of these bands that I discovered through a cover of one of their tunes, specifically this tune! The Vandals recorded a cover of 'I Have a Date' for their album Live Fast, Diarrhea, and for YEARS (probably more than a decade) I had assumed it was an original song. I would at some point see The Vandals live, and their guitarist Warren Fitzgerald who sings this song credited the original band, which got me to check them out. The only recordings from the band that you can easily find are on the Beach Blvd. compilation, which was a late 70s release featuring 3 LA punk bands: Simpletones, The Crowd and Rik L Rik, all of whom were quite different in style. Simpletones line-up info is hard to find, the according to their Last.FM page, they consisted of "Snickers of The Klan, Jerry Koskie and Rabit from The Cheifs and Jay Lansford of the Stepmothers, CH3, Rik L Rik and the Urge fame". The band apparently was quite known in the local LA scene at the time, as this compilation was played on the legendary Rodney on the ROQ radioshow, which helped to bring attention to a lot of the local and national punk bands of the era. Although they never became a household name like X or Black Flag, their sound definitely inspired a lot of young LA punks who would themselves go on to form bands, such as The Vandals. The Vandals version of this song has a great lead part in the break, which I think improves on the tune, though there is something about the teenage vocals and general high-school band quality of the original that I find really charming.