Artist description Semi-famous, proto-punk band from Akron circa 1976-1988. Hard rocking and funny like the Dictators and Ramones.

Music Style Rock, Proto Punk, Garage

Musical Influences Status Quo, Ramones, Dictators, The Troggs, Dead Boys, Rolling Stones, AC/DC, Ducks Deluxe, Alice Cooper

Similar Artists Dictators, Ramones

Artist History Jakkpot, Candy Snatchers, Raydios, Sister Goddamn, The Scream and Bobbyteens are some of the bands that have recently covered Rebels tunes. Are they being rediscovered? They were pals of Dead Boys and Devo. They opened for the Dead Boys at CBGBs in 1977, the night of the legendary "Spaghetti Incident". They ran the first punk rock night club in the midwest called the Crypt. Dead Boys, Devo, Bizarros and Pere Ubu played there in the seminal era of punk. They moved from Akron to LA and became one of the hottest bands on the Sunset Strip, headlining the Whiskey with their buddies The Knack, Fear, The Dickies and The Plimsouls. After a legendary publicity stunt where they commandeered a prominent Hollywood billboard, they were signed to Sire Records. Unfortunately, the Rebels blew off Sire and did not record on the label of their comrades in arms, the Ramones and Dead Boys. After some personnel changes the band signed a deal with Capitol, mostly, because their number one fan, Doug Fieger (The Knack) got them a deal they couldn't refuse. Although, critically well received, the Capitol album did not do well. the band never did a second album and eventually went to hell.

Group Members Rod Firestone: Vocal/Guitar Buzz Clic: Lead GuitarRandy Rice: Bass/VocalBrandon Matheson: DrumsSpecial Guest on Piano & Organ: Nicky Hopkins

Instruments Guitar Bass Drums

Albums Live From Akron, Mind Control Records, Rubber City Rebels, 1980 Capitol Records

Press Reviews RollingStone.com says: **** What's so bad about being dumb? Like the Ramones before them, Akron's Rubber City Rebels turn know-nothingism into an aesthetic virtue. They may be deliberately outrageous?opening their debut LP with the gleeful, aw-shucks raveup "Somebody's Gonna Get (Their Heads Kicked in Tonight)"?but they're always believable, and that makes them absurdly likable as well. All the more so because they manage to puncture both the addled conceptualism of most of the recent Cleveland-Akron area groups (Devo, Pere Ubu, Tin Huey) and the blue-collar heroics of such heartland rock-crit favorites as the Iron City Houserockers.Rubber City Rebels was produced by Doug Fieger, but the band's got nothing of the Knack's knowing leer. Instead, they're amiable punk headbangers who embrace the limitations of their music with a kind of determined one-downmanship, sticking to repeated hammered chords and a steady, pounding beat, while Rod Firestone's snarling, wet-cat vocals add a tinge of hysteria. "Child Eaters" sounds like a Japanese monster flick narrated by Johnny Lydon, even as Firestone's cartoonish exuberance makes the beleaguered mother in the song practically spring to life. Indeed, most of the album's more-lampoonish-than-life postures are funny and true: the petulant resolve of the kid who's straining to grow up so he can wallop his brother ("Gonna Be Strong"), the "high school mess" of "Young and Dumb," the bantam-rooster boosterism of "Rubber City Rebels" ("I don't need no ocean/I've got industry").All this, and a twangy cover version of the Sex Pistols' "No Feelings." It's enough to make you glad the Rubber City Rebels never learned to count past 4/4. (RS 342)DEBRA RAE COHEN

Location Akron, Ohio - USA

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