broken up and gone onto bigger and maybe not better things? It doesn’t
have to be originality; The Mummies proved that. It doesn’t have to be
talent; Supercharger proved that. I think all it takes is that a band be endearing
to its fans. To have a certain charm, to write catchy songs, and to have the
ability to rock in one way or another. For me, The Statics certainly fit that
bill. Sure, they might have combined the enthusiasm of The Mummies with the
talent of Supercharger and spiked it all with a healthy dose of Billy Childish.
Certainly not a recipe for originality, borrowing from confessed thieves. But
that’s certainly not what made them special. What did? I’m not sure.
Zack wrote great songs. They rocked. Maybe they were so charming because they
were actually teenage kids doing the things that the popular, and much older,
bands of the time were doing. They were the logical extension of the Bay Area
garage explosion, one of the first bands to be heavily influenced by that scene
and run with it successfully. They were a charmed band at the beginning, as
you will see, and they were just so blatantly right for their time that they
had to do well. This year marks the Tenth Anniversary of Rip Off Records, and
in my mind you can’t mention Rip Off without thinking of The Statics.
They were the first Rip Off band, and were the standard-bearers for at least
the first five years of the label’s history along with Lowery’s
own Rip Offs and Infections. No one stayed truer to the original garage-punk
ethos laid down by the first SF bands than The Statics, and when they left us
so did some sense of the innocence of those times. So, ten years later, I give
you The Statics story for those of you haven’t forgotten, and to kick
those of you that have squarely in the ass. If you were a kid in early Nineties
Seattle, you had a lot going for you. The “Grunge Explosion” was
just about over; those bands were already well on their way to fulfilling their
rock-star dreams and deaths. This made room to allow the garage boom of the
early Nineties to happen; labels like Estrus, Regal Select, Bag of Hammers,
and Empty were gearing up or starting to hit their stride. Great Pacific Northwest
bands like like Night Kings, Fall-Outs, Monomen, Gas Huffer, Girl Trouble, and
Dead Moon were cropping up or getting recognized, and a comparable scene was
already begun in the Bay Area. The table was set for these bands to start selling
some records and to get some attention, and many of them did. And a lot of kids
were watching. And if you were a kid, and bought records or rode a skateboard
in Seattle, your path eventually led you to Fallout Records. The fact that Fallout
closed its doors this year is sad testimony to the influence and importance
that will be lost when it and many stores like it continue to go under. Without
Fallout there may not have been a Statics, much less many other bands. Similar
situations are happening in cities all over. But that’s a story for a
different day.Young Zack Hoppenrath and pal Donnie Hilstadt were frequenters of Fallout. First it was for skate equipment, which led to future Fallout owner Tim Hayes
turning
them on to records, which turned into huge Mummies and Childish fixations. The
kids traded in their skateboards for a bass and drums, and they starting tooling
around in Donnie’s basement, learning to play and listening to bands like
The Fall-Outs, Milkshakes, Miracle Workers and more. Then came a fateful day
in Statics history; Janet at Fallout suggested they pick up a certain record
if they liked The Mummies so much. Donnie bought it, and he and Zack went home
a dropped the needle on the first Supercharger LP. They immediately thought,
“Fuck, we could do this!” Zack started planning ahead for the band
which would become The Statics. Originally a four piece, Zack traded in the
bass for a guitar, and got his girlfriend Diane Kitano, ex-UW Huskies Marching
Band, to take up the bass. To show the direction the band was taking consider
the fact that he was teaching Diane to play bass when he could barely play guitar
himself. A friend named Eric Pritchard was the original singer. They learned
some covers, many of them Childish tunes, and wrote some originals. Then they
attempted to learn how to play them, practicing in the basement of Donnie’s
