Matt Abourezk presents this rare, previously unseen footage of Thin White Rope, performing the song "It's OK" in their final show ever. Shot in Ghent, Belgium (1992), this footage is unedited and rough, the audio is live, recorded only by the mic on the camera.
Guy Kyser: Vocals and Guitar
Roger Kunkel: Guitar
Matt Abourezk: Drums
Stooert Odom: Bass

Hi Robert,

Thanks for putting together so much rich '80s Davis music memories (www.davis80smusic.com) ! I've spent a couple hours browsing around, checking out the links and enjoying every minute of it!

My name is Ed Pahl. I founded Grey Bouquet with Paul Takushi and Steve Hutchison in 1984. We played together for about 3 years gigging locally at the Coffee House, Aggie Hotel, Olive Pit, Whole Earth, Spanky's and other various venues. Steve played bass, Paul the drums and I sang and played guitar. During our height, John Cypher (Boys Life, Blah Blah Blah) lent a hand on guitar and electric violin. Influences included Warsaw, Joy Division and psychedelia placing us a bit on the 'darker side' of the Paisley Underground. There is a good quality 8 track out there of 4 of our songs that we recorded in Dave Gill's (Game Theory) garage studio that received some airplay; however, our greatest contribution to the Davis music scene in the 80's was opening up and running the Olive Pit. Our co-op music warehouse provided many of the bands in Davis during that era a place to practice as well as a venue to play several memorable concerts between 85 to 87.

A little deeper on the Grey Bouquet history...

The original three members all met down at KDVS one night and just started playing together--I played guitar, sang and wrote songs, Steve was a converted guitar player who picked up a bass I had lying around and Paul played drums with the Aggie band. I think Geoff Ball (Blah Blah Blah) had originally introduced me to the others and brought me down to KDVS--we were both taking art classes together and had started jamming and hanging out at my duplex on Anderson and Villanova. Steve was from Glendora and knew another SoCal artist named Adrian who would drop acid and join us on microphone screaming and rambling about all sorts of hysteria and philosophy. Those 'early days' we called ourselves 'Adrian and The Soars' and we spent the Summer of '84 playing hearts and drinking vodka all day with Alex Abey and DeWitt, who were DJs down at KDVS. We also spent hours playing and recording endless bizzare, psychedelic jam sessions underneath Adrian's sometimes brilliant, but often disturbed ramblings. These early days of energy and newfound passion produced some amazing recordings and spawned some of our best songs. We had yet to really get out there on the scene gigging, when, as fate would have it, Adrian suffered a nervous breakdown of sorts and left the band at the end of Summer '84.

We kept on and I took up singing duties as we began to forge some songs out of our jam sessions. During late '84 and early '85 Geoff joined us on guitar and sang too in the beginning; Geoff Ball was an amazing guy, played guitar and sang better than Robert Smith or Siouxsie Sioux and was the only one on campus who wore all black--jet black hair, black leather and boots! He was ahead of his time and a great talent with an amazing energy. Steve Packenham (True West) joined for a stint as well on guitar; I knew Steve from high school actually and had earlier helped True West by taking photos of the boys for one of their albums out at Plainfield Station. Steve was True West's drummer at the time but was picking up guitar as well and it proved a good fit playing together and feeding off each other for awhile. As others have mentioned in their emails, everyone was connected in the Davis music scene in the mid-80's around KDVS, local concerts and houseparties that everyone seemed to always end up at. We would all go, as a band, to San Francisco, Berkeley and Sacramento to see the bands we hung with and their extended network, not unlike the 'tribes' of the '60's. The action just moved around from "The Farm" out on Mace Blvd, to the 'Blow Your TV' house or 616.  616 Anderson was a magical place owned by one of the art professors on campus--my favorite show there was Savage Republic. As far as Grey Bouquet went, I think our most memorable live performance came on Mother's Day '86 at Whole Earth. That day, and our final lineup, included Steve Hutchison on Bass, Paul Takushi on drums, John Cypher on electric guitar and violin plus vocals, and myself on guitar and lead vocals.

Da facts regarding the Olive Pit...

