Once Upon A Time...Screamers

Last night I was treated to a DVD featuring one of the great lost bands of punk rock. Fucking silly, wildness is my best description of this band which featured no guitars and one of punk's funkiest, weirdest singers, Tomata Du Plenty who would flail around the stage in between staring at the audience with a look on his face somewhere between hate and retardation. As my pal J.J. put it, "these guys work up quite a head of steam for a couple of fags with keyboards." Yes, Screamers' various backgrounds included artsy performance-orientated works, dragshows, and stand-up comedy, but none of this really informs the Screamers' music. And those keyboards were run through fuzzboxes so they wind up sounding just like overamped guitars.
I don't know what the fuck was going on with this band, but they were very aggressive and very silly at the same time. Their lyrics are paranoid, obsessed with media, and confrontational. "If I Can't Have What I Want, Then I Don't Want Anything!" Well worth hunting down this DVD, though. Check out their story here.