The Reactionaries were an American punk rock band formed in

San Pedro, Los Angeles San Pedro ( ; Spanish: " St. Peter") is a neighborhood within the City of Los Angeles, California. Formerly a separate city, it consolidated with Los Angeles in 1909. The Port of Los Angeles, a major international seaport, is partially located wi ...

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

, in 1978. The band's continual members were lead vocalist

Martin Tamburovich Martin Tamburovich (June 6, 1958 – December 2, 2003) was the co-founder of New Alliance Records and vocalist for the short-lived Punk rock, punk/New wave music, new wave band The Reactionaries. Tamburovich, along with his San Pedro High School ...

, guitarist

D. Boon Dennes Dale Boon (April 1, 1958 – December 22, 1985) was an American musician, best known as the guitarist, singer and songwriter of the punk rock trio Minutemen. He was born on April 1, 1958 in San Pedro, California, and formed the Minuteme ...

, bassist

Mike Watt Michael David Watt (born December 20, 1957) is an American bassist, vocalist and songwriter. Watt co-founded and played bass guitar for the rock bands Minutemen (1980–1985), Dos (1985–present), and Firehose (1986–1994). He began a solo ...

, and drummer

George Hurley George Hurley (born September 4, 1958) is a drummer noted for his work with Minutemen and fIREHOSE. Music career Early years Originally from the East Coast, Hurley and his family moved to San Pedro, California, when he was six years old. ...

. The Reactionaries existed for most of 1978 and 1979, practicing regularly but rarely if ever performing live. After their breakup in late 1979, Watt and Boon formed

Minutemen Minutemen were members of the organized New England colonial militia companies trained in weaponry, tactics, and military strategies during the American Revolutionary War. They were known for being ready at a minute's notice, hence the name. Mi ...

with drummer

Frank Tonche Frank Tonche was the original drummer for The Minutemen.classic rock Classic rock is a US radio format which developed from the album-oriented rock (AOR) format in the early 1980s. In the United States, the classic rock format comprises rock music ranging generally from the mid-1960s through the mid 1990s, primar ...

cover band A cover band (or covers band) is a band that plays songs recorded by someone else, sometimes mimicking the original as accurately as possible, and sometimes re-interpreting or changing the original. These remade songs are known as cover songs. Ne ...

s than to original acts, and the nearby Los Angeles' punk scene was not yet prepared to take a band from San Pedro seriously. One band that did take the group seriously was another struggling L.A. punk band, Black Flag. Tamburovich's influence and input remained with his friends and former bandmates for the whole of Minutemen's existence; Watt, Boon, and Tamburovich co-founded

New Alliance Records New Alliance Records was an independent record label founded by American musicians D. Boon and Mike Watt (of The Minutemen) and longtime friend and associate Martin Tamburovich. They were inspired by the example of their friends in southern Califo ...

in 1980; Tamburovich would contribute lyrics to several Minutemen songs and sometimes travel with the band as a

roadie The road crew (or roadies) are the technicians or support personnel who travel with a band on tour, usually in sleeper buses, and handle every part of the concert productions except actually performing the music with the musicians. This catc ...

. No formal studio recordings of The Reactionaries exist, but a demo recording (possibly from a rehearsal tape) made in January 1979 of the song "Tony Gets Wasted In Pedro" appears on Minutemen's odds-and-sods compilation album ''

The Politics of Time ''The Politics of Time'' is the seventh overall release, third album-length release, and first compilation by American hardcore punk band the Minutemen. Released in between their '' Buzz or Howl Under the Influence of Heat'' 12" EP and ''Double ...

'', first released in 1984 on New Alliance. When Tamburovich died of a bacterial infection in 2003, Watt played "Tony Gets Wasted In Pedro" in tribute to his friend on his internet radio show ''

The Watt from Pedro Show ''The Watt From Pedro Show'' is a music radio show and podcast hosted by bassist, vocalist and songwriter Mike Watt. Background In the late 1990s, Watt began hosting a program on a Pirate radio station in Silver Lake, Los Angeles. After the FCC ...

''. In 2009, a San Pedro-based independent label,

Water Under the Bridge Records ''A Wailing Of A Town: An Oral History of Early San Pedro Punk And More 1977-1985'' is a non-fiction oral history of the San Pedro punk scene of the late 70s to the mid-1980s. Authored by Craig Ibarra, the book consists of 70+ interviews with b ...

, released The Reactionaries' first record. The first side of the LP contains ten songs that The Reactionaries recorded in George Hurley's Shed in 1979, fully re-mastered from the original tape. The second side contains the same ten songs re-recorded by four decades of different San Pedro musicians (including George Hurley and Mike Watt). The record, titled ''1979'', was released on February 20, 2010.

References

External links

Reactionaries demo in mp3 format (Authorized free download)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Reactionaries, The Punk rock groups from California