Screamers, a Missing Link of Los Angeles Punk, Is Missing No More
An archival release marks the technical debut of a band that helped build a scene, 44 years later.
K.K. Barrett and Tommy Gear of Screamers. The Los Angeles punk band is putting out its first-ever release, “Screamers Demo Hollywood 1977.”Credit.Photographs by Elizabeth Weinberg for The New York Times
By Nate Rogers
April 14, 2021, 10:00 a.m. ET
K.K. Barrett hadn’t spoken to Tommy Gear in two decades when he reached out about releasing a secret stash of their old music. There were no hard feelings the two had simply grown apart over the years but it was tricky business, regardless. Their band, Screamers, was something of a phantom in the history of Los Angeles punk rock.