mother’s house. Things started really taking shape in the summer of 1992. After three months or so, Eric left for college, and The Statics became the standard three-piece we would come to know and love, with Zack taking over the vocal chores. The band was officially christened with The Statics moniker, a name they had originally thought up, and which became even cooler when the band discovered the obscure Fifties garage act Tiny Tony and the Statics. It sounded raw, and had some Pacific-Northwest garage history to it as well. Zack became Zack Static, and his plan for the band was about to take off. Later that year they saw Supercharger with The A-Bones and Girl Trouble at the Crocodile Cafe, a show at which Zack got to speak briefly to Darrin Rafaelli. Soon, Zack felt it was time to record. They went back to Donnie’s basement and recorded a handful of songs on a four track. The tape from this session was sent to the Radio X address on the back of the Supercharger LP. It was answered with a letter from Greg Lowery, who was thinking of starting his own label and liked the band enough to do a record. That led to a Statics single becoming Greg’s first release on Rip Off Records, Rip Off #001. The tracks on the original tape seem to be lost to posterity in the Lowery vaults. Plans were also laid for an LP sometime in the future. The band stayed busy, learning more songs and becoming semi-competent players, which is saying a lot during a time when it was essentially cool to sound shitty. Through Rob Vasquez, of Nights and Days and Night Kings, they connected with Johnny Vinyl, an evil genius of sorts who recorded many area bands at his home studio. Johnny Vinyl was an Electrical Engineer at the UW, and a veteran of many early Seattle punk bands. Soon after, The Statics visited Vinyl Manor, Johnny’s home studio at his house on Green Lake, and recorded the first of many sessions. They paid $10 an hour for the studio time. Johnny would end up recording almost all of The Statics material up until 1996, recording everything live with few if any overdubs. The only studio trickery used was running Zack’s vocals through the filters on a synthesizer to get that “boxy” sound evident on the early recordings. On February, 17th, 1993, the band got their first gig, opening for Dead Moon and Gas Huffer at The Colorbox. They made it out alive. Dead Moon and Gas Huffer proved to be very supportive and accepting of the young kids, who were playing their first show in a bar when they weren’t even old enough to drink.
Next, the band sought ought Mudhoney guitarist Steve Turner, who had recently started his own label, and somehow got a tape into his hands. Turner liked what he heard, which isn’t really surprising when you consider he was in the Fall-Outs for a spell, and he and Mark Arm were avowed Childish fans. The Rip Off single was out, and doing fairly well. Now Turner wanted a Statics record for his Super Electro label. He sent the band to Bainbridge Island to record with ex-Monster Magnet guitarist John McBain. They recorded five tracks, four of which became the “Hey, Hey” EP on Super Electro, including a cover of
Supercharger’s
“Sooprize Package for Mr. Mineo”. Somewhere in-between these two
records the Statics also appeared on Volume 4 of Regal Select’s “Puget
Power” compilation series, along with The Sinister Six, Head, and Flathead.
They contributed the track “I Quit” from the first Vinyl Manor session,
an eight-track recording. At this point Seattle and Portland were swinging,
with plenty of great bands, and venues and parties to play. The Statics quickly
became everyone’s favorite opening band, and got plenty of gigs. I guess
you could say the “buzz” was on; things were happening pretty effortlessly
for the band, and the phone just kept ringing.In the winter the band traveled to San Francisco and played their first gigs there. They played at the Purple Onion, at what happened to be the Spoiled Brats very first show. During the show Donnie laid down on stage to rest before finishing the set, an incident Greg Lowery later recounted as one of his favorite Statics moments. The band was very well received by the SF scene with no questions asked. They just appreciated that The Statics could rock. Next, the band released a split single with Sick & Wrong on Eight Van Records. Eight Van was the label of bootleg king/Skinhead record distributor John Mathis. In a strange bit of localism, Mathis lived in the upstairs apartment of a house in White Center, which was previously the HQ of Jimmy Stapleton and Bag of Hammers. The downstairs apartment was occupied by Mike Goodall, mastermind behind Regal Select Records and Zack’s future partner in running Rat City Records. The track contributed was “Jellystone National Park”, the leftover song from the Bainbridge Island session, and a great example of the Statics endearing and innocent early style. After the SF shows, the (until this point) charmed band ran into its first bump in the road. Things were beginning to not work out with Donnie. He was losing interest and Zack was losing his patience. Band practice was at Donnie’s house, and he still couldn’t make it. Zack and Donnie came to the mutual decision that Donnie’s time as a Static would come to end, both to save the band and their friendship. Donnie’s buddy, Bryant Flesher, often hung out at practices and was weaned into the band as their new drummer. The Statics didn’t miss much time getting Bryant, or Zippy Static as he would come to known, up to speed.
