This starts with the Insect Surfers "Planet Earth's Longest Running Modern Surf Band!", first formed in 1979 in the Washington DC area (actually, Chevy Chase, Maryland), which is before anything I mention in this post occurred.
From 1981 to 1985 I went to Carnegie-Mellon University in Pittsburgh, where I would listen to CMU's radio station, WRCT, broadcasting at that time a tiny 10 watts (or as some of the DJs would say, "10,000 milliwatts!")
My initial familiarity with the Insect Surfers was almost surely hearing their song "I'm in Gear" from their 1980 "Wavelength" EP on WRCT. You can listen to it on the below video while you get dizzy watching the vinyl EP spin on the turntable and the slight undulation of the the tone arm as it plays the slightly warped record, and when the side of the record ends you can hear the slight scratch as the needle moves to the area of the record that I now know is called "dead wax".
"I'm in Gear" is their only song I can remember by name and and the only lyric I recalled. When I played the video of the song, listening to it for probably the first time in 30-plus years, it jogs a bit of my memory; the tune is slightly familiar and I definitely remember the slightly out-of-tune organ. As one YouTube comment says, "A bit of surf - a bit of new wave - a bit of power pop."
In 1984, my final year of college at CMU, I shared an apartment in Pittsburgh with two roommates, one of them from Chevy Chase and he knew some of the band members from high school.
In 1985, after graduating college, I returned home to the Los Angeles area. That year the Insect Surfers relocated to Los Angeles.
A few years later in Los Angeles, my younger brother dated a woman from Chevy Chase. She knew the members of the Insect Surfers and my roommate in Pittsburgh. This is one of those "what are the odds?" things - My brother met his girlfriend without knowing anything about the Insect Surfers and my roommate. I may have been the common connection between my brother, his girlfriend, my roommate, and the Insect Surfers, but I had nothing to do with making the connection, I was just in the middle of it.
I finally saw the Insect Surfers perform, probably in 1988 or 1989, at a somewhat divey bar in either Manhattan Beach or Hermosa Beach. My memories don't include the name of the of the bar, but they do include that it was decorated with fishing nets and starfish and had light pine wall paneling. I don't remember their performance at all, but I did buy one of their T-shirts.
I saw them one other time when my brother hired them to play at a party in an apartment courtyard in Santa Monica. The neighbors weren't pleased, and the Santa Monica Police came and shut them down in about half an hour.
Something I heard about the Insect Surfers was that back in the early 1980s, when they had a college radio hit, there was a show they played which had R.E.M. open for them. I may have heard the story from my brother or my roommate, I don't remember. But I occasionally repeated it as an ironic tale to tell about the fates of the two bands - the band that still played in dive bars after twenty years of existence once was bigger than R.E.M. who had no problems filling stadiums when they performed. I don't want this to come across as some sort of sad fate for the Insect Surfers; given that they still chose to continue to perform after decades means they were doing something that they loved - how many bands manage to continue to perform for so long?
In the years after I saw the Insect Surfers perform, I moved to Seattle, and my Insect Surfers T-Shirt disintegrated. On September 22, 2011, while listening to KEXP while driving to work, it was announced that the Insect Surfers were going to be performing live on the radio that day. I was surprised that they still existed as a band. But there was something else big in the music world that was reported that same day - R.E.M. announced they were breaking up.
While at work at my desk, I listened to the Insect Surfers perform on KEXP. It was the perfect moment to find out whether the story about R.E.M. opening for the Insect Surfers was true. I emailed KEXP as they were performed:
And the response from KEXP:
During a break between sets, my question was asked, and yes, R.E.M. opened for them once.
In 1984, my final year of college at CMU, I shared an apartment in Pittsburgh with two roommates, one of them from Chevy Chase and he knew some of the band members from high school.
In 1985, after graduating college, I returned home to the Los Angeles area. That year the Insect Surfers relocated to Los Angeles.
A few years later in Los Angeles, my younger brother dated a woman from Chevy Chase. She knew the members of the Insect Surfers and my roommate in Pittsburgh. This is one of those "what are the odds?" things - My brother met his girlfriend without knowing anything about the Insect Surfers and my roommate. I may have been the common connection between my brother, his girlfriend, my roommate, and the Insect Surfers, but I had nothing to do with making the connection, I was just in the middle of it.
I finally saw the Insect Surfers perform, probably in 1988 or 1989, at a somewhat divey bar in either Manhattan Beach or Hermosa Beach. My memories don't include the name of the of the bar, but they do include that it was decorated with fishing nets and starfish and had light pine wall paneling. I don't remember their performance at all, but I did buy one of their T-shirts.
I saw them one other time when my brother hired them to play at a party in an apartment courtyard in Santa Monica. The neighbors weren't pleased, and the Santa Monica Police came and shut them down in about half an hour.
Something I heard about the Insect Surfers was that back in the early 1980s, when they had a college radio hit, there was a show they played which had R.E.M. open for them. I may have heard the story from my brother or my roommate, I don't remember. But I occasionally repeated it as an ironic tale to tell about the fates of the two bands - the band that still played in dive bars after twenty years of existence once was bigger than R.E.M. who had no problems filling stadiums when they performed. I don't want this to come across as some sort of sad fate for the Insect Surfers; given that they still chose to continue to perform after decades means they were doing something that they loved - how many bands manage to continue to perform for so long?
In the years after I saw the Insect Surfers perform, I moved to Seattle, and my Insect Surfers T-Shirt disintegrated. On September 22, 2011, while listening to KEXP while driving to work, it was announced that the Insect Surfers were going to be performing live on the radio that day. I was surprised that they still existed as a band. But there was something else big in the music world that was reported that same day - R.E.M. announced they were breaking up.
While at work at my desk, I listened to the Insect Surfers perform on KEXP. It was the perfect moment to find out whether the story about R.E.M. opening for the Insect Surfers was true. I emailed KEXP as they were performed:
Sent: Thursday, September 22, 2011 2:09 PM
To: KEXP DJ
Subject: The time R.E.M. opened _for_ the Insect Surfers
Perhaps this is a bit cruel to ask, but you have to ask the Insect Surfers about the time that R.E.M. opened for them in the 80s.
To: KEXP DJ
Subject: The time R.E.M. opened _for_ the Insect Surfers
Perhaps this is a bit cruel to ask, but you have to ask the Insect Surfers about the time that R.E.M. opened for them in the 80s.
And the response from KEXP:
From: KEXP DJ
Date: Thu, 22 Sep 2011 14:19:36 -0700
Subject: RE: The time R.E.M opened _for_ the Insect Surfers
That's not cruel, that's genius. Thank you!
Date: Thu, 22 Sep 2011 14:19:36 -0700
Subject: RE: The time R.E.M opened _for_ the Insect Surfers
That's not cruel, that's genius. Thank you!
During a break between sets, my question was asked, and yes, R.E.M. opened for them once.
But it wasn't the R.E.M. that everyone knows; it was a different band that was also named R.E.M.
And there you have it, my apocryphal tale was sort-of true, and it now has amusing coda to add to it.
(Alas, the performance is no longer archived on KEXP's website. When KEXP did a website upgrade a few years back, they never restored it. I started a draft of this post about five years ago in the hope that they would eventually restore the recording so I could put it in this post. I've given up waiting, so here's the post without the recorded evidence.)
