Tag: Monoshock

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This is a flyer for a short-lived, never-recorded band called EARLY MAN SITE, live in San Francisco about 1991 or 1992. The band comprised all three members of MONOSHOCK, who had stopped playing in Isla Vista in 1989 when Grady Runyan graduated from college.

All had relocated to the San Francisco Bay Area by 1991, and Early Man Site had been formed by Scott Derr & Rubin Fiberglass back in Isla Vista in Grady’s absence. They reassembled that band in the Bay Area, with Grady on third guitar. Bruce Shinden and Tom Krueger were the other members of the 5-piece. That, of course, morphed into Monoshock mkII, minus Bruce, and with Tom often showing up on drunken saxophone.

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Flyer from 1994 “End of Rock” show with The Demolition Doll Rods, Monoshock and Icky Boyfriends, courtesy of Anthony Bedard’s Facebook page. Anthony, who headed up Past It Records, and I put this show on together (we also put out the Doll Rods first single). I actually couldn’t attend it, having been previously committed to some work-related trip to New Jersey or somewhere thereabouts.

My then-new girlfriend Rebecca, now my wife-of-14-years Rebecca, sold the merch at the Doll Rods table in my absence. Everyone we talked to said it was a ripping show, punctuated by Tom Guido, the Purple Onion’s L’enfant terrible, jumping onto the stage multiple times to interrupt the bands, a very common occurrence from the drunkest, worst club owner in history (who nonetheless ran a terrific club for a few years in the mid-90s).

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Two of these three individuals were my roommates circa 1988-89, and their band, ALICE FELL, were widely considered at the time to be the best our college town of Isla Vista, CA had to offer – and the ones poised for eventual success beyond the boundaries of Del Playa and Sabado Tarde Blvds. Ironically, MONOSHOCK sprang from this scene as well, and though it couldn’t quite be seen at the time, they ended up having an impact on multiple folks’ musical development even beyond US borders. Rad.

Alice Fell were were a heavy indie band with one foot in “Workingman’s Dead” and the other in “VS.”, though no one in the band claimed an affinity with either the Grateful Dead or Mission of Burma. They were all into SST stuff, Neil Young, some hardcore punk and even tripped-out krautrock before anyone cared about that stuff. They even nailed a couple of opening gigs with The Lazy Cowgirls in Los Angeles around that time, which we thought was pretty big-time. Great guys, great music, and they never recorded a thing. May their legacy live on in the hearts and minds of those who loved them.