"...wanna write some notes for this thing?"

So someone decides to compile each and every Sewer Trout song ever recorded onto one convenient userfriendly compact disc and Drummer Hal asks if I could do the liner notes.

Sure. Why the hell not? I could maybe give it a whirl. All i have to do is remember a drunken indoor nerf tackle football game with a drunken Bassist Jim and some others. No score was kept and the walls and furniture kept getting in the way. All the while, housemates and those passed out guests snored away oblivious.

It is early 1988. Sewer Trout have been together for almost a year and a half. I have moved into a punkhouse with brothers Jim and Hal, a guy named Kenny, a girl named Dophie and whoever decides to pass out there on any given night.

The only band I can really relate to from this time is The Grout. See, at this time, most bands are really serious. Songs are about issues, Big Issues. War, animal rights, homelessness and how truly fucked our big, bad government is. Most bands from this time really, really suck.

Not all of them, though. Some are funny without trying to be. Some flat out rock. Kenny's band, Sins of the Flesh are cool, because they tend to play so loud that people walk out in droves.

What sets The Trout apart is that, while some of the tunes Jim writes are about serious stuff (see above) these boys have a sense of humor. (There's the rally for pro-choice demonstrators and the save-the-babies Christers where Jim and Hal proudly sport signs saying "Male Chauvinist For Choice" for one thing.)

Hal was in a band called Missing Link. Some of their tunes such as Love Song and Rat Lore were appropriated by ST and appear here.

Following that, Jim and Hal were in Linus Crow, then Death Culture. Death Culture featured the lyrical genius of Ground Chuck. ("drunk driving suicide/death's takin' you for a ride/swervin' all up and down the road/drunk/from the beers you stoled"). From those last two bands came the gems, Politeness, Aliens, Vagina Envy and the tongue-in-cheek smartypants classic, President of the Anarchist Club. All of these appear here. Honest they do.

After these bands broke up, Jim and Hal and Keith formed Sewer Trout, then The New Vulgarinas, who played Trout riffs and sang songs about rock climbing. (Jim's a good climber, but I double dog dare you to ask old Man MacLean about Jim's bust for climbing some big ole tower in Concord.)

Though the New Vulgarians faded away, Jim and Hal and Keith swam on. As a guitarist, Keith could barely play dead, as the story goes, but que sera. Also on guitar early on, was Eric Benson, who got the axe over "artistic differences", which in English means Jim thought he was too good a guitarist to be in such a stupid band.

The Trout played shows all over northern and central California. One spot in Davis, called The Place, was a semi-regular spot the boys played along with Cmpshrine, Corrupted Morals, Rabid Lassie and OPIV, to name few. It was here that Hal made clear that the band's biggest goal was to make a seven-inch ep.

One show in late 1988, was at the newborn Gilman Street, and had them opening for Capitol Punihsment. They did a few more shows there and wer offered a spot on the Turn It Around compilatio. A live tape of the songs turned out poorly, so they went to Dangerous Rhythyum Studios to record "FWally and Beaver Go To Nicaragua" and "Sex Trout".

David Hayes, of Very Small and Too Many records fame, offered to do an ep on the newly-merged Lookout label. the songs that would comprise Songs About Drinking had an uneven sound and Lookout wasn't terribly exicted, but since it was election year nd Sewer Trout were gearing up to hit the presidential campaign with their message, if lookout didn't like it, Lookout could piss up a rope.

To help get their platform to a larger audience, ST recorded songs for the Swere Trout for President ep. As a concept, this was sreat idea. As it turned out, he results were mised. One thing that really stands out about it is the terrible guitar sound. It's been ten years since I've heard it, but that ep is seared into my mind like a cattle brand.

The lads hit the campaign trail like Ali on Forman. they wore neat gray suits and campaign hats. They served little pb&j sandwitches and sliced bananas with American flags in them. The main thing they did was thoroughly entertain all in atendance.

Needless to say, the American People did NOT vote for our heros in the numbers neded. They optd instead for a CIA goonNew England bluebood/Citizen of Texas instead.

They were broke and burtn out. Jim was working long hours and decidd to go back to school. The Trout had gone upstream, spawned upon the eggs and was washed back downstream, into rocks and death.

Or were they?

Several months later, David HAyes wanted to do one last Trout record. Jim had been cooking up some of his best tunes ever and Keith was collecting a couple covers over the years. (His version of Que Sera on the ST for president rcord is a strong reason to own that gem.) In fact, the stuff they were recording for this last one is probably their very best. All the songs htey did were so good, they didn't want to cut any of them out. No problem, says Dave. We'll make it a ten-inch. It was so performed so shoiddily they called it flawless.

So here you have it. One of the best bands of anera where there just didn't seem to be anything happening. I remember that, at this time, 8 sSeconds was coming off like a poor man's U@, people would flock gto just about any band known to be Punk Rock, even if it was The Exploited, or The Acused or any other such doo doo. It is a gtrue sign of how good they were back then to hear them now and not feel embarrassed for the boys. Then agqain, some of you "Youne people" might not to relate to some of the topical material, not having been an angry post-adolescent in a time where our president was sending crack dealing gons down south to train thugs in the art of unkilling and the torture of civilians. On te other hand, things are notso different no, so I'llj ust shut up and let you get back to shaking your asses to the catchy choruses, punch bass, speeding-outtcontrol drums and slippy, loud Gguitar. You'll thank me for it. Oh yes you will.

[Edit: danging endnote]

bassist-and-singer le on the comp who weren't