They
still had a busy year ahead of them.Through Lowery, the band was introduced to British gent James Petter. Petter released The Statics third single on his label Real Records, and distributed it with copies of his fanzine, not ironically named Sooprize Package. The zine included an interview with the band, as well as interviews with the by then defunct Supercharger, the Makers, Spoiled Brats, and others. The B-Side recordings were from the sessions Johnny Vinyl did in Donnie’s basement, with Donnie drumming, and were different takes of songs that would end up on the LP. The A-Side tracks were from a session done in Olympia in January of 1994, with Bryant on drums. There was a different version of “Sooprize Package…”, and a cover of The Troggs “Your Love” which Diane sang on. In early February ‘94 the band was back at Vinyl Manor recording the songs for their first LP live to four-track. The band was getting various offers from different labels at this point. Empty Records offered to do the LP as well as Rip Off. However, Empty was going to put out CD’s as well as releasing vinyl, opposed to the vinyl-only stance of Rip Off at that point. Also, the band remembered how well they were received in SF and how much was going on there at the time, so they opted for Lowery and Rip Off. The “Rat City” LP became Rip Off #005, with 2,000 copies initially pressed. Dead Moon had always been fairly supportive of young bands, and The Statics happened to be one of them. Zack asked Fred Cole to master the recordings and the acetate ended up being cut on the same lathe that cut the Kingsmen’s definitive version of “Louie, Louie” way back in 1963, a piece of equipment Fred’s wife Toody had sought out and purchased for him. The LP showed the Statics sound evolving a bit, with Zippy’s Charlie Watts-like drumming providing a change from Donnie’s looser style. The songs were solid, dawing references from Seattle’s geography: “The Scurge of White Center:, “The Delridge Boogie”, a different take of “Jellystone National Park”; there were the Supercharger-ish “Burgers & Fries” and “Don’t Mess With Us”; “Goodbye”, a love song written back in the days when Eric was in the band. Overall, the LP gave a good impression of what The Statics were about: semi-sloppy, lo-fidelity, charming and fun rock-and-roll. They were doing it well, and the record sold enough to repress a couple of times, and ended up selling somewhere around 3,000 copies. The band was getting even bigger gigs as well, playing the first night of Garage Shock at the 3-B Tavern. They also did some more shows in SF, ironically playing the last ever Spoiled Brats show this time, again at the Purple Onion.
1995 saw the release of two Statics records. First the single on Empty Records, the “An Un-Respected Man” EP, featuring three tracks recorded at Vinyl Manor in October of ’94. Secondly, they released a10” EP on Estrus Records. Garage kingpin Dave Crider showed some interest in the band, and was offering to do their second full length if the band wanted. They gave him the “Pinball Junkies” EP, a record Zack isn’t very proud of to this day. It certainly is not their finest outing, but it has its moments. Another Johnny Vinyl recording, it features six tracks from March of ’95, including a cover of The Wipers’ “Let’s Go, Let’s Go Away”. It also has a picture of them on the back wearing pretty neat matching Statics jackets. The Statics also played possibly their most infamous show that year, at the Lake Union Pub. It was a show going on during the Garage Shock ‘95 weekend, with The Statics, Kent 3, and Sinister Six. Most of the Rip Offs and The Makers were in attendance, and they noticed some skinheads that kept giving people a hard time and bumping into Zack’s mic when he tried to sing. The story goes the Makers started a fight with the skinheads at Greg Lowery’s urging, which turned into a horrendous all-out brawl that kept re-erupting as the night went on. Zack went in the alley after their set and saw the police with a bunch of skins against the wall, and overheard the skins saying “We’re gonna get those Mod motherfuckers”! Known to some as The All-Night Riot, it was better known as The Lake Union Pub Massacre, it’s victims immortalized in the thanks of The Makers middle-finger/self-titled LP.
