Suicidal Tendencies

Suicidal Tendencies were founded in 1981 in Venice, Los Angeles, by frontman, Mike Muir. They were one of many bands to emerge from California's influential hardcore punk movement. Suicidal Tendencies' career did not get off to a good start, however. In 1981, readers of the Punk zine, Flipside, voted them "Worst Band/Biggest A--holes."

Suicidal Tendencies were often associated with gang culture and there were frequent outbursts of violence at their early gigs. Mike Muir refuted any affiliation with gangs when he spoke with Spin in 1986: "We thought [the stories about being a violent gang] sounded good, but it isn't true." Muir added fans were too scared to attend gigs: "The stories about us are so terrible that only our diehard fans will attend. Anyone who doesn't love us stays at home, or if they do show, they see all our fans dressed like us [in the uniform that resembles the Chicano Street gangs of Venice Beach] and they assume we're a gang."

The gang controversy surrounding the band helped to garner label attention, and in 1983, Suicidal Tendencies signed to Frontier Records and released their self-titled debut album. The album spawned Suicidal Tendencies' biggest hit to date, "Institutionalized." The music video, which features a brief cameo by Slayer front man, Tom Araya, was one of the first of hardcore punk videos to receive substantial airplay on MTV. Mike Muir spoke to us about the lasting impression of "Institutionalized": "A couple of years ago we played - I think it was in Detroit - and one of the DJs out there started playing the song, and it became the most requested song on the radio. I went out there and he goes, 'People are like, 'Whoa! What's that song and that new band, what are they called? I love that song, that Pepsi song!'' And I think that's kind of the thing. You listen; you don't sit there and go, 'Wow that sounds like it came from the early '80s.' People, when they hear it for the first time say, 'God, I love this song.' Even a lot of my friends, when they have their kids or their cousins or whatever, and they're 13, 14 and you've known them for years, they come up and go, 'Hey Mike, duuuude, that's a badass song, man!'"