Bill Scholer was in charge of the Printmaking Lab in the Art Department in the mid-80's and also headed up a blues band that played around town. He had a small space where his band practiced on Olive Drive in the 'industrial section' of town which was the ONLY site within Davis city limits without a noise ordinance. I knew Bill from art school and would go hang out during practices and his gigs. When we got kicked out of our Anderson road duplex where Steve, DeWitt and I were living and practicing, I decided to take a 'leap of faith' and rent out one of the larger units that had just come open. So in 1985, I rented out a 2,000 square foot warehouse in the middle of the North row of spaces on the West end of Olive Drive behind Murder Burger next to a machine shop and the Olive Pit was born. Initially, we were the only band playing there but everyone came over and pretty quickly we decided to open up practice slots from 6pm to 9pm and 9 to midnight, 7 days a week. Steve ran the scheduling of bands and I 'bankrolled' the place; when the bands could pay, we broke even (smile). When we first moved in, Steve and I  went across Richards Boulevard and hauled over the remains of the A&W Root Beer stand that had recently been torn down and re-constructed the walls into 2 rooms just inside the metal roll up door to the front. These would be the 'green' rooms for concerts and our crash pads--orange and white walls with beds, shelves filled with books, a hot plate and paraphenalia. There was a restroom available (without shower) and Steve and I lived there off and on during those years--Steve almost the entirety before moving into the Aggie Hotel after we were forced to close.

We 'borrowed' about 40 pallets from Safeway and built a 'two pallet high' stage with a carpet remnant covering. Thin White Rope let everyone use their PA and they rented a couple slots a week as did True West. It was pretty cool and we had a few infamous concerts complete with free drinks for all of orange juice and everclear (obtained from the med school)...Several Bay Area bands played with us locals including Mojo Nixon, 3D Blackboard and Tri-pod Jimmy, to name a few. Unfortunately, someone in one of the bands who rented space, copied the key and came back and stole the PA and some other equipment. This set the stage (literally) for one of the most memorable concerts with Thin White Rope and True West headlining a 'benefit concert' to replace the stolen stuff. For each event, Steve would make up really cool flyers and we'd post all over town and I would silkscreen T-shirts with his designs to sell. We probably packed in about 200 attendees at these concerts, unfortunately, attracting quite a bit of attention from the authorities.

Good times and great music!

That's it for now. Thanks!