In early 1996 Zacks’ violation of the “never be in a band with your girlfriend” rule came to fruition. The band went down the coast to hit LA and play the Jabberjaw, do a live radio performance at Stanford College set-up by Darrin Rafaelli, and headline a night at the first Rip Off Rumble, which turned out to be Diane’s last show. Back in Seattle, Zack and Diane broke up, which therefore made it unpractical for her to be in the band any longer. A month went buy with the band in limbo, until one day Zack was on his way to Fallout after getting a really shitty haircut. He literally ran into Matt Rempel on the street, a friend from the skateboarding days. They got to talking, and Matt, actually a guitar player, decided to take up the bass and become Zardoz Static. The band ended up making two vinyl appearances in ’96.
One was a split single on Deadbeat Records with simian rockers The Primate 5,
with whom the band shared a practice space. Both bands were recorded by Johnny
Vinyl, with The Statics serving up a Zack original, “I Hate Everyone”,
and a cover of The Zeros “Wimp”. The second was the Seattle vs.
Austin split on Zack’s own Static Records. It featured The Inhalants and
Jack’O’Fire from Texas, and The Statics and The P5 on the Seattle
side. The Statics churn out Childish’s “Kinds of Women” on
this disc, one of many, many Childish covers they played live, a leftover track
from the Rat City session. Both of the recordings still featured Diane on bass.The young, innocent Statics were coming to an end. Gone were the band jackets and sweater-vests. In were suits and ties and a tighter, meaner sound. After the Estrus 10”, Zack decided it wasn’t so cool to sound shitty anymore. The “Z” nicknames, bestowed upon them by The Makers, were taken on in a Ramones-like show of band solidarity. The Statics definitely became more serious. When Zack started out his intention was not just to be some fly-by-night garage band; he wanted to make records, he wanted to play shows, tour, he wanted a huge success, and they were getting close. That’s not to say The Statics weren’t fun anymore, they were just faster and louder. The band embarked on its only extensive tour in late 1996. First to San Francisco, then San Luis Obispo, LA, San Diego, Tucson, Phoenix, Las Vegas, and back to SF for New Year’s. The band was in a groove coming off the tour, and immediately went into the studio to record their second LP. This time it was with Conrad Uno at his own Egg Studios, as Johnny Vinyl was unavailable. Conrad let the band do what they want, and they ended up with a crisp sound recorded on a sixteen track, of which they used about twelve. They blasted out 19 songs in one day, most in one or two takes. It is undeniably the most polished of all The Statics recordings, showcasing the more muscular new line-up. Zack was left to decide between Estrus and Rip Off for the LP. Crider was offering continual represses, guaranteeing that their records would never go out of print, as their Rip Off LP had. For whatever reasons, maybe loyalty, Zack opted to stick with Greg for the “Punk Rock and Roll” LP/CD, Rip Off #026, which came out in early 1997. This ended The Statics relationship with Estrus as well. The LP did very well, with ‘hits’ like “Sold My Soul”, “Treat Me Right”, “Dance Baby Dance”, covers of “I’m A Man” and “One Ugly Child”, and the ripping instrumental, “The Static Revenger”. It was also the first Statics appearance on CD.
1997 became the beginning of the end. It had some of The Statics highest points, and also saw the demise of the band. The second LP was getting good reviews and selling well. They appeared on Deadbeat Records again, this time contributing two Dwarves covers to the Viva La Vinyl #2 complilation LP, recordings from way back in Donnie’s basement. In mid-97 the band went into the studio for the last time, and it was a frustrating effort. The studio and engineer were a problem, and it almost took force to get the tapes back. Zack and Tim Hayes ended up mastering it as well as they could. One track, a cover of “The Rebel Kind” ended up on a split single with Guitar Wolf. The idea for the Wolf split first surfaced back at Garageshock in ’94 when the band met Yoshihiro of Wallabies Records. Three years later, it was ready. The Wolf sent a DAT of their song “Bad Reputaion” to the Statics for them to put their track on. Apparently the record was supposed to be two Joan Jett covers, but somehow this was lost in the communication. Another cover, “Bright Lights, Big City”, ended up on the Flaming Burnout benefit compilation for Estrus Records. The song and the band were left off the tracklisting for the CD, which could have been the writing on the wall.
