Biography

The Weirdos were one of the first bands to make a mark in the vital Los Angeles punk rock scene in the 1970s, and along with the Screamers, they were widely regarded as the best group to emerge from L.A.'s first wave of punk. Led by brothers John Denney (vocals) and Dix Denney (guitar), the Weirdos were fast, loud and manic, and had tunes as strong as their energy, generating a potent blur of sound well documented 1991's Weird World Vol. 1, a collection of singles sides and EP tracks. The Weirdos broke up before they could make an album, but they got back together in 1990 to cut a fine reunion LP, Condor, and lasting interest in the group prompted the release of an archival live album in 2023, Live! At The Club Azteca 1978. John Denney and Dix Denney were the sons of Nora Denney, a character actress who appeared on the TV shows Bewitched, Green Acres, and Room 222, among others, while their father Alan Denney was an artist and art director for Hallmark Greeting Cards. John and Dix were friendly with a fellow aspiring musician, Cliff Roman, who they'd known since the early 1970s, and they were interested in starting a band, though they were more interested in making up stage names for themselves than actually writing or playing songs. Seeing Iggy & the Stooges in 1973 inspired them, and they began accumulating influences ranging from Karlheinz Stockhausen and John Cage to vintage rockabilly and surf sounds. In 1975, the Denney Brothers and Roman started getting serious, and with Dix and Roman on guitars and John on vocals, they brought along Roman's friend Dave Trout to play bass, and the first edition of the Weirdos started rehearsals. While practicing at a cheap rehearsal space in Hollywood, they were heard by Peter Case, then a member of the proto-power pop band the Nerves. Case and his bandmates were interested in the nascent punk scene and eager to promote shows; he liked the Weirdos enough that he asked them to play a gig even though they didn't yet have a drummer. The percussion-less Weirdos played their first gig in April 1977, and after two more shows, they were introduced to Nickey Alexander, a drummer using the stage name Nicky Beat. The Weirdos soon became a force on the L.A. underground scene, and while they were initially wary of being labeled as punk (they felt it was primarily a British sound and they were contrary enough to avoid an obvious comparison), but when Time Magazine did a piece on American punk that included photos of the Weirdos, their fate was sealed. With their frenetic sound and a visual style drawn from wildly mismatched thrift store clothing, the Weirdos quickly made an impression, and in 1977 the independent Bomp Records label (a spin-off of Greg Shaw's pioneering rock 'zine) brought out their first single, a three-song 7" featuring "Destroy All Music," "Why Do You Exist," and "A Life of Crime." Reviews were positive and local response was good, but major labels were wary, and in 1978, the punk-informed Dangerhouse label put out their second 7", "We Got the Neutron Bomb" b/w "Solitary Confinement." By mid-1978, Dave Trout had left the Weirdos, and Bruce Moreland took over on bass, while in 1979, Bomp issued a six-song 12" EP, Who? What? When? Where? Why?, that saw the Denneys and Roman working with a new rhythm section, bassist Billy Persons and drummer Danny Benair. (John and Dix also released a single on their own in 1979, "Skateboards to Hell" b/w "Adulthood.") In 1980, the group cut a four-song EP for Rhino Records, Action Design, that introduced yet another rhythm section, Willy Williams on bass and Art Fox on drums. As the group's sound became more polished and they toned down their dress code, their audience began to shrink, while the harder and more violent sound of hardcore came to dominate the Southern California punk scene. In 1981, the Weirdos broke up. In the aftermath, John and Dix Denney formed a group called If-Then-Else, and Dix and Willy Williams backed Lydia Lunch on her 1982 album 13.13. Bruce Moreland joined Wall of Voodoo, who enjoyed a mainstream hit with the song "Mexican Radio," and Nicky Beat would be a short-time member of X, the Germs, and the Cramps before joining the glam metal band L..A. Guns in the late '80s. Starting in 1986, the group began staging occasional reunion shows, and in 1990, John Denney, Dix Denney, and Cliff Roman reunited to cut the Weirdos' belated first album, Condor; Nicky Beat also played on the sessions, as did Flea and Cliff Martinez of the Red Hot Chili Peppers. Frontier Records, who issued Condor, followed the release in 1991 with Weird World, Vol. 1, a 14-song anthology that collected the best of their recordings from 1977 to 1981. While no more studio recordings were forthcoming, the Weirdos continued to play out when the mood struck them, and a 2004 tour of the East Coast (featuring a lineup of John Denney, Dix Denney, Zander Schloss of the Circle Jerks on bass, and Sean Antillon on drums) included a live radio session on New Jersey's free-form radio station WFMU-FM. The WFMU broadcast was issued on CD in 2005 as Live on the Radio. Frontier issued a companion volume to Weird World, Vol. 1 in 2003, We Got the Neutron Bomb: Weird World, Vol. 2, while Bomp paired the "Destroy All Music" 7" and the Who? What? When? Where? Why? EP with unreleased demos for another archival release, 2007's Destroy All Music. In the late 2010s, Cliff Roman assembled his own edition of the band, Roman's Weirdos, who were making regular appearances at California rock clubs. On March 12, 2023, Dix Denney – who had also played with Thelonious Monster and Dig – died at the age of 65. Less than a month later, Bomp Records issued Live! At The Club Azteca 1978, a previously unreleased recording of the group on-stage in Los Angeles. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi