Suburban Lawns - Suburban Lawns

Suburban Lawns formed in Long Beach in 1978 out of CalArts, gave themselves stage names, and spent five years being one of the strangest bands in a Los Angeles scene that also contained X and Fear. Su Tissue, Vex Billingsgate, Frankie Ennui, Chuck Roast and John Gleur, in a city that had room for all of it.

The self-titled album, their only one, arrived on I.R.S. in 1981 carrying fourteen tracks in barely half an hour. "Janitor" is the one that got on the radio. Su Tissue sings most of the record in a deadpan that reads as either completely blank or the funniest thing here depending on the day, and the band behind her plays fast, clipped and deliberately slightly wrong. Recorded at Paramount in Hollywood.

Their earlier single "Gidget Goes to Hell" got a video directed by Jonathan Demme that aired on Saturday Night Live, and Frank Zappa named it among his favorite punk records. The album was reissued in 2021 and found a new audience, but originals in decent shape are getting harder to turn up.

Original 1981 US pressing on I.R.S. / Suburban Industrial Records, catalog 0-70024, in the top-loading jacket.

Used copy: VG+ vinyl / VG sleeve