The Repo Code

Circle Jerks, Repo Man & Alex Cox. Plus, some book news...

NOTE: If you want to skip ahead to the book news, scroll to the bottom. Otherwise, read on…

Texas Tour Diary

Last year the Circle Jerks played a show at the Gardena Cinema and afterwards the theater screened Repo Man. It’s a combo that goes together like ham on rye because the Circle Jerks are in the movie and on the soundtrack. Zander Schloss, who joined the Circle Jerks shortly after Repo Man came out, also has a role in the film. In between the show and the screening Keith and Zander talked about their experiences.

The show was a success, but they wanted to make it better. When the band booked two more Circle Jerks/Repo Man combo shows in Texas, they invited Alex Cox, who directed the movie, to the Q&A, and asked me to emcee it.

So on Friday morning I flew out to Dallas, Texas. For the flight, I brought a copy of The President and the Provocateur: The Parallel Lives of JFK and Lee Harvey Oswald. (Raise your hand if you knew Alex Cox wrote a book about JFK’s assassination.) I’m about 100 pages in and questioning everything I thought I knew about postwar American history. Late to the party as usual.

I checked into the hotel and went over my questions for the Q&A before van call in the lobby. Keith warned me that I could be early or I could be late—as long as I wasn’t the last one in the lobby who keeps everyone waiting. I went down to the lobby and met Alex Cox for the second time—20 years after I interviewed him at a Repo Man event for The Believer. Alex and I hung back so that the band could take their preferred seats, and he told me about his visit to Dealey Plaza. In his book, Alex writes that he is an “iterant conspiracy theorist.” Duly noted.

The show was held at the Texas Theatre in Oak Cliff, a beautiful old theater with a connection to the JFK assassination: it’s where Lee Harvey Oswald was arrested. The theater pulled out all the stops to make it a really cool event. A welcome change from the jaded demeanor of rock and roll lifers in dingy clubs. I had lunch down the street with Keith at Rincon Tapatio where he told me some stories about meeting John Belushi and it was just like old time when we worked on My Damage. Then I met up with a MFTU subscriber (Hi Chad!) for coffee at The Wild Detectives, which I’ve always wanted to visit.

Then it was time for the show, which kicked off with a special surprise: the Circle Jerks performing the Repo Man theme song with Alex Cox singing the lyrics. Now, I know Alex is a talented actor. He stars in his most recent film Dead Souls and co-stars with Miguel Sandoval in the underrated Three Businessmen. But singing?

Friends, he knocked it out of a park. Not just in a good-for-an-amateur kind of way, but he nailed it. It just goes to show that a showman is a showman no matter what the medium. I’m happy to say the Q&A went off without a hitch and then the epic Repo Man title sequence filled the screen.

Did I stay and watch the movie? Is a repo man always intense?

Get in the Van

The next day we said goodbye to Dallas, piled into the van, and drove to Austin. There was no Repo Man screening on Saturday, but the band had filled in the empty night on the schedule with a show at a 300-seater with a low stage and no barricades so it was going to be an old school punk rock throw down.

The nicest thing about being an older gentleman traveling with a band of OG punk rockers? Lots of bathroom breaks, including my first visit to Buc-ees. What a horror show. I bought a coffee and some granola and the cashier looked at me like he could smell the California on me. I snapped a picture of Alex next to a stack of “I Love America” T-Shirts and GTFO.

The biggest surprise? The infinite amount of shit that Keith and Greg and Zander give each other throughout the day. They are constantly teasing each other like brothers, because that’s what they are, and it gives them a great deal pleasure—both serving it up and taking it.

“There’s no tenderness in punk rock,” Zander quipped when I brought it up.

Of course, that’s not true.

As we were approaching Austin, Greg said, “Skyline.” I looked up and there was the Austin skyline. I was sitting next to Zander and he explained that when he was new to the band and touring for the first time, Greg used to wake him up to show him the skyline whenever they arrived in a new city. A sweet gesture that continues as a joke 40 years into their journey together.

How Not to Stage Dive

I was looking forward to experiencing Circle Jerks in a crowded club. The Ballroom was the size of Alex’s Bar in Long Beach but the ceilings were lower so it felt smaller. The night before, a pit broke out at the Texas Theatre as soon as the Circle Jerks launched into “Deny Everything.”

The stage was very high so there was just one stage diver and as soon as he left the stage he probably realized what a bad idea it was: there was nowhere to go. He landed on top of someone in a wheelchair, which was not ideal for either party. Keith stopped the show immediately and the guy ended up being okay. He stuck around and watched the rest of the show farther back from the stage. The stage diver was escorted out of the theatre.

