The Retards

Last month I wrote about The Retards, but I stumbled upon this photo last night and wanted to post it too. I was at a show at The Black Cat Cafe I think in the Summer of 1997 when the kids from The Retards asked me to "Shoot a photo of us, like the Ramones, against a wall." They all had on matching red Converse All-Stars and black leather jackets. Awesome. We walked around a few blocks and found a suitable wall and took this photo. I think it ended up going on the back of their second single.

The Retards

These photos are of Seattle band The Retards playing live at Fallout Records from I think June of 1998. The Retards were a poppy, garagey young punk band playing Seattle in the late '90s, think Ramones meets Screeching Weasel meets Head. I loved the band even though they were all about 16, sloppy and kinda goofy. They enthusiastically loved to play the kind of music I was into--simplistic, catchy punk with a very '70s feel to it. At some point they changed their name to The Cheatin' Hearts, then to The Dirty Looks, before breaking up.

Band members: Derek on guitar and vocals, Leif on bass, Stacey on guitar and Conor on drums

Discography:

• 1997, "First Offense" 7" (Puke Records)
• 1998, "Still Playing with Toys" 7" (Shady Grove)

Leif now plays in The Shy Ones and The Greatest Hits. Derek went on to form The Plastic Letters and was also in The Pop Machine. Stacey plays in The Honey Hush (with Willie from the Midnight Thunder Express) and Conor is in The Holy Ghost Revival. Leif put up a MySpace page for the band recently with a few songs here.