Ed Pahl

Grey Bouquet Guitartist/vocalist/Songwriter

Olive Pit Founder/Manager

Okay - here is the first dark-chocolate-fueled stab at a wikipedia entry for davis_california_music_scene. It is very very raw, like a newborn baby - I'm a visual guy and don't fancy myself much of a writer, so input, rewrites etc are welcome (in fact, volunteers to take over this aspect of the davis80smusic project please apply here!) - remember, this is for an encyclopedia - just the pertinent facts m'am - there will be numerous links to additional information. What this article needs to do is make the case that the Davis music scene was, and is, an ongoing, definable subculture with significant connections to the national alternative music scene.
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A rock music subculture has existed in Davis, California from 1979 to the present.
The Davis rock music scene sprang out of group of punk-influenced disc jockeys at KDVS, the UC Davis radio station. Five KDVS DJs formed a power-pop band, The Suspects. After the Suspects broke-up in 1979, guitarist and vocalist Steve Wynn and Kendra Smith moved to Los Angeles and formed The Dream Syndicate; Russ Tolman and Gavin Blair stayed in Davis and formed True West.
Two other Davis bands, Scott Miller's Game Theory and Guy Kyser's Thin White Rope, also formed in 1981. While Miller's Game Theory played quirky power pop, True West and Thin White Rope bucked the 1980s trend towards synthesized pop and featured blue's influenced twin-guitar attacks. The Dream Syndicate, now an LA band, spear-headed the Paisley Underground combining 60's style psychedelic guitar jams with Velvet Underground power chords.
Influences: Sacramento's alternative band The Twinkeyz is cited by many Davis musicians as having had a profound influence with their do-it-yourself, left-of-center pop ethic, especially their song Aliens in Our Midst. Steve Wynn (Suspects/Dream Syndicate) switched from a career in sports writing after attending the Sex Pistols last performance at San Francisco's Winterland (on assignment for the UC Davis campus newspaper the Aggie). The Velvet underground and Iggy Pop are often sited by Davis bands as examples of artistic integrity and primal musicianship. Game Theory's Scott Miller was heavily influenced by Alex Chilton's Big Star power pop.
National 1980s alternative music scene connections
True West recorded demos with TV's Tom Verlaine and opened for REM on a national tour. Michael Quercio of the Three 0'Clock produced a Game Theory EP, and Mitch Easter of Let's Active (also producer of early REM records) produced four Game Theory records.
UC Davis Coffee House rock music venue
From 1978 to 1980 the UC Davis campus coffee featured a rash of national New Wave acts including: Elvis Costello, Devo, Iggy Pop, Talking heads, The Ramones, Gang of Four. Davis was just outside the 50-mile contractual limit imposed by San Francisco clubs limiting competing shows by the bands the SF clubs booked. The impact of these shows in the 200-person Coffee House is often cited by Davis band members as having inspired and excited them in their music careers. Local house parties featured The Replacements, The Violent Femmes and The Rain Parade.
Mid-late 1980s
True West and Thin White Rope toured The United States and Europe extensively. Thin White Rope was among the first U.S. alternative rock acts to tour the Soviet Union. Game Theory moved to San Francisco in 1983 and toured the United States throughout the early 80s. The bands remained on the fringes of their respective music scenes, not attaining the degree of fame of REM or the Paisley Underground's Bangles. The Davis and post-Davis bands tended to be "critics favorites" and the majority of band members kept their day jobs.
The Davis Music subculture:
As is the norm in college music scenes, band membership was unstable and incestuous. However, the Davis bands formed a musicians' co-op with common rehearsal spaces, benefit concerts and "house parties" (in the face of non-existent venues for performances in Davis). The shared rehearsal space for Davis-area bands still exists - in Sacramento – and current Davis bands carry on the spirit of experimentation and creative expression.

  In the Fall of '78, Wynn and Smith formed The Suspects with Russ Tolman, law student Steve Suchil on bass, and Gavin Blair, on drums. O'Donnell became their manager (a role she later undertook with True West). And on February 16th, 1979 a notice was placed in the "Miscellaneous" ads in the Aggie that simply said "Suspects will put an end to rumors that they are actually The Beatles when they join Ozzie at the Sacramento YMCA (17th & I St). The show costs $2.50...which wouldn't even but a Buick in today's market!"

  The following Thursday the Davis debut of the Suspects occurred at the Coffeehouse. The KDVS sponsored show was given cover status on the "Profile" insert of the Aggie with an article by Duncan Strauss "Not Indicted, Still Suspects" (2/21/79). Appearing with the Suspects on the Thursday night bill were Sacramento punk and new wave weirdoes Ozzie, the Twinkeyz and Permanent Wave. All this cost Davis students a whopping $1!! According to Steve Crozier ("Catching a New Wave in the Coffee House" 2/26) about 400 fans packed the show...which, if true, means it outdrew the following weeks Police/Readymades show (w/300 attending according to Steve Wynn's March 8th review of that show).

  Wynn was not averse to doing a little guerilla marketing for gigs. He put quirky classified ads into the Aggie: "$50 will not buy a moped, a plane trip to Arkansas or a two month stay in the Hotel Aggie. (But) It will buy 2 hours with Suspects at your party. Call Steve 753-7616." Or "For Sale: Musical Prostitution comes to Davis. $50 will purchase 2 hours with the Suspects in the privacy of your own home. It's the greatest party favor since the joy buzzer." The Suspects later played such odd spots as the Rec Pool (May 8th 2 PM) and in an apartment above a cafe called Kathy's Korner (3rd & A St) on May 17th. They were a regular performer at the Slick Willy's Tuesday "Punk" Night. They made their first SF appearance on May 22nd, opening for Wazmo Nariz and the MX-80 Sound at the Geary Street Theater. They also appeared at the Deaf Club and the Mabuhay Gardens, as well as the International Cafe in Berkeley. A Single was recorded (at the BSU Studios in SF: "It's Up To You"/"Talking Loud"; with an unreleased track "Make Something Happen" as was a demo tape at the KDVS studios ("You're Not The One"; "Two For One"; "What'ya Gonna Do"; "19th Nervous Breakdown"; "You're Not The One" (edit); While You Sleep"; Bang A Gong (Get It On)" [Wynn Solo].

