The Germs
The Germs
Circle Two
By: Bill Molloy
July 15, 2009
By mid 2009 just about everyone and their mother knows the history of The Germs. Darby Crash and Pat Smear meet in some experimental school and form a band, eventually finding Lorna Doom and Don Bolles. Along the way Darby's cult of personality grows as the band forms into a destructive machine. Five years later Darby ODs and the band ends.
By mid 2009 just about everyone, if not their mothers this time, knows the story of how The Germs came back to life. Rodger Grossman fulfills lifelong dream of making a film about the band, entitled What We Do Is Secret. The surviving Germs consult on the film and even teach the actors how to play their instruments. Inspired by the energy of young people learning their songs, Don, Lorna and Pat join Shane West on stage for a few songs. What was initially just for shits and giggles eventually turned into a full on reformation. Got it? Good.
By mid 2009 even Germs drummer Don Bolles seems more than a bit tired of re-hashing stories of past events, both recent and otherwise. Throughout a 30 minute interview Bolles chooses not to speak about the public response to the film or his own reaction, only offering "Uhhhh, well, I don't know, it got us our singer" before a long pause. Later on Bolles only refers to the film as "...that stupid movie."
What excites Bolles in mid 2009 is The Germs still existing and playing shows "...to help propagate our madness." For Bolles this is still an exciting period of time, as he quickly points out "...Shane's been our singer longer than the other singer time wise." When the inevitable comparisons pop up Don isn't shy about being realistic about group's first go round. "All the shows we did with Darby were basically instrumental musical shows with some vague performance art..." letting in a quick laugh before continuing, "There wasn't a whole lot of singing into the mic going on all the time, which was pretty frustrating... Shane's a little better at delivering those lyrics than the other guy was." He then emphatically states "So right now we have the real, the real killer package going on."
The summer of 2009 sees The Germs undertaking a lengthy tour around the continental United States, not to promote a film, but rather simply to get on the road and have fun. The drummer excitedly proclaims "Yeah this tour is good, the shows have totally kicked ass, crowds have been great. It's pretty fun even if our bus seems to have the troubles of Job!"
Bolles relishes at least one mundane aspect of road life: truck stops. Of particular interest is the selection of t-shirts. Don himself admits that he loses several t-shirts per show and is in constant need to new ones. He "...got this really cool t-shirt at a truck stop where, you know that Shepherd Fairy Obama 'Hope' thing? It was that expect instead of Obama it was Jesus. Then it said 'Jesus is our only HOPE.'" Unfortunately that shirt was lost in the scuffle of the Minneapolis show but Bolles is optimistic about his chances of finding a replacement. "We see a lot of stuff from the same company that makes it so I might find it at another truck stop around; at one of these truck stops I'll find one."
One surprising bit of news to pop out of chatting with Mr. Bolles is the revelation that The Germs will soon be entering the studio for the first time since 1980. The recordings will consist of "... new old material, so it's still Darby and Pat compositions." Don says the group is tackling two distinctly different eras that members are unhappy with. The first concerns early songs captured on the infamous Germicide album, recorded at The Whiskey during the band's first show, where the infamous "microphone in the peanut butter" trick occurred. Bolles says they're "...doing a lot of things from that like 'Victim' and 'Wild Baby' and 'Get A Grip.' We re-wrote some of those songs to make them be kind of how they were supposed to be back when no one could play." Bolles describes the process as "sort of (GI)-ifying all the Germicide songs."
The second round of re-arrangements includes the songs done during the final Germs studio session for the Cruising soundtrack. Bolles says they're "...making them not suck and be too long. We're messing around with the arrangements. Jack Nitzsche wanted them to all be twice as long for that stupid movie for some reason, and then they didn't even use any of them!" Along with the Cruising session songs they will be tackling two Darby Crash Band songs, "Out of Time" and "Golden Boy." Bolles says the grunt work of re-arranging has been completed, and the group has been playing the new versions of the songs live.
According to Don these new recordings will be part of a larger product, a box set entitled Lest We Forget: The Sounds of The Germs, combining numerous live recordings, from both the Darby and Shane eras, with the new/old material. In a move hearkening back to the Lexicon Devil 7", the art will "... be kind of like that Sounds of the Third Reich record that I have from the 50s... we're ripping off the cover idea." He hopes to have the set out by the end of 2010.
While Bolles comes off as slightly dismissive of the live shows of first go-round of The Germs, his praise for the (GI) album remains unwavering; from going back to ancient songs and re-doing them in that style to listening to the album itself. When the topic turned to other members of the old LA scene, Bolles can't help but gush over (GI) in saying "it had a lot of depth to it that a lot of others didn't have. The difference between our album and a lot of that other stuff is that you can listen to it now and it sounds cool. It didn't age as badly as some of the shit, because it's fucking good. It's a good sounding record." With a chuckle he adds "I think it's funny that The Germs are the last thing standing, you know? It's pretty hilarious."
For awhile the musical career of Don Bolles became overshadowed by a rather ridiculous brush with the law. In the summer of 2007 the Newport Beach Police Department pulled Bolles over in a classic case of Driving While Weird. They seized a case of Dr. Bronner's soap and tested it on the spot; the preliminary, and incorrect, result came back positive for the date rape drug GHB. Don was tossed in jail for four days, which, according to Don, "...was kind of annoying obviously." Eventually "They sent [the soap] to the real crime lab, you know? They figured out 'Oh, this is soap.'"
The publicity behind the bust made Don, and The Germs, a new high profile fan: the CEO of the soap company. "Dr. Bronner experienced an enormous spike in sales and made me friends with the CEO David Bronner. He went on the news and did a Q & A thing and was wearing a Germs shirt. It was pretty cool." Don eventually even made a special trip, saying "Like when I went to their factory to visit everyone the employees were freaking out and everyone was crazy and jumping up and down and going (imitates screaming female) 'This is insane!' because they were freaking out about the amount of orders they were getting..." In the end Bolles came out on top because "At one point they sort of handed me ten grand... it'll get you a lot of soap." Ever the schmoozer, Bolles makes sure to get a plug for the soap in by saying it gives him "...the complexion of a fifteen year old girl. I've been using that shit for years you know? Since the 70s."
By mid 2009 it's still semi-hard to fathom that The Germs as a band are more active now than they ever were. The band feeds off the energy of the youth, who by Bolles's estimates make up the majority of their audience. "One of the ladies at the t-shirt company that makes some of our merch put it pretty well; she said 'Every generation of fifteen year olds discovers The Germs.' And the shows seem to bear that out. I can't say I'm upset by it. It's good to play for people on our emotional maturity level." With the constant influx of new minds to warp, Bolles doesn't see an end to The Germs Mach 2 any time soon. "You know if we can do it now there's no telling how long, when you're our age. We can keep going until we're 400 as long as we keep on time."
