Readers that are of a certain age and having had spent time interested in Rock music in the San Francisco Bay Area will surely recall BAM Magazine. It was a monthly or possibly even weekly trade journal for that general area and probably even a bit of a taste making apparatus for a while, especially during the Heavy Metal 1980's. When Disaster Amnesiac was first exposed to BAM sometime in autumn of 1989, an ad in the classified section jumped out at me: a long haired, caped guy with a Fu Manchu goatee that was holding a Stratocaster. It's not recalled if "Leland" was written above or below this image but it was certainly in one of those spots. Over the next several years, whenever an issue of the magazine was in my hands, I always made sure to check and see if Leland was still posting within the classified section. His image was always there and and it became somewhat iconic for me. Who was Leland? What did the music that he made with stat Strat sound like? Was he still living or had he passed away in some appropriately Punk Rock manner? It was likely in about 1996 when, while perusing the lower racks at the wonderful Open Mind Music on Divisadero St. that Live at Mabuhay Gardens, S.F., by Leland, was discovered by this obsessive crate digger. It added ninety five cents to the bill that day. It also provided some answers to those questions which had been formulated from seeing Leland's photo all of those times on the back pages of BAM. The sounds on the album were made by Leland on guitar and vocals, Razz Porter on bass guitar, and Larry Friedberg on drums. Collectively this trio raises some righteous, rockin' moods. An overall feel of raw and energetic and youthful exuberance characterizes the six tracks that make up Live at Mabuhay Gardens. The Punk Rock that had such an effect upon San Francisco musical culture can be heard as an element to the band's mix, along with what Disaster Amnesiac hears as strains of Heavy Metal. Leland's guitar soloing is deliciously noisy and aggressive to the point of making me wonder if he owned a copy of Raw Power or Funhouse. Razz and Larry pump and push and grind and blast behind Leland as he sings about poverty and impermanence and sickness and whatever other urban nightmares he's been exposed to. The band sounds at times as if they're going to go off of the rails but they always recover and give these jams that hit the exactly correct spot for any fan who craves blends of raw guitar Rock performances from the Punk/Heavy Rock/Psych Rock continuum. Dig especially on Feel The Pain for evidence of that. This album concludes with a track featuring the late great Dirk Dirksen as he questions the life choices of Leland while Leland, Razz, and Larry pump No Wave scrawls back in his direction. Oh how I wish that Leland could have had some of the success found by some of his 'frisco contemporaries. How much did he pay to get his photo into every damn issue of BAM, anyway?
