The Rip Offs
...written by Mr. Greg Lowery....
March 1993- My first band Supercharger was imploding on tour in Europe with the Mummies, I hated being around people I considered friends, who were now going to be ex-friends. I just wanted to get back to San Francisco, and start another band as soon as possible. As I was being driven to one German city after another, I was trying to figure out who I could play with in S.F. After I arrived, I immediately called Jon Von, who was at the last Supercharger shows' and he told me he was looking to play again. He wanted in. One down. Ever since I saw the Jason White play in the Fingers, it was apparent, Jason White was a great drummer, and could sing. I asked him to play, he agreed, two down. During the first band practices, which were being held in my friends living room where we recorded the Supercharger Goes Way Out l.p., it was just the three of us playing a song that Jason had written and a song that Jon had written, a song about Green Day still being punk rock. We were getting the feeling there was a chemistry brewing, Jason and myself seeming to agree with everything, and Jon trying to fight us. During these early days Jon asked if I had any band names in mind, and I told him immediately of the Rip Offs idea, and of playing in black with nylons over our heads. Jon hated the idea, and said that he had a band name he wanted to use, the Pop Rocks. I then knew this band was going to be like my previous one, a power struggle to get what you wanted. Jon couldn't play lead guitar, and Jason wanted leads in his songs; so Jason asked his brother Shane to play with us and kick the band into over gear. I wanted to play with Shane also, but he was busy with the Spoiled Brats. As only a brother could do, Jason convinced him to play.
The Showdown
At this point, the band was Jason, Jon, and myself, and Jon was unaware of the idea of bring Shane into the band. Jason and Shane wanted to kick Jon out of the band, so we could continue with out any problems. (Regarding band name, nylon gimmick etc, and Jon having more finances then the rest of us). I told Shane and Jason it wasn't right to boot a person without a chance, and I decided to let Jon hang himself. The idea was to talk to Jon, with Jason and myself telling Jon what direction we were going to take the band.
Of course when we got there Jason doesn't say a word to Jon, and I do all the talking, making it look like it was a conspiracy that I initiated. Anyway, I told Jon three things:
The band name is going to be the Rip Offs
Shane White was in the band
We were to wear black with nylons over our heads for live shows
Jon then asked if he had been kicked out, I told him I wanted him to play with us, but it was his decision now. Jon obviously chose to play.
The Debut
After practicing for four months we set up a show at the not yet legendary Purple Onion. This was headed by Tom Guido, a real local freak, who worshipped 60's music, and wanted to start his own club after booking bands at other clubs forever. (Tom Guido booked the first ever Supercharger show also) The Purple Onion was holding shows with The Spoiled Brats getting the jump on the Rip Offs playing at the newly opened club while I was still getting the Rip Offs together. Anyway, on Saturday 8/29/93, the Rip Offs jumped onstage, and tore into a Lurkers song, Go, Go, Go. We were a little shaky and nervous, but the masks helped hide that fact. After that we settled down and ripped through the rest of the set. The great thing about it was the intensity of which we played, Jon Von was psychotic jumping around and making us try harder to exert energy. This was the band motto: To always, always, MOVE, and create as much chaos as possible. We played a few songs we dumped forever Trailer Trash, and Hooked On Phonics, the crowd had maybe 50 people I remember Jon taking off his mask during the set, I asked him to not do that, as it helped us remain mysterious. So our first show was history, now it was time to unleash our music on the world, and record.
The First Single
I recorded the first single with a 6-track purchased from Supercharger royalty money, and after just recording the Spoiled Brats (horrible fucked up shit) and learning quickly from my mistakes, I knew we couldn't have as lo-fi recording as the Spoiled Brats. So I cranked the levels up on the 6-track, and we completed our first single, Now I Know It's You, and Can I Come Over. This was a simultaneous release with The Spoiled Brats single, and the original pressings of both records had inserts with them. We did a quickie cover at a park, and the pictures were taken at the same time as the Spoiled Brats cover also...talk about saving resources. It seemed like the Spoiled Brats and The Rip Offs were going to have a lot of fun and success together, but as the life of punk rock bands go, just as it's going good, somebody will fuck it up.
