Jeff
Dahl
This article originally appeared in NFH #19 in
the summer of 1990.
Jeff Dahl's a guy
who's been around the LA music scene for a hell of a long time, but it's only been since
he formed the Jeff Dahl Group and put out the great lp Vomit Wet Kiss about two
years ago that it's managed to occur to my slow moving consciousness that this was a
fellow whose moves were worth watching. Last fall he added to this impression with a
second, even better record called Scratch Up Some Action, and now this spring
there's an archival sort of thing, the I Kill Me lp, and next fall you should see
another record of all new stuff that has already been recorded even as we speak (or type).
So get with it!
Jeff's originally
from Hawaii, which is about as unlikely a spot for the origin of a punk rock fiend as you
could hope for. But Jeff was a guy who wanted to move with a different crowd right from
the start, and in his formative years he used to read Rolling Stone and Creem for reviews
by people like Lester Bangs; this is in the late 60s and early 70s, when, unimaginable as
it may seem now, the magazines were REALLY underground papers. Jeff remembers it fondly:
"Christ, they had the MC5 on the cover one issue! They used to write about the
Stooges all the time, and Creem magazine was always writing about the Stooges and the MC5.
That really fired my imagination. As great as the records are, that's what really drew me
to that kind of music at the beginning...you'd read some Lester Bangs huge review...almost
a book sized review of Funhouse, and you'd go "God, I gotta listen to this
record!", and you'd listen to it and it was incredible. I really relied on
that."
Jeff's first
instrument was drums, but that didn't last long. At 17 he joined the army and ended up
stationed near Washington, DC for three years. During this time he began to learn guitar,
and shortly thereafter went into a 4 track studio and recorded (singing and playing all
instruments himself) a few songs, three of which ended up on a single for which Jim Green
had the following kind words in a 1977 issue of Trouser Press: "Performance-wise it's
utterly incompetent...I must conclude that either Dahl's grossly unsuccessful at
attempting witty lampoon or he's a grade Z dingdong." He then credits Jeff with a
glowing future as a stockboy for returned records. Perhaps the track "Rock'n'roll
Critic" struck a nerve, but it's also interesting that the same issue boasted a cover
with the banner headline "New Wave, On The Way Out", so Mr. Green can be
forgiven if he fell in line with the month's editorial mandate for piss-poor
prognastication.
Well, I haven't heard
that single, and probably never will, but Jeff's future was not easily derailed, despite
his first thrashing at the hands of the rock press that had gotten him into underground
music in the first place. After a short return to Hawaii, Jeff moved on again, this time
to Los Angeles, where a small punk scene was thriving. A few abortive attempts at forming
a band later Jeff joined the band Vox Pop, one of many bands on the scene that are much
talked about these days, but for whom there is little recorded evidence. Vox Pop is most
significant for the fact that it was the first time Dahl played with drummer Del Hopkins,
who drums with the Jeff Dahl Group now.
After Vox Pop folded
up, Jeff found himself fronting the Angry Samoans for nearly two years during a time when
Metal Mike Saunders wasn't with the band. Since this was in the long period between the
great Inside My Brain ep and the Back From Samoa lp, there isn't much trace
of Dahl's involvement other than a couple of minor credits on Back From Samoa, but
it's apparent that the time was well spent, because there's a lot of a similar sense of
toughness in what Dahl does today and in the Samoans' stuff.
Next on Jeff's
calendar was the speedmetal band Powertrip, which Jeff describes as Stooges meets
Motorhead. This was probably his most successful outfit to date; their lp on PVC sold
somewhere between 7,000 and 12,000 copies, the exact quantity being somewhat hard to
ascertain for reasons that will become clear later. The original concept of Powertrip was
to pull together people from a bunch of different musical background and play a style that
didn't mesh with any of them. But this concept was inherently unstable, and over time the
original members all left and were gradually replaced by people who took metal seriously.
After a while, Jeff realized that they had become what they were parodying, with members
turning into junkies. Depressed, he quit music totally for a couple of years.
Time, that great
healer, brought Jeff back to music, and when he returned, he decided to go back to the
music that got him into the underground scene in the first place. But fate had to deal him
one last blow. We'll dive into our conversation at this point...