Three months after the release of the second LP, the band was about to embark on their biggest venture, a tour of Japan. The only problem: Zippy didn’t want to go. It essentially broke the band’s morale. They quickly got Zeke Howard/Static to fill in; he was a friend of the band from Arizona, could play drums, and already had a name that started with Z. They prepped for the tour, and played what would be the last Statics shows in the US with Zeke on drums, opening for The Makers in Bellingham and playing one last Seattle show. Zack put together a Japanese tour single on his Static Records imprint from their last sessions; three songs, including a cover of Loli and the Chones “I Hate Your Guts”. Then they embarked for Japan to play the biggest shows of their lives. They did six shows in two weeks, playing to an unbelievably positive response from larger audiences than they had ever seen in the States. It was the first time they signed autographs. They headlined a six band bill at the
legendary
Shelter, got blown off the stage by Gyogun Rends at the Milk Club, and played
with Mad 3, Room 41, Lu Lu’s Marble, The Registrators and more. It was
in reality the last gasp of The Statics, but it was also the apex of their popularity.
When everyone returned from Japan, the band was done. Zippy not going to Japan had broken Zack’s confidence in the band. Zardoz was sick of playing second fiddle to Zack. Zack was sick of being known as “Zack the Garage Guy”. Even though they were a successful band, they rarely got out of the opening slot in the States, especially in Seattle. Being everyone’s favorite opening band wears on you after awhile, when you’re rarely the headliner, or even the second or third band on the bill for that matter. It was time to quit after five years, six singles, two LP’s, and a tour of Japan. The Statics story was officially over by the end of 1997.
There some posthumous releases. In 1998 Deadbeat released a single for “Sold My Soul”, arguably Zack’s best song. The B-Side was supposed to be an exclusive track, “Alien Girl”, which shouldn’t have been on the second LP, but ended up on the CD version anyway due a sequencing error. In 1999 Italian label Rockin’ Bones released an LP called “The Beginning and the End” compiled by Zack. The A Side was all early tracks: The Real Records and Super Electro singles, and the tracks from the Puget Power and Seattle vs. Austin records. Side B was the last Statics recording session, minus the Guitar Wolf single track, and plus the Japan Tour and Flaming Burnout tracks, and four more that were unreleased. It was called Volume 1, and a second volume was planned to cover the middle years of the band, but it hasn’t happened yet. And that was the last we heard of them.
If anything, The Statics were a success story. They started out emulating the simplicity and crudeness of Supercharger and The Mummies, and eventually went even further than those bands. The evolved from three young kids who weren’t even old enough to drink, to three kids looking tough in skinny ties and dark suits. They may not have received the same acclaim as their contemporaries, like the Rip Offs, Makers, or Teengenerate, but they were certainly their equals. The Statics were always fun to listen to; they rocked well enough, but you could still dance to it. At the outset they seemed like they were the band that was meant to succeed. Everything came easy. But in the end, things went South as all things do. After it all was over, the band surely had a great run: they toured Japan, were loved by many, released records on a bunch of great labels, launched Rip Off Records, got to play shows with their idols, and were in demand for records and shows on a pretty consistent basis. Zack’s plan worked pretty well for a young kid’s first band. He didn’t have to go out and sell the band; they sold themselves to garage-punk fans everywhere. Ten years from now, I still won’t have forgotten about The Statics or their music. It’s still as much fun to listen to today as it was back then. They were one of the finest bands from modern garage-punk’s greatest period, and their music holds up well against much of today’s bands; the lack of pretense, the youthful exuberance, the innocent and at all times fun stance is something lacking in much of today’s music. In reality they were just a bunch of kids who wanted to rock, so they went out and did it, and for that we should all remember them with admiration and thanks.