Courtesy of Clay himself, here’s a set of artwork that evokes his work as editor of Bamboohead and eponymous frontman for Men of Clay.
As these flyers demonstrate, MoC performed frequently in San Diego at the turn of the ’80s and was featured in 1983’s “Our Blow Out” compilation. So far, however, we’ve only discussed the band in passing. Please chime in with your memories of Men of Clay!
so where did the name bamboohead come from? and wasn’t army of love a christian band? good to see your still doing music clay…heff
Had some tacos with Bob “The Frontman for Men of Clay” Common on Xmas eve. We discussed MOC at Montgomery High School auditorium some time around 1981 or 1982.
A really fun show. I got a concussion from going over Bret Webb’s back onto the basketball court directly on my head.
MOC always brought the goods.
I had the pleasure of being in the opening acts (Answers, Manual Scan) for the Men of Clay Aug 20 (1981) at the Zebra (1st flyer in the lower 4 set).
MOC had tremendous energy that night, wish I had brought 2 reels of tape with me (ran out after the 1st 2 sets)…hope there’s some gig recordings of the band from that period, they were an awesome live act.
Clay’s talent for text and composition really shines in these flyers…great sense of inventive urgency in delivering the message.
Dig the subtle secret ‘Crawl Away Machine’ meme in the dogfight one, like the letters are already taking off into the sky.
Heff: I remember Army of Love as a U2-inspired Christian band. I met their manager once at a Sports Arena concert (not by U2, though).
MOC -- I remember the house in IB spent a bit of time there. I took art classes with the bass player. Saw them play several shows. Many more memories not worth mentioning but mostly forgotten at this point. Give a dog LSD and put it down.