THE VULCANEERS!

"Do the Vulcan - The Vulcaneers No. 1" 2017

As I began to go through my archives from 1995, I came across a show I shot at the Purple Onion with The Vulcaneers along with Tokyo sensations The Titans. I remember it being a typically crazy night and most shots on the roll contain beer being chucked around the room in front of my lens. Luckily I captured a couple of shots of the bands without the swill!

I contacted Lars recently and he graciously gave us the low down on the history and line up of the band. I'm happy to share with you today some posterized versions I created for this blog. If there was one thing this band shared with the rest of the goof rock brigade, it's that they knew how to have a good time.

Do the Vulcan!

Julie Green
May 13, 2017

"Vulcan Tide - The Vulcaneers No. 2" 2017

Lars Nylander:

Starting around 1994 in Los Gatos. five lo-talents got together to try and do for themselves what so many before them had achieved. Creating a crappy 60’s frat /garage outfit. Suck-cess! After many drunken listenings to Pebbles, Back From the Grave comps, Mummies, Supercharger, etc…we began to “write songs” with “Star Trek Red Shirt bites the dust, Booze, Green Space Chicks” themes. 

Shit rock at it’s worst! 

The Vulc’s consisted of Shannon Smith on Bass, Dan Dresti on Lead Guitar, Lars Nylander on Farfisa Organ, Eric Jenson on “Drums”, and Gerry Lundquist on Rhythm guitar!  And damn if we weren’t right crap from the get-go! We practiced a lot at Gerry’s living room in Castro Valley (Russell Quan’s hometown…he even graced us with his presence at a couple practices, which was great!).   

We did a few gigs at Stanford at a couple frats and played KZSU with Johnny “Mags” Maguire manning the helm. Good times! Darin Rafaelli soon followed suit and put a couple 45’s out for us around ‘94-‘95 on his legendary Radio X label.  Michael Lucas also was foolhearty enough to put out our full length “Beat Me Off Scotty!” in ’96 on his great Repent label.  

We still have a few copies left btw…hee hee! We played for about a year and a half or so at many great gigs, including the famous Purple Onion in SF owned by Tom Guido, esq. The Hofbrau Haus gig in Oakland was also nuts. Them’s were crazy gigs as anyone who was there can attest! It was all about how drunk we could get before “playing” and how much fun we could have with audience. Heckling was expected and damn how we loved it.

Bands that members were in:

Eric Jenson – The Vulcaneers!

Shannon Smith – No Gimmick, Ocean’s 11,  New Latter Day Saints, Ye Olde English, Kegsmen

Dan Dresti – The Boars and New Latter Day Saints

Lars Nylander – No Gimmick, Skankin’ Pickle, Impalers, New Latter Day Saints, The Boars, Titan Ups and The 78rpm's

Gerry Lundquist – Skankin’ Pickle, MU330