Body Count, Los Angeles, CA, 1981

Ron Manus writes: Our band’s name was originally “Human Waste” but we had to change it when we landed the vaunted Brunch gig at the Blah Blah Café on Ventura, just east of Whitsett ,as the bookers thought the name was too offensive to put on the marquee so we quickly changed it to Body Count.

Playing brunch is surreal and strange. People were eating breakfast treats while we screamed at them. It was our first gig so I was terrified. We were not helped by the fact that it was morning, so we had to come in from the bright sunlight of the parking lot out back to a dark stage and I couldn't see 'cause my eyes weren't adjusted. My amp cable in the back got pulled out and I couldn't connect the wires in the dark. I remember our drummer David yelling at me to plug in and start playing but I couldn't get the wires connected. I finally got it and was all stressed out as we started making the noise.

I think David and I wrote 5 songs the first week we got together, it came so easily at first. We were really excited because we though once we had 8 songs that would be enough for a set. When we finally got 8 songs we timed the set and it was 7 minutes. I remember feeling really disappointed thinking we would have to write another 30 songs. Fuck.

Listen to some classic Body Count. Enjoy the delightfully named track "Clitorectomy" here

Original Band line-up: Ron Manus, Guitar, Jon Rosner, Bass, David N. White, Drums, Adam Chambers, Lead Vocal.

Pogie Brown, Berkeley, CA 2002

Andrew Pogany sent in these beauties... his first band, Pogie Brown (he, Pogie, on drums, his best friend Brown on guitar) were a duo on a mission,dedicated to single-handedly reviving LA's Hobo tradition. "We were horrible" he remembers, "but brazenly horrible." Their lyrics were the stuff of legend with songs such as "Jesus was a nice boy" and "The Val Kilmer Song" garnering sufficient local following for them to play the Whisky A Go-Go, supporting My Sexual Dad. Firing on all cylinders, Pogie Brown were unstoppable. But Pogany admits their success was based on a simple equation: Lyric thuggery + musical imprecision = Pogi Brown (cover your ears.)

Judge for yourself by listening to their classic anthem, " Jesus was a Nice Boy." The band's days were numbered. In classic rock 'n' roll fashion, Brown's manipulative girlfriend broke up the duo. The band are pictured below at a bowling alley photo booth in happier days. "Our look was no look at all. We wore all ugly hand me downs. But in line with the DIY / folk-anti-folk movement that burgeoned after us, we started sewing our own hats and shirts and stuff. That hat in the picture is one of those. It reads “God Ain't Cute”. And neither were we!

Brown went on to found Not Not Fun Records, now a staple in the LA noise underground, and the band Robador, who recently opened for Sonic Youth. Pogany went on to join the lesser known Here Kingdom Comes, pictured below, in his kitchen, known more for their fine eye at the flea market than for their instrumental mastery. But Pogany remembers his days in the band with an unbounded enthusiasm. "The camaraderie of a band surpasses friendship. You all come together from random directions and are suddenly forced to point in the same direction. There is something so pure about it. And that's what I miss"