Love Razors: Hollywood Underground

Love Razors formed out of the ashes from several different LA-based bands around the fall of 1986. Singer Sten Sarracino (youngest brother to guitarist Tom) was the catalyst for forming the band after just having left (see kicked out) his former band Damn Yankees (not the Ted Nugent version). After corralling Brother Tom on guitar and drummer Jamie Simone, he asked bassist Fritz Schweigert to join on a temporary basis just long enough for them to find a new one. While always around the same music scene during the period that drummer Simone and bassist Schweigert first started playing with Tom in 1979 (while Schweigert and Simone were still in high school), Sten didn’t begin his singing career in earnest until the mid-80s when he played with eventual Poison guitarist Bruce Johannesson (soon to be C.C. DeVille) in a hard pop band called Screaming Mimi’s.

The band rehearsed for a few weeks before its’ first gig at Madame Wong’s West in Santa Monica California. The gig was an overall success even though many of the songs played during the set were pieced together from the three players’ former bands Cheapster, and Surburban Angels. After the success of the show, all the band members decided to stick around for more.
The addition of punk influences to the other more classic rock elements already present within the band members’ musical upbringings would form the basis for the sound that would eventually become the Love Razors. It would make them ultimately hard for record company execs to define and pigeon-hole. It may have been their downfall commercially at the time, but helped create one of the more musically interesting bands during their period playing in L.A.
The scene in L.A. around ’86 was vibrant with a mix of punkish glam bands (not the more pop type that would dominate later), a resurgence of 70s retro styles paying homage to forebearers like the Stones, Faces and Aerosmith as well as hard core punk and head-banging metal. The Razors fit in with their mix of 70’s based hard rock music and varied background from playing both rock and early punk styles in various bands.
Within a short period of time the Love Razors were one of the top draws in L.A., and being managed by heavyweight firm Sanctuary (Nigel Harrison, onetime bassist for Blondie was their manager during most of their time together). During this period they also drew opening slots on L.A., Orange County and San Diego tour dates for English hard rockers Zodiac Mindwarp and the Love Reaction as well as moody English gothic rockers Mission UK (formerly Sisters of Mercy). They were also a mainstay act at many of the most popular clubs in L.A. like the always moving Club Scream, White Trash and especially the now legendary Coconut Teaszer where they were a virtual house band for a period of two to three years. When not playing in L.A., the Razors played during this same period at the Stone and Nightbreak clubs in San Francisco, Annie Oakley’s in Las Vegas, the Bacchanal in San Diego, and the Coach House in San Juan Capistrano as well as the Ventura Theater in Ventura California.
Recordings during their time together were financed partially or wholly as demos for various record companies who showed interest in the band, but who never offered them the record contract that they worked so hard to get.The Love Razors played through most of 1990 breaking up after guitarist Tom Sarracino left the band for other musical pursuits. Members Schweigert, Simone and Sten Sarracino continued on briefly through much of 1991 along with now Cult rhythm guitarist Mike Dimkich in a band called Rubio Del Sol, until bassist Schweigert left in order to focus on his recent marriage and the birth of his first child. Guitarist Tom Sarracino played briefly in the Eddie Money band following the end of Love Razors. Rubio Del Sol continued for several months after Schweigert left with replacement bassist Mike Lea, but packed it in late in 1991. The band played one last reunion show as Love Razors in 1991 during their annual Christmas Party at the former Sunset Club in Sierra Madre California.