The Formative Years – Angry Samoans
Few bands have left their imprint on the first wave of US punk like the Angry Samoans. Incepted in 1978 by former music critics with a knack for irony, satire, self-loathing and causing controversy at any cost, their brand of short punk ditties is some of the catchiest, snottiest and outrageous of the era.
The Angry Samoans were essentially a dark joke band that set out to be deliberately offensive / distasteful in a bid to make people feel uncomfortable. The difference to acts like GG Allin was that they were musically appealing.
Seemingly inspired by bands like the Dictators, the gems of 60s garage rock and sped up metallized chord progressions, they formed the foundation on which bands like the Beastie Boys could blossom later on.
Angry Samoans took the short song approach from bands like Wire and the Meatmen and refined it further.
Being musically much tighter than bands like the Circle Jerks and armed with an eloquence that was lacking in the scene which informed their sardonic lyricism, their shit steering antics got them banned from the Los Angeles live circuit, which resulted in e.g. not being part of the Decline Of Western Civilization documentary, thereby effectively self-sabotaging their ascent into the olymp of bands like Fear, X, Black Flag and the Germs.
