- A few months ago Chris Bratton asked me to write a brief history of 12XU, our old club in Pomona
12XU Productions was collective formed by Bob Durkee, Joy Aoki, and Bill Tuck in the Winter of 1984. Our first show was Heart Attack, Decry, Ill Repute, Stalag 13, Justice League and Childhoods in March or April of that same year at the Sun Valley Sportsman Hall. Sadly we took a bath on that show as about 50 people showed up due in part to competing with the GBH show at Perkins Palace in Pasadena that same day. Though it was a tough pill to swallow, it was the spark that lit the fire for many more shows and our own venue that would follow.
The crowd on opening night.
Out of desperation and boredom we wanted to have low price shows with killer bands. We felt that Goldenvoice was a blessing and a curse, they were providing folks shows and bands that we would otherwise never see, but on a much larger scale in venues such as the Olympic Auditorium, Santa Monica Civic, Perkins Palace, etc.The ripple effects were being felt and it was leaving the club scene high and dry. As punks, we wanted to bring back the intimacy that brought us to punk rock in the first place and provide an outlet for the many great up and coming local bands. While Goldenvoice certainly had their niche, we wanted to carve ours as well. We did a few more shows in 1984 at the Sun Valley Sportsman Hall, the best being the 7 Seconds show in November 1984 nearly selling out the show.
Italy's Raw Power Rockin' 12XU
After a dreary turnout for a New Years Eve 1984/85 show again at the Sun Valley Sportsman Hall we decided to hold back on shows an contemplate our next move. Both Bob and Bill were employees of Toxic Shock Records in Pomona, Ca. Next to Toxic was their Distribution Warehouse. After Bill Sassenberger decided to move the store to a better location in January of 1985, he moved the distribution to what was the former store and gave the lease of the warehouse to us. The lease was $100 a month and we hit pay dirt! Not only would we have a rehearsal space for our band (Pillsbury Hardcore) but we would have a venue of our own to host bands from out of town (through our connections from the record store) as well as providing local bands a place to play and get exposure. The low rent also made it easy to charge less at the shows and pay the out of town bands. A show never went over $4. The overall vibe of the club was typical of the era, graffiti'd walls, homemade stage, shitty P.A. etc. no doubt the place was a shithole, but it was our shithole that allowed us to create a scene in our hometown, something that was sorely missing.
Justice League
Our first show was Toxic Reasons, Justice League & Pillsbury Hardcore in February 1985. I was a big success and we were able to pay our rent and the bands. We ran a hot streak of killer shows for the next 5 months until an ill fated show in June of 1985. We allowed another person to book and handle a show. The person who did the show wanted to run the door and relieved our scary, cholo doorman Kenny 'K-Dog' Medina. Some local jock type assholes showed up and the intimidation factor was removed, they ran amok in the club and outside the club. They graffiti'd on people's cars and vans at a nearby bar (Now called Characters, which ironically now hosts punk rock shows). Needless to say the bar and it's patrons were not pleased by this, called the cops, who showed up, shut down the show and discovered what we were doing. After the owner of the building caught wind of all this, he swiftly evicted us and it was the end of an era. We did a few more shows at various venues but it wasn't the same.
Jerry of Delirium Tremens
Here are some of the bands that played at 12XU:
Raw Power, Toxic Reasons, Agnostic Front, The Breakouts, Corrosion of Conformity, Ugly Americans, D.R.I., Stark Raving Mad, Doggy Style,Unity,
Excel, BKK, NOFX, Cease Fire, Justice League, Delerium Tremens, WKR SPGT, White n Hairy, Peace Corpse, Insulin Reaction, P.O.W., Bully Boys, Flamethrowers, etc.
Lance of P.O.W.
Kabula-Agnostic Front
Tuesday, January 31, 2012
12XU-A Little History Lesson on a Pomona Club circa 1985
Monday, January 2, 2012
Box Springs Mountain Park
NOTE: I borrowed these photos off the internet. Sorry if it offends the photographers that I used them.