Jeff: I had
done a five song demo with Bruce Duff and Del Hopkins, my rhythm section for the Jeff Dahl
Group, and Scott Morrow from the Fiends playing guitar. And we did like five songs and
sent a few tapes around to companies that I thought were pretty cool. One of them was PVC,
and another one was Bomp. Bomp liked it a lot and wanted to put a single out immediately,
so we did that. That was the "Suicide City"/"Whatever Happened To Fun"
single. But PVC wanted to do a whole album worth of new stuff. So I signed with them. The
Samoans were on PVC, too. So they gave me some money to record it, and I did two tunes
with the Samoans, two tunes with the Lazy Cowgirls, I flew Cheetah out and did seven or
eight electric tunes and three acoustic tunes with him. It was really pretty cool.
But in the meantime,
everything was going fine and all that, but right when it was about to get released, PVC
started having a lot of cash flow problems. At that time, Jem was their distribution, and
when Jem folded they literally had no money. They went to a bankruptcy/reorganization
thing, and that hung me up for like six or nine months until they went full on bankrupt. I
guess one's chapter 11 and the other's chapter 7. One of them the government holds off
their creditors and gives them a chance to reorganize, and if they don't start making
progress or looking like they're going to pay off some debts, they shut them down after a
while. And that's what happened. But in the meantime they had no money to put out any new
product; all they were doing was selling old stock and my stuff was legally hung up with
them. I couldn't put it out with anybody.
So finally they went
totally out of business, and when they went out of business, they owed me, because they
had released the Powertrip record. They owed me for like 12,000 records they sold. So
that's what I got is my tapes.
NFH: That's
kind of a raw deal!
Jeff: Oh,
yeah, definitely, but that's rock and roll. And you know, fuck, it's only money. I mean,
I'm more in this just to play and put records out. If you're playing this kind of music
and looking to make a living off it, it's pretty unrealistic. I mean, you BETTER love this
kind of music.
NFH: So how
did you meet up with John and get on Sympathy?
Jeff: Let's
see, when Cheetah was out here recording the record, we did a couple of shows around the
area just for kicks, because we'd rehearsed a whole album’s worth of material and
felt like playing it, and it was a good excuse to play some Stooges songs and some Dead
Boys songs, and John had come out to the show. He was writing for a magazine called Endless
Party out here, which was one of these freebie things and was pretty cool at the time.
It's since gotten kind of boring, but he came out to the show and really liked it a lot
and did an interview with us. He hadn't put any kind of a record company together then,
but when he did, we were one of the first groups he contacted. He said "Hey, you got
any tapes?". And at that point I had gotten permission from PVC to release four of
the tunes. We were just going to put out an ep just to put something out so we could play
around a little more, and that's what we did. It was real quick. PVC said go ahead and put
out the tunes, and within a weeks time we had the whole thing mastered, and in two weeks
we had copies of it and it was out on the streets. John works incredibly quick. He's the
fastest gun in the west.
NFH: Where did
you pull together the other people in that band from...I guess your drummer had played in
Vox Pop?
Jeff: Yeah,
Del had played in Vox Pop with me, and Bruce I had known over the years...he had played in
45 Grave for a while and he used to come to all the Vox Pop shows. I used to see him at
shows all the time and I knew he was a really good bass player, and he was one of the
first people I thought of. I really liked his writing style, also. He's a writer...he was
doing the LA Music Connection at the time, and since then he's writing for Rip
magazine, and he does this Hard And Heavy video magazine. I liked his writing
style.
(This is followed by
a long discussion about rock critics, some of which has already been covered above...)
NFH: So that
explains a lot of the writing that you do, too, now. (Jeff has written for a number of
different fanzines, most notably the excellent Your Flesh, which he contributes to
frequently.)
Jeff: Oh,
definitely. I mean, I was the guy that used to always cut English class, so I'm really
limited in what I can and can not do on paper. But definitely as far as actually wanting
to put pen to paper, that was a real big factor.
NFH: How long
have you been writing stuff?
Jeff: I dunno,
I guess the first was a fanzine I did on my own in 80 or 81; Creatures Of A Disturbing
Nature. I put out like five issues and some newsletters and stuff, and it was actually
pretty successful on an underground level. Whenever I did copies they sold out real
fast...like 50 or 100 copies. It was a lot of fun, but it was a lot of work. Which is
what's amazing about you doing that entire thing yourself...that entire Noise For
Heroes, it's just mind boggling. Because mine was just a little xerox thing, typed
up...to actually do something on the level you are is just amazing.
NFH: So you
just finished up recording for a new album?
Jeff: Yeah,
it's coming out September first. I'm getting ready to move out to Arizona, so that's what
that was all about, just kind of getting it out of the way. I'm probably going to be doing
a little bit of touring over the summer, so I don't know when I'd have time to actually
get back in. So there's no time like the present, I guess.
NFH: Still,
it's gotta be hard to finish it and then not get it out for all that time.
