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Red Rockers in 1981 (Courtesy of Red Rockers) |
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Red Rockers in 2023 (Photo by Lew Dewalt) |
By Andy
Armed with instruments and ready to raise their voices to the rafters, Darren Hill and his Red Rockers bandmates took the Clash comparison and fully ran with it on the evening of Nov. 11, 2023, at Tipitina's in New Orleans.
In 1981, the Red Rockers were labeled the "American Clash" by Rolling Stone music writer Lester Bangs and Hill cringed when he read about the resemblance within the review. He also thought it was kind of funny.
So when the Red Rockers gathered for a reunion gig in their hometown 43 years later, they decided to embrace the disconcerting moniker. They kicked off the show with a cover of the Clash's "I'm So Bored With the USA."
"It just fit so perfectly with what we were doing. It was just paying homage and tribute to the Clash, the ones who inspired us. Whether we were being redundant, or plagiarizing them, or whatever, let's just go for it," bassist/vocalist Hill said in a recent phone interview from his current home of Providence, Rhode Island, where he works in band management and owns the POP Emporium of Popular Culture.
Following the Clash cover, the Red Rockers ripped through their debut "Condition Red" album in its entirety.
A few years after the Red Rockers delivered their gritty, politically-charged and punked-up "Guns of Revolution" single and "Condition Red" album to the music world, they actually opened for the Clash during the Red Rockers' radio- and MTV-friendly "Good as Gold" era.
"It was quite a heady time," said Hill, whose band also supported U2 during their "Unforgettable Fire" tour in 1985, a year after the Red Rockers' third and final "Schizophrenic Circus" album dropped.
Forty-plus years later, there were more exhilarating and ultra-rocking times on tap for the Red Rockers at sold-out Tipitina's. Hill said the memories of their punk days and subsequent years came flooding back alongside original lead vocalist/guitarist John Thomas Griffith and lead guitarist/vocalist James Singletary. They brought longtime New Orleans punk drummer Bryan Barberot into the fold for the gig, which will be released on May 22 -- and titled "It's in Our Blood" -- from Liberation Hall on Blu-ray, translucent red vinyl LP, CD and digital, with the Blu-ray featuring bonus tracks. (http://www.liberationhall.com/index.php?id_product=408&controller=product)
"We had so much fun rehearsing for that show. We probably played music every once in a while. Most of the time was just spent reminiscing, and laughing, and sharing stories," Hill said. "And that's what the band was built on. We had to get back to that first, and then started playing (the songs). It was just magical."
As for the gig -- did the band blaze through the songs with ferocity like in the old days? "Oh yeah, as best we can for senior citizens," Hill, 66, joked. (Six months ago, Hill became a "punk rock grandpa," he said with a chuckle.)
Hill said the early Red Rockers songs resonate in 2026 more than ever in the current political climate.
"I was just reviewing some of the lyrics, like 'Voice of America,' you know, certainly 'Guns of Revolution' and 'Dead Heroes' and all that. It's like these songs could have been written today," he added.
With the re-release of the "Condition Red" album (originally on 415 Records) on Liberty Spike Recordings in 2023, the Red Rockers were ready to roll once again. It was the first time the three original band members had commenced on stage to deliver those raucous tunes again in ages. ("Condition Red" features the drumming of Patrick Butler Jones, who was in the band until 1983.)
Hill was afraid to listen to the new live album, but once he settled in and gave it a shot, he thinks it turned out better than expected.
"But lo and behold, you know, I started listening to it and I was like, 'Wow, this is actually pretty good,'" said Hill, adding that the album features some bonus cuts that were left behind when "Condition Red" was unveiled to the punk underground in 1981.
The Red Rockers also treated the Tipitina's crowd to what Hill calls a Social Distortion-style version of their MTV hit "China" and they rammed through "Guns of Revolution" twice.
I told Hill that "Guns" -- which was the first song they penned out of the gate -- deserves to be played twice in one night, and he replied, "It's only, what, a minute and a half long? So I don't think it killed anybody."
