In 1977, Arizona punk rock kicked off on the extreme west side of Phoenix. Directly across the street from Cortez High School, The Consumers established the valley’s initial hyper-speed sound, while just down the block, The Exterminators formed as the youngest, most confrontational unit in the valley: fourteen-year-old guitar prodigy Doug Clark (Buzzy Murder), his nineteen-year-old brother Dan Clark (Johnny Macho) on vocals, bassist Joe Albanese, and drummer Doug Goss. Rehearsing out of sweltering storage lockers along the Glendale border, they built a sound driven by breakneck tempos, Robert Fripp-inspired dissonance, and sheer hostility.

Their maiden gig quickly entered local lore. Staged at a Brophy Prep prom house party between the Clark home and Paul Cutler’s place, over 400 kids swarmed the block. Armed with a Shure Vocal Master PA liberated from a Glendale grade school and covered head-to-toe in tin foil, saran wrap, and spray paint, Exterminators were met with flying beer bottles, neighbor riots, and an immediate police blockade backed by paddy wagons, SWAT officers, and helicopters. It was Phoenix’s violent baptism into punk rock.

When Goss exited, young Jimmy Giorsetti (Don Bolles) volunteered behind the kit. Giorsetti had adopted his moniker directly from the Arizona Republic investigative reporter who was assassinated by a dynamite car bomb at central Phoenix’s Hotel Clarendon in June 1976. Bashing out caveman beats on an improvised setup—a kick drum, a cracked ride cymbal, and a legless 16-inch floor tom wedged between his knees—Bolles locked in with newly drafted bassist Rob Graves (Ritter) to cement the definitive lineup.

Operating out of “Satan’s Disco,” their shared house on 3rd and Garfield, the band spent 1977 and 1978 terrorizing local biker dives like The Zoo and Lil Abner’s. Dan Clark stormed tables in thrift-store house dresses and smeared lipstick, kicking drinks into hostile crowds while Doug Clark ripped frantic leads through failing cords. Their sound was raw proto-hardcore, hitting like Raw Power spinning at 45 RPM.

Following a farewell gig at the Valley Art Theatre in Tempe opening for Consumers, the band fractured. Armed with a $1,200 trust fund check, Bolles and Graves headed west together to Los Angeles. The rhythm section forged in Phoenix basements became an essential catalyst for the California explosion: Bolles took over drums for Germs, while Graves joined Bags before re-teaming with Bolles to co-found 45 Grave and anchoring Gun Club. Back in Phoenix, the Clark brothers channeled that energy into Feederz and Mighty Sphincter, keeping original Exterminators anthems like “Destruction Unit,” “I Hate You,” and “Just Like Your Mom” alive in the underground.

Exterminators never tracked a single studio session in the 1970s. For nearly four decades, their entire recorded output existed only on a single, degraded rehearsal cassette.