Jeff: (Laughs)
Well, the one that's coming out next week is from 1987. So waiting six or nine months is a
piece of cake for me!
NFH: Do you
ever think about doing a full on tour with the Jeff Dahl Group?
Jeff: Well,
actually, we're going to go out for like a ten day thing in September; I don't know what
the band is going to be, but somebody's setting up the shows right now. It's going to be
kind of a northeast thing; Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Cleveland...I just got a call
from somebody in Cincinnati, so maybe Cincinnati. Minneapolis, Detroit. Just a ten day
sort of thing up in that kind of area. And actually, I'll be living in Arizona at the
time, so maybe on the way back we might try to head up towards Seattle and then just come
down the coast...maybe do Portland and San Francisco and Los Angeles and then go back
home. I don't know, It's just getting planned right now.
We did our last show
thing (in early March at Raji's), and this last record that I just recorded...it's going
to be called Ultra Under...and I'm moving out to Arizona, so the band basically is
no more. This album was done with Dave Nazworthy from the Chemical People drumming, and I
played all the rhythm and bass on it, and I brought in a couple different people for
guitar solos, like Donita from L7 played a guitar solo for the Stooges' "Dirt",
and Paul Cutler played two tunes, and Jamie from the Chemical People played on two tunes.
The rest of it is pretty much me. There was a piano player on three tunes. The rest of
it's me.
NFH: It seems
like that kind of album often has a hard time succeeding...they often don't seem to be
that cohesive. Do you see any problem with that with yours?
Jeff: No, with
this new recording, it's probably about the most cohesive thing I've done. It's probably
what I'm most pleased with...it's the closest to what I hear in my head. I'm actually just
ecstatic with it. It picks up right where Scratch Up Some Action left off. I'd say
the guitars are a lot more aggressive. The bass playing is a lot more straightforward just
because I can't play like Bruce...I kind of do a Dee Dee Ramone thing. And I think the
tunes are real aggressive and there's a couple of different things. To me this record
sounds like Johnny Thunders meets Roky Erickson meets the Stooges, and maybe a little bit
of Radio Birdman because of the piano on three tracks. I'm really pleased. It's a little
different, but it's the same ballpark.
NFH: Well, I
guess if you can play the instruments you can get it to come out. I was thinking of like
the Rik Agnew album that came out a few years ago...I didn't care much for that compared
to the Adolscents stuff.
Jeff: Have you
heard the new single that he did? That one I don't think quite worked. I actually do like
that album that you're referring to, the solo record that he's done on Frontier. But I
guess he's got almost a whole new album's worth of stuff done, but they've released only
one single so far, and that's one Triple X. The single...I don't know, I don’t like
the studio sound very much. I think the songs are there.
I kind of know what
you mean...when you're playing that much and taking that much responsibility over the
overall sound, I guess it can be kind of tunnel vision or something. But on the other
hand, the first single I did was me playing all the instruments back in 76...the
Rock'n'Roll Critics. So it's nothing I've never done before. With the group and all they
definitely did their own parts and whatever, but I pretty much ran the boat there. It was
definitely my band, and they would just make these incredible contributions coming up with
these weird things that I normally wouldn't hear myself that were pretty close to what I
was hearing. That's the cool thing about working with a band, but it's cool working by
yourself, too.
NFH: Well, I
guess you don't get any of the personality stuff by yourself!
Jeff: Yeah,
well, the Jeff Dahl Group was a very harmonious bunch. I don't think we ever had a cross
word between any of us, which I guess in a band is pretty amazing. I guess part of that
would be that we would just literally never rehearse. If we had a show we'd get together
and do one rehearsal. Everyone was the level of musician where we could really do that and
pull it off.
NFH: Tell me a
little about Scratch Up Some Action. How did you end up getting that out only on an
Australian label?
Jeff: Well, we
were contacted by David Laing, who had a record label called Grown Up Wrong, which since
turned into Dogmeat Records. He had heard Vomit Wet Kiss and kind of knew my
reputation (laughs) I guess, I guess Powertrip has actually sold some records down there
in Australia, and he had heard that long ago. He had released the Lazy Cowgirl's record
and got in touch with me through them, and he said "You wanna do a record?" and
I said, "I'd love to". He said "How much money do you need?" and I
said "Well, I don't need much." Originally what we were going to do was an album
with one studio side, like four or five tunes, and one live side. We tried our damndest to
get some live recordings, but I don't know if it's because we're so loud, or the clubs are
so bad or what, but we could not get any kind of a decent live recording. Not playing
wise, that wasn't the problem, the problem was the balance. We would either get all bass
or all drums or all guitars or no vocals. We tried three or four different shows, and we
couldn't do it, so we said the hell with it, we're going to do it all in the studio, and
that's pretty much what we did.
