The Angry Samoans-Back From Samoa

Clocking in at less than 18 minutes total, The Angry Samoans “Back From Samoa” is hardly an “album,” let alone an essential one. It’s an album that doesn’t pretend to be an actual album, just like the band doesn’t pretend to be more than they actually are. And what they are is a highly credible, offensive punk rock band from Los Angeles.
Completely misguided and completely lacking that part of the brain that tells you “You shouldn’t say that,” The Angry Samoans remain a band that few have heard, but once you have, you want everyone to hear it with you, if anything, just to see the reaction on their face.
I’m not talking offensiveness in the sense of The Mentors or G.G. Allin, I’m talking about a bunch of guys that can write a riff and then, just because, decide to throw in some lyrics about Hitler’s cock. It works, for at least 18 minutes, and the world is a better place for it.
“Back From Samoa” remains the only real Angry Samoan “album” that you need, and, trust me, there are days in which you need this “album.” Take the song “You Stupid Jerk,” clocking in at a mere twenty three seconds and featuring the following lyrics:
“You stupid jerk
I can’t take it no more
Your face makes me wants to puke
And your Mother’s a whore
Oh!
You stupid jerk”
Screw taking a deep breath and counting to ten; play this song whenever someone has pissed you off and I guarantee better results.
Or take my personal favorite “The Ballad of Jerry Curlan.” Mr. Curlan, apparently is “nice,” “sensitive” and “goes to Sacramento.” But what happens next is inexplicable. The song literally goes from an off-key ballad into a verbal diatribe that can only be described as full-on hatred towards the subject matter. Jerry, through the aid of increased distortion and faster tempo, is then chastised as a man who “buttfucks his dog,” and who “licks his sister’s pussy” among other even more disturbing tirades. It’s a believable tirade; there’s no doubt in my mind that The Angry Samoans hate Jerry Curlan with a passion. Who Jerry Curlan is remains a mystery. And its better that it remains that way.

So how did a teenager from Iowa discover such a landmark album? Three words: New Wave Theatre. This show, which aired as a segment during USA network’s “Night Flight” program, provided me and (assuming) countless other tolerant youths across the country with a world of strange and exciting music. With the show’s “Ghost Host” the late Peter Ivers, I had my first exposure to the Samoans, Fear, and tons of other second wave L.A. punk.
The Samoans appears (the actual footage appears above) and it features a live performance from them. Afterwards, the band discusses the reason why they seldom performed live (financial reasons) even within the SoCal area. The interview is then cut short with lead vocalist Metal Mike Saunders’ declaration of “Billy Squire!” Thankfully, I recorded “New Wave Theatre” religiously, and the Samoans’ bit became a favorite until I found the album one weekend in a record store. If I recall, most of my friends were pretty enthusiastic about this record.
So can this record be recommended? If you’re a white, straight American male with a firm sense of irony, then perhaps. For anyone else, there’s a good chance that you wouldn’t get the joke and an even better chance that you’d be offended.
By “irony,” it’s important to understand that a few of the band members were, in fact, rock critics and that one member, in fact, later received a doctor’s degree. It’s also important to note that some of their most notorious swipes came towards members of the L.A. music community. By demanding that legendary d.j. Rodney Bingenheimer “get of the air” and calling a recently deceased Darby Crash a “homosexual,” the band managed to burn every bridge imaginable. If not for a few thousand people (Lester Bangs was among them) who got the “joke” and admired the band’s apparent lack of self-restraint, the Samoans may have ended up as a forgotten shock outfit. Amazingly enough, they continue to (occasionally) perform live as a working unit and “Back From Samoa” remains in print to this day. Which is fortunate, because there are not very many bands around that can be as intentially offensive as The Angry Samoans and, in this day and age, we could really use some more intentially offensive bands around.
You stupid jerk.