Often times we find ourselves being limited to our own thoughts with so much stimuli out there that will distract you from thinking outside the box and limit your possibilities to the point of painting yourself into a corner. I have lived in Riverside for the last two years and to be quite honest, I can't stand it with the exception of my roomates, who are by all accounts amazing people. Living in Riverside has put me 20 to 30 miles father from the places I love and enjoy. Gas being close to $4 a gallon and limited funds make it much more of a challenge to get to those places I enjoy and can literally be the deciding factor between eating or putting gas in my car. The San Gabriel Mountains have always offered me the perfect refuge to the daily grind and was a pretty close drive for me in the past. this was something I both took advantage of and took for granted. Unfortunately after moving to Riverside my escapes began to become far and few between. As a result, I found my yearning for the Mountains growing stronger and stronger but my limitations prevented me from doing so. This was a great source of depression for me.
Desperation turns to ideas. About 12 years and 70 pounds ago I was a rabid rock climber and in search of virgin rock to do a 'First Ascent'. Driving around I was always looking for rock, anywhere. Working in (ironically) Riverside at the time. I always drove by this mountain with a big 'C' on the east side and a big 'M' on the north side strewn with huge boulders much like those on Mount Rubidoux. I did a little exploration of the area and found some bolted crags and later a guidebook for those bolted crags. Through these discoveries I found out this was a county park called Box Springs Mountain Reserve. After that I pretty much forgot about the area except when I drive by it occasionally.
Years of good living and lack of activity, aside from being in a band (more on that in a future post) my health has been on a bit of a decline. I turned 45 last August and i'm beginning to feel my age and the lack of activity is not helping. Christmas day was a quiet one for me and gave me a chance to reflect on my health and what I should do about it. Hiking always provided an opportunity to not only improve my physical health, but my mental health as well. Upon those reflections and given my financial limitations I had and epiphany: Box Springs Mountain Reserve! A quick internet search yielded a small wealth of information about the Two Trees Trail. Most folks were raving about the quality and convenience of this hike. The day after Xmas i was determined to see for myself if this was indeed true or not. I loaded the dogs up and proceeded to find out. Finding the trailhead was a bit of an initial challenge but was by no means a discouragement. Once found I was pleasantly surprised. I descended into a small shaded creek filled canyon with tall and mighty Sycamore trees. That was a great inspiration for me because this place is literally on the edge of civilization and completely caught me off guard. The trail sharply climbs out of this canyon and steadily moves up to a slightly steep ridgeline. Suddenly all of the sins of the past few years began to rear their ugly heads as I started moving up the trail. Most people could view this as a bad thing, but for me it felt great. As I progressed I noticed how quiet it was and the views of this rocky canyon were sublime. We got about 3/4 of the way up to Cassina Springs which the dogs enjoyed a quick drinks. I decided to turn around at this point with the resolve to to return within the week.
That Saturday I returned with my son, my co-worker and fellow hiker Miguel and his three daughters. Everyone was not only surprised but all thoroughly enjoyed the delights this hike had to offer. This time we topped out and enjoyed lunch at the picnic tables. There was a information kiosk which had a map and description of other trails in the area. Despite a little smog, the views were still great. The hike down was just as awesome as the hike up affording and entirely different of the trail as well as great views of the city. Miguel and I want to eventually do a full moon trip which should look like this:
This place is so close and full of challenges that I vow to return and experience the various fruits Box Springs Mountain Park has to offer.
Much like the lessons learned in the days of Hardcore don't accept the limitations of somebody creating something for you, Get off your ass and create it yourself!
