Scene Not Heard

“All these people said they would use our music on their comps. The problem is, those comps never came out.”

That’s why longtime punker Ugly Lenny of Inciting Riots became Ugly Lenny record producer when he put out the 2005 local punk compilation Scene Not Heard, featuring one song from each of 14 local bands.

Compilation albums are pop-culture time capsules. Plus, “a lot of bands met each other from Volume 1…there were a lot of shows that happened because of Scene Not Heard.” And although Lenny says he actually lost $300 or so on the first comp, he felt it was time to put out Volume 2.

“The main reason I do this is because these bands may not get heard otherwise,” Lenny tells the Reader.

Scene Not Heard Volume 2 is out featuring some bands, such as Inciting Riots, Diatribe, and the Mice, who have been thrashing locally for 15-plus years. Social Spit, who has been at it for 35 years, is the only band still standing who played the downtown Skeleton Club in the early 1980s.

“We opened for Black Flag at the North Park Lions Club,” says Social Spit lead singer Cliff Cunningham. He says all the old-timer fans from back in the day come out every time Social Spit regroups to play.

“I still do it for fun. There is no money in it.” Cunningham tells the Reader that other local icons are still at it. “The Ministryofyouth just got back together for the first time in 30 years. The Dum Dum Boys get back together now and then. If they aren’t dead yet, these old punkers will still do it.”

Cunningham says he tells young bands they should take the plunge if they are committed. “I tell them its gonna be a hard life, but if they want to — and if they don’t have jobs — they should sell everything and get a van and go for it. I tell them they only live once and they can always work later or live off the government.”

Lenny says he was particularly motivated to make Volume 2 because of the energy from new-blood bands such as the Batlords, Die Raldo, 13 Wolves, and the Postals who keep the punk-rock spirit alive.

“The main thing [about the comp] is that people don’t even know that a lot of these bands exist. Plus it proves that people who think punk is dead are wrong.”

Five of the bands on Scene Not Heard Volume 2 — the Waste Aways, Inciting Riots, the Postals, Revolut-Chix, and the Mice — will play for a free show Saturday, July 25, at the Bancroft in Spring Valley.