TESTORS - THE GODFATHERS OF HARDCORE PUNK ROCK RETURN (2 Viewers)

mjp

Founding member
Testors '77 Punk Rock Legends return for two shows in April, 2011.

Sneak Preview performance in NYC Saturday April 9, 2011 & show at the 'Atlanta Mess Around', Saturday, April 16

Formed in 1975, this band is one of the most raw and catastrophic groups to ever grace the stages of CBGB's and Max's Kansas City. The group split up in 1979. This will be their first appearance since they were shocking, inspiring and pissing off people all over town.

"Yeah I worked on these guys for years to get together and finally they have agreed. Nothing like playing those songs with the original line-up."
- Sonny Vincent

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This has been a public service announcement...with guitar!
 
Tommorow in my hometown Bamberg:

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Email interview with Sonny from the Aug/Sep 2011 issue of the online magazine Perfect Sound Forever.
Nice. You could have shown me these few sentences and I would have known it was Sonny:

For us, it wasn't really about having fun. It was more like a sort of life or death struggle to keep our integrity and make a music that in itself has an integrity upon the listening to it without explanation. It wasn't such an idea or concept. We didn't really have discussions about it. It was simply the only way for us.

And they nail gun your ticket to your forehead.:)
That's how you know it's genuine punk rock, the staples in the foreheads. All the kids in France are doing it now. 35 years later.
 
Veteran rocker takes on new role to help his family in wake of devastating fire

Good article about a tragic turn for Sonny's son and grandson. We were in a band together a million years ago, but that's something that binds you to people forever. Like being in a foxhole with them, or lost at sea for a few years. You remain connected by the kinds of experiences that most people just can't understand.

If Sonny is anything, he's tenacious, so I know he's doing everything he can for his family. You could help by kicking a few dollars his way. Either at the GoFundMe site (www.gofundme.com/xnvynbcc) or via PayPal to: [email protected].

You probably don't know Sonny from Adam, but you have a family, right? Or maybe you have the poison of rock and roll flowing through your veins. Consider it a donation to the spirit of punk rock. It still means something. FTW!

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The first time I saw Bad Brains was in a club in Minneapolis (Duffy's) with maybe 25 people in it. Husker Du opened for them. It was April of 1982 [...] They were, without question, the greatest, most intense band I'd ever seen in my life. I went to rehearsal the next night and said, "I quit. I just saw the greatest band in the world and we'll never be better than them."
Funny, I just came across the calendar from Duffy's with that first Bad Brains show on it, and I completely forgot that we opened for Wayne Kramer from the MC5 at the same joint a week later.

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But that calendar just about sums up the twin cities in 1982: Bad Brains, Husker Du, The Replacements, Sun Ra and Huey Lewis & The News all playing at the same club. The First Avenue calendar in those days was even weirder.
 
No doubt. Too bad The Phones couldn't have been on the bill with Human Switchboard the week before.

A better(?) name on that calendar was "Flamin' Oh's." In the 70s they were called Flamingo, but then to get with the times, I guess, they shot their name with a pun gun and came up with Flamin' Oh's. Get it? Ugh. Neither the Phones or the Flamin' Oh's were worth seeing or hearing, but what can you do.

Shangoya is billed here as "Reggae's Finest," but they were really a calypso band, complete with steel drums (their greatest lyric though: "Minnesota land of ten thousand lakes / where the pollution destroys your face..."). But since there weren't really any reggae bands in town, I guess they qualified as "finest" by default.
 
What an awesome month of shows, I mean, Huey Lewis! Jackpot. But seriously tho. 11th, 12th, 14th and 27th! Yikes.
 
I didn't always love the basement show band but I loved being a part of the party. They were always boozy & fun at least. So cool.
 
Sonny Vincent is one of the coolest punk rock dudes i've never personally met. I've conversed with him often after the tragedy struck his family. I've even begged him to let me do a benefit tape for him to help with medical bills, but he's less concerned with rock and roll and more focused on taking care of his grandson and son and daughter in law. That's the punkest thing i've ever heard.
 
that calendar just about sums up the twin cities in 1982: Bad Brains, Husker Du, The Replacements, Sun Ra and Huey Lewis & The News all playing at the same club. The First Avenue calendar in those days was even weirder.
Holy smokes! What a list?! This place rocked!
 

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