Thanks to Alternative Tentacles' new reissue of Really Red's entire discography on vinyl and CD, you can finally hear the local punk heroes' music blaring out of your handcrafted tube amp anytime you like, from the comfort of your own home. Or anywhere else, for that matter. In fact, the only place you still can't hear Really Red's collected works is onstage.
Yep, if you missed hearing the Texas Biscuit Bombs and Talk Sick Brats jam out some Really Red tunes at the release party on Friday at Vinal Edge, you're out of luck. Singer Ronnie "U-Ron" Bond, guitarist Kelly Younger, drummer Bob Weber and bassist John Paul Williams have no plans to reform, and they ain't likely to make any. They're not "on hiatus." They're scattered across three states, occupying themselves with things that very rarely require sleeping in vans.
"It almost seems like it was a past life," says Younger.
And that's part of what makes the new Really Red re-releases so astonishing, especially to those of us who weren't around to see them back in the day. As if sealed away in a time capsule, a whole gang of music has suddenly appeared from punk's golden era--still young, energetic and untainted by three more decades of break-ups, sell-outs, beer guts and disappointments.
Really Red got out at the right time: just before The Decline of Western Civilization became The Decline of Western Civilization Part II: The Metal Years. Hearing the music they made in their six years together is as close as a punk can get to traveling back through time to the earliest days -- and possibly, the best days -- of Houston's punk scene.
"It was excitement, and it was freedom, and it was dangerous and scary at times," says Ronnie Bond. "It was a great time."
REWIND: Jello Biafra Thinks It's Time You Re-Examined Really Red
While it feels as though punks have been having a great time in Houston forever these days, there was a time when "punk" wasn't a thing in this town. In the early '70s, the foundations were still being laid, and Really Red hadn't quite come together yet.
"We started playing around 1971, and we had a couple of different band names and played cover songs," says John Paul Williams.
And then, as the '80s approached, music began to take an interesting turn.
"I joined in the band in '78, in the summer when things were really starting to happen in New York and L.A.," remembers Bob Weber. "Things were just starting to sizzle here. Really Red was a band searching for an identity, and I joined it at the right time."
Ronnie Bond describes a wave of new possibilities and creativity taking hold of the city's underground rock scene.
"Really Red's trajectory in getting into more alternative and punk and, later, hardcore was really fueled a lot in Houston by Legionnaire's Disease Band," says Bond. "Jerry Anomie and Legionnaire's Disease Band set Houston on fire and created a jumping-off place for Really Red and really inspired us. When we saw them playing and doing what they were doing, we went, yeah. They really kicked us in the direction we went."
Really Red had been searching for their movement, remembers Weber. Now, they had found it.
"We were inspired by everything that was going on in the new music scene, all of the New Wave and punk rock," he says. "All of us were music lovers from way back in the '60s and '70s, so there was a big love of music back then from all that. But also a real boredom with the system of music, the music industry and the promotion and the giant concerts and stuff like that. We wanted to get back where it was just fun again."
REWIND: Those Really Red Reissues Really Rock
Soon, Really Red was writing some of the coolest shit to ever come out of H-Town. The only problem was finding a place that would allow them to play it.
Story continues on the next page.
