Roger William Corman is an American film director, producer, and actor. He has been called "The Pope of Pop Cinema" and is known as a trailblazer in the world of independent film. Many of Corman's films are based on works that have an already-established critical reputation, such as his cycle of low-budget cult films adapted from the tales of Edgar Allan Poe.
The Vandals are an American punk rock band, established in 1980 in Orange County, California. They have released ten full-length studio albums, two live albums, and have toured the world extensively, including performances on the Vans Warped Tour. They are well known for their use of humor, preferring to use their music as a vehicle for comedy and sarcasm rather than as a platform for more serious issues. As of 2000, they are signed to Kung Fu Records.
Penelope Spheeris is an American film director, producer, and screenwriter. She has directed both documentary and scripted films. Her best-known works include the trilogy titled The Decline of Western Civilization, each covering an aspect of Los Angeles underground culture, and Wayne's World, her highest-grossing film.
Kung Fu Records is an American independent record label founded in 1996 by Joe Escalante and Warren Fitzgerald of the punk rock band The Vandals. Founded in order to release a record by the Riverside, California band Assorted Jelly Beans, the label soon grew to include a roster of notable artists such as The Ataris, Ozma, Tsunami Bomb, and The Vandals themselves. In 2000 Escalante started Kung Fu Films as a subsidiary of the music label in order to release DVDs of live concerts, music videos, band documentaries, and independent films. In 2005 Kung Fu also spawned the spinoff label Broken Sounds Records, focusing on hardcore releases.
The Vandals Play Really Bad Original Country Tunes is an album by the southern California punk rock band The Vandals, released in 1999 by Kung Fu Records. Essentially a re-release of their 1989 album Slippery When Ill, it contains 8 of the 10 songs from that album along with 2 newer, previously unavailable songs. Part of the impetus for its release was that the original Slippery When Ill, long asked for by the band's fans, had become very rare and difficult to obtain due to the small size of the record labels it was originally released on. With their Kung Fu label now firmly established, the band was able to re-release this music from ten years earlier in their career.
Lee James Jude Capallero, also known as Lee Ving, is an American guitarist, singer and actor.
Joseph Patrick Escalante is an American television writer, film and television director, musician, radio host, and former television executive. He is known professionally as the bassist and songwriter for the punk rock band The Vandals, and creator and episodic director of the paranormal travel series Monsters Across America on Fox Nation.
Glory Daze is a 1995 American independent comedy film written and directed by Rich Wilkes and starring Ben Affleck, Sam Rockwell, Megan Ward, and French Stewart. It also features John Rhys-Davies, Alyssa Milano, and Spalding Gray in supporting roles. The plot concerns five college housemates in Santa Cruz, California who are facing graduation and make an attempt to prolong their carefree lifestyle before going their separate ways. Matthew McConaughey, Meredith Salenger, Matt Damon, Brendan Fraser, and Leah Remini all appear in minor roles. Music for the film was composed and selected by members of the punk rock band The Vandals, and the soundtrack features several punk rock bands of the era.
Jack Grisham is an American rock vocalist, musician, raconteur and political activist from Southern California. He is the vocalist for the punk rock band T.S.O.L., which emerged from the late 1970s Los Angeles hardcore punk rock scene, along with Black Flag, Circle Jerks and Bad Religion. Grisham has also fronted the bands Vicious Circle, the Joykiller, Tender Fury and Cathedral of Tears. He records with T.S.O.L., the Joykiller and the Manic Low.
"Jesus of Suburbia" is a song by American rock band Green Day. It was released as the fifth and final single from the group's seventh studio album, American Idiot, and the second song on the album. With the song running for 9 minutes and 8 seconds, it is Green Day's second longest song and the group's longest song to be released as a single. The studio version of the song was considered to be unfriendly for radio, so it was cut down to 6½ minutes for the radio edit. The long version was still played on many album rock and alternative rock radio stations. At most live shows on the first leg of the group's 21st Century Breakdown World Tour, the band would pick a member from the audience to play guitar for the song. The single has sold 205,000 copies as of July 2010. Despite its commercial success, the song is the only hit single from the American Idiot album not to be included on the band's greatest hits album God's Favorite Band. The song has been described as a punk rock version of "Bohemian Rhapsody."
Steven Ronald "Stevo" Jensen was an American musician and an original founding member of The Vandals, alongside Jan Nils Ackermann. The band was based out of Huntington Beach, California, United States. After performing for some time in different bands in Southern California, Ackermann decided to form The Vandals, enlisting Jensen as vocalist.
The Decline of Western Civilization Part II: The Metal Years is a 1988 documentary film directed by Penelope Spheeris. Filmed between August 1987 and February 1988, the film chronicles the late 80s Los Angeles heavy metal scene. It is the second film of a trilogy by Spheeris depicting life in Los Angeles at various points in time as seen through the eyes of struggling up-and-coming musicians. The first film, The Decline of Western Civilization (1981), dealt with the hardcore punk rock scene during 1979–1980. The third film, The Decline of Western Civilization III (1998), would later chronicle the gutter punk lifestyle of homeless teenagers in the late 1990s.
Suburban Kid is the debut solo album by the Australian singer-songwriter Kevin Mitchell, which was released under his pseudonym, Bob Evans. Mitchell is the lead vocalist of alternative rock group, Jebediah. The album was released on 8 September 2003 on Redline Records and was co-produced by Mitchell and Simon Struthers. YourGigs website described it as "an album of youthful introspection, love and loss". Jason Ankeny (Allmusic) felt the album was "showcasing a more intimate, roots-flavored dimension of his songwriting". All the songs were written by Mitchell, although "The Hermit" was co-written with Luke Steele from The Sleepy Jackson. Luke's sister Katy Steele from Little Birdy provided backing vocals for the album.
Since the mid-1970s, California has had thriving regional punk rock movements. It primarily consists of bands from the Los Angeles, Orange County, Ventura County, San Diego, San Fernando Valley, San Francisco, Fresno, Bakersfield, Alameda County, Sacramento, Lake Tahoe, Oakland and Berkeley areas.
Beneath the Shadows is the second studio album by the American hardcore punk band T.S.O.L., released in 1983 through Alternative Tentacles. With the addition of keyboardist Greg Kuehn to the lineup, the band moved away from punk rock in favor of a gothic rock sound in the vein of later releases by the Damned and Siouxsie and the Banshees songs, alienating much of their hardcore audience in the process. Though the album was critically well received and led to the band being featured in director Penelope Spheeris' film Suburbia, it was largely rejected by their fanbase within the punk scene.
Dudes is a 1987 American independent film directed by Penelope Spheeris, written by Randall Jahnson, and starring Jon Cryer, Catherine Mary Stewart, Daniel Roebuck, and Lee Ving. A Western revenge story in a contemporary setting, its plot concerns three punk rockers from New York City who attempt to make their way to California. When one of them is murdered by a vicious gang leader, the other two, played by Cryer and Roebuck, find themselves fish out of water as they pursue the murderer from Arizona to Montana, assisted by a tow truck driver played by Stewart.
Chris Pedersen is an American musician, actor, and NASCAR racer.
Crazy Mama is a 1975 American action comedy film directed by Jonathan Demme, produced by Julie Corman and starring Cloris Leachman. It marked the film debut of Bill Paxton and Dennis Quaid.
Corman's World: Exploits of a Hollywood Rebel is a 2011 documentary film directed by Alex Stapleton about the life and career of filmmaker Roger Corman.