The End of The Spoiled Brats
If there is one rule I can share with people who start bands it is this: never, ever, get into a band with your girlfriend. My first band featured my girlfriend at the time Karen, and it was hell. But like all guys in bands, they think they are the exception to the rule. Shane White ignored the golden rule, and he paid for it. Just when it seemed like the Brats were getting ready for big things (we were going to record a full length) Shane and Elka started to have problems in their relationship. So they start hating each other and the first thing they do is quit playing together. The good thing for the Rip Offs was that we had Shane's full attention, which we would need.
The Make Up Your Mind/Wild Jane 7"
After I recorded the first 7" Jon Von asked if he could help this time, and I agreed, wanting us to get a better sound, but refusing to go to a studio and get that lame studio sound. So we recorded in our tiny practice space, but after this recording, We knew we had two great songs.
A double hit. I was adamant about coming up with a record cover that had us in masks, and in a stupid situation. I suggested how cool it would be to have us in a line up at the police station with masks on, having a girl pointing at us, confused, trying to Make Up Her Mind. Get It?? Whatever, as the Rip Offs were becoming Maximum Rock and Roll's favorite band, a girl who wrote a column, Christeen heard Jon Von talking about my idea. She told Jon she could get us into the police station and have it done there. I didn't believe it, figuring this girl would say anything to prove how cool she was, the word groupie kept coming to mind. Obviously, she was right. The Rip Offs scored a great, 100% authentic original cover. I knew it was going to be special, and we had one shot at it. So we took over 100 pictures with Shane's new girlfriend Jennifer Simpson doing the photos. When I saw the pictures I knew instantly that we could not waste these photos on a paper 7" sleeve, these demanded better. So I suggested that we use these pictures for the l.p., and do another design for the 7". I think Jennifer White was the person who suggested going to a diner, with a hot waitress on the cover. The band liked it, so we did it. So we went to this greasy spoon called Dave's in Oakland to do the shoot. We had our cover girl, Victoria, dressed up in a hot sexy waitress outfit, and these old creepy guys were there staring at Victoria, some were actually drooling. This older lady who is in the final photo, worked there and asked to be in the photo too. We also had to give her money to help her buy a used T.V.. for her part in setting up the shoot for the band. Jon got sick eating the shrimp salad at Dave's, and as a joke on the back of the record we said Jon recommends the shrimp salad! This shoot was a blast, because there was a crowd of people watching the whole thing like it was MTV or something, it was a funny site to witness. I guess it's not everyday that people come into a cheap diner, and instead of their usual greasy food they get a super hot waitress, and four idiots dressed all in black wearing nylons over their heads.
Garage Shock 94
This is in the history for one simple reason: it was probably our greatest live show. It also proved to us that when we needed to, we could deliver one hell of a live show. There were a lot of great bands playing, and I wanted to be remembered. So we went out of our way to have a extremely bad stage presence, which we usually did anyway, but we were wild, breaking my back up bass, throwing water, beer, anything that was on "our" stage at the audience, I wanted to attack the audience, and we did. I did a "win a free t-shirt" contest, where somebody from the audience came up to take it, and I made him bare his ass for the crowd, as he did this, I threw the t-shirt in the audience. He was not too happy. But we were. Ask anyone who witnessed that show, I bet they remember The Rip Offs.
