TSOL
Los Angeles based punk band, whose name, after much speculation, was identified as being True Sounds Of Liberty. It came about after Ron Emery (guitar) and a friend would stay up late watching church shows that invited the audience to phone in and repent their sins. In the background the sweet strains of the Sounds Of Liberty church choir drifted by: ‘We were all bummed ’cause the words to all of their songs were lies, so we said we should make a band and call it The True Sounds Of Liberty. And we all had skinheads then and listened to Crass and took too many drugs and the name kept coming up so we finally took it’. They formed officially in 1980 in Long Beach, California, southern LA, quickly becoming one of the biggest draws in the area. Emery was joined by Jack Grisham (aka Lloyd, Gregger; vocals), Mike Roche (bass) and Francis Gerald Todd Barnes (drums). Their high energy, chaotic shows would become the stuff of local legend, and led to a contract with the Posh Boy label. Subsequent releases combined rock muscle with irreverent punk asides, the arrangements some way ahead of their peers. Greg Kuehn joined on keyboards for BENEATH THE SHADOWS, a more experimental album which echoed mid-period Damned leanings. They also toured with Frank Agnew (Adolescents) on loan as second guitarist. Huge shows snowballed into a set on Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood in 1983, when riot police broke up the show (Grisham having instructed the audience to sit down in protest at their heavy-handed presence). From then on assumed names were necessary to secure gigs, and they split shortly after. Kuehn went on to play with, of all people, Bob Dylan. Grisham formed Tender Fury. TSOL re-emerged in 1984 with Joe Wood (vocals/guitar; ex-Hated) and Mitch Dean (drums; ex-Joneses). However, when they turned in to a heavy metal act both Roche and Barnes, the remaining original members, fled. The original line-up reformed in 1990, largely for beer money, though the second TSOL were still active and playing that same night in LA. It was a sad epitaph on the career of a once vital band.