POCOS PERO LOCOS

It wasn't that long ago that finding videos of GRIMPLE performing live in the early nineties online seemed nearly impossible.  I remember scanning the lists of many a video trader way back in the AOL days of the internet and only seeing one, that being a reunion show the band played at a memorial/benefit show for a friend (Lucky Dog) who passed away in the late nineties.  The video of that performance, if you could track a copy down, was always a second or third generation copy (best case scenario).  In spite of the grainy quality and less than optimum sound quality, that video really captured what was the stand out performance of a stacked bill that also featured sets from ELDOPA(1332), FILTH, and EXODUS.

A few years after tracking down that grainy copy of the GRIMPLE reunion at Lucky Dog's memorial show, I came across a second video from that same night, shot from a different (better) angle.  A friend of mine - Carlos Antagony - had master copies of both GRIMPLE and ELDOPA's set, the quality of which blew everything else away.  To make a long story short, Carlos and I edited the GRIMPLE set down to include on a GRIMPLE discography CD that I was going to release on my label at the time, but when members of the band mentioned wanting both Vinyl reissues, as well as a CD containing the first LP, 7" EP, and some unreleased songs, we passed the project along to Prank Records.  Prank Records was a much more established label, with superior distribution, and of course its owner Ken Sanderson had drawn the cover art for the band's first LP - "Up Your Ass".  We gave Ken everything we had at the time, including the video, which was supposed to appear on the Prank version of the CD reissue, but even though it's listed on the CD insert, the video is nowhere to be found.  You can probably chalk up the videos omission to excessive cost or perhaps the limitations of technology at the time, but till this day very few people have ever seen a good quality version of what the band's guitar player Greg told me was the best set GRIMPLE ever played.

More recently, Dan Hashthrash from KillThatCat.com has tracked down and posted two different videos featuring live performances from GRIMPLE during the "Up Your Ass" era at 924 Gilman.  What makes these videos interesting to me is the way the band mixes in songs from the first 7" with songs from the "Up Your Ass" LP, then they'll throw in a song or two from their considerably more metal influenced split with LOGICAL NONSENSE, before returning once more to the melodic thrash of their earlier releases, after a quick spoken word or freestyle rap by lead vocalist Pat Vigil of course.

Update from Ken at Prank Records: 'Met with Pat Grimple this week, and we are finally going to start rolling the ball on the Split LP and Re-issuing "Up Your ass". Kinda thinking the Split remastered with a gatefold sleeve and the 1st LP as a picture disc.  Fall....'