Earth by Treacherous Jaywalkers

Earth was Treacherous Jaywalkers' debut studio album. It was released in April 1986 on cassette in an edition of 61 copies, on their PJD label.

On a vaguely chilly, spring-time Santa Ana-wind-blanketed Los Angeles night in 1985 the Treacherous Jaywalkers made our way from our practice pad in Mar Vista to a house in Beverly Hills. Or was it Brentwood? I can’t remember. I had recently turned 17.

A girl from our singer’s high school was having a birthday party and we were enlisted to play.

We arrived to a family in confusion. The birthday girl, who looked like she had just stepped out of BOY London minutes earlier, was arguing with her slightly older brother, who’s sense of style seemed like it had recently been immortalized in Brett Easton Ellis’ Less Than Zero. “They can’t play here!” he yelled as he tried to storm off. “Yes they can!” she yelled back, trying to follow him. No they can’t! Yes they can! were the wails echoing through the canyon along with the billows and maybe a few errant unmarked hundred dollar bills.

I looked to our singer, who had already passed out and was laying face down in a patch of ivy, his mohawk resembling an exotic armadillo’s back as he paused to take a rest from eating insects.

A movement in the distance caught my eye. A frail-looking, elderly man was beckoning to me from the other side of a sliding glass window, a mischievous glint in his eye and a cockeyed grin on his face.

Inside the house was all gleaming oak, pastel gold and silver sparkles. The hallway smelled like wood polish and whiskey, and the old man was unsteady on his feet. He spoke backwards-masked nonsense, pointing to a framed 8X10 black and white photo hanging on the wall and saying something like, blahdebe blah blah, lookey here young’un. In the photo were a group of astronauts posing for the camera. Standing next to the astronauts were a larger group of official looking men, some dressed in outfits that read NASA, some in three-piece suits, all smiling. To the right of the group, next to a NASA flag, was an American flag. To the left of the group, also next to a NASA flag, was a Nazi flag. See? See? said the man, momentarily coherent. NAZI FLAG. AMERICAN FLAG. Now, looky here, you. He diverted my attention to the decorative bronze doorknob plates affixed to the stained brown hinged monoliths around us. Below every doorknob was a Nazi swastika. The old man smiled and said something else I couldn’t understand, or which I refused to remember. But anyways, we shortly left the party.

Decamped in my tiny garage bedroom at my mom’s house, Quinn and I got to work immediately on the song that became “Nazi Parties”, found here in its recorded form along with the original handwritten lyrics.

This was 1985. Ronald Reagan. Iran-Contra. Anti-Nuke demonstrations. Drunk old Republican men recounting their NASA Nazi USA salad days to attractive teenaged boys in punk bands while their spoiled grandkids argued. We fired our singer. Not that we didn’t like him. We just wanted to be able to play gigs. Why don’t you try singing? Quinn asked me. Not much has changed.

Josh Haden - 17 May 2020 Los Angeles

Treacherous Jaywalkers were a Los Angeles punk band between 1984-1992. This site is an ongoing repository of all Treacherous Jaywalkers studio and live recordings, with the exception of the three albums they released on SST Records in 1988 and 1989, respectively.

Josh Haden - bass, vocals

Quinn Haber - guitar

James Fenton - drums