Finding fertile soil in the burgeoning punk scene of Bakersfield, California, Loser Life is a gritty, piss-and-vinegar-filled street-punk group led by singer/drummer Steve Koontz.
Koontz’s tenacity, along with a measure of bad luck, brought the members of Loser Life together.
“I was in another band and this dude got married,” Koontz says. “It sort of pissed me off. Then Loser Life got together and things just fell into place.”
Well, that depends on one’s definition of “falling into place.” Koontz couldn’t find an axe man until he literally tripped over one passed out on the street.
“We found the guitar player drunk in a gutter one day,” says Koontz. “I was like, ‘Hey, you want to be in a band?’”
Finding a singer proved equally difficult, according to Koontz, who says the vast majority of musicians in Bakersfield just want to be in Black Flag ripoff bands.
“Bakersfield, our scene, it’s shit,” says Koontz. “It’s desolate. It’s a disease. It’s a really shitty place.”
In the end, Koontz gave up the search for the perfect singer and settled on himself. Despite his self-deprecating nature, Koontz is the perfect voice for Loser Life. His raspy, often shrill howl accompanies the frantic, off-kilter guitars just right.
As hard as it may have been to get there, Loser Life is the band it was born to be: a gritty mix of Pegboy, early Jawbreaker, and every dirt-punk band that ever climbed onto a makeshift stage to play a few songs for gas money or a couple of beers.
Now imagine those bands, practicing hard every day until they are tight as a drum, angry as hell, and full of hatred for everything within a dozen square miles. That’s Loser Life.
The band flies in the face of the seemingly inescapable MTV-style punk groups. They hate those bands almost as much as their hometown.
“The thing that really jerks me is the rehashed ’80s punk bands,” says Koontz. “On tour, we played with all these generic punk bands and it made me sick.”
His negative energy also extends to people wearing Zero skate shirts and shoes that picked on him in school. “All of a sudden the jocks started listening to Fat Records stuff. I hate jocks.”
Yes, Koontz is full of hatred, even for himself (he named his band Loser Life after all).
“It just kind of comes out naturally,” says Koontz. Some people write about taking over the government; some people talk about wanting to kill themselves. I got no self respect. I got no dignity. I got nothing to worry about.”
Loser Life’s debut full-length, “I Have Ghosts and I Have Ghosts,” is available on CD and limited-edition vinyl from Magic Bullet Records.
– Oakland L. Childers