The original band was three high school friends from Jackson, Michigan (Kenny Knott, Richard "Dick" Bowser, and Jim Forgey) along with Eliot Rachman, another WMU student who hailed from East Lansing.

Rachman had worked on the 1980 United States Census in Lansing, MI with members of The Fix and the original publishers (Tesco Vee and Dave Stimson) of Touch and Go magazine.

The Chicago appearance, however, was supposedly attended by a young Dave Grohl of the Foo Fighters and described as a formative experience for him in the book Come as You Are by Michael Azerrad.

[5] Another significant contribution of singer Kenny Knott and Eliot Rachman was the formation in 1982 of Students for Progressive Action (SPA).

Some of the bands that played at SPA shows included Black Flag, Circle Jerks, Saccharine Trust, The Minutemen, Butthole Surfers, Naked Raygun, Discharge, Misfits, Samhain, Minor Threat, and many others.