Put on your best trash bag: This Phoenix punk veteran is getting the band back together
As a young man looking to carve out a niche for himself on the Arizona punk scene as the ‘70s were coming to a close, Glenn De Jongh and his fellow Spiffs could often be found on the campus of Arizona State University disseminating flyers for their gigs while wearing nothing but garbage bags.
It got the kids out. And by 1980, they’d managed to convince Clyde Shields, the original owner of the legendary Phoenix club the Mason Jar, to pay for the recording of their first and only record, an EP called “Don’t Waste Your Money on This Garbage.”
They also landed a song called “Little Teaser” on FM rock powerhouse 98 KUPD’s “Damn Straight” compilation.
Reuniting the Spiffs, Box of Cherries and the Einsteins
A lifetime later, De Jongh, who prefers to be known as Glen Crimson and has done most of his singing on cruise ships in recent years, will don the garbage bag once more to join a reunited version of the Spiffs onstage for what he says could be the last time on a bill that also features reunited versions of three other bands he used to play in, Box of Cherries, the Einsteins and the Bob Band.
“This gig is probably my last because I’m just burnt out from singing on cruise ships for eight years,” he says. “It sucked the music soul right out of my body. If I ever hear the song ‘Margaritaville’ again, I’ll probably just vomit."
And lest you wonder how he plans to get that many former bandmates in the same room to rehearse, that’s not an issue.
“No rehearsals,” he says. “I just told everybody, ‘Listen to the record. We'll play it exactly like that.’ So that's what's gonna happen.”
Billed as Glen’s Best of AZ Bands Reunion Show, the Feb. 18 concert at Copper Blues Desert Ridge in Phoenix will also feature De Jongh, a former bandmate of the great Bob Welch of Fleetwood Mac, paying tribute to Welch in a band assembled just for this occasion.
Also scheduled to perform are Lucy LaMode of Killer Pussy; Jetzons keyboardist Brad Buxer; Bob Welch bassist Kevin IChrist; Gary Brazzese, who drummed for Glen Campbell; Winston Watson of Gentlemen Afterdark, who also spent a decade drumming for Bob Dylan; the Palomas, Eva Bush, Dwain Miller of Keel and more.
De Jongh says, “Everyone I called has said, basically, '(Expletive) yeah, man. Let's do it one more time. This will be fun.'"
'Outside the realm of normal': How some punk kids helped define the fringe of Phoenix music
How the Spiffs brought power-pop (and garbage bags) to Phoenix punk
The Spiffs, whose original lineup featured De Jongh, guitarist Don Doiron and the late Steve Golladay on drums, got together in 1979.
Their sound, as captured on “Don’t Waste Your Money on This Garbage,” which Fervor Records reissued in 2018, is on the soulful British pub-rock side of power-pop played with the reckless abandon of punk. It sounds like it was made by people wearing skinny ties beneath their garbage bags.
“I mean, give me some Joe Jackson,” De Jongh.
Their live shows often featured actual chainsaws, which De Jongh admits was not the smartest thing he’s ever done.
“I’d start it up and chop up an amplifier,” he says. “If somebody had stuck their arm out, I could’ve cut them. I was just a wild, uncontrollable (expletive).”
When the Spiffs concert got shut down for fighting
At a concert promoting the KUPD record, the Spiffs’ onstage antics caused the PA to be shut down mid-song when fights broke out as concertgoers hurled objects at the band.
“Half the album was kind of punkish and the other half was rock,” De Jongh recalls.
“So KUPD does this concert at Firebird Lake. There’s several thousand people, 5,000 I guess - 400 Harleys, a lot of black shirts saying AC/DC and like 100 little punk rockers in the middle of the crowd wearing polka dots and bright colors, right? It was the beginning of that phase.”
Enter the Spiffs, who took the stage in garbage bags.
“The guys in the dressing room go, 'We can't wear this (expletive), man. We're gonna get the (expletive) kicked out of us.' I go ‘C’mon!’ And they go, 'Alright, but don't play our punkiest stuff first.'"
So De Jongh walked out and launched immediately into “Kill You,” their punkiest number.
“People were allowed to bring in Igloos with sandwiches and stuff, and after two songs, people started throwing ice cubes at us,” De Jongh says.
“After a few songs of this, I got sick of it. I stopped the band right in the middle of a song. And I said, 'You guys are making yourselves look like (expletives). If you're gonna throw (expletives) at me, at least hit me.”
That’s when people started throwing sandwiches and even more ice, inspiring De Jongh to flip them off.
“A fight breaks out,” he says. “That’s when they turned the power off. True story. It was fun.”
By 1981, the Spiffs had broken up.
Since hooking up with Fervor Records, which specializes in licensing material to TV shows and movies, the Spiffs had their music used on “Criminal Minds” and “L.A.’s Finest.”
Box of Cherries was more of a rap-metal band
De Jongh’s next band, Box of Cherries, was more on the rap-metal side of things. They ended up winning a Z-Rock Battle of the Bands at the Electric Ballroom, where one of the judges worked for Warner Bros. Records.
"We had three meetings at Warner about producers and things but it ended up that I was too old,” De Jongh says.
“I was in my 40s. The guy at Warner goes, 'Look, we invest several million dollars. We expect three good albums and a long duration from our bands and we just think you're too old. We love your songs. We listened to all 12 of them. But I just can't get it done.’ So that didn't happen.”
The album Box of Cherries ended up releasing (not on Warner Bros.) ended up getting a fair amount of college airplay.
How Green Day inspired the Einsteins to balance pop and punk
The Einsteins were closer in spirit to the Spiffs than Box of Cherries.
“In 1994 or 1994, when I heard Green Day for the first time, I told the guys 'Look, I'm cutting my hair. I'm bleaching it blond. I'm writing a power-pop-punk record right now. You're either with me or not,’” he recalls. “The next day, the bass player, who had long black hair down to his (expletive), comes in with a green mohawk."
De Jongh spent a year and a half in Nashville working on an Einsteins record that got shelved before changing direction again with the Bob Band.
“I said 'OK, (expletive) this. I'm too old.’ So I started playing casinos. I put together a bubblegum band that played every bubblegum song that no band would dare play. 'Yummy Yummy Yummy.' 'Chewy Chewy.' 'Hanky Panky.' Every Monkees hit. Dave Clark Five. Herman's Hermits. We were a hit. We played every casino in town like magic.”
That led to eight years on the cruise ships from 2003-2011.
"I didn't even have a place to stay on land," he says. "I'd be off a ship for two weeks. 'Hey can I sleep on your couch?'”
In recent years, he’s been doing a musical bingo game on Wednesday nights at Casey Jones Grill in Phoenix called Songo.
But he's looking forward to spending a Sunday reliving the memories of his chainsaw-wielding youth.
"People have been asking me to play again," he says. "So I figured I would do one more.”
The Spiffs reunion show
When: 1 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 18.
Where: Copper Blues Desert Ridge, 21001 N. Tatum Blvd., Phoenix.
Admission: Free.
Details: 602-910-5161, copperblueslive.com.
Reach the reporter at ed.masley@arizonarepublic.com or 602-444-4495. Follow him on Twitter @EdMasley.
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This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Phoenix punk scene legends are reuniting. How to see the concert