We recorded it in
five five hour sessions. It cost about 700 bucks total and I think we could have spent a
little more time on parts of it, but I'm real pleased with how it came out.
NFH: Yeah, I
think it came out great. I think I like that one better than Vomit Wet Kiss.
Jeff: Yeah,
well, like I said Vomit Wet Kiss we literally just threw together. It was out in
two weeks...it was four tunes from what was supposed to be on I Kill Me, and four
tunes that were lying around that we had just recorded as just a demo, basically, and two
tunes that were the Bomp single that were different mixes. So that was just thrown
together, and as much as I like that, and I really do, it's not a real record. It's more
of a promo sort of thing which is why we did just 2000 copies.
Scratch Up Some
Action is a real group effort, and it's a real record. Everything was sequenced and it
has a nice flow to it. The other record sounds kind of arbitrary at points, whatever
happened to be lying around. Which is cool too; almost like a little rarities record or
something.
NFH: Is there
any chance of Scratch Up Some Action coming out in the US?
Jeff: No, but
it has been licensed to England and I think Spain is going to do just a quick limited
thing, but in England, Shakin' Street records is going to put it out. He'll do a CD on it
and everything, with an extra tune or two. So I'm looking forward to that.
NFH: What
prompted the move to Arizona?
Jeff: I like
it out there; I like the desert. I've been out there a few times and I think it's real
cool. I'm kind of tired of LA...I dunno, man, it just seems like a real yuppie kind of
city. I mean, there's a lot of really great things about LA. I've been living here like
ten or 12 years, and I got a lot accomplished here. I came here for certain things...I
wanted to put records out, and I wanted to play with some cool people and stuff like that,
and I think I've pretty much accomplished that. So that done, I think I'm ready to get out
and make room for somebody else out here. I am still going to be playing out in Phoenix
most definitely.
But I'm just kind of
tired of LA. I spend two hours a day on the freeway going back and forth to work, and that
just doesn't seem to be the right way to go about life. It's gotten to be like really a
formula for me here; getting by is very easy and very comfortable. And I'm kind of a gypsy
by nature, I guess, and it's time to move out and shake things up and kind of start over
again some other weird place. Phoenix seems like a pretty neat place.
NFH: Have you
been there in the summer so you're ready for the heat?
Jeff: Yeah,
I've been out there and done races...I did a triathalon out there during the summer. But,
yeah, you really do have to respect that heat.
NFH: That's
different...it seems that most people who are into bands are not into athletics at all.
Jeff: Well,
yeah. I mean, I was 180 degrees a while back, like five years ago I was probably the
biggest beer drinker you or I ever met, and I used to do a lot of speed as well. But you
know, after a while that shit just gets real boring. And a lot of my friends started
getting real bad habits and getting strung out and dying and things, and when I see
something I don't like I usually react against it. So like I said, 180 degrees. I just
stopped doing that shit and started working out. Quite frankly I feel a whole lot better,
and my mental outlook is a whole lot better and I think my perspective is a whole lot
better. I'm just happier. So why the hell do I need to get messed up?
NFH: I guess
the big question is do you have any plans for what you're going to do music-wise once you
get to Arizona other than this tour, or are you just going to play it by ear once you get
out there?
Jeff: Well,
no, actually things are falling together real nice. I signed with Triple X for two more
records, and I'll come into LA to record at Present Time Studios. I'm a creature of habit,
and that's where I like to do things. So I'll probably start a new record over next
Christmas. Del, my drummer, is living out in Phoenix right now and he and I will be
putting together something as soon as I get out there. He's got bass players and guitar
players all lined up for auditions, so we'll see. Like I said, we've had an offer for
someone setting up a tour in the fall, and we're definitely looking forward to that. I'll
definitely be coming into LA and playing once every two months or something. The last Jeff
Dahl Group show we did at Raji's sold out at some ridiculous time like 10:00. It sold out
very early and was just packed. It was a really good show, so with that kind of a last
show, it gives us a little clout at Raji's, so I'm sure that's where we'll be playing.
Also, I just had an
offer to go over and play in England with the American Ruse backing me up for some shows.
Listening to their record I think that would be a really good combination. They're a
really good band. I heard some of their newer stuff, which I guess is not quite released,
and it's a huge improvement over the album. And I think the album is pretty cool.
