know and Aggression, but soon we had a full on group of close friends. I remember the early scene to be so fun. Kyle, Ismael, Jamie, Ronnie Baird, to name a few, were hilarious. I remember laughing my ass off on a regular basis at gigs, parties, PEACE Missions..etc. We would all get together and play punk rock soccer in the park. It was probably the only way you would see white, Mexican, and black (Vaughn) and every other race getting along with a common interest. It was definitely one of the best times of my life. Way too many crazy, funny things to remember right now. It would take a month. We had our first “real” gig at the Hueneme Community Center with Circle One, Aggression, Beirgutz and Us. We were so fucking nervous.
As the scene grew, we met folks from Ventura. I remember Brent Beasley, Nutt (RIP) and all the Pierpont guys, (the band MIA) would have great parties and gigs. (There were also punk girls from Ventura which was nice) Then things spread to Santa Barbara with the Goleta Valley Community Center where Gary Tovar threw some of the funniest gigs I ever remember. No violence, great bands..all the big touring punk bands, and we would open up for them. It was a fucking great time.
We recorded a demo and a friend got it to a popular LA DJ, Rodney on the ROQ. He would play punk, along with some bad 60’s and 70’s shit every Sunday night. He heard our demo and picked our song “Clean Cut American Kid” for his Rodney on the ROQ Vol III. This was a big deal. He had bands like Black Flag, Circle Jerks, Adolescents..etc, and he wanted us, We were stoked.
It was cool to be on the comp. It was cool to hear the song on Rodney’s radio show on Sunday nights, and it was cool that people knew one of our songs. There was zero interest in us as a “marketable” band, to be honest, we didn’t even think of it. Those who are old enough to remember the early 80’s, pop music was Michael Jackson and Kaja Goo Goo. We were playing in garages.
A friend of ours from high School, Mike Terry, had some money and said he would help us put out a record. We had done a couple demos at Goldmine records in Ventura, 8pm-8am $100. We would come out with like 15 songs mixed and everything. That deal ended, so we were forced to go to the big city and found a real cheap recording studio in Hollywood called Mystic Records. We just booked a day to record there, met Philco and Doug Moody, and he offered to put out the record.
I don’t know, or care about what people think about Doug Moody. The only part I feel he didn’t follow thru on with Ill Repute is that he did not give us any of the newly released CDs. He did reject our cover art once and just put out the “Omlette” record without us knowing, but he gave us a box when we toured. Back in the 80s he would arm us with boxes of records when we left on tour. We would sell them and t-shirts for gas money. That was the agreement.
I remember Doug would live part time in a room at Mystic. I never got the image that this guy is rolling in cash from his record sales like Shug Knight or something. He would scuff out in his slippers and see what we were up to in the studio. He gave us full access to the studio, where we would record covers and experiment with all kinds of stuff. (He put some of that out too.) Doug, probably in his 50’s then, would come out and would “analyze” the punk movement and compare it to the early black bands in the south.
He would let us hang there, sleep there. He let us record a couple live records in the studio.(where I once saw El Duce puke and saw still wrapped candy in his vomit). The best benefit I would say is having access to the bathroom which means you didn’t have to crap in the shitter at the Cathay De Grande across the street during gigs. I think about the vomit, beer bottles and shit he was left with after we left.
His plan was to just record a shit load of punk bands, which he did. I think over 500 bands. My take is he spent a lot of money on recording all the bands, putting out comps with hideous quality, but hell, it was punk rock.
On our first EP the bass drum track somehow “disappeared” and Carl had to go back and record each kick drum track. He did it by using a spoon hitting the top of a Folgers coffee can. Now that’s punk.
Anyway, Mystic’s early “successful” bands were from Oxnard, (with of course the exception of NOFX) were the place that he sold some records. That is where I think the “rip off” part stems from. I just know that no labels would have touched us at the time. The Circle Jerks and Black Flag and DKs were still under the radar at that time. If it was a major label we would be owing them money.
They had some good shows at the Olympic Auditorium, Goleta Valley, Stardust Ballroom..etc. We got to hang and play with a lot of cool bands. We did a couple shows with the Misfits and Black Flag. We became buddies with the Necros who were real nice to us when we were in Ohio.
Anyway, we had a blast. We toured, broke down and toured and broke down. One “Disat-tour” after another. Got our car and trailer stolen in Pittsburgh. That took a lot of steam out of the band for sure. The punk scene got very violent and we would be playing and fights breaking out everywhere. Stabbings, shooting at that place in Long Beach..I forget the name..
We were over it.
We got together in 90 or so and recorded Big Rusty Balls on Dr. Strange records. That was produced in part by the great Jerry Finn, a good friend and now producer of many great punk bands, Pennywise, Green Day, Rancid, Suicide Machines, and Blink’s 2 #1 albums. Great guy. We paid him $150 for it and he was Stoked! He’s now a multi millionaire. We laugh about those days.
