INTERVIEW: JERRY A LANG

This interview with Jerry A Lang of Poison Idea was conducted in September of last year for the liner notes that accompanied the recent release on TKO Records, Pearls Before Swine: The Early Years Volume II. The album contains two live sets from the bands’ line-up prior to Tom “Pig Champion” Roberts — one from New Years Eve 1980 and the other from June of 1981. In the interview we discussed Poison Idea’s first gigs, the early Portland punk scene, their shift from No Wave to Hardcore and how Tom ended up in the band.

Tony Rettman: Is the set that opens up Pearls Before Swine from New Years Eve 1980 the first Poison Idea show?
Jerry: It’s pretty close, yeah. I’d have to double-check, but I think that set only had about five songs. We were still figuring things out. At first, we tried to throw together what we thought was a punk band—Chris Tense was playing bass even though he played guitar on the record, Henry Bogdan from Helmet was on drums, and I was doing vocals and saxophone, just making noise. We played maybe three shows like that.

Then we decided we wanted to be a real band. We met these kids the same age as us who were practicing. The drummer and bass player were 16, the guitar player was older. We started hanging out with them, and eventually we stole their rhythm section of Glen Estes and Dean Roberts. The band had this guy Matt Rogers, who later went on to start the Miracle Workers. He’s always held a grudge towards me about that.

Once we started hanging out, we’d drink together and look through their record collections. They had The Damned, all the new punk stuff coming out. We realized we were all into the same music. Then the first wave of LA hardcore hit—Middle Class, the first Black Flag EP—and that cemented it. That was it. That’s what we wanted to do. So we started writing those really fast, 30-second songs. That’s all we needed. Ten songs in seven minutes.

Do you remember anything specific about that show?
Yeah, I remember pushing our gear down there in shopping carts. The other set on the record was at this club called Clockwork Joe’s. It was actually a birthday party for K.T Kincaid from the Neo Boys. Invite-only, maybe 30 people. A lot of booze, a lot of drugs, a lot of young kids. Clockwork Joe’s was like a Peter Pan lost-boys island. Total debauchery. It felt like the people running it just wanted to see what would happen if they let kids run wild.