With heaps of politics within the band's songs, Hill noted that they targeted their tunes in that realm after listening to bands like the Clash, Stiff Little Fingers, the Ruts and others and after he took a summer political class at Tulane University "that really opened my eyes to a lot of things."
One day in 1979, the 18-year-olds piled into Thomas Griffith's Mercury Rambler and headed to the post office to unwillingly sign up for Selective Service.
"So that's when I wrote 'Dead Heroes' in the back of the car there that day. So pretty simple and rudimentary and naive, but it's still, to this day, I think it's prescient," said Hill of the tune that was included on the second Rodney on the Roq compilation and ends side one with a bang after Agent Orange's "Mr. Moto."
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Courtesy of Red Rockers |
Two years following the "It's in Our Blood" soirée, the Red Rockers -- who took their name from The Dils song "Red Rockers Rule" after initially calling themselves the Rat Finks -- were back at Tipitina's to play and record the "Good as Gold" album from front to back. They also chugged through "Condition Red" again along with some of their favorite punk covers.
Hill and I then ventured into the band's "Good as Gold" and "Schizophrenic Circus" years, which saw them recording for Columbia Records and welcoming former Stiff Little Fingers drummer Jim Reilly into their camp.
"We had no idea what we were getting sucked into. It was so bizarre and we just kind of held on for dear life and tried to enjoy the ride," Hill began. "It was strange, man. You know, what the hell are we doing in like Teen Beat magazines? And why is Annie Leibovitz taking the picture, our cover art, for 'Good as Gold'? It was insane. We were very naive, young, obviously, and easily manipulated, too, I think. But, hey, you know, to get this kind of opportunity, we tried to navigate it as best we could."
The punk rock ethos remained with the band as it railed against corporate interests -- including Columbia Records -- on the subversive "Voice of America," the B-side to its "China" hit single.
In taking a shot at the unknowing big wigs, Hill said the band saw "Voice of America" as entering the scene like a Trojan horse to get young fans to become activists. "We got a big kick out of that. Nobody seemed to notice, though," he added.
While Hill stands behind every song on the band's last two albums, he does feel they were a little over-produced.
Playing alongside SLF's Reilly on those albums was a surreal, pinch-me experience for Hill, who said that Reilly became his best friend and they later played in Boston's Celtic-rock Raindogs together. Hill is currently playing with the Raindogs again and they've got a few upcoming gigs on tap.
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Red Rockers with Jim Reilly (Photo by Annie Leibovitz) |
So the burning question for me as an ardent SLF fan is, "How did Jim Reilly join the Red Rockers?" After leaving SLF and moving to San Francisco, Reilly ran into Bono at a gig in Berkeley and asked the U2 frontman if he knew of any bands searching for a drummer.
"He gave him (record label executive) Howie Klein's number and told him to call up about Red Rockers, because we had just fired our drummer. And the next day he was on a plane to New Orleans. Before we even jammed, you know, he was in," Hill said.
A few years later, the Red Rockers broke up when two of the guys became homesick after the band relocated away from New Orleans to Boston.
"I was really disappointed because we had started working on what would have been our fourth record, and we had some really great songs in the works, and it just felt like the rug got pulled out from under us. So Jim and I just regrouped and started something else," Hill said.
When asked what he'd like the Red Rockers to be remembered for, Hill said he'd just like to be simply remembered.
"I think we meant something to a small group of people, but nonetheless, I want to be remembered for whatever they saw and heard in us and believed in us, and that would be fine," he said.
As for goals at the outset of their career, Hill said they exceeded their aims very early on by moving to California (San Francisco was where they landed), remain there until they notched a record deal and released some vinyl and tour around the country.
They embraced copious special moments along the way and wrote some powerful songs.
When the Red Rockers stood on the stage at Tipitina's before giving "Condition Red" another whirl, Hill possessed these thoughts: "Being able to recapture that, the prime of your youth and you feel like you can do anything, and you feel fearless -- sometimes foolishly fearless -- and anything is possible. All those feelings just came back with the first note."
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Red Rockers in 2023 (Courtesy of Red Rockers) |
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