Kill or Be Killed The Absentees March 13, 1981 LONG BEACH PUNK ROCK

Long Beach Punk Rock Band The Absentees Rocco Banich Kill or be Killed

Though the Absentees stayed together long enough for the single to get pressed, the band fell apart shortly thereafter. Two hundred copies were manufactured, and Rocco came up with $163, enough to pay for half the pressing. The other half (94 copies to be exact) were never picked up from the pressing plant. The copies that Rocco did get were mostly given away and, of course, Rocco made sure the subject of his contempt, Mary, got a copy. Mike Zed reports that: "Even the ones that were sold at Zed Records (including the ones that went to Jello and Tim Yo) he gave to the store for free just so we would carry it. He said he brought them and felt weird about it the first time, but the second time he came in we listened to it and liked it, and he has liked us ever since." "Promotional copy" was printed on the 45's label to avoid a perceived infraction of copyright laws, and "promo" would be unwittingly accurate since Rocco did give away out most copies. Rocco was freely giving out copies to his niece's friends years later. That last sentence surely has punk collectors around the world shaking their heads in disbelief. Up until Rocco was found again, only five copies had surfaced "in the wild": one in a San Francisco shop, one mail-ordered from Berkeley, one in a British record store, one on a German set sale list for 10 DM, and one was rounded up by the Stitches guitarist amidst a box of junk records at a local swap.

Category:

Music

Tags:

• the
• Absentees
• Rocco
• Banich
• Kill
• or
• be
• Killed
• Long
• Beach
• Punk
• Rock
• Band
• Zed
• Records
• acdc
• bands
• grunge
• oblivion
• gig
• sublime