Formed: Los Angeles, USA
Band Bio / Lineups / Discography
A funny and irreverent punk band from the time before it got all politically correct and serious. The Rotters played a distinctly UK-sounding style of punk, very similar indeed to The Pork Dukes, sung in a pseudo English accent by Moorpark College film student Nigel Nitro. (Guitarist Phester Swollen was also a student at the same college.)
Sit On My Face Stevie Nicks is a classic piece of three-chord punk, with lyrics that practically define the phrase "offensive doggerel":
When I first saw you I had a fit
Couldn't wait to eat your steamy clit
Think that's offensive? Well stick around
We'll make you puke and vomit like a hound
This single was pressed on their own label, Rotten, and promptly banned in Los Angeles after Mick Fleetwood actually complained about it! When I say this sounds like The Pork Dukes, it does. It's a dead ringer.
PHESTER SWOLLEN: Someone claiming to be Mick Fleetwood himself called KROQ and threatened them with a lawsuit if they played the song ['Stevie Nix Sit On My Face'], then called Nigel at home with the same threat. All the major record stores in Los Angeles were threatened with no more big selling Big Mac albums if they sold our nasty little single. Ooh scary! What a threat. Who the hell bought Tusk anyway? It sucked the turds out of a dead bloated water buffalo's anus. Some stores hid our records under the table like a bunch of pussies and some gave Fleetwood Mac the finger an still got their albums anyway.
A second single, Sink The Whales Buy Japanese Goods, came out a year later and was more of the same, and that's not a complaint. They split up in 1980 but reformed in 1984, contributing two songs to the Nardcore compilation, before disbanding again.
They eventually got around to making an album when they came back for the third time in 1989, releasing 'Presumed Dead - In Japan' on Baka Records. The LP contained remakes of songs they had originally performed in the late '70s. All very well and good as this LP is, you can hear how many of these songs sounded in 1978 and 1979 on the indispensable Pull It And Yell, which compiles both singles and eight other prime slice of comedy idiot-punk, such as 'I Wanna Be Cloned' and 'Don't Send Me To The Delousing Showers'. It also features very funny liner notes.
What We Do Is Stupid - Live At Cotati, 1979 catches the original band in full flight, and adds three studio tracks from 1984 recorded with a revised lineup which included the band's first drummer Bruce Brink, back for a second go at the stool.
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Lineup 1 (1978):
Vocals: Nigel Nitro
Guitar: Phester Swollen
Bass: Rip Chord
Drums: Johnny Condom
Lineup 2 (1978-1980):
Vocals: Nigel Nitro
Guitar: Phester Swollen
Bass: Rip Chord
Drums: Johnny Condom
Lineup 3 (1984):
Vocals: Nigel Nitro
Guitar: Phester Swollen
Bass: Jeff Hughart
Drums: Bruce Brink
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DISCOGRAPHY
Subsequent studio albums: Presumed Dead In Japan (1989), Wrench To The Nuts! (2002).
Singles & Albums
Sit On My Face Stevie Nicks (7", 1978)
Sink The Whales Buy Japanese Goods (7", 1979)
Extraneous Releases
Pull It And Yell (LP/CD, 2000)
What We Do Is Stupid - Live At Cotati, 1979 (LP, 2002)
Various Artists
Nardcore US LP 1984 (Mystic): Song Of Howard Hughes / Men
Killed By Death #4 (Raw Rare Punk Rock 77-82) US LP 1989 (Redrum): Sink The Whales (Buy Japanese Goods) / Disco Queen
Cupid's Revenge (The World's Most Romantic Punk Songs) US CD 1994 (Continuum): Sit On My Face Stevie Nicks
Kick Your Mama's Ass Italy LP 1996 (Reverendo Moon): Amputee
Outlaws In My Eye, USA! Vol. II Italy CD 1997 (Cardiac Arrest): Sit On My Face Stevie Nicks
Screaming Fists Volume 2 France LP 1998 (LAMF): Sit On My Face, Stevie Nicks / Amputee
Deviants Have More Fun (Punk Rarities 1977-'83) Belgium CD 2017 (Fab Fuhrer): Sit On My Face Stevie Nicks
Wax Attack Vol.1 - A Collection Of Rare Punk Rock ?? LP ???? (Moonie): Sit On My Face Stevie Nicks / Amputee
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Links
Murder By Guitar - An interview with Phester Swollen and Bob Lee of the Rotters
