45 Grave Preview: March 19, 2011 at Blue Cafe with Legal Weapon, A Pretty Mess & The UV’s

Here it is a Saturday night, which we find night time it the best time to go catch up with one of the hottest women in Punk Rock Dinah Cancer. While we were hanging out we wanted to hit her up and ask her a bunch of questions about 45 Grave past and present, we well as the upcoming show with Legal Weapon, A Pretty Mess and Evil Beaver. After pouring up a fresh glass of whiskey, here is how theconversation went down.


For the uninitiated, how did 45 Grave come into existence? Where did the name come from?
Well, 35 years ago, around 79', in SOS studios ( Sound of Satan), We recorded a song with a TEAC 8 track recorder, beer and craziness, the song " Riboflavin Flavored non Carbonated Poly Unsaturated Blood. It came out on the LAFMS comp, Darker Scratcher. Next "Hell comes to your house" comp and  Mid 1980 the 7"single, Black Cross and Wax was recorded.At that time we weren't a band yet we had the members from Vox Pop and 45 Grave. Paul Cutler (The Consumers)Guitar, Dinah Cancer ( Castration Squad)vocals, Rob Graves ( The Bags)bass and Don Bolles ( The Germs)drums were the core group of what would be known as 45 Grave, over the next 10 years, we broke up a few times and got back together. The orignal line up came to a end in 1990, when Rob Graves, our bassist passed away. The name came off of a button, that Don found at a thrift store. A name that means nothing. We always wrote stuff to amuse us. Surf, metal, Punk or whatever was what we did. If you digged it, then that was cool.

In the early 80's it seemed that the Goth crowd were mixed in with the Punk scene in what seems like a perfect fit for the outsiders and misfits. However did you see these two elements as one in the same or different in ways, and how so?
I saw it as the same. I did my make up like the other punk girls, cats eyes and such. Our music was hard. Back then, there were no Goths, Deathrock, etc... We were just young and having fun. And all scenes hung out together. The clubs like the Fender's ballroom, the Fleetwood, Stardust Ballroom, Whiskey, Godzilla's, Vex, Happyhaus, Scream, and others that have long disappeared, were open to everyone that wanted to hear good music. It didn't matter what you looked like. You aways had friends there and could be yourself. Because back then it was the "US" against "THEM". If you look like us, you were beating up, attacked and spit upon. It was about survival and staying alive. We were all "Punk rock".

With 45 Grave going back to the early days of the Punk scene in Los Angeles, did you ever think that the band would be regarded as the first American Goth band? Is this a badge you gladly accept or is there another band out there that came before?
Goth is a later term, someone called us Emo.  What the hell is Goth? I don't know. I know my music doesn't sound gothic. Haa haaa. Punk back then, was anything against the mainstream. I'm not into labels. This sum it up best by Dave Damage from Flipside: 45 Grave, our favorite Heavy-Metal-Psychedelic-Post-Punk-What-the-Fuck-Ghoul-Rockers!  And that is what I am....

TSOL has been regarded as Goth to an extent, do you feel that this is accurate that they would share that inference, or are we just going back to the earlier question about the Goth crowd mixing so feely with the Punk scene and the dark elements of Goth were there?
Ya, I just answered that with the last question you asked.

The "Hell Comes To Your House" compilation is probably regarded as one of the best comps from back in the early 80's. On that record 45 Grave has 3 songs, more than the other bands on it that got 3 or 1. This seemed like the perfect record to have 45 Grave songs on considering the title. How did this comp come about?
Comps were a good starting off point for the early bands. No one back then, had the money to do full albums but you could jump on comps or do 7" singles. We had already done tapings with New Wave Theatre and started on our 7"inch of Black Cross and Wax. Paul was starting to work with the B-people. Back then, the scene was alot tighter and everyone knew everyone. We were looking for a label and started to do work with Bemis Brain Records. Steve Sinclair, Ron Goudie, and Jimmy Bemis were putting together a sampler comp that we joined. We did get to feature 3 of our songs that best represented us at the time. It was a fun project to be involved with like shooting the album back cover photo, which has members of Vox Pop, 45 Grave, the Bemis camp and more. What to go to a normal suburban house and mess up their world. Hell comes to your House, the music that your parents don't want you to listen too. We lended a hand to just making it the best comp we could and had a great time doing it.

