G.D.M.F.S.O.B. - GTA Records

Norman's Record Poop Store was having another "everything's a buck" used CD sale a while back and I grabbed this CD just because they sounded and looked like a punk band. And they were! And it's great! This CD appears to include everything that Bad Posture ever recorded, including an 8-song demo, 12 rough and rowdy live tracks and an 8-song 12-inch EP. The singer sounds like a gruffer Will Shatter from Flipper and the band plays a heavy, fast, distorted chord-driven thing reminiscent of early Black Flag, Ramones, that kind of stuff. Melodies? Catchy as hell! The title track especially -- "God Damned Mother Fucking Son Of A Bitch! I can't move! I can't twitch!" Love it. Nearly every song is great, though a couple are direct ripoffs of other, better known songs ("What Are We Fighting For?" is "Blitzkrieg Bop" with different lyrics. Let's not try to fool each other here. It just is.) The CD's only fault is that there are actually only 16 different songs. The other 12 tracks are alternate versions of songs you've already heard previously on the CD. And quite frankly, no matter how great "Time For Smack" and "Get Tough" are, they get really friggin' (female masturbation) tiresome by the third time around.

But man, they cover "Rumble"! That old Link Wray song that banned from radioplay even though it's an instrumental because conservative shitfuckers claimed that its menacing tone and title promoted gang violence!

By the way, my main goal in writing this review was to ask if anybody out there knows anything at all about this band. They were good! Who were they and what the heck ever happened to them? Did they end up being my Dad, like I always used to fantasize that Jim Morrison did back when I was 13 and very clearly a latent homosexual?

Reader Comments

RipsM@PerkinsCoie.com
Yesterday I picked up the Bad Posture album on vinyl, mostly for the same reason as you did. I found it in a record store and it looked interesting, so I bought it for $3.99, and was that money well spent. This album is great. I do not know anything about them, or the true selling price for this record. Have you picked up any info? Thanks for anything that you can provide.

lesval@earthlink.net (Les Valsquier)
I vaguely remember the lead singer of bad posture, Four Eyes, I think. He was a lanky towering character from Troutdale, or Molalla Oregon with really bad posture, btw. He was hanging out on the lower east side of Manhattan in 84-85 with Bruce Loose from flipper. Frequented the pyramid club and worked in a record store. Seems I might have an early demo recording of them on cassette, probably pre-dates any official recordings, and it's a bit rough.

Ahhh, those were the days, sorry my memory of the period seems to be somehow clouded...

Hyuck!

anitabreak@hotmail.com
Bad Posture were a fantastic hardcore band from San Francisco in the early eighties. Playing at the same time and with similiar agression as thier local counterparts Sick Pleasure and The Lewd. The singer, 4-Way, is a seven foot tall giant. Yes, 7 feet tall. They played often and played hard back in the day according to folks who were around for the SF hayday. I was fortunate to see a reunion show back in '99 in SF. They were awesome. Beer soaked stage, broken guitars, and lots of fun. Ofcourse the lame ass audience of SF shows didn't move an inch for them. (Too scared to shmear their million dollar tattoes or some shit.) Anyways, I have heard 4-way is now a teacher in New York. One of the guitar players, last I heard, was playing in a band in SF. The rest probably are your dad. Who knows, who cares. Fuckin awesome band! If you have ever seen the book California Hardcore, the cover photo is of 4-way.

landonmoblo@home.com
May be worth noting: there is a Flipper bootleg from a show at CBGB's (1983ish?). I don't know if it's still in print -anyway, Will couldn't join them for the tour(heroin?) and one of the dudes from bad Posture filled in for the whole trip. He fills in on bass for Bruce and sings a little. It suffers from Will's absence but still rocks very well (in a slightly different way.)

phlipper@mac.com
Read your record review / thoughts. I think these guys are still around. I know the lead singer is, because he teaches English in Brooklyn, at the same school where I teach. I was looking up his old band and I found your site. Hmm.

sleeve@efn.org (Steve Bouton)
The GDMFSOB song appeared on the essential MRR comp "Not So Quiet On The Western Front". One of those records that changed my life as a young punk... and that was all us hardcore kids in the east/midwest ever heard of them, but that song (of course) is one of the huge 43-song double LP's highlights... what about doing your 20 favorite punk comps or somethin' Mark? A sadly neglected aspect of the site (but the only one). I don't remember them ever touring then, and it's pretty cool to hear about reunion shows and THIS RECORD, WHICH I DID NOT KNOW EXISTED!!!! Holy shit.

suicideking4way@hotmail.com
Yeah, I am still alive, my band in NYC is called Suicide King, I have been teaching high school English for the past 15 years in Brooklyn, yes I am 7 feet tall, I am from Oakland California not Oregon, any questions about anything else concerning Bad Posture that I think would be fun to answer I will, check out the Suicide King website at if you give a shit about what 43 year old punk rock singers sound and look like.

