I remember Sporadic Droolings fanzine mostly because it served as a repository for much of Shane Williams’ writing before he wrote for Flipside. When I came to “know” Williams – a story which I wrote about in detail here – he reminded me frequently about his time served at this fanzine. The man was, indeed, “a talker”. I almost didn’t write about Sporadic Droolings #5 because, in flipping through it, I came to editor Dave Burokas’ intro to an article of his that starts out, “If there is a person who is extremely dedicated to punk rock, it is certainly Donny the Punk”. Yet for better or worse, we plow onward.

Sporadic Droolings #5 came out in 1986. Burokas was based in Kearney, NJ, and was a devotee of tiny type and of cramming a ton of information into small spaces. He apologizes for not answering all his letters because “he’s going to college full-time”, and good for him. I was doing the same in the year of our lord 1986. You have to wade through some mire to find the good stuff here, such as a “save the punk scene” editorial written at a sub-kindergarten level by one Bill McLaughlin, but in general, there’s good materials to be found. 

Shane Williams, in prison at this time, interviews shitty punk band 76% Uncertain and then redeems himself by interviewing Laura and Stacey from Austin’s Rabid Cat Records, who helped bring the world Scratch Acid, a band who that year were in the process of becoming one of my favorite things on the planet. He then writes a ham-handed but not altogether wrong editorial inveighing against political correctness of the MRR variety. I get the sense that Shane, having let’s say some time on his hands, was allowed by Burokas to just do his thing and send letters full of questions to various bands; they’d then take the answers back, type up an interview, and shove it into Sporadic Droolings. Shane also does this for Philadelphia’s Ruin and for Orange County, CA’s Pontiac Brothers. 

Regarding the latter, it’s unfortunately a lot more Shane than actual answers from the band. Guitarist Ward Dotson is asked about his time in the Gun Club, and says, ‘I have been out of the band for over three years, and I’m doing my best to try and forget about the whole mess”. I have a real soft spot for these guys, the Pontiac Brothers, not just because my pal Jon W was in the band for a bit, but for their devotion to tiny clubs and bars in Orange County and for actually being the rare sort of bar rock band that I can envision seeing three sheets to the wind in a cramped bar and totally loving it. Here, here’s why. Alas, I missed them and never was allowed the experience.

Burokas catches Gerard Cosloy as Homestead Records has really hit its stride, with Sonic Youth having just announced they’re leaving for SST but with the label otherwise hitting big with Big Black, Squirrel Bait, Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds and so forth. Apparently, as was his wont, Cosloy had “tangled” with Sporadic Droolings and/or Burokas in the pages of his Conflict fanzine recently, and this interview was meant to be an amends-maker. In the intro, Burokas says, “He started out with two strikes, Gerard did. First, he was late for the interview. Second and worst of all, he had a Mets duffle bag with him. But he managed to escape the strikeout”. The interview actually fills in quite a few gaps in my personal understanding of Cosloy’s rise through, and eventual all-seeing lordship over, the US rock music underground.

Kudos as well to Burokas for his Honeymoon Killers interview – no one was writing about this NYC band at the time, and they sound like inspired & deranged people you’d want to hang out with. There’s a piece on the Celibate Rifles and much excitement about Birdman-inspired Aussie garage punk that was well-distributed at the time, and that was about to start clogging up my personal record collection with Psychotic Turnbuckles, Seminal Rats, Eastern Dark and Hard-Ons vinyl. In the live reviews section, I had to laugh at the entry on Dinosaur and Squirrel Bait at Maxwell’s in Hoboken NY on 1/9/86. Squirrel Bait were TOO LOUD for Dave, and I’m thinking, oh man if that was hurting his eardwums, what’s he going to think about….and then he predictably complains that Dinosaur were “even louder!!”. I heard all this stuff about how punishingly loud Dinosaur were for a good 18 months before I finally saw them, and when they finally came to the west coast, not only did my ears survive but they were perhaps the biggest live-music disappointment in my young life up to that point. Pussy Galore, on the other hand – oh dear. I’m still saying “whaaaat?” to my wife on their account. 

I just couldn’t read the Donny the Punk interview, I just couldn’t. But there’s a nice full-page ad for the Ed Gein’s Car LP on the back cover. I’ll keep Sporadic Droolings #5 around for sure.