vom formed around 1976 or so with renowned writer and rock critic richard meltzer on vocals and future angry samoans greg turner and metal mike saunders on additional vocals and drums. The band also featured Dave Guzman on 'tuneless rhythm guitar', 'Gurl' on bass guitar, and Phil Koehn on lead guitar. Vom is short for 'vomit', obviously, as their early live act is said by Meltzer and Turner to have included throwing various 'viscera', cow parts and food substances at the audience to provoke reaction. says greg turner of richard melzer, "Meltzer WAS insane. But no, he really WASN'T insane, in the sense that his perspective was generally the right one most of the time. He did some crazy shit (notorious at press and rec'd co. band parties etc). He'd find dead squirrels and preserve them in layered colors of jello in big jars, stored in the fridge. He had a bitchen pubic hair collection (Jim Morrison's dog and Patti Smith included) and an even more bitchen poster of One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest that he adorned with a string of used tampons along the bottom. But these were just artistic gestures - I think he was a fan of DuChamp." Turner adds, "See, we thought the WHOLE POINT of "New Wave" (it wasn't until a year or so later that "punk rock" became the label) was salient stupidity. Moron music but with a vantage point and an axe to grind. I think that when we performed tunes like "Electrocute Your Cock" and "I'm In Love With Your Mom" -- these came off so blatantly idiotic that the serious sensibilities of the Brendon Mullen's and X 's and alla the others that went to poetry school felt that peer inclusion (ie of VOM) would be dissing their art. We weren't a comedy band per se, just following in the Jimmy Osterberg tradition of who can be the bigger nitwit. Having said all that, we weren't a very good band. Played outta tune most of the time and were no doubt ugly and horrible to look at. We opened two shows for the Dickies at the Whisky in 76 (I think). The second show (2nd nite) the PA guy turned off the sound and kicked us off the stage - Meltzer inadvertently bopped someone in the head (softly) with a mike stand. The PA clown screams out: "The only other creep I've ever had to kick off this stage was that asshole Jim Morrison. Now you motherfuckers are gonna go the same direction!" Meltzer, after two years of Vomming, became exhausted and burnt out, physically and mentally. He actually had the good sense to realize it could've only gotten worse (although we were starting to build a following of sorts).... Saunders was playing drums for most of Vom's tenure. This is a funny story. We had a girl bass player named Lisa. And one day Saunders came in to a rehearsal and demanded that we do this song he'd written called "Beaver Patrol." You can use your imagination about the lyrics, the riff and "tune" was a ZZ Top ripoff. So Lisa refuses to participate in this: "No Beaver patrol. No fuckin Beaver Patrol!!!" Saunders has a shit fit because, well because he doesn't like anyone to say no to him for any reason over anything. Not that Vom was by any means his show, or that he was loosely calling the shots. But he went ballistic over being Beaver Patrol-rejected and quit VOM!!! This was somewhere in the year or so planning, pre-fabbing before going live. Then suddenly he comes back x months later, "OK, no Beaver Patrol". And with that he sat down behind the drum kit, and we never heard another word outta him (despite the fact he co-authored the music for several songs). Anyway, when Meltzer quit, it seemed pointless that Vom could continue w/out him." as far as i know, vom only released one seven inch on white noise records in 1978. songs included "im in love with your mom", "electrocute your cock", "too animalistic", "punk mobile" and "god save the whales". Richard melzer died in 1994, greg went on to form, (with saunders) the samoans and finally becoming a professor of mathematics in arizona. Metal mike saunders still continues the angry samoans in various forms today. I dont know what happened to the others, do you? this is a fanpage. check out the video below. "IM IN LOVE WITH YOUR MOM/ TOO ANIMALISTIC"
METAL MIKE SAUNDERS SPEAKS:
here's the one VOM setlist off my drum kit that survived --
1. ELECTROCUTE YOUR COCK
2. GOD SAVE THE WHALES
3. TOO ANIMALISTIC
4. MY EYES HAVE SEEN YOU (Doors)
5. NO SURF COMMIES
6. I LIVE WITH THE ROACHES
7. HAVE MY BABY
8. BROADS ARE EQUAL
9. POGO CHILD
10. PUNKMOBILE
11. DARE TO BE DUMB
12. I'M IN LOVE WITH YOUR MOM
13. GIMME NOTHING
that's every song in the band repertoire except Louie Louie and (I Am The) Son Of Sam, so it's probably a Whiskey set (30 min, 13 songs instead of the full 15 song).
a studio cassette pictured on one of the fliers i have it labeled 3/3/78, so that weekend must have been when the 5 songs for the ep were recorded. everything in the live set except I Live with the Roaches was a good song, so there was definitely an entire album of recordable material. (2,000 copies of the 7 inch were pressed and sold by ronn spencer/White Noise, whose only other issue was the Avengers 12 inch ep). CD-Rs have floated around of the first Mab and assorted Whiskey live sets (i still have a dub of turner's board cassette from the Whiskey, but lost my cassette dub of turner's SF Mab reel to reel tape a few years ago), a friend sent me one of each CD-R some years back. heres another rad video. "PUNKMOBILE"
Mr. Saunders is already aware of my fanaticism in regard to VOM, he is a little amazed actually...he thourougly marked up my copy with practically a minor story, writting "I wrote these songs" and so forth.....I have never seen those two videos you got there, pretty absurd and funny, love it...thanks John for the add....D
CDQ's proud to present a 10 Question Q&A with GREGG TURNER. Dig as he waxes poetic about MELTZER, VOM, METAL MIKE and the ANGRY SAMOANS. There's a 10 Question Q&A with RONN SPENCER, too; the gentleman responsible for putting out the VOM EP and who also did the cover art for BACK FROM SAMOA. Check it out:
