Pre-LOOB #2: The Rubber Band, 1979 - 1981

There's nothing like your first band - for me and Ted, LOOB is our first real band.  But for Hubie?  It's these gentlemen!  Even back in the day, he seemed (quite justifiably) proud of these recordings and I'm not sure that if you asked him now he doesn't prefer Rubber Band to LOOB! 

Now, I don't know much about these recordings, and Hubie has always been a bit mysterious, almost elusive about them!  And you know what? I kind of like it that way!  Mystery is always good in music (or any art!).


Anyways.....here's what little I have gleaned over the years:

What this tape contains is Hubie at 15, when he lived in Florida, with his early band (first called) The Penisheimers, but renamed The Rubber Band.  (They eventually mutated into the notorious punk band F, after Hubie moved to New York).  When they were trying to change their name from The Penisheimers, they considered Hubie Poole & The Chlorine Tablets. I had always thought these were all different bands, but Hubie recently told me that they were all the same, just with different names.  Did they ever gig? Don't know.  Exactly when or where these recordings took place? Sounds like a basement, that's about the best I can tell you.  Florida. I believe South Florida. 

Hubie first played me a tape of The Rubber Band back in the '80s, when we'd drive out to or from rehearsal (we lived close together - and not close to where we rehearsed, so it would be a long drive!).  I'd be there in the passenger seat, in awe, and hyperventilating with laughter while Hubie tried to avoid other drivers pulling a knife out on him! (Long Island road ragers, man....they're beyond morons.  No wonder why there's so many serial killers out there! One of 'em almost took out Hubie!) 

THIS IS NOT FOR M'LADIES NOR CHILDREN.  OUT OF THE ROOM, YOU!  As I've said elsewhere, boys will be boys will be boys....so you've been warned!

"Oh what a spectacle....a female testicle....darling, why can't you leave them off this time?"  - from "My Girl Has Balls"

But as I'll say NOW, these songs are often hilarious, always fun, even beautiful, with much to admire musically!  Lead singer Phil Blumel is fantastic, as good as anyone who was singing punk at that time, or since. Or ever.  Musically, you never know what's around the corner or what the next song is going to bring....in a way, it's not unlike listening to "Trout Mask Replica", "The Shaggs" or "Double Nickels On A Dime", it feels like you're listening in on something.... private!  It sounds like you're at the top of the basement stairs, listening in...on something forbidden, something you're not supposed to hear!  For me, it's nothing less than the great lost punk album, though to limit it to "punk" is almost an insult.   And, don't worry, you will definitely recognize Hubie, both his guitar playing, his voice....and his humor!

Now maybe some of this material may strike you as juvenile and adolescent....well, guess what? It is!  That's who was making this music, you dolt, juveniles and adolescents!  What were you like when you were 15?  So, ok, there's stuff that's adolescent...but it also is brilliant!  Take, for instance, the above-quoted lyric, from the haunting "My Girl Has Balls".  The first two lines - "Oh what a spectacle, a female testicle...." - ok, those might be considered juvenile, fair enough - but the third line...."darling, why can't you leave them off this time?" is fucking brilliant!!!!!! 

Listening to this tape now, I was surprised how much I remembered!  Back then, the tape seemed to have no end, it would take up a whole drive, it was both sides of a tape! And not everything I heard is even on the batch I received - for instance, I seem to remember a version of the Muppets' "Rainbow Connection"!

What Hubie's musical activities were between these recordings (1979) and his next known occasion of musical participation (late 1984) is still unclear. It's kind of like Jesus' missing years!  At some point, he moved from Florida to Long Island.  Don't know what age.  I know that he hadn't been playing guitar of late when a friend of his, Michèle Beckers, introduced him to drummer and punk enthusiast Ward Regan. They had a one-off jam session in Ward's basement, doing Sex Pistols songs.  Six months later, Ward called Hubie out of the blue and invited him to come jam with a couple of other guys. The story continues here.


The Rubber Band, "No Bars Held" 1979 *
The Penisheimers songwriting scrap
The Rubber Band
I'm A Robot
A-G-E
The Yodelers
Religious Murderer
Opera In E Minor
Phonograph
Duda Dedication
Calm And Collected
And They Answered No
Happy Things
He Don't Mean Much To Me
Rockadilly
I'm No Punk
I'm Gonna Burn Down The City
Dammit But I'll Do It
Joke 1
Joke 2
Living Abortion (original version)
Living Abortion
Mary Poppins Is My Hero
Mister Bloop
My Girl Has Balls
Rock My Rolls
Crack His Skull
Say Hey
The War Is Over
The Unich (sic)
We're All Happy Here
What The Hell Are You Dancing For?
Who Killed Your Family?
You Can Call Me An Atheist
Orangutan (sic)
Scream Song
Squawk
Crime Of The Century
Blue Mountains - Pull Down My Pants
God Is Bullshit
Finger Me
Your Mom's A Sodomite
I Don't Care
It Always Rises To The Occasion
Hitler's Little Brother
Surf City
A-G-E- (original version)

Phil Blumel - Most lead vocals (later F)
Hubert Poole - guitar, vocals (later LOOB)
Ken Decter -  Drums, backing vocals, (might have played bass and guitar?) (later F, then Amen)

recorded in Florida

* - the mp3s as received were all labeled as 1979.  But one lyric concerns John Lennon's death which was December of 1980 so - along with the fact that some songs are marked "early versions"  - I'm assuming that this music was recorded over the period of at least a year.

download here:
https://www.mediafire.com/?tm95b102h54zk4n

or if you prefer, Dropbox link (expires within a few weeks)
https://www.dropbox.com/s/hddt0e0xa9am0a6/The%20Rubber%20Band.zip?dl=0

Happy things.....they make me mad.....moo......bah!