Local Davis gigs were definitely hard to come by, though, especially after the Antique Bizarre established a de facto ban on "punk" groups. This only loosened somewhat when a rival bar across the street called "The Company" began allowing Connie O'Donnell to DJ a "New Wave" night, and she began to bring in "second-generation" bands like the Suspects and the Mumbles, and later True West, the X-Men and the Les Z Boys to play short sets.

  But in a phenomenon symptomatic of bands that form from students, upon graduation the Suspects disintegrated. Wynn and Smith moved to LA (both independently attending UCLA as Graduate students and to reform as The Dream Syndicate). The Suspects reconstituted themselves for one final reunion show in 1981 at the Coffee House. While playing many of their "classics" Wynn and Smith had included many songs in their rehearsals and set list that night that would foreshadow the revolutionary band, The Dream Syndicate, that was still yet to emerge.

(to be continued)

  And then the great coup! Afterman booked Elvis Costello & the Attractions to perform Feb. 8th, 1978 with Psychotic Pineapple opening. This was Costello's ONLY club date on the tour...all his other gigs were in larger halls or on TV (and was on the heels of the notorious December 17, 1977 Saturday Night Live performance where he was forbidden to play "Radio, Radio" but ignored the idiotic strictures of Lorne Michaels). The tix were a pricey (for the time) $5.75! Both shows sold out even though it brought in a bunch of wannabee pseudo-punks who spat at and threw things at Costello. Costello verbally ripped into the fools, and then kicked into a stunning performance that set everyone back on their heels. Wynn appreciatively entitled his review "Costello Teaches Audience Manipulation" as a tribute to Costello's fire.

  In the next year and a half, Afterman brought in a slew of other top-level performers into the tiny venue: George Thorogood & the Destroyers, The Greg Kihn Band, Pete Seeger, Larry Carlton, Leo Kottke, Bill Monroe, and Oregon closed out the Spring Semester. And in the Fall Afterman continued his string of booking miracles with Devo (which sold out almost a month in advance with tix only $2.50), Dave Edmunds and Rockpile (w/ Nick Lowe); Flora Purim & Airto; the Talking Heads (w/ the Readymades at $5); Rory Gallagher; Carlene Carter; Leroy Jenkins; Peter Tosh; Doc & Merle Watson; Camel; The Suspects (more about them in a moment) /Ozzie/Permanent Wave / Twinkeyz; Pat Metheny; John Fahey & Robbie Basho; The Police ($3!); Emmylou Harris; Ultravox; Dire Straits; Don Cherry/Dewey Redman/Charlie Haden; the Tom Robinson Band with Pearl Harbor & the Explosions; Tim Weisberg; John Cale; Gil Scott Heron; Peggy Seeger/Ewan McColl; Joe Jackson. It was clear that the ASUCD Coffee House was gaining a reputation as something of a CBGB's West.

  Even the Whole Earth Festival got into the mix with the event offering free performances by Taj Mahal, Holly Near, Robbie Basho, Mimi Farina, Queen Ida and the Roots of Creation. And an obscure outfit called Los Lobos de Los Angeles played 4 free one-hour sets at a Chicano Family festival at Puteh Creek Lodge on May 20th!

  Afterman was promoted to Entertainment Council Director in the Spring of 1978 and brought the Talking Heads back to Freeborn, accompanied by the B-52's, to open the school year. He grumbled at the Administrations nixing a summer slate of concerts that included Blondie, Nick Lowe, Boz Scaggs, the Kinks, and Marshall Tucker. This would not be the first time the Administration who block his designs. Coffee House shows continued apace, with a couple of Jazz gigs (Stanley Turrentine and Tom Scott), the Ramones, Ewan and McColl, Dave Mason, and Iggy Pop (w/ the Suburbs). There was even a Halloween show with Steve Wynn's band The Suspects (w/ the Mumbles and the Pushups) called "The Night of The Living Punks".