At The Ballroom, which was an all ages show, there were many, many stage divers many of whom were too old and, IMO, too large to be stage diving. I’m of the opinion that stage diving is for kids because they are light and indestructible, like cats. As we age we get denser and more fragile, like dogs. I tend to stay away from the stage at crowded shows precisely because I don’t want some 180-pound biscuit eater crushing my vertebrae. I was shocked by the number of husky punk rockers hauling themselves up on stage in their tight pants and big boots only to hurl themselves on top of the people in the pit a few feet away. Sometimes they didn’t make it past the front row. It was like watching the Hindenburg Disaster over and over again.

After the show, I met a reader of MFTU (Hi Brian!) and I scribbled in my notebook while the band cooled off. When I made my way back to the dressing room, they were discussing the show, comparing notes with the crew, talking about the various challenges they faced and ways to make it better next time.

The Stars at Night

I spent Sunday morning drinking coffee and writing in my hotel room. I’d recorded the Q&A so I could listen to it and make some improvements. I splurged on brunch at a nearby dim sum restaurant called Wu-Chow and came up with a new set of questions while feasting on xiao long bao, shumai, and turnip cakes. It reminded me of my adventures in China, when I spent most mornings eating alone and writing in my journal. I walked down to the river and ambled around downtown. The show was hours away but suddenly it was time for soundcheck.

The Paramount Theatre is massive, a 1,700 seater, and the show was nearly sold out. It has an enormous balcony and is a glorious old space. It’s the kind of place where you can let your imagination soar. The Circle Jerks took the stage and Alex Cox did his thing. I was even more impressed the second time. It was hard to believe he’d never sang in public before.

There was no pit this time, which I teased the audience about during the Q&A. I got Zander and Alex to share a bit more and Alex told the story about how he made it unscathed through the St. Patrick’s Day Massacre at the Elk’s Lodge Hall in 1979 with a head full of LSD.

“Do you know who called the police that night?” Alex asked.

“My manager!” said a voice from the crowd.

It was none other than Tito Larriva of the Plugz, Los Cruzados, and Tito & the Tarantulas who lives in Austin with his family. Tito, you might recall, wrote the score for Repo Man with Steven Hufsteter.

After the show, I hung out in the lobby and met up with fellow Substackers Gary Trujillo (Hi Gary!) and Tim Napalm Stegall (Hi Tim!) who has a book coming out later this year. (More on that soon.) I must have given a million fist bumps to people as they left the theater and still managed to miss a few friends in the audience.

On the way to the airport the next day, the edges were already beginning to blur. I realized that I could remember what the dressing room was like at the Paramount Theater, and the green room at the Ballroom from the night before that, but I couldn’t recall what the dressing room was like at the Texas Theatre, at least not right away, nor could I remember the name of the hotel we’d stayed at two nights before. It must be really challenging to travel like this all the time and hold on to all the things you see and the people you meet. What a strange way to go through life.

You might even call it... intense.

For photos of these events, check out my Instagram.

Announcing: The Repo Code

Friends, I’m pleased to announce I’ve got another punk rock book in the works and it’s about—that’s right you got it—Repo Man. It’s everything you ever wanted to know about the film, the soundtrack, and their impact on pop culture. It’s called The Repo Code and it’s coming from Da Capo Press, the same publishing team that brought you My Damage, Do What You Want, and Corporate Rock Sucks, summer 2027.

The book is cultural history that explores how Repo Man went from a punk rock movie that nobody saw to a Gen X manifesto that injected punk rock into the mainstream. It’s been in the works for over a year and I’ve been talking to cast, crew, musicians, and people whose lives were shaped by this remarkable movie with an epic soundtrack. My manuscript is due this summer so I’m in the home stretch.

I’ll have a lot more to say in the coming months. It’s still way too early for a preorder link, book cover, blurbs, etc. I’m still chasing down subjects for interviews. But here’s how you can help: do you have an exceptional Repo Man story ? By that I mean do you know someone who worked on the movie or was part of the soundtrack? Were you neighbors with Harry Dean Stanton? Are you related to Fox Harris? Do you work with a Hollywood A-Lister who is obsessed with Repo Man? If so, I’d love to hear from you.

Thanks for reading! If you liked this newsletter you might also like my latest novel Make It Stop, or the paperback edition of Corporate Rock Sucks: The Rise & Fall of SST Records, or my book with Bad Religion, or my book with Keith Morris. I have more books and zines for sale here but the supply is running low. Message from the Underworld comes out every Wednesday and is always available for free, but paid subscribers also get my deepest gratitude and Orca Alert! on most Sundays. It’s a weekly round-up of links about art, culture, crime, and killer whales. Since you’ve read this far, you might as well go ahead and pre-order my new novel…