The Mutants are an American band, notable in the history of

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

punk rock and

new wave music New wave is a loosely defined music genre that encompasses pop-oriented styles from the late 1970s and the 1980s. It was originally used as a catch-all for the various styles of music that emerged after punk rock, including punk itself. La ...

. They are known for their theatrical performances which often include elaborate props, projections, and comical antics. They are credited with being one of the first "

Art-punk Art punk is a subgenre of punk rock in which artists go beyond the genre's rudimentary garage rock and are considered more sophisticated than their peers. These groups still generated punk's aesthetic of being simple, offensive, and free-spirit ...

" bands in San Francisco, and were one of the most popular bands of the San Francisco punk scene during the late 1970s and early 1980s.

History

The Mutants joined together to perform at the San Francisco Poetry Festival in 1977. They quickly became regular performers in the San Francisco punk rock scene, headlining at the

Mabuhay Gardens The Mabuhay Gardens, also known as The Fab Mab or The Mab, was a former San Francisco nightclub, located at 443 Broadway Street, in North Beach on the Broadway strip area best known for its striptease clubs. It closed in 1987. History The Ma ...

(aka The Fab Mab), The Savoy Tivoli, The Berkeley Square, The Deaf Club, The Temple (aka 1839 Geary Street), The

Old Waldorf Old Waldorf was a music venue located in San Francisco, California. The famous club was located at 444 Battery St, and was originally opened by Jeffrey Pollack in 1976 before selling it to Bill Graham who closed it in 1983. During its time Old Wal ...

The Warfield The Warfield Theatre, colloquially referred to as The Warfield, is a 2,300-seat music venue located in San Francisco, California. It was built as a vaudeville theater and opened as the '' Loews Warfield'' on May 13, 1922. History In the 1920s, ...

, and other punk clubs. They were also noted for being one of the few pop bands to ever perform live at

Napa State Hospital Napa State Hospital is a psychiatric hospital in Napa, California, founded in 1875. It is located along California State Route 221, the Napa- Vallejo Highway, and is one of California's five state hospitals. Napa State Hospital holds civil and for ...

, a

psychiatric hospital Psychiatric hospitals, also known as mental health hospitals, behavioral health hospitals, are hospitals or wards specializing in the treatment of severe mental disorders, such as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, eating disorders, dissociative ...

. They also opened for such bands as

The Ramones The Ramones were an American punk rock band that formed in the New York City neighborhood of Forest Hills, Queens, in 1974. They are often cited as the first true punk rock group. Despite achieving a limited commercial appeal in the United ...

Iggy Pop James Newell Osterberg Jr. (born April 21, 1947), known professionally as Iggy Pop, is an American singer, musician, songwriter and actor. Called the "Honorific nicknames in popular music, Godfather of Punk", he was the vocalist and lyricist of ...

, New Order,

Lene Lovich Lene Lovich (; born Lili-Marlene Premilovich; March 30, 1949) is an English-American singer, songwriter and musician. She first gained attention in 1979 with the release of her hit single "Lucky Number", which peaked at number 3 on the UK Single ...

The Cramps The Cramps were an American rock band formed in 1976 and active until 2006. Their lineup rotated frequently during their existence, with the husband-and-wife duo of singer Lux Interior and guitarist Poison Ivy the only ever-present members. T ...

and

Talking Heads Talking Heads were an American rock band formed in 1975 in New York City and active until 1991.Talkin ...

. The Mutants were booked to open for

Joy Division Joy Division were an English rock band formed in Salford in 1976. The group consisted of vocalist Ian Curtis, guitarist/keyboardist Bernard Sumner, bassist Peter Hook and drummer Stephen Morris. Sumner and Hook formed the band after attend ...

