Street Punks (2)

Street Punks started in the early 1970s as a rock band called Cornerstone. Bass player Don Lamb started the band. In 1975 neighborhood musician and friend Rick Clare joined the band as a guitar player. Joined with guitar player Brian Humes and drummer Rick Gonzales, they started to change their sound, to a more New Wave Rock sound. They changed their name to Cornerstone Street Punks. Playing at all the big bay area clubs, such as All 3 Keystones, Berkely, Palo Alto and San Francisco, The Longbranch, Center Theater and etc. Playing with the popular groups of the time, like Eddie Money, Y&t and Journey, they started to draw their own crowds. Street Punks stage would be set with an alley background, old buildings with lights in a few of the windows. Their guitars would be set in garbage cans. They started to write all originals and dropped Cornerstone from the name. In July 1975 Ken Cimino replaced Gonzales. They went on to win a local battle of the bands in January 1976. Tony Lourenco, a friend of Cimino, replaced Humes in February. Winning a couple more battle of the bands they wrote more in the New Wave Punk, that was in very early stages. Playing at a few early punk clubs in San Francisco, they would draw even bigger crowds. In March 1976 they played for the first time at The Mabuhay Gardens (The Fab Mab). Owner Dirk Dirksen and the audience were so responsive, that Dirk knocked off one of the bands scheduled 3 weeks later, to play on the same bill, with The Damned from England. Now traveling around to the top punk clubs like The Whiskey A Go Go, they had sold out shows they headlined at. In June 1976 the punks caught the eye of Mary Monday. She was looking for a band to record with. Mary and Street Punks merged and became Mary Monday And The Bitches. Recording 4 tunes on a 7" EP called "Out Of The Alley", Mary had "Popgun" and a revised version of Street Punks song "Leave Us Alone" on side A. On side B were Street Punks doing "Suburban Boredom" and "Leave Us Alone". 5 promo copies were cut and distributed to local radio stations. San Jose station KSJO had a punk show, deejayed by members of punk group Nuclear Valdez, who also worked at the station. "Leave Us Alone" was played at the beginning of the shows for 6 weeks, and 3 weeks ended the show. No more records were pressed as the company went out of business. Other bands were waiting for their records and never got them. So, they wrote 6 more tunes, including Blue Jeans And Jelly Beans, Mass Confusion and Punk Jacket. So, Mary Monday and the Bitches went on to record "Gave My Punk Jacket To Rickie" and "Popgun" on another label. Going their own ways after August, the Punks picked up long time friend Mike Tringali (The Dix) as lead vocalist. CBS came to The Fab Mab to film Street Punks for a news broadcast showing punk bands in the U.S. (the cities beng New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco. One band was chosen from each city.) The first recording of Mary and Street Punks, on one of the promos, resurfaced and pressed by Mid_Nite Hi Productions.