Did you feel that this is the record that helped make 45 Grave a household name?
It was a good comp to jump from. I know alot of people did discover us through this comp as well as the other bands that were also on it. It's still one of my favorites, I still have mine on Vinyl.

Speaking of the "Hell Comes To Your House" compilation, on that comp is another notable band, Legal Weapon that you will be playing with coming up for the first time in some 20 plus years. Wow, what a line up, tell us a bit about the show.
We have been trying to set this show up for a while. I had to go through line up changes so that delayed things. I'm happy to be part of a great bill. The women of Punk rock! I love to bring the old bills back, giving people a taste of how it was back then. Both us, 45 Grave and Legal Weapon, have our history. It's about that Punk history has some female fronted bands and we are doing it so people can meet us as well as some of the younger bands that are out there. Evil Beaver and A Pretty Mess join the bill. I think it will be fun evening and is thrill to share the stage with Legal Weapon, and I’m glad that we'll be able to do more of a traditional 45 Grave set.

We understand that there is a 45 Grave / Legal Weapon linkage, guitarist Frank Agnew who most people know from The Adolescents had been in Legal Weapon and now in 2011 is in 45 Grave. You must be thrilled to have someone of Frank's caliber in the band. How has his addition benefited the band?
Ahhh, besides knowing him for 34 years and growing up with him. mmmm. Great! That has been one of the challenges of finding the right guitarist to fill Paul Culter's shoes. That, alone, is a rough task. Frank Agnew has the talent to do so. I've loved he's guitar work and was overjoyed when he said yes that he would be open to start working on 45 Grave. I have always wanted to work with him on some music project but lost touch with him over the years. Frank join us for the 'Night of The Demons" party last October 2010 and has stayed on. We'll see what the future will hold.

Are there any plans to record and put out new material?
Yes, we have been talking about it. For 2011, myself, Frank, Tom and Brandden are starting to plan our year out. For now, we are pulling up the old catalogs and learning all the songs so each show will start having a different group of songs. I think, the first group will be off of "Autopsy", full on Punk Rock. Then we'll start working on some originals, later in March / April.

The song "Partytime" was in the movie soundtrack of, Return of The Living Dead. Was there ever a plan to try have 45 Grave songs featured in even more horror films?
Yes, but as most bands, we had our problems and that came to an end. With the 2010 line up, we did a song for "Night Of The Demons" movie that came out last year. But, with all new things, we get out there again.

You have played so many shows through out the years, is there an all-time favorite 45 Grave moment or story that will just blow people away that you will indulge us with?
I'll save that for later.

Awww... come on, no stories, what a gyp

How about an on the spot question.. are there any bands today that you feel represent the Goth style of music well today? If you can't answer that because you will have a curse put on you or something, we understand.
Haa haaa haaa …. What the hell is Goth? I don't feel Goth.

What is it about what 45 Grave is that feel may be very misunderstood or straight up not known?
We played music for ourselves and never thought that it would be the start of a scene. I loved looking like a Hammer bride out of the 70's Horror movies that I grew up with and still do, because that is me. We did what we did, it was a fun ride at times and I'm happy I was a part of it. It's always a beginning, welcome 2011.
 
Dinah, we thank you for your time this evening, it is always fun to hang out and visit with you, now let's pour some more whiskey.

Website: www.dinahcancer.net

March 19, 2011 at PBlue Cafe in Long Bech, CA
 - 45 Grave / Legal Weapon with A Pretty Mess & The UV's

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