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 Adam Ritchie and his band inside the DMZSteve Schmidt and Link Smith skating in DMZ parking lotSteve Schmidt, somewhere between the heights and downtownGrove Circle Punx - Andy Conrad, Utrillo, Bryan Spinas, Matthew Thompson, Jason White, Josh Bentley (92)
 added story to The Link Springs Forms Event The Link Springs Forms added story to New Wave Festival added story to DMZ opens added story to DMZ opens added story to New Wave Festival added story to Econochrist forms added story to Hatful Day plays their first show added story to Big Boss Line forms added story to Women's City Club Show  |
 John Pugh // KABF was like a five minute walk from my house growing up, so Adios Amerika was my first stop on a sneak-out night of debauchery. It was a party broadcast live on the air. Some nights were quiet affairs, with Sam and Steve and Mark playing quiet meaningful emo and pop punk. Then other nights it was just sheer raving lunacy with everyone screaming along to the Filth/Blatz split (again?) while administering lighter burns to each others out-stretched arms. That's what they call "free-form radio". Years later I inherited the Sunday noon reggae show from Mark Lewis. John Cain always seemed to keep a token punk on at least one of the many reggae shows, since we played the really old ska and rock steady and not fucking Maxi Priest (again?). // After driving two days on a long journey home from an internship in NYC I got stuck in an ice storm just outside of Nashville. Traffic was crawling and people were sliding off the road left and right. I was absolutely determined to make it back and didn't have much of an option since it was too cold to sleep in the car and I was too broke to stay in a hotel. It was an excruciating process keeping the car on the road and in a somewhat straight line. My hands were at 'ten and two' on the wheel just like Drivers Ed told you to and my knuckles were white from gripping it so tight. The ice was building up and the road was as slick as possum shit. On a bad day this part of the drive might have taken seven, maybe eight hours but at eleven I was just creeping past the '58 miles to Little Rock' mark, grinding my teeth and totally losing my mind at 30 miles an hour. I had already listened to all my tapes twice and couldn't bear hearing any of them again so out of desperation I started scanning the ... (More) // I was thirteen at the time, and Mike Lierly excitedly told me about a late-night radio station that "plays punk music from all over the WORLD!". I had absolutely no idea what this meant. Soon enough, every Friday night one of us would spend the night at the other's house, taping the show. Eli and I would write notes about the bands played, and would dub songs from each other's KABF tapes to make incomplete "albums" of all the Downcast or Econochrist or Spitboy songs we had. At the time, it's important to note that we actually went to Camelot Music in McCain Mall, looking through their cassettes for these bands, shocked that we couldn't find them!
As the three of us formed The Schwa Sound in autumn 1992 (making way for Soophie Nun Squad), we would call in every week to request more Downcast songs until we became known as "The Downcast Kids". The night that the name Soophie Nun Squad was born, we phoned in a series of prank calls to Sam and Steve, delivering vague, cute threats from "the Soophie Nun Squad". The DJ's responded in turn, playing the theme music to "Star Wars" and yelling over ... (More) // I believe it was in this same year that Adios Amerika was hosted by other people than Sam and Steve. At one point I know some other people (who's names escape me, I'm sure someone could fill in some details on this one) that hosted and then Colin was doing the show for awhile. Colin had a great voice for this too, I thought he was a natural. Whenver anyone played records that had "dirty they would either not really play it or sneak it in if they could. Whenever Colin would play a song that had a lot of cussing in it he would cut in over it and go "I love you." Which I thought was kind of amusing. I think it was also around this time that the straight-edge people were playing stuff like Earth Crisis, Mean Season and Encounter stuff. That didn't last as long though on there. After that the show became "The Big Rip-Off." This may not all be totally acurate but it is what I remember. // Adios Amerika was a great show and it was always something I looked forward to listening to on Friday nights. It was either Justin Brooks or Matt Werth who told me about the show and where and when I could catch it. Anyway, I would sometimes call in requests and usually they would play it if they had the records with them. That show opened up a whole world of bands I had never heard of before and after that I would try and record the show so I could listen to the songs again anytime I wanted to. // Steve had another radio show before this from 2-5am on Tuesdays I think. He hooked up with Sam, who had done poetry shows on KABF I believe, and they got this great time slot on Friday nights! It was a great scene of people who came down. Different every week. People brought their records, etc. I don't know who listened, because everyone we knew seemed to be there on the porch or in the control room. // Older and wiser, art school poet, Sam Caplan grabs the reigns at KABF community radio and broadcasts punk rock and hardcore records over the cities airwaves. // I think KABF should be noted for the Buzzsaw Hour. I cannot remember what night it was on, though I remember listening late at nightwith my radio on, turned low and pressed against my ear so I could hear the chaotic and liberating new sounds, but not to alert my parents! This was around 1983. I remember hearing GBH, No Trend, DOA and other early hardcore punk bands. // I think I drank the first beer I actually enjoyed at KABF while hanging out with Steve Schmidt, Sam Caplan, Jason White, and many others doing Adios Amerika. I "borrowed" a few records from the station as well. The guys doing the show always brought their own records anyway, so I knew the station didn't need them, I did though. I always pledged money to the station during there drives, so I didn't feel too bad about it. // Back in the early '90s, I was answering the phones for the KABF punk rock radio show called "Adios Amerika." Around this time, there was a Little Rock kid named Billy, who supposedly stabbed a girl for not getting up from his seat. Alan "disaster" still lived with his parents in Conway, he couldn't have been older than 16. He used to call the radio station all the time. One night he called up and said, in a high-pitched voice, "Hey, this is Alan in Conway , what's this I hear about Billie Joe from Green Day stabbing some girl for not getting out of his seat?" // Hosted by Steve Schmidt and Sam Caplan. Adios Amerika was a defining voice for the LR punk scene, featuring local music and the drunken ramblings of dozens of locals who collected each Friday night at the studio. The program served to introduce hundreds of Little Rock locals to the many punk bands that were from the area or passing through on tour.  Trouble submitting your story? E-mail towncraft@matsonfilms.com Matson Films reserves the right to edit all responses. Please be courteous to your community. |
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Adios Amerika
Alan Diaster
Econochrist
