History

Speed Queens- 1984-1986

Continuing the glam tradition, this time combining it with punk. I always thought that the 80’s glamsters got it wrong. It’s great to look like the Dolls, but they missed their sound by a country mile…although Hanoi Rocks came close for few years.  

I was walking down 40th street in Oakland one day and ran into Mike “Stand” Treece. I told him I wanted to start a band, and thought he had the right attitude to be a singer. His Piedmont High schoolmate, Eban Schletter, came in on drums, and “Frisco” Mike Monko answered an ad looking for a bass player into Dolls/Mott/ Stones with attitude.

We had lots of fun and huge quantities of cheap beer. Eban’s dad loaned us the money to record our E.P., which we record at Dangerous Rhythm studios with Matt Wallace, who later produced Faith No More’s zillion selling album. I heard a rumour that these 7” were going for $15 at record auctions in the Bay Area. Shit, I still have 100 left, sitting in my garage. We got some local airplay on KALX in Berkeley and KUSF, and even got played once on Rodney on the ROQ.

 

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