1,2,4, Go! - The Oral History of The Cheaters

The Cheaters weren’t the first punk band in Seattle and they didn’t last long enough to truly leave a mark on the burgeoning local music scene, but no one in their day was making or performing music quite like them. Founded by brothers Kurt and Al Bloch (before Kurt became the virtuosic guitarist/songwriter for the Fastbacks and joined the Young Fresh Fellows) with their neighbor Scott Dittman while still in high school, The Cheaters quickly became a basement-bred experiment in mixing all of their favorite types of rock music, from early British punk to overly complicated prog, with a healthy dose of mischievous teenage humor tossed in for good measure. In just over a year, they released their own 45 single, wrote and performed their own material from nearly the start, founded a semi-real record label, established the groundwork for a Blue Öyster Cult-inspired self-mythology, appeared in a short film by a future Oscar winner, and then imploded in a heat of passion and punk-rock angst during a show. For decades, the only evidence of The Cheaters’ legacy was almost entirely limited to tall tales of their antics. But now, Split Tooth is proud to present 1, 2, 4, Go!: The Oral History of The Cheaters by Craig and Brett Wright. Presented in a new 66-page printed zine designed by Vincent Albarano, the oral history features interviews with members of the band and those closest to them — including friends and future Fastbacks Kim Warnick and Lulu Gargiulo, Conrad Uno of PopLlama, and more — alongside rare and never-before-seen photos and documents from the Cheaters’ fleeting heyday. '1, 2, 4, Go!' is the definitive history of a criminally overlooked Pacific Northwest band and the ultimate rock ’n’ roll saga for anyone who has ever wanted their rock stars to play guitar with a saw and slip on their own banana peels. Included with the zine are two CDs of Cheaters music from No Threes Records. The first disc is the CD debut of 'See You Next Year, Fuckbrains,' a previously vinyl-only collection of Cheaters demos and home recordings. Disc two is a never-before-heard complete live show from 1979 recorded at Seattle’s Washington Hall and remixed for this release by Kurt Bloch. The zine + 2 CDR collection comes in a limited hand-numbered edition of 200.