there were some other tracks on the records that captured us, but the three live releases (including the two on Alive! and the out-of-print One Night In America) are the band’s true recorded legacy as far as I’m concerned. Beach Town Confidential, especially side two, is the best representation of the band that exists. I guess we never felt that comfortable stuck in recording studios. We liked playing loud for rooms full of people!”


Beg, Borrow And Steal reveals the band in crackling good form, but Beach Town Confidential is a notch ahead in showcasing The Plimsouls at their peak. Sounding both good-timey and edgy as they perform for a clearly pleased crowd at a now-legendary Huntington Beach nightspot, they rip through infectious, hook-happy originals like ‘Now’, ‘Zero Hour’, ‘Magic Touch’, and, natch, ‘A Million Miles Away’. For good measure they present energetic covers of Shindig!-friendly tunes such as The Creation’s ‘Making Time’ and Moby Grape’s ‘Fall On You’.


Case lights up when asked what he recalls about the night of the Beach Town Confidential gig: “The Golden Bear was right across from The Huntington Beach Pier. The place was always packed when we played there. The crowd there was rowdy, lots of surfers, and their girlfriends. And just rock ’n’ roll kids from up and down the beach. There was a lot of excitement and anticipation in the house. A lot of drinking was going on, as usual. People were wired up, but it was a night when I myself was very clear. Andrew and David Williams had come down for the show, and brought their guitars, which enabled us to get the big sound on ‘A Million Miles Away’. They’d played on the original Bomp record, too. We were all really up for the gig, it was a little edgy backstage, ’cause we knew it was being recorded. But we were just off the road touring our second LP, Everywhere At Once, and were tight from all the gigs. We were really rolling, and the set just took off from the first downbeat. The Plimsouls always relied on momentum – we would play a lot, build up power, and somehow start playing over our heads. Our drummer Louie Ramirez was in solid form, and had a fantastic show, and that was kind of the key.”


Existing at a time when the likes of Asia, REO Speedwagon and Whitesnake ruled the popular airwaves, The Plimsouls were a refreshing diversion from that kind of crud. But were they more backwards-looking revivalists or cutting edge punks, and were they able to find


sympathetic compatriots among their contemporaries?


“We did feel a kinship with the other bands in LA It was like a club: The Blasters, The Go-Gos, Los Lobos, X, The Zeros, The Gun Club, The Crawdaddys, The James Harmon Band... all were great bands,” Case explains. “We were all friends. Also, The Flamin’ Groovies in San Francisco. The Groovies were old friends.


“It was underground knowledge. We were all insiders. But we were outsiders, too. Always trying to come in on the scene, always getting our thing together. It depends on how you look at it. And I always felt like we were playing in and for the present time. We took what we loved and brought it forward in a way that felt real to us and the audience. It was a new entity, breaking some new ground, but staying true to the basics.”


“I GUESS WE NEVER FELT THAT COMFORTABLE STUCK IN RECORDING STUDIOS. WE LIKED PLAYING LOUD FOR ROOMS FULL OF PEOPLE!”


The group playing on Beach Town Confidential sounds like a unit just coming into its own. But as things turned out, this was more like a swan song as The Plimsouls disbanded not long after. What could have broken up such an obviously peaking act? “What, exactly?” Case reflects. “The same exact thing that broke up The Beatles, The Easybeats, Them, The Byrds, the Groovies, and got Brian Jones booted out of the Stones: musical differences, I guess they call it. Those ‘md’s are a real band killer!


Training ground: the Nerves EP and those early Plimsouls releases, the Zero Hour EP and self-titled ’81 debut LP


“Why some groups don’t break up, might be the better question. I’d been playing in bands for nine straight years, and I’m the kind of person that just moves on from things. I was turning 30, four months after the Beach Town Confidential show. It was time. My songs were changing, I had something I really wanted to do, and the band wasn’t really into going there with me. We might have gone through the roof if we stayed together, but I quit, and went down the solo road, and without me, they didn’t get along, and that was it.”


In the late ’70s, Case and his then crony Paul Collins led two fantastic, quirky bands, The Breakaways and The Nerves (Alive!’s collections by both are must- hear stuff for any self-respecting new wave/’80s guitar band/powerpop enthusiast), before Case went off to form The Plimsouls and Collins founded skinny tie favourites The Beat. Since the breakup of all those bands, both Case and Collins have enjoyed solo careers that have seen them turn singer- songwriters. But with Collins having released his King Of Power Pop album in 2010, and with Case of a mind to rediscover The Plimsouls’ wonder, the pair have linked up and scheduled a spring/summer tour that will see them playing all over the US and parts of Canada. Backed by the rhythm section of bassist Timm Buechler and drummer Amos Pitsch, they’ll be delighting crowds with songs by The Nerves, The Breakaways, The Plimsouls and The Beat.


“The Breakaways album on Alive! Records a year or so back surprised me,” Case says about the motivation behind this tour. “Paul came up with some tapes from ’78 that I’d forgotten about, and they blew me away. I really dug it. The songs and the spirit carried a feeling that went back to The Nerves and up through The Beat and The Plimsouls. The catalogue that those bands created needs to be played, there’re so many songs to pick from. It was sort of just crying out to be done. And I’ve always dug Paul, so I asked him, and he was into it, too.”


Who exactly will make up the audiences who come out to see these shows, though? Plimsouls and Beat fans, followers of Case’s and Collins’s solo careers, people who never knew much about any of the acts before discovering them via all the Alive! releases? Will you be looking at attracting new fans as well as pleasing those already hooked?


“I think all of those folks may come, and get into it. Like you say, a combination of all the above. And it’s for any music fans that want to get into something that no matter what year it’s from still sounds completely fresh. That’s what people say about the music. And there’s an art to that, you know. Because that’s the thing: it’s the attitude, and how stripped down to basics the songs are, that makes them all sound like they were written this morning. And I think a lot of people who dig rock ’n’ roll will dig this Plimsouls record. It’ll get heard. The tour will help. I think we’ll get out to the people that need to hear it.”


25


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