The Mutts

We just have to go see The Mutts at the Yacht Club. We just have to.

Formed in Los Angeles in 1983 by Spencer Eldridge, Larry Fortunato, Kevin Grover, Jacques Olivier and Eddy Sill, The Mutts became an influential garage rock group during LA's post-punk period and played on bills with many popular acts of the era, including The Go-Go's, The Bangles, Adam Ant, The Dickies, The Minutemen, X, Fishbone and many others. Fishbone debuted as an opening act for the band at Madame Wong's in LA's Chinatown. The group released two EPs on local independent labels, "Fire Hydrant" on Music Rage Records in 1984 and "The Mutts" on Shanghai Records in 1985, but the combo wouldn't come into its own until Grover and Sill took over as frontmen after singer Eldridge and guitarist Olivier left the group in 1986.

The band received widespread notoriety when their only major release, "Stinko's Ranch" Loud/WEA, debuted in late 1992. The album received an A in Entertainment Weekly, and the single, Emilyn, became a top-5 hit on P-1 (million+) radio markets in North America. The group appeared on the cover of BAM Magazine, and the late Eric Douglas played the bartender in the video for "I Live With a Cat." The owner of the WEA-distributed record label, Rick Laudati (Loud), mysteriously vanished into thin air the day after the album was released, and this threw the album into a hopeless legal debacle, which wouldn't be resolved until 1994. The band continued to play in Los Angeles until their famed rehearsal hall and party house was leveled to accommodate a Home Depot in 1996.

And...now...they are playing at the Yacht Club this Friday!