Got A Record
I remember recording this, and letting Jon Von take most of the recording duties for it. We liked the way the second single sounded, and I just wanted to concentrate on playing. If I remember correctly, I think this album took about 3 days to record. The front cover was already done, we needed a title, and a back cover. As we were recording Shane asked if I had any ideas for a title, And I told him "Got A Record". The band liked it. The hard part of doing this record was not the recording which went smooth, but the mixing. We had horrible equipment, and Jon and myself would rough mix the songs and then give the mixes to Shane and Jason, who didn't want to mix, just complain when we gave them mixed down tapes. Jon Von had set up a date for mastering at a recording plant, and that day was rapidly approaching, and we were frantically trying to get a mix that Shane and Jason would like. Adding to the pressure was the fact that we had already set up shows for Japan, and this album would need to be out before we played there. The timing was crucial. Jon and myself came up with what we felt was the ultimate mix the day before Jon Von's mastering day, and of course they didn't like these mixes either. Jon suggested to Shane and Jason that instead of us driving back and forth to their house, maybe they should come over and mix with us so we could make the mastering deadline. That was too much for Shane who refused and was angry over having to put out extra effort for this deadline. Everybody was tense, there was yelling and fighting. Finally, I just told Jon that this The Rip Offs are supposed to be fun, and right now it wasn't. I informed Jon that we would miss the mastering deadline, and we would complete the mixes at our own pace, then master and get the album out. Jon protested that we needed it for Japan. I insisted, realizing our band was in jeopardy, saying I don't think we would be a band much longer under this pressure. Jon then freaked the band out by sitting with a glazed look, as we tried talking to him he ignored us. It was like he was in a trance. It wasn't until 5 minutes later that he snapped out of it, and said o.k. After the pressure was off, of course we mixed the thing easily. The back cover was hard for us to complete, I was under the false impression that we were buddies with the police (due to the lineup photo), getting my idea of a us pissing on a police van would be no problem. WRONG! The police laughed at us and told us not to take any pictures of their vans, and we couldn't get permission to do it. But we found one in front of a substation in the mission district on a side street. We quickly set up and took photos, it took around 15 minutes to complete. I remember bringing a erasable marker to write on the white part of the van The Rip Offs in large letters, but as I tried to write on the van, the ink was not erasing. I chose not to write on the van, as I had visions of the police stopping every one of our live shows. After we got our pictures, We walking around, and a police officer was standing on the other side of the van, talking to someone, he didn't even know we were there taking pictures! Everything with the album was an ordeal the next problem was the song order, always another problem with bands...Jason and Shane, just wanting to be contrary to my idea, which was to make it like a live set list, refused and said the exact opposite. They said it shouldn't be like a live show set list. I argued my point with them until they saw the logic in doing songs that seem to flow together, instead of against it. If your still reading, remember I warned you, BORING!
Rip Offs/Teengenerate split 7"
We originally recorded this 7" because we wanted to be on a single with Teengenerate, and thought it was a good idea to be on a Japanese label, and have this record out in time for our Japanese tour. Unfortunately, the recording was rushed, and not very good. And the record label took so long, it wasn't for sale in Japan for our tour anyway. Once again, the cover photo was a blast to do, which has us posing at a gas station with a gun to a guy's head as he is filling up Shane White's hunk o' junk car. Once again, a crowd was staring at us, and we had to do this shoot twice, as the original pictures didn't turn out. These drunk guys were walking by checking us out, asking if we were the KKK. We said yeah!
Rip Offs in Japan October 94
Our new friends in Teengenerate and Guitar Wolf helped set up these shows in Japan for us, and this was one of the greatest times of my life. We got to play with some of Japan's greatest bands, a few being: Teengenerate, Guitar Wolf, the Registrators, 5678's, Jackie and the Cedrics, and Supersnazz My favorite memories are: While singing "Can't Take It", I heard extra loud
vocals in the stage monitor, or so I thought. I looked out and witnessed Japanese people singing along to my song. I remember Fifi losing his tooth as they played, and sticking around to see The Rip Offs play, with a half broken tooth. Fifi is punk rock,. And the people were the greatest. At a show in Osaka, I tried doing my win a t-shirt gimmick with the crowd, a brave soul bounced on stage, this guy didn't speak English so Fifi and Fink translated that we wanted him to show his ass to the crowd. The guy then proceeded to take off every piece of clothing except his underwear, all to win a t-shirt. I gave him the shirt anyway.
1995-What goes up...
1995 started with great promise, In January we played a great show at the Purple Onion and played live on the radio in Berkeley, which was such an insane, foul mouthed, drunken mess, it's a wonder they didn't ban live bands on the air after that. We were out of control saying some pretty crazy things, the whole time the d.j. was jumping up and down every time we swore. On the personal front, it seemed that everybody in the band had new girlfriends, probably due to the success of the band, and the weird thing was it happened at the same time. The Rip Offs could no longer play in the venue that the Rip Offs made famous, The Purple Onion. The place was too small for our growing legion of fans, and Tom was no longer willing to pay money to bands that actually filled the place up. So we started playing the Killawatt, a larger venue, with better money.
