Saccharine Trust

Words by Henry Rollins (originally published in TRILL Zine - 2018)

Saccharine Trust was one of the first bands I saw play after I had moved from Washington, DC to Los Angeles to join Black Flag in the summer of 1981.

By the autumn of that year, Saccharine Trust would be on the road with Black Flag, touring across the United States and Canada. This was the start of years of shows the two bands would play together. I watched them almost every night. They became one of my favorite bands.

The early rhythm section of Rob Holzman on drums and Earl Liberty on bass held down often complex time signatures with such authority, guitarist Joe Baiza and vocalist Jack Brewer were able to innovate night to night, which kept things interesting. The rhythm section changed over the years, the excellent Tony Cicero coming in on drums and Mark Hodson on bass, and then bassist Bob Fitzer, natural who, along with Cicero, allowed the band to swing in a whole different way. The bassist and drummer changes seemed to only send Baiza and Brewer to new innovative heights.

Saccharine Trust occupied a rare space. They were extremely avant for the scene they were in, which wasn’t always the most open minded. By just showing up to the bandstand, they took quite a chance. Beyond their great talent, it was the dedication to their unique vision that was inspiring.

In the touring environment, Joe Baiza became more and more impressive. Saccharine Trust had a song, The Cat Cracker, found on the Surviving You Always LP (SST 024) that none of us would never miss. It was music on a different level. Not only was the arrangement like no other Saccharine song, but it featured Joe on vocals. The song would literally make the audience just stand still and listen to what was going to happen next. For me, it was the song of the tour.

This was around 1984 and Jack, now the veteran of many shows, miles and some of the toughest crowds Reagan’s America could offer, was showing himself to be an incredible writer and performer. Jack is a poet in the purest sense. His delivery was unique as it was complex. To pull that off in the places we were playing in, you had to be 100% committed to the moment. In some ways, things were a lot easier for Black Flag, who were playing the exact music the audience had shown up for. Saccharine Trust was putting across something completely different and probably far more challenging to the audience than what Black Flag was, which while completely intense, was much more in line with where the audience was at. It was Saccharine Trust who had to go out there every night and prove it. They did it.

As an observer from those days, I would like to put forth an idea. I think that Saccharine Trust was in some ways inspired by and benefitted from what was happening at SST Records around that time. If you think about it, the early SST roster was text-book eclectic. Consider the guitarists on the early SST releases; Greg Ginn of Black Flag, D Boon of the Minutemen, Joe Baiza of Saccharine Trust, Robert Becerra of the Stains, Dave Chandler of Saint Vitus, and Curt Kirkwood of the Meat Puppets. None of them played it straight. I wonder if Saccharine Trust would have been able to make the music they did if they didn’t have such an incredible peer group and a label that believed in them. It’s one thing to make different music, having a label that will put it out and get behind it is another. As well, I will always wonder if Saccharine Trust being on the bill with Black Flag so many times was one of the more unwittingly confrontational and challenging aspects of those tours.

One more idea, if I may. I think the fact that Saccharine Trust, and the Minutemen, both from tough, working class SoCal sprawls, benefitted from the remoteness and lack of conventional city scene influences. If you look at photos of early SST bands, no one looks like they’re in a band. The term “kook” described all perfectly.

It was a great time for Independent Music. A lot of the defining and constrictive limitations engendered by the mutual attraction of a shared space the outsider world and the mainstream sought to establish had not yet gotten traction. Saccharine Trust made its own path, unfettered by the tethers of convention. I don’t think Saccharine Trust could have started once the 1980’s became “the ‘80’s.”

Saccharine Trust created genuine alt rock. Their records not only hold up but when listened to decades later, make you feel either lucky that you were there, or envious that you weren’t. Thankfully, Joe and Jack remain potent, artistic forces and still perform. I was reminded, when last I saw them, that face Joe makes while playing, when he looks down at his hands, as if they’re someone else’s. He still seems surprised at what’s happening. May it keep happening.

--HENRY ROLLINS 4.3.18