Some info, per TG, friend of the band, and worked on DVD:
During the near terminally boring mid-70's there were several bands world wide who were waving the punk flag; even though punk had not been invented yet. Cleveland had Rocket From The Tombs who became Pere Ubu and The Dead Boys, New York had the (pre Television) Neon Boys, Australia's The Saints were making noise. Recently there have been CD releases of recently unearthed tapes by the likes of Debris (from Oklahoma) and Death (from Detroit) and probably others whom I'm forgetting. Most were following in the footsteps the Velvet Underground, The MC5, The Stooges, The New York Dolls. They all put their own spin on things and helped to usher in the whole Punk/New Wave thang.
Here in L.A. we had The Imperial Dogs. They played a total of (I think) five gigs. There was no place for a band playing original songs to perform in those days. What few clubs existed were showcasing touring bands, singer/songwriters or were offering stage plays (The Rocky Horror Show, etc.). The Imperial Dogs managed to play Gazarri's on Sunset once, Rodney Bingenheimer's English Disco twice, a hall party at a rented building and a gig at Long Beach (CA) State College on October 30, 1974. That last gig was set up by a friend of the band who was a student there and was videotaped on some long obsolete form of video camera/system by the A/V Department.
Over the years I would bring up the tape and try to convince the former lead singer of the band (Don Waller - later a rock critic, etc. known to some of the local L.A. types around these parts) to find a way to transfer the tape to VHS and, more recently, DVD. It was cost prohibitive and just far enough down on the list of things to do to not get done.
Well, it's been transferred and has been released. The Imperial Dogs Live! in Long Beach (October 30, 1974) is an amazing document. While all of the bands listed above (and the Imperial Dogs) have had vinyl/CD releases over the years, this is the first filmed document of a band in that time period, sporting those influences, actually doing their thing.
It is Black & White and Mono and absolutely kicks ass. The band (Paul Therrio - guitar, Bill Willett - drums, Tim Hilger - bass and the aforementioned Don Waller) can flat play. The songwriting (by Don Waller and Paul Therrio) is first class. The performance itself is way better than I remembered or could have hoped for. While they were certainly influenced by the above mentioned bands they also were fans of The Kinks, The Move, The Rolling Stones, Girl Groups and 50's/60's rock and roll, in general.
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