Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs

Mario Gets OFF!

Hardcore supergroup OFF! Enlists SD drummer Rubalcaba.
Hardcore supergroup OFF! Enlists SD drummer Rubalcaba.

Drummer Mario Rubalcaba started listening to punk rock in the sixth grade, when a friend played him songs by Bad Brains, Black Flag, Discharge... His interest expanded to local acts such as Pitchfork, Heroin, and Battalion of Saints, members of which he has since joined onstage and in the studio.

Over the years, the co-owner of Thirsty Moon Records in Hillcrest has drummed with a handful of San Diego bands. Starting with post-punk group 411 in 1990, Rubalcaba went on to play with Thingy, Clickitat Ikatowi, Rocket From the Crypt, Hot Snakes, the Sultans, and alongside Matt Anderson and Scott Bartoloni from seminal screamo band Heroin in a 2002 regrouping of Battalion of Saints.

Rubalcaba now divides his time on the traps between Earthless, Spider Fever, and OFF!, an L.A.-based hardcore punk band featuring Dimitri Coats (Burning Brides), Steve McDonald (Redd Kross), and West Coast punk pioneer Keith Morris of Black Flag and Circle Jerks.

Sponsored
Sponsored

“It’s its own kind of funky mildew,” the former Team Alva skateboarder writes in a December 16 email about OFF! “No band that I have ever played in has had this type of vibe. It’s a really heavy thing...but you can still dance to it. It’s what we call ‘the dark party.’”

OFF! debuted in March at the South by Southwest music festival in Austin, Texas, and played their first Los Angeles show at a downtown warehouse with an art installation by Raymond Pettibon, the brother of Black Flag guitarist Greg Ginn. The group recorded four four-song EPs, which were recently released as a box set by Vice Records, First Four EPs (a nod to Black Flag’s First Four Years). Many of the tracks were originally put together by Morris and Coats for what would have been the first Circle Jerks album in 14 years. After the album fell through due to band disagreements, Morris recruited a new lineup to see the songs through.

“[Morris] told me about wanting to get back to basics and trying to capture a sense of urgency,” Rubalcaba writes. “Just getting something together really quick, bang it out with fury, record it without taking forever, and just put out a four-song seven-inch in the vibe of the Black Flag Nervous Breakdown EP. How could I resist?”

Earthless is currently touring Australia. OFF! plans to tour soon, with stops including SXSW and Coachella. Spider Fever infects Casbah January 30 with Archons and Widows.

Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

2024 continues to impress with yellowfin much closer to San Diego than they should be

New rockfish regulations coming this week as opener approaches
Hardcore supergroup OFF! Enlists SD drummer Rubalcaba.
Hardcore supergroup OFF! Enlists SD drummer Rubalcaba.

Drummer Mario Rubalcaba started listening to punk rock in the sixth grade, when a friend played him songs by Bad Brains, Black Flag, Discharge... His interest expanded to local acts such as Pitchfork, Heroin, and Battalion of Saints, members of which he has since joined onstage and in the studio.

Over the years, the co-owner of Thirsty Moon Records in Hillcrest has drummed with a handful of San Diego bands. Starting with post-punk group 411 in 1990, Rubalcaba went on to play with Thingy, Clickitat Ikatowi, Rocket From the Crypt, Hot Snakes, the Sultans, and alongside Matt Anderson and Scott Bartoloni from seminal screamo band Heroin in a 2002 regrouping of Battalion of Saints.

Rubalcaba now divides his time on the traps between Earthless, Spider Fever, and OFF!, an L.A.-based hardcore punk band featuring Dimitri Coats (Burning Brides), Steve McDonald (Redd Kross), and West Coast punk pioneer Keith Morris of Black Flag and Circle Jerks.

Sponsored
Sponsored

“It’s its own kind of funky mildew,” the former Team Alva skateboarder writes in a December 16 email about OFF! “No band that I have ever played in has had this type of vibe. It’s a really heavy thing...but you can still dance to it. It’s what we call ‘the dark party.’”

OFF! debuted in March at the South by Southwest music festival in Austin, Texas, and played their first Los Angeles show at a downtown warehouse with an art installation by Raymond Pettibon, the brother of Black Flag guitarist Greg Ginn. The group recorded four four-song EPs, which were recently released as a box set by Vice Records, First Four EPs (a nod to Black Flag’s First Four Years). Many of the tracks were originally put together by Morris and Coats for what would have been the first Circle Jerks album in 14 years. After the album fell through due to band disagreements, Morris recruited a new lineup to see the songs through.

“[Morris] told me about wanting to get back to basics and trying to capture a sense of urgency,” Rubalcaba writes. “Just getting something together really quick, bang it out with fury, record it without taking forever, and just put out a four-song seven-inch in the vibe of the Black Flag Nervous Breakdown EP. How could I resist?”

Earthless is currently touring Australia. OFF! plans to tour soon, with stops including SXSW and Coachella. Spider Fever infects Casbah January 30 with Archons and Widows.

Comments
Sponsored
Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

Making Love to Goats, Rachmaninoff, and Elgar

Next Article

Didja know I did the first American feature on Jimi Hendrix?

Richard Meltzer goes through the Germs, Blue Oyster Cult, Ray Charles, Elvis, Lavender Hill Mob
Comments
Ask a Hipster — Advice you didn't know you needed Big Screen — Movie commentary Blurt — Music's inside track Booze News — San Diego spirits Classical Music — Immortal beauty Classifieds — Free and easy Cover Stories — Front-page features Drinks All Around — Bartenders' drink recipes Excerpts — Literary and spiritual excerpts Feast! — Food & drink reviews Feature Stories — Local news & stories Fishing Report — What’s getting hooked from ship and shore From the Archives — Spotlight on the past Golden Dreams — Talk of the town The Gonzo Report — Making the musical scene, or at least reporting from it Letters — Our inbox Movies@Home — Local movie buffs share favorites Movie Reviews — Our critics' picks and pans Musician Interviews — Up close with local artists Neighborhood News from Stringers — Hyperlocal news News Ticker — News & politics Obermeyer — San Diego politics illustrated Outdoors — Weekly changes in flora and fauna Overheard in San Diego — Eavesdropping illustrated Poetry — The old and the new Reader Travel — Travel section built by travelers Reading — The hunt for intellectuals Roam-O-Rama — SoCal's best hiking/biking trails San Diego Beer — Inside San Diego suds SD on the QT — Almost factual news Sheep and Goats — Places of worship Special Issues — The best of Street Style — San Diego streets have style Surf Diego — Real stories from those braving the waves Theater — On stage in San Diego this week Tin Fork — Silver spoon alternative Under the Radar — Matt Potter's undercover work Unforgettable — Long-ago San Diego Unreal Estate — San Diego's priciest pads Your Week — Daily event picks
4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs
Close

Anchor ads are not supported on this page.