Vandals original singer dies

Original Vandals singer, Steven “Stevo” Jensen, died this past weekend at his home on the island of Maui.

Jensen was the Vandals’ singer from 1980-84, through the albums Peace Through Vandalism and When In Rome Do As the Vandals. In 1985, he was replaced by current vocalist Dave Quackenbush. You can read a press release from guitarist Jan Nils Ackerman over at Punknews.

Personally, I always liked Jensen better than Quackenbush. It was one of the songs Jensen sang on, “Anarchy Burger (Hold the Government)”, that first introduced me to the Vandals. While that’s one of my favorite tunes by the band, my all-time winner is from a little-known compilation entitled When Men Were Men And Sheep Were Scared. The album came out in 1985 on Beamis Brain Records. The song is “Dachau Cabana”, a truly sick and twisted take on Barry Manilow‘s hit, “Copa Cobana.”

As an interesting note, that comp also featured a band called the Falling Idols, which featured as their lead singer Dave Quackenbush. He’d leave the group shortly after When Men Were Men…‘s release to sing for the Vandals.

Dachau Cabana