Anyway, Big Rusty Balls was a post punk type of thing that I thought turned out well. That’s where I left/got kicked out of the band due to a surf trip I had scheduled to France that didn’t correspond well with a last minute gig in Oregon. I got an ultimatum and went to France. (you know the girls are topless there, right?).
Tony kept the band alive with new guitarist and drummers and even after he was the only original member. He took on the vocals and they had some good tunes. I think if they would have dropped the Ill Repute name and went from scratch they could have went somewhere.
Then in 2002 we got back together with all original members for a couple practices to play a Mark Hickey RIP gig. Carl, the drummer was a busy guy and it didn’t pan out with him, so we got Chuck on drums and played a handful of great shows until our official retirement last year.
The more “experimental” record John refers to did come out on Mystic and was called Transition. I don’t think they made more than 1000 of those, as it seems to be the hardest Ill Repute record to come by from back then. A lot of their early Mystic material is collected on the What Happened Then CD on Mystic Records that came out a year or two ago.
John also sent over a scan of the flyer for their first show, which you can click below to see.
As always if you have any additional information please get in touch and thanks again John for the great story!

Click here to hear “Count the Odds” from the record (right click and “save target as…”)
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Insane War Tomatoes – I Rock You Suck 7″ (1989 IWT)
You may remember awhile back my covering some Du Page County (a Chicago suburb where I grew up and still reside today) punk bands such as Dead Fink and Happy Toons. There was another one I didn’t cover because not only did they not put out a record, but I don’t have a copy of their demo tape in the vault, and that was Dangling Units.
When all the above bands broke up, some key members merged and formed Insane War Tomatoes. The Tomatoes were the punk rock Kiss. They were Gwar before there ever was a Gwar. I kid you not, the Insane War Tomatoes had over the top toilet humor laced theatrics long before a bunch of art students from VA decided to play some heavy metal and put together some crazy stage shows. Gwar simply added blood, and claimed they were from outer space. IWT had a singer in a giant tomato costume, a crazy stage show, and a Elvis from beyond the grave who would come out, dance for the people, and proceed to shit all over the stage.
A tomatoes show was guaranteed to be a spectacle and a good time. And the Insane War Tomatoes is the closest thing I ever had to being in a band. Part of the stage show was they had “henchmen” dressed up in all black with a name on their shirt in a direct ripoff from the villains on the old Batman TV show. For a good handful of shows, I was one of those. Our task was to act as Tomato security, and to pelt the crowd with tomatoes, toilet paper and to shoot them with water pistols. I can tell you those shows were a hell of a lot of fun for this then-young punk to be involved in.
The band had a knack for promotion and I played a part in that as well. They had the ingenious idea to print their flyers on stickers and plaster them everywhere they went. I can’t tell you how many times Dan (singer) and I would drive all over the western suburbs and stick those thing anywhere we thought people might see them, which often time included schools and parking lots of shopping malls. It worked too, because the band drew good sized crowds of not just punks, but just about everyone in their teenage years.
They lasted a few years and always had some scheme brewing but unfortunately they didn’t follow through on half of them or instead of Gwar getting all the recognition, the Tomatoes would be in that position today. In their wake, the band left this 7″ pressed on red (tomato) vinyl that in some really great packaging, and also a tape that contained a few songs and a ouji board. All the remaining copies of the 7″ were rescued from the basement of the Clown Ranch and are safely stored in Combustion Manor and are available for sale. Sadly, there wasn’t enough parts to make more of the Spirit of Elvis tapes.
I contacted former band members, and old local punk friends Kevin Folta and Mike Byrne for their versions of the Insane War Tomatoes history and their stories are as follows.
Mike Byrne:
Like the mythical phoenix, the Insane War Tomatoes arose out of the ashes of Dangling Units, the greatest punk band that only about 12 people ever saw or heard. It was in this darkest hour that the vegetable consciousness awakened in us. I don’t mean a peaceful, tie-dye wearing, unbathed vegetarian consciousness, I mean a vengeful, Old-Testament-God, slake-my-thirst-in-the-blood-of-your-swinelike-flesh sentiment.
I have to tell you, the anger felt good, the resentment of countless millenia. Garden warriors simmering to a boil, spilling over the soup cauldron, and leaking over the decaying landscape that was Reagan’s America.
That we are remembered primarily for launching a variety of substances at our audiences is not accidental. When you think about it, we were merely trying to jar a vapid and complacent audience out of its stupor. Whether you were being pelted with silly string, tomatoes, or toilet paper, it was a wake-up call.
The message was clear: “Listen up, bub, the vegetable revolution is on it way, and if you don’t bow down and agree to be his slave, pronto, the Insane War Tomato will wipe his ass with your pathetic mug. If he has an ass, that is.”
And there was music, too. Blending the mysticism of Elvis, the majesty of Kiss, and the piss-poor production qualities of Peace Corpse, we recorded some gem dandies, yes sirree, Bob.
