Before the tech takeover, before widespread gentrification, before third-wave coffee shops, fancy cocktail bars, and yoga studios on every corner, and before Kilowatt stopped hosting live music, there was a potent underground punk scene in San Francisco.*
The Rip Offs, one of the most incandescent bands of the before times lit up the city from 1993-1995, and left behind a trail of singles, and ultimately just one superb full-length: Got a Record.
I recently picked up the record at Down Home Music Store in El Cerrito, and almost entirely because of the amusing and shocking album art. On the front, four men stand in front of a San Francisco police station lineup with black nylon stockings covering their faces. The back features those same four mysterious men pissing on an SFPD van. I had to have it for the album art alone.
But the record over-delivers on their bellicose album cover: thrashing guitars, driving yet skilled rhythm section, humorous lyrics, and melodic vocal harmonies galore. In conclusion, perfectly executed antagonistic garage rock. Apparently they were quite the fuckers on stage too, routinely taunting crowds and making fools out of their fans, they certainly left an impression.