And I've also had an
offer to go to Australia and do some shows with Bored backing me up. So we're talking
about me going out maybe next December. David Laing's setting it up and all. I'd do a few
shows in Sydney and a few shows in Melbourne with them backing me up and doing a couple of
Bored songs and a bunch of Jeff Dahl songs, and some Stooges things, and I think it would
be really a lot of fun. They sound like an exciting live band...their records just have a
lot of energy to them, and they really play well, too, so I think it would really be a
good combination.
Although what
everyone tells me in Australia is that it's kind of dried up a little bit. It's not like
it was back in 1987...it's not quite as head on, but it's probably cooler than what we've
got out here on the west coast. But I can't complain about how things are out here,
though. I think the underground music scene and everything in the US and even worldwide is
pretty cool. I think there's a lot of good things happening underground. You know, you've
got to dig for it and look for it, but there's some REALLY good music going on.
NFH: Yeah, I
feel that way, too, and I keep seeing people who are writing about how they think things
are kind of dull...
Jeff: Yeah,
like nothing's happening. But you gotta look, you know. That's one of the cool things
about fanzines...'cos I write for Your Flesh now and then, so I get sent stuff;
people get my address and send me stuff and the magazine sends me stuff, and some of it's
really neat. Have you heard of a band from San Francisco called the Gargoyles? Oh, man,
you've got to check these people out. They sound like Kill City Stooges to me; in
fact they do the tune "Kill City" on their four song ep, and they do it REALLY
good, too. There's three guys, a guy singer, guy lead guitar and guy drummer, girl bass
player and girl rhythm guitarist. VERY exciting.
NFH: I think
the best thing for underground music in the past few years is the fact that hardcore has
finally died.
Jeff: Yeah,
well, it changed. It mutated into a commercially acceptable...this whole crossover thing.
It hasn't gone away...they just figured out a way to mass market it.
NFH: The thing
is, it used to have like a stifling hold over three quarters of the people who were
interested in underground music, and that seems to have broken and those people are out
looking for other things, and it's just really freed things up.
Jeff: Yeah, I
know what you mean. It's like the whole heavy metal thing back in the early eighties; that
new wave of British heavy metal; there were some really good things coming out with that,
but real quick they figured out, the record companies figured out how to market it. I
mean, look at Headbanger's Ball on MTV today. I mean, if that ain't depressing, I don't
know what is. So they're doing the same thing with hardcore, and they're calling it
speedmetal, or crossover, or thrash or whatever, and it hasn't gone away. It's probably
bigger than anything. But it has moved away from what was underground, and I like that.
NFH: What are
some of your other current favorite bands?
Jeff: Well,
the Gargoyles are the one that's really knocked me out recently. A band from LA called
Riot Act that are real good...let me look through the records I've got right here...from
England like I said I think the American Ruse are really good. There's another band from
Ohio called Knifedance that I think are very very intense. I like Bored a lot. You know a
lot of the LA bands that are associated with Sympathy For The Record Industry I like a
lot. Obviously the Creamers and the Cowgirls, and I just recorded a Fearless Leader record
that is pretty off the wall but I think is kind of cool.
NFH: You
produced on the Cowgirls album, didn't you?
Jeff: Yeah, I
co-produced it with them.
NFH: What does
that mean, exactly?
Jeff: Basically
I wasn't telling them what chords to play or what arrangements or anything, but I was the
guy behind the board there; I was the guy riding shotgun over the engineer, and if they
were wondering about something they would bounce an idea off me. The Cowgirls have been
around for a long time and they have very, very strong feelings about their music and how
they want it presented, so they don't need a lot of direction. What they need is just for
you to be there when they have a question or they do need something, and that was kind of
my job. It was a real learning experience, and I think my record is better because of it.
They're an intense bunch.
I'm really pretty
pleased. I think they came in with a great bunch of tunes and I think that's really half
the battle right there. Listen to that tune "Teenage Frankenstein", I mean, that
is a fucking great tune. I think that's my favorite off those sessions. It starts off kind
of slow and it really builds up into a real frenzy.
--------------------------------------
So there you have it;
Jeff Dahl, the man who evolved from Trouser Press’s "Grade Z ding dong" to
rock critic, producer, bandleader and triathelete. A true renaissance man for the
underground scene. Lay your hands on this man's lps...they're exactly what you need if
you're in the market for driving guitar mania that combines the sort of aggro snottiness
of the Dead Boys with the guitar power of the Stooges or MC5. Jeff's records are chock
full of great ear rattling tracks that not only will fire you up with their energy, but
will keep you humming because of their tunefulness.
