Reality Control? – Children of Terra

John,

As I mentioned in a different email to you, it is important to identify yourself as one of the only Straight-Edge kids around SB at that time. I might have opened your ears to some things in the ‘punk universe’, but you and Billig were the only kids I knew who were not on full-tilt self-destruction mode vis-a-vis legal and illegal substances. It is actually mind-boggling how few punks in the CA scene were clean in those early years. So, to my mind, as old and befuddled as it is, you are the guy with claim to SE within that little community of HC freaks. I wouldn’t be Straight-Edge today were it not for you!

Do you remember how we worshipped that Embrace LP? That was one of those records that just spoke so clearly about everything right and wrong about hardcore in those middle years of gloom. When I think of how much we loved the DC sound at that point it is always that LP that shouts back.

Cheers

Ananda,

Sorry about the typo in my earlier post. It should read: …leaving the band in 1990. Obviously my ‘year 2000′
slip says something about my age, and my capacity to collapse time when it suits my subconscious mind.

I do have the song titles for the first demo. I can send these in a few months. I am currently living in S.E. Asia, and working as an academic, so my access to these old goodies is limited. I will be sure to send them after my next trip to the states.

In the meantime, a few quick anecdotes about the SB/Goleta/IV scene in the 1980s might be of interest.
First, between 1983 and 1986 the SB scene experienced a serious boom. This was true both in terms of the number of bands in the wider area – Oxnard to SLO – and in the regularity of shows at various venues. Goldenvoice shows at La Casa or the Goleta Valley Community Center on one night and then three or four house parties the next. It was actually a really big scene: very colorful, very violent, and almost none of the political or social consciousness that would emerge in later years. After 1986 the entire area went into hibernation. Reality Control was never more than a blip within that scene, but it was one of the only ‘punk’ bands playing during those dead years. As you know, things picked up again from 1990, and the rest is fairly well-documented.

John and I were both SE. Jason and Teo were not. We practiced with intensity on a regular basis at Teo’s
in Carpas from 88-90. Before this we would practice in my garage/bedroom on Yananoli, near the train station. When we recorded the first demo we actually carried our equipment from my garage to the recording studio on skateboards. We were all just 15-17 years-old. Just punk kids having fun.

The initial Reality Control sound was modeled on Rudimentary Peni meets Nardcore, or something daft like that. We all loved RKL, and Bomer’s drumming in particular. But Jason Fuentes and I were very political. I was seriously into the UK punk scene. All my lyrics reflected this. Considering I wrote this stuff before I was old enough to drive it wasn’t entirely stupid.

John Lyons would later add his own style to the band. We were generally just friends having fun. Being punks at that time was depressing. It was dead for the older kids, and the pop-punk scene hadn’t taken hold yet. Kent was around, but bands like Downcast were a few years away.

Jason and John and I were probably the most informed punk kids in that area at the time. Meaning that we all wrote to bands around the world, traded tapes, ordered records and ‘zines from far-off places and actually listened to bands that most of the CA scene hadn’t heard of. I was mad about the Nottingham scene: Heresy, Ripcord, all the mid-80s fast HC out of England. Also, the Dutch scene was raging at that time: L’arm, Seein Red… We also loved the DC sound… who didn’t? Right?

I’ll send those titles in November. Thanks for putting those songs up Ananda. I haven’t listened to that stuff in more than 20 years.

Cheers