At this time Jon Von asked me to set up the next step for the band, a European tour. The rest of the band agreed, so I started the long task of getting a European tour together. The Rip Offs played Seattle, Vancouver, Austin, (were we recorded the live Texas Speed Trial Record) Houston, Los Angeles, San Diego, and played some incredible shows. Around this time Shane was asking me technical questions about record pressing, saying he was going to put out a Tight Fits (Jason and Shane's other band) record. This is when problems in the band started to go over the top.
Stabbed in the back
I went to a show at the Purple Onion when Shane handed me a box of records. I asked what the records were, he laughed and said you'll see. I opened them up to see a record of The Rip Offs
that was made without my knowledge. These recording were of our first recordings that I gave Shane a copy to listen to, never thinking they would see the light of day. Out of jealousy, of the success of the Rip Offs on my label Rip Off Records, and thinking that I was getting rich off of the band, he put this record out. I was pissed, threw the records at him, and told him he just fucked up the band, that it was over. It was a fucked up thing to do, and even more fucked up that he put out such horrible sounding horse shit. Over that weekend Shane apologized repeatedly and begged me to continue the Rip Offs, as Jon Von did also. Not wanting to give up on our band, and wanting to go to Europe, I relented. This was the beginning of the end.
Girls, girls, girls..
At this time, Jason was getting worried about going to Europe and having to leave his girl alone in San Francisco. So he felt that he could profit off the band, and fuck us over at the same time. He decided he wanted to quit, and get his share of the Rip Offs band fund. (aprrox $1500 per band member) Then he could move into his girlfriends house and have some pocket change. We tried talking him out of it, but the thought of his girl being alone with the animals in San Francisco were too much. Jason quit, fully expecting us to pack it in with him. The rest of the band wanted to continue. We got a new drummer quickly, which was Wesley, who went on to play with Shane and myself in the Infections. Also at this time, Jon Von started saying he was going to have trouble getting off work because he just set up a European vacation for himself and his new girlfriend, very close to the time the Rip Offs were supposed to play in Europe. I asked him why he set up a vacation when he knew we were supposed to go to Europe as a band. He shrugged his shoulders, and said he would try to get the time off.
Rip Offs Go Away 7"
Right before Jason left, we recorded our last official record, the Go Away 7". This record was
two cool songs, with Shane's song Sleeparound (about his ex- girlfriend) causing quite a controversy with the people that built us up as the second coming of Jesus Christ, Maximum Rock and Roll. They didn't like Shane's offensive lyrics, and then the MRR hypocrites started attacking us, for one reason or another. Shane for his song, And people attacking me for dating Suzanne Bartchy the queen of the S.F. punk scene. Tim Yohannon didn't like the fact that I was dating Suzanne, and was doing everything in his power to try and piss me off, saying false things about me in MRR, claiming I was stealing from the band, and other shit he knew nothing about. ah blah. (obviously listening to Shane, but never calling me up to confirm anything) Whatever, I could care less and enjoyed the attention that I was getting. Anyway back to the record, the cover featured my girlfriend Suzanne Bartchy as our cover girl, I threw in a bunch of garbage in the pool, and set up the shot. As luck would have it, we had to do this shoot twice, and the second time Jason already quit and refused to do the cover. S o we got Ian (Spoiled Brats, Spastics) to sit in his place. He is the one on the far left of the cover.
The End-August '95
I set up a few shows in Chicago and Green Bay, at the same time, Jon Von was saying anything to get out of going to Europe, Saying he couldn't go as his knee hurt, and other lame excuses. The European tour plans were finished, and it was too late to back out of it. I told him he had to go, we had too many people involved. Our final shows in Chicago and Green Bay were a blast, and it seemed like things were going to be o.k. But as soon as we got home, Jon called a band meeting, and informed us that he was quitting. When we pressed him as to why, as we just had a great time in Chicago, he fumbled for an answer and said he had problems with me. I was the only one in the band that tried to be civil to him and saved him repeatedly from being terminated from the band, as my daily calls from Shane to pertained to getting rid of Jon. Jon was making up an excuse so he could go to Europe with his girlfriend. It was a stupid way to end a successful band, but as bands and band members go, nothing ever makes any sense.
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