File 30

Three Decades of VPOY

Answer That and Stay Fashionable was released on Wingnut Records. As I recall, the label was started to give Screw 32 a home. Despite being a big East Bay draw, they couldn’t find a label. AFI shared this dilemma. Watching me struggle with our own search, my good friend Doug (guitarist of Screw 32 — with whom it felt like we shared every other local bill from ’93-’97) put in a good word with Wingnut’s owner. Josh, a member of the infamous Insaints, signed us. He played bass next to Miriam when she’d made love to a promiscuous banana on stage at one of my first 924 attendances. His credentials were there.

Answer That and Stay Fashionable was released in the summer of ’95. Shadowing the Swingin’ Utters’ van, we toured on it extensively. After multiple instances of our first LP going out of print we told Mr. Nut that we were moving on. Not being able to sell our record on the road not only compromised our limited gas funds and five dollar food per diems but prevented showgoers from having our music. Getting our music into distant hands was the whole point of being on any label. Of course, after severing with Wingnut, we were again confronted with our initial problem. No one wanted to sign AFI.

Adam Carson still has the rejection letters: Sub Pop, Revelation, Victory, Epitaph… we didn’t fit anywhere. The Lookout! rejection still hurts. Pete Giberga, however, was very interested in signing us. Jim Guerinot, then the manager of Rancid, Offspring, No Doubt, and his first artist, Social Distortion, had hired him to do A&R for Time Bomb. We all loved Mike Ness, were tight with Rancid, and in ’95 all of those bands were different versions of massive. None were on Jim’s inchoate label. In fact nary an artist was, but even without a single release in their catalog we figured their offer was worth exploring… especially because we had but one other option.