The Gods of Surfurbia

--Antonio Beecroft

In 1978, thrift shop archaeology was still a fledgling science, and
computers had yet to conquer the world. Between earthquakes and smog
alerts, one could buy the pamphlets of a shadowy organization called World
Imitation at boutiques along the Melrose Blvd. strip (then a block long).
Drawing inspiration from certain antique notions of the future, and with
titles such as Surf Rules, Tesla-Rama, Hula Dance and Computer Buddy, they
prefigured the obsessions of today's retrograde youth.

Next came celebratory Events: Pet and Tiki parties that featured miniature
working volcanos and toxiplastic Thingmaker assembly lines, and, finally,
the World Imitation Exhibition in October of 1978. This extravaganza
boasted collages, paintings, family photos, WI compatriot Jeffrey
Vallance's wall of glowing Ronald McDonald dolls, and a 20-ft. mural of the
human circulatory system with parakeets.

Stumbling from a haunted orange grove in Northridge, WI members Steve
Thomsen, Michael Uhlenkott, Laurie O'Connell and Jeff Rankin premiered as
Monitor on Hallowe'en of 1978. Following a November concert on Skid Row
attended by a handful of drunks, in January 1979 the band appeared on
Richard Meltzer's legendary radio program Hepcats from Hell. Forming ASB
(Associated Skull Bands), a conglomerate of like-minded experimental bands
including Human Hands, B-People and Nervous Gender, Monitor conducted rare
live performances in Los Angeles, San Francisco and Phoenix. Three years
later they were gone.

In the space of those three years, with the assistance of Devo's master
sound sculptor Ed Barger, Monitor recorded two discs (45 and LP). The
Monitor project occupied the sliver of available space between the rote
rebellion of Punk (the folk art of L.A.) and the determined consumer
ugliness of New Wave without a nod of recognition to either. Each piece
was lovingly chiseled from the void and rigorously orchestrated, drawing
inspiration from spiritual forebears as diverse as Martin Denny and Orlando
Gibbons. Following the 1978 single, Beak/Pet Wedding, drummer Rankin bowed
out and was succeeded by primitive percussion master Keith Mitchell on
their eponymous self-produced LP. These facts are known: the rest we must
infer from smoke signals and rumors.

Monitor represents best the landscape that hatched it: an astonishing
juxtaposition of the real and the false; nature's convoluted expression
pitted against its own representation in fiberglas. Monitor sketched the
ancient modernism of Los Angeles as a tarpit stocked with plastic
dinosaurs; a glow-in-the-dark trilobite extracted from a gumball machine.
Yesterday's Tomorrowland is Monitor's HQ.

Recently featured in Track 16 gallery's new exhibition "Forming: The Early
Days of L.A. Punk," Monitor is currently in the process of compiling
material from their 45, LP and previously unreleased recordings on CD.

Today, World Imitation/Monitor alumni and associates continue to present
their peculiar World (Imitation) view via the Gran Mondo Foundation,
sponsor of the Herb Lane Museum on the Worldwide Web.