MAGGIEMAYK@msn.com
THEY WERE AWESOME I USED TO HANG OUT WITH "4WAY" OR JEFF AS I CALLED HIM. THEY WERE AWESOME. HIS 7 FOOT HEIGHT USED TO FASCINATE THE LITTLE GIRL I WATCHED SHE LOVED TO BE ON HIS SHOULDERS IT MADE HER TALL.THEY WERE ALL GREAT GUYS WITH A GREAT STAGE PRESENCE.

jfiesta@mindspring.com (Jenny Fiesta)
The singers name is Four Way, not Four Eyes... and they will be playing a reunion gig in New York in July of 2004 and then another one in San Francisco on July 31st... they are worth seeing, even after all these years!

zike@zike.com (Michel Zadoroznyj)
Thought that you might want to know that there is a Bad Posture website at:http://badposture.net

Couple of shows are coming up.

captainalternative@mac.com
Heh... that's really neat that all of you are into BP. Four Way is my buddies uncle, whom she told me all about, so it's chill that he's still being talked about. I almost went to the reunion show in San Francisco, but couldn't make it. Rock on!

allenmaureen@hotmail.com (Maureen Allen)
I was at the reunion concert and was happy to see so many punkers stuffed into their old leather gear. My favorite story is that someone asked 4-Way, (my brother Jeff), if he used BOTOX!!!!! As if!! The concert was a sweaty, smoke-filled, beery frenzy, and (of course) Bad Posture was the highlight!

galvanized@juno.com
Bad Posture is the definition of punk rock. Nothing fake about this band. I should know Eddie (guitarist for Bad Posture) is my brother. Emilio (bassist) is a friend. Both of them are from Texas as I am. They recently (Dec. 2004) had a reunion in New York. Can't wait to get the tape.

kimkmoeller@tiscali.dk
Greetings from Denmark! I just recently dicovered Bad Posture through Capitalist Casualite’s cover of Time for Smack. Unfortunately I can’t decipher all of the words. If there’s anyone out who could mail me the lyrics I would be very thankful.

rickele@gmail.com
I just google-searched Bad Posture Time for Smack and found your review of their CD retrospective.

Bad Posture played a couple of reunion shows to coincide with the release of Grand Theft Audio's CD, and I saw the one at the Bottom of the Hill in San Francisco. It was like a dream come true for me because Bad Posture was one of the first hardcore punk bands that I remember hearing as a 12-year-old stumbling onto KDVS in Davis. The DJ was playing "GDMFSOB," and I'd never heard anything so nasty on the radio. I was extremely curious about Bad Posture for years after that. Later, I'd transfer to UC-Davis specifically to get involved at KDVS and discovered the 12-inch, and my new favorite was "Time for Smack." I pulled some strings through the CEO of GTA to get an interview with the band, and they were all great fun to talk to. It was such a trip to learn that my favorite hardcore vocalist who sang such depraved lyrics was now a school teacher. But he was still a crazy character. At one point during the interview, 4-Way baited me into a joke that turned around and made a fool out of me, and then he threw caesar salad in my face. It was all in good fun, and the band proceeded to play a really great performance unlike so many reunion shows where the band is a mere husk of their former selves.

luther@eastnashvillecomputers.com
I was living at the "Church of Tweak" when the Bad Posture EP came out. I knew 4way and the unmentioned Susan Miller(other guitarist on the EP besides Eddie). I placed the first ones that came in at Bleeker Bob's and a few other stores in New York. Oddly enough I saw the band only once in SF with someone else on vocals, maybe Mark Dagger. Still one of the most powerful bands ever. I still listen to my vinyl I got in early '84. Never gets old.

charliesrecords@allaboutrecords.net
I have a copy of the LP. I got it form the drummer Mike Marrer (i think) who lived across the hall form me on Ludlow street..a very nice guy..now sadly deceased..RIP

robmurfitt@shaw.ca
As I write this I'm digitizing the old Bad Posture LP along with other hardcore gems so I can enjoy them on my ipod. When me and my ilk first heard this record back in the day we flipped. First heard of them by way of the old Not So Quiet/MRR comp. It still holds up as one of the 'Punkest As Fuck" records of all time. They don't make them like this anymore. RIP Pig Champion (just heard he passed away-pour a beer out for a hellova guitar player...I'm sure he's thirsty.

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