15

Here's what I know about this mysterious late-1980s North Brunswick trio: Brian Brain/PiL drummer Martin Atkins included them on his Invisible Records comp, What You Can't See Won't Hurt You; William Tucker (of Cleft Palate, among many other things) produced their debut EP, also on Invisible Records; and David Aaron Clark (False Virgins, Plague Dogs) shoved the EP into my hands upon its release. I reference these gentlemen because all were cranky S.O.B.s who wouldn't hype a lousy product. Twenty-plus years after the EP's release, Atkins was still raving about them (Clark and Tucker, unfortunately, had since passed on), but no one else was: if you can find a shred of evidence about 15 these days (and I'll grant you, their name is basically un-web-searchable), well, five gold stars for you. Here's what else I know: 15 was John Wladar, Tina Trogani, and Michael O'Mara, and as with their heroes in Big Black, the drummer was a snarling piece of gadgetry not named Echo. 15's songs share a metronomic, hostile aggression familiar to fans of the Chicago underground circa 1986-89. Post-breakup, Wladar apparently played guitar with the Milwaukee band Wreck on a 1992 record produced by Steve Albini.

I have a couple LSD flyers with 15 sharing the bill, but nothing else. So here's 15's debut cover; a menacing illustration informing the buyer: "No acoustic guitars here." It's printing is unevenly textured, and whether this was to annoy the buyer or the result of cheap silk screening, who knows, but I suspect the latter. Atkins wasn't for dropping large sums on packaging.

[CLICK ON IMAGE TO ENLARGE]