Further Information: Here
Often times we find ourselves being limited to our own thoughts with so much stimuli out there that will distract you from thinking outside the box and limit your possibilities to the point of painting yourself into a corner. I have lived in Riverside for the last two years and to be quite honest, I can't stand it with the exception of my roomates, who are by all accounts amazing people. Living in Riverside has put me 20 to 30 miles father from the places I love and enjoy. Gas being close to $4 a gallon and limited funds make it much more of a challenge to get to those places I enjoy and can literally be the deciding factor between eating or putting gas in my car. The San Gabriel Mountains have always offered me the perfect refuge to the daily grind and was a pretty close drive for me in the past. this was something I both took advantage of and took for granted. Unfortunately after moving to Riverside my escapes began to become far and few between. As a result, I found my yearning for the Mountains growing stronger and stronger but my limitations prevented me from doing so. This was a great source of depression for me.
Desperation turns to ideas. About 12 years and 70 pounds ago I was a rabid rock climber and in search of virgin rock to do a 'First Ascent'. Driving around I was always looking for rock, anywhere. Working in (ironically) Riverside at the time. I always drove by this mountain with a big 'C' on the east side and a big 'M' on the north side strewn with huge boulders much like those on Mount Rubidoux. I did a little exploration of the area and found some bolted crags and later a guidebook for those bolted crags. Through these discoveries I found out this was a county park called Box Springs Mountain Reserve. After that I pretty much forgot about the area except when I drive by it occasionally.
Years of good living and lack of activity, aside from being in a band (more on that in a future post) my health has been on a bit of a decline. I turned 45 last August and i'm beginning to feel my age and the lack of activity is not helping. Christmas day was a quiet one for me and gave me a chance to reflect on my health and what I should do about it. Hiking always provided an opportunity to not only improve my physical health, but my mental health as well. Upon those reflections and given my financial limitations I had and epiphany: Box Springs Mountain Reserve! A quick internet search yielded a small wealth of information about the Two Trees Trail. Most folks were raving about the quality and convenience of this hike. The day after Xmas i was determined to see for myself if this was indeed true or not. I loaded the dogs up and proceeded to find out. Finding the trailhead was a bit of an initial challenge but was by no means a discouragement. Once found I was pleasantly surprised. I descended into a small shaded creek filled canyon with tall and mighty Sycamore trees. That was a great inspiration for me because this place is literally on the edge of civilization and completely caught me off guard. The trail sharply climbs out of this canyon and steadily moves up to a slightly steep ridgeline. Suddenly all of the sins of the past few years began to rear their ugly heads as I started moving up the trail. Most people could view this as a bad thing, but for me it felt great. As I progressed I noticed how quiet it was and the views of this rocky canyon were sublime. We got about 3/4 of the way up to Cassina Springs which the dogs enjoyed a quick drinks. I decided to turn around at this point with the resolve to to return within the week.
That Saturday I returned with my son, my co-worker and fellow hiker Miguel and his three daughters. Everyone was not only surprised but all thoroughly enjoyed the delights this hike had to offer. This time we topped out and enjoyed lunch at the picnic tables. There was a information kiosk which had a map and description of other trails in the area. Despite a little smog, the views were still great. The hike down was just as awesome as the hike up affording and entirely different of the trail as well as great views of the city. Miguel and I want to eventually do a full moon trip which should look like this:
This place is so close and full of challenges that I vow to return and experience the various fruits Box Springs Mountain Park has to offer.
Much like the lessons learned in the days of Hardcore don't accept the limitations of somebody creating something for you, Get off your ass and create it yourself!
Further Information: Here
First Post-Mission Statement
Influenced much by recent listenings to Darkthrone and seeing their connection to music and nature being akin to my connection to music and nature I have decided to create a blog based on my experiences in Nature, Music, and whatever else is having or had a profound influence on my life.Using this as a sort of a diary of my life past and present. Also to use as a motivator to pursue my interests in the best way possible. Motivation has been a key problem over the last few years due to financial and personal issues. With some of that sorted I feel it necessary to use this as a tool to share ideas and thoughts, hopefully I will influence some folks to get out and do some stuff, be it hike, climb, create music, etc. It's also my hope that some of you will influence me to get out there and do it instead of rotting in front of the tele or computer.
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