Axl Rose

"America the beautiful" comes from February 1991's "Going Legit" album from Greenhouse Effect. This album ofcourse today is an 8 song classic that has now become more like a difficult to find still in print relic of a cassette as well as the limited 'Black and white" cd's that were printed up in March of 91'. "This is the album where we found drummer Martin Silva from San Pedro" says Clark Higgins. "I think it was either in the recycler or 'Music Connection' or maybe Bam Magazine,..'can't remember",..but we jammed with him in like march 91'...to june... The Going legit' album would contain some instantly recognizable melodic songs that have become G.e. trademark hallmarks among them 'Ben is dead', Star, Hey Negrita, Wilson Phillips, God's joke, and Dead End street. "Its an all star album" quips higgins "Don't fer'get,..it also has the classic "22nd Street' on it too as well !! From September of 1990 until March of 91', the band consisted of a two piece,..ofcourse doing a classic interview with The Redondo Beach Hometown news and Easy Reader among others as they tried to explain their bizarre politics and new 'grungey' guitar dominated band's sound which at the time, they struggled for a genre label for,...ofcourse also struggling to 'get' a record label of any kind to sign them and their great music as well. "Those were tough time" says Hagins "We had just had a nasty parting of ways with Phil Keegan who to me is a soul brother in this business,...but at the time and moment,..way back then,..it just was 'the way it was',..i agonized for years,..i always wanted to jam with flipper again,..but it just never happened or materialized..." me and ted played with drummer mike valencia from about oct of 90 til january 91'...maybe..we wrote songs 'in the garage' at 251 in Torrance in the meantime,.. In the South Bay area of Redondo Beach, Torrance , and Lomita Calif,. "Going Legit' was greeted at local record shops with eager sales in a musical time when "80's heavy metal" music dominated but and was beginning to sound boring and new underground bands were creeping up and building followings,...Greenhouse effect who had purchased ads in places like Flipside Magazine, Ben is dead and Maximumrocknroll and Bam,..were one of those weird "Indie" garage bands of the under-world,..they sent their tapes to labels like Sub Pop, alternative tenticles, and sst records along with trying to land a miracle deal at places like Geffen records and Capital in Hollywood. "It was frustrating times" says higgins "because we knew we were the greatest band in the world ,..and there was just two of us - bassist Rick Carmody "Ted" and myself ,..i was playing both the drums and guitar in the studio but to play live we knew we needed a professional hard hitting drummer like me - but even better !,..thats when we discovered Marty Silva,..with him, we became L.a's most powerful three piece,..we were like the Jamesgang meets the Police meets 'a noise agency' meets Rush,..we developed awesome dynamics and it all came from Silva's big hitting of the skins,..he was so powerful, ..we fed off him,..he made us sound like a professional band that could immediately go play arenas,...we wanted to play the Great Western Forum ,..we were 'that' confident,..and we were 'that' good,...WE WERE INCREDIBLE LIVE - NO OTHER BANDS WANTED US TO OPEN FOR THEM ,..NO WAY !! "Going Legit' was a very important album,..mainly because of the 'time' that it came out,..when we released it with Mark Theodore at Alternative groove and peanut records in Lomita,..it was just such an exciting time for punk and alternative emo music,'hey negrita' was so muddy and powerful - the guitar chords so brutal!,....we were battling against people like Axl Rose who we hated and thought were so lame,..we all wanted punk rock to take over,..but then when punk eventually 'did' take over the scene,..i wasn't happy because i was like 'how the hell can you not include g.e."?? ....the glorious times were 'early 1991' way long before Nirvana hit the big time later on in the year on Geffen,...when Nirvana blew up big,..man it got too fucking big,..i wanted a piece of that prize,..and i never got it !! anyway,...we parted ways with Silva in like june of 91' ...and then we found this drummer dude named Greg Tarpley,...he was a bit different from marty,..he was less powerful and heavy but he was tighter we thought,..he kept an even beat,....honestly, i..wish to God we could play with BOTH OF THESE GUYS ,..they both drum brilliantly and they both have alot to offer,....'we played HUGE GIGS with Tarpley that were all incredible - awesome !! i wish to God i had them all on film especially the gig where we played up at the Anti-club in L.a. ,...that show was amazing,..we played "Fest 4" at Wilson Park in June of 91' with Greg Tarpley and that show i'll never forget,..we were so good that we thought it was boring,..we didn't realise who we were; we were the first original 'jaded' rock stars idiots !! WE WE

• published: 17 Jan 2009
• views: 1127