Fun by Treacherous Jaywalkers

Start from the 10. Head south on Bundy, past the Santa Monica Airport and the “Please Fly Quietly” signs stuck in the chain link fence. Bundy merges with Centinela. Keep going straight. Past the community garden. Turn left at Mrs. Gooch’s. Skip the alley and turn right. About halfway down the street is James’ parents’ house. It’s a modest one-story building with a front lawn, three bedrooms, a kitchen, a living room, and, most importantly, a detached garage.

Across the backyard is the rectangular-shaped garage. Inside you’ll find a drum set, a 1X12 Barcus-Berry amplifier meant for acoustic bass, and a 2X10 Roland guitar amp. Meat Puppets and Minutemen promo posters are taped to the walls. There’s an attempt at soundproofing. Thin sun rays appear through gaps in the aging garage door.

This is where Treacherous Jaywalkers practiced. At first, five days a week after school. Sometimes, friends would come over to listen. Sometimes the neighbors would complain about the noise. When we had songs ready, Steve Tounsand would lug in his 4-track cassette recorder and set up microphones.

I have several versions of Fun on cassette. All have different track sequences. One label reads, “Recorded in 8 Hours June 18 By Steve, Overdubbed and mixed in 6 hrs June 19-20.” I believe the June 1987 session was our original intention. The two extra dates were tacked on just prior to release. By that time we’d already recorded our SST debut, Sunrise.

I have one photo of us in the garage. There’s a microphone in front of my bass amp. I’m wearing a Bad Brains t-shirt and a turned-up baseball cap with “P.J.D.” scrawled in black sharpie. Quinn’s wearing a Grateful Dead shirt and a flannel tied around his waist. James is wearing shorts with Vans hi-tops and standing in front of the Meat Puppets one-sheet. Joel Bremson, Sean Wheatley, Roy Miyake, and someone who’s name I can’t remember are sitting along the wall. The back of someone’s head can be seen at the bottom of the image.

That garage contained lots of music. There’s probably a car parked in it now. Or maybe it hosts another band comprised of teenagers, playing their own songs, in their own style, really, really loud.

— Josh Haden, Los Angeles, 4 November 2022

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