's first U.S. tour which was canceled due to Ian Curtis' suicide two days before the tour was to begin. Their first extended play single was on 415 Records and included "Insect Lounge", "New Drug" and "The New Dark Ages". Many compilations, such as ''Wave Goodbye'', ''Can You Hear Me: Live From the Deaf Club'' and ''415 Music'' included both live and studio recordings of The Mutants. In 1982, The Mutants' only album, ''Fun Terminal'', was produced with the help of

Snakefinger Philip Charles Lithman (17 June 1949 – 1 July 1987), who performed under the stage name Snakefinger, was an English musician, singer and songwriter. A multi-instrumentalist, he was best known for his guitar and violin work and his collab ...

after the first producer, Paul Wexler, who produced their e. p., left the project and was released on MSI Quality Records. In 1983 the Mutants appeared in Rick Schmidt's independent film, Emerald Cities. Footage of a live performance was interspersed throughout the film, showcasing four songs: New Dark Ages; We Need A New Drug; War Against Girls; Sofa Song. Following the release of ''Fun Terminal'', The Mutants embarked on another successful national tour, headlining at major punk venues such as CBGBs and Hurrah. However, the stress encountered while recording ''Fun Terminal'', drug abuse, alcoholism, and family commitments changed the scope of the band. By the mid-eighties many of the original musicians left the band. The three vocalists attempted to keep the band going with new musicians, and new songs were written to feature the female vocalists. An EP documenting the later version of the group was recorded in the studio in 1984, but the material has not been commercially released as of this writing. In 1989 The Mutants had a reunion show at the

DNA Lounge DNA Lounge is an all-ages nightclub and restaurant/cafe in the SoMa district of San Francisco owned by Jamie Zawinski, a former Netscape programmer and open-source software hacker. The club features DJ dancing, live music, burlesque performanc ...

in San Francisco. By this time, most of the band was clean and sober. In 2002, ''Fun Terminal'' was re-released as a CD (mastered from a vinyl LP copy, as the master tapes were lost but have since been recovered) on

White Noise Records White Noise Records was a record label founded in Los Angeles in 1978 by artists Ronn and Louise Spencer, writers Nicole Panter and Jim Bickhart, attorneys Gordon Rubin and Peter Paterno, and publicist Bob Merlis. White Noise's first release was ...

and included three additional tracks of live recordings, a 1980 4 song unreleased demo session and the 415 Records-released EP. Interest in the band re-surfaced and The Mutants began once again playing small clubs in San Francisco, such as SOMA Arts, Thee Parkside, Studio Z and Cafe du Nord. A "Fab Mab Reunion" took place on April 8, 2006 at

The Fillmore The Fillmore is a historic music venue in San Francisco, California. Built in 1912 and originally named the Majestic Hall, it became the Fillmore Auditorium in 1954. It is in Western Addition, on the edge of the Fillmore District and Upper Fil ...

and featured performances by The Mutants and several other notable bands from the early San Francisco punk scene.

Dirk Dirksen Dirk Dirksen (August 25, 1937 – November 20, 2006) was a music promoter and emcee of the San Francisco punk rock clubs Mabuhay Gardens and On Broadway in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Dirksen was nicknamed the "Pope of Punk." Dirksen was born i ...

and Damon Malloy produced a DVD documentary of The Mutants titled ''Mutants: Forensic Report'' which was released in 2007.

Members

Current lineup * Fritz Fox (aka Freddy Mutant) —vocals * Brendan Earley — lead guitar * Connie Champagne — vocals * Mia Simmans — vocals * John Gullak — guitar * Peter Conheim — bass * Dave Carothers — drums * Sue White — vocals

Discography

* ''New Dark Ages / New Drug / Insect Lounge 7"'' ( 415 Records, 1980) * ''415 Music'' ( 415 Records (compilation), 1980) * ''Can You Hear Me? Live From the Deaf Club'' (compilation) (Walking Dead, 1980) * ''The Mutants / Half-Japanese flexi-disc'' (Take It! Magazine, 1981) * ''Savoy Sound — Wave Goodbye'' (compilation) ( Go! Records, 1981) * ''Live at the Savoy, 1981'' (compilation) (CD Presents - BOOTLEG RELEASE, 2010?) * ''Fun Terminal'' LP (Mutiny Shadow, 1981) * ''The Mutants / Impatient Youth 7"'' (Shredder Records, 1988) * ''Fun Terminal'' CD (White Noise, 2004)

References

Footnotes Works cited * * * *

External links

The Mutants photos
at Eclypso.com. {{DEFAULTSORT:Mutants, The Punk rock groups from California American new wave musical groups Musical groups from San Francisco