“I Rock, You Suck” is pretty self-explanatory. It was true then, it’s true now. “I Live in an Asshole,” however, is much more subtle. Its message – that the government was hiding the fact that the world is a piece of crap by spraying the air with Chanel #666, which destroyed the ozone – was eerily prescient of the Clinton era, don’t you think? A smile, a wink, a little sex-on-the-side, and everything is A-OK, isn’t it America?
Well now it’s the Bush era again, and it wouldn’t surprise me if the vegetables are steaming once more. Death and destruction hang over us like twin clouds of evil and despair, and nothing expresses that like some power chords, plus maybe a nifty fill between the verse and chorus.
King Bono Juan Jovi Lee Roth Tomato sings very loud. Shrub rocks a kickin’ drum. Zook plays the guitar like it was his first time, every time. And I tried not to get too drunk before the sessions, like I did between the all-ages and 21-and-over shows in Green Bay.
The only conclusion that can be drawn is that we were way ahead of our time. And probably still are. But the music still sends chills down my spine, as I relive the fear of watching an unlicensed, untested, gasoline-powered flamethrower almost set Club Odyssey on fire, and I think to myself: “We coulda been Great White.”
And now for Kevin’s
On a summer’s day of 1985 the surviving members of the plane crash that spared 75% of Downers Grove, IL’s most unsuccessful band (Dangling Units) gathered together at Keith Garage. They contemplated the events that brought them together in Dangling Units and the event that almost ended their reign as Chicago’s least known favorite perpetual opening act, never a headliner. They picked up their instruments and moved forward to create a new sound, a ghoulish evil sound borne from the painful disfiguring events of the previous year.
King Bono Juan Jovi Lee Roth Tomato was walking down Rosyln Avenue past Keith Garage and the sound grabbed him like a noose around the neck. Little did he know that he would swing from that same noose as the lead vocalist for Insane War Tomatoes for the next 8 years. The band was a four-piece power trio. Mike “the Indian” Burn (named so from his experience as the body double for Village People impostor Native American Filipe Rose) played lead bass. Zook brought his delinquent mashed-potato guitar stylings to the table, flanked by Shrub on the skins.
The band assembled under the moniker “Insane War Tomatoes” and quickly found audience in local clubs. The show was 50% music, 50% theatrics, 50% booze and 50% fire. The result was a 400-proof explosion of rock ‘n roll mayhem. The music stood as an iron backdrop to the costumery, pyrotechnics and choreography that defined IWT as one of Chicago’s most bankrupt bands. The cost of production could not be quantified in dollars alone as it consisted of many drunken nights of set assembly and costume design in a local sweatshop. The air was saturated with the vapors of adhesives, beer, and the smelly residues of human metabolism.
IWT later would be joined by guitar player J. “the Nun” Martini and released “I Rock, You Suck” / “I Live in an Asshole” on a 7” red-vinyl record. This collector’s edition is a rare find, as all available copies have been systematically purchased and destroyed under provisions of the Patriot Act.
The band was most recognized as the band that never played a venue more than twice. The first show would draw a hearty crowd to witness the homemade pyro, the water cannons, the confetti explosions and frequent nudity. Word would spread, bringing a second show and more people, typically intoxicated teens and sleazy metal chicks, all admitted to clubs with fake ID’s supplied by the band. The eventual destruction of the club with water, paper, food and goo, coupled to the threats of lawsuits from families of endangered youth, typically led to eternal banishment of the band from every place they played. In the 1980’s IWT was irrevocably banned from at least 5 venues in the Chicago area as well as a permanent banishment from DeKalb, IL where NIU’s Duke Ellington Ballroom and Otto’s were sequentially destroyed in 1989.
The band has been accused of being significantly before its time. Before there was a GWAR, before their was a Marilyn Manson or some fat-ass blobbed on grease paint there was Insane War Tomatoes. The legend lives on in oral tradition, passed from mohawked punk dude to mohawked punk dude. IWT paved the way for a future generation of bands to have one guy that wore fuzzy slippers or a pirate hat. IWT was one band that once had the sack to challenge the boundaries of modern music and stage antics, push sound out of its stale box, and the world raised a lighter, yawned and asked for more Winger.
It has been 20 years since that summer day in Keith Garage. Lesser rock gods would assemble for reunions and a fresh tour. However, IWT did it before it was done and treated a generation to an alternative they desperately needed and didn’t recognize. The stage show, the costumes, the mayhem have not been recapitulated since that time with such reckless abandon and disregard for life and limb. IWT was a magnificent institution, a band swirling around the toilet bowl of American music culture, that proceeded, unappreciated, down the shitter, gone forever, leaving only a minor skid mark and a funny smell in its wake.

Where are they now? Dan (Cheddar Nines) now sings in Destroy Everything, Kevin is a scientist in FL and Mike has a family and still lives around Chicago. The band, along with some others from that time, are ordered to do a reunion show in 2007 for the Otto’s Soup Kitchen 20 year anniversary reunion show.
Click here to hear “I Live in an Asshole” from the record (right click and “save target as…”)
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