In the wake of the one-night debut of the Skunks and the Violators in the late 70s, Austin punk begins in earnest.
Editor’s note: This is Chapter 5, Part 2 of a serialized history of Austin punk by veteran writer and punk musician Tim Stegall. You can read past installments of the “Austin Punk Chronicles”"I thought punk music, for the most part, was pretty crappy," says Skunks drummer Billy Blackmon in his nicotine-cured drawl."But I liked the fact that it was simple and it was back to the roots of rock & roll, stuff that kids could play. None of us were great musicians.
"We were green, too," adds Skunks guitarist Eddie Muñoz."It actually worked for us, because we had the confidence to overplay and stuff, you know, and we had a great drummer. He filled all the holes and gave the cues and stuff.""Yeah, a year before, you weren't that good," Muñoz grins at his bandmate."But cranking it out with a really good drummer, you got really good at doing all these runs and stuff. It inspired you, man.
"A whole lot of people started because of us," says Sublett."I dunno how many times I heard that. It was quite an honor." He brought the mag to band practice, and the spiky, jagged visuals and outsider attitude held the same appeal. Seeing the Pistols at Randy's Rodeo sealed it:"Let's go back home and do this!" That night, they became the Bodysnatchers, named for director Don Siegel's 1956 B sci-fi classic"Larry was a good songwriter, a good lyricist," says McMahon."He brought in all those songs, like 'Momma, What's a Punk?' [and] 'Are You Into Destruction.
"There were a lot of bands that would play like one or two gigs," laughs the Delinquents' Brian S. Curley."They looked like rich kids from the suburbs who had maybe seen a picture of CBGB or something. They were dressing like they thought they were supposed to dress. There were lots of stripes and polka dots." And probably plenty of pairs of wraparound sunglasses, in accompaniment.
"He came up at the end of the set to sing 'Search and Destroy,' maybe another Iggy tune," Sublett recalls."And as if things weren't sufficiently hostile, he egged them on. Reminds me of that Churchill line about nothing being quite as exhilarating as being shot at – and missed."
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