The skulls.

THIS ISN'T SUPPOSED TO WORK. The facts are that most punk reformations blow goats. Usually the only astonishing thing is how quickly nostalgia gets turned into wheelbarrows of cash. But LA's Skulls are a noticeable exception. True: In 1977, the band Billy Bones was in played and had a practice space at The Masque. The club was ground zero for LA, a virtual punk who's who. The Germs, Bags, GoGo's, and Weirdos were their contemporaries. Billy is offered a one-off show. Longtime-fan Sean Antillon, one of the scene's best and respected drummers (Controllers, Gears) jumps at the chance to pound. An ex-Adicts keyboardist, James "Hardslug" signs on to play bass. He learns in a couple months. A 19-year-old guitar whiz Kevin "The Kid" seeks out Billy and doesn't take no for an answer. This is all a nice little story--guys of three generations of punk hook up and hold hands--but is it any good? Holy shit. It's better than that. Therapy for the Shy (Dr Strange) is a ripper of an album. I'd go as far to say it's the best stuff the Skulls have ever done. It's pared down, straight ahead, glue-sniffing mania that isn't aiming for anything less than to he the perfect slab of how punk is supposed to sound. It's both instantly recognizable yet inventive. It's got melody and gnashing teeth. Live, they play like the music is electrocuting them. That conviction, that fun and overdrive, it's hard to duplicate. And it makes me believe that the skulls are one of the few resurrections worth celebrating.

Here's a hypothetical question.

James: Does that mean we're pathetic?

Hypothetical. What do the Skulls and Michael Jackson have in common?

Sean: I know something. Him and me were born on the same day.

James: Michael Jackson and the Skulls are both great dancers.

Kevin: I slept at Neverland Ranch when I was 13.

Actually, the question wasn't purely hypothetical. Who's the Milkman?

Billy: He's this eight-year-old. Skateboard kid. He came to one of our shows. We do a lot of stuff with Team Goon, and he skates for Team Goon. He came to our show and got on stage with us and he likes us, and we like him and they're cool people, and they've helped us out.

Sean: We did the Milkman's eighth birthday party.

That's the connection I was going for--grown men throwing birthday parties for kids they don't really know.

Sean: Well, his mom and his dad were there and they approved. Nothing behind the curtain went on. It was cool. His dad even emptied the pool, all the water, and the whole team came and skated around us. It was bitchin'.

James, what were the last two incidents that were the impetus for you to stop drinking?

James: The second from last was when I woke up in a pool of my own piss in a cell in England, and was shown the police report of my interview that I'd had the night before that I had no recollection of. And the last one was doing one of them--can't remember if it's a half-gallon or a gallon--but one of those Jack Daniel's bottles with a handle on it. It was me and two other guys, Bob Nalbandian and Pat McGeehan, who was some heavy metal musician in the '80s. We got fucked up beyond to complain, and she sees me standing there with my pants around my ankles and my dick in my hand and Pat McGeehan with his pants around his ankles, bending over. And my mate Bob sitting on the sofa, going. "Whhooaa!" She took one look and turned around and said, "I don't even want to know." When, in reality, he said he had the smallest prick around. I said, "No, you haven't." He goes, "Yes, I have. I'm Mr Small Prick USA." I go, "Please to meet you. I'm England." And I showed him mine and he realized it was smaller than his, so he turned around and mooned me.

Sean: I woke up out of a blackout in the middle of almost having sex with my best friend's ex-girlfriend, who was not attractive. He was my best friend and that was a drag. I woke up and went, "Whoa, what am I doing? This isn't right." Earlier that night, I'd jumped off a roof into a pool with no clothes on.

So, James, when you played keyboard for the Adicts did you ever play one of Tony Hawk's private parties?

James: No. The Tony Hawk party was just recently. I was there because we lent them our gear. We're just old friends from years and years ago.

Sean: Who was that guy beating shit out of my drum?

James: Tom Green. I was trying to rescue those drums from that mad man.

Billy, how many knives did you sell during the summer of 1978? You worked in an army surplus store in LA.

Billy: Lots of knives. Lots of guns. Because of the Hillside Strangler.

James: You do know that Sean just wrote a song called "Summer of Hate?" were going to play it tonight.

Sean: It's about the death of one of the Hillside Strangers, and we celebrate his death because a dear friend of Billy Bones was killed back then. So we thought it was pretty good.

What's the connection between the Skulls and skating? Didn't someone make a prototype Skulls deck?

James: We've had a couple of unique boards put together, just one-offs that Brad of Team Goon was kind enough to put together. Personally, it's a completely new arena for me. I didn't know fuckall about skateboarding, 'til I was introduced to it through these guys. What's cool for me is that everyone who I've met through the skate scene is the fucking coolest. No baggage attached. Just people about skating, having a good time. (www.suburbias.com/skulls)