Will you take $135? It's got a "Z" in the name.

It never ceases to amaze me what collectors are willing to spend on something that is rather insignificant. In the comment section of a post at Killed By Death, someone mentioned that Taang Records (in San Diego) is displaying the Cardiac Kidz 45 with a price tag of $150. In relative terms, it makes whatever is being paid for the Injections and Xterminators 45's seem like a bargain (last time I checked they were at about a C-note each).

Considering that the Cardiac Kidz were about a tenth tier punk band in their heyday (when there were only about nine punk bands in San Diego) and that their music is wholly unremarkable (and they have a "Z" in their name) , one can only surmise that punk collectors heavily prioritize scarcity. Whatever. Good for them...

I knew one of the guys in the band, Steve Lightfoot, and, though I wasn't too nuts about his band, he was a nice enough guy. So when I saw his record posted, I was prompted to do a web search of his name. Boy, did that open up a can of worms! The most prominent search results were about a Steve Lightfoot who theorizes that John Lennon's murder was the result of conspiracy by Nixon and Reagan, and it was Stephen King who actually pulled the trigger.

Now, I'm not saying, by any means, that this is the same Steve Lightfoot, but on the site promoting his theory, he cites a visit to the San Diego's main public library as the place he discovered "codes" in newspaper and news magazine headlines that lead to the his conspiracy theory. (This was in 1980. The record was released in 1979). Here's where it gets really interesting. Lightfoot lived a couple blocks from me in the mid-80's and right around that time there was a van that would be parked on the street in the neighborhood, covered in various signs and photocopies touting the same conspiracy theory!

It very well could be a coincidence and there could have been two different Lightfoots in the same area at the same time. It should be noted that nowhere in the "Conspiracy" Lightfoot's extensive ramblings and bio does it mention living in San Diego for an extended period or being in a band called the Cardiac Kidz (though it does mention that he was a B+ student in high school because his parents preferred that to straight A's).

So, save yourself $150 and check out what one of San Diego's early crappy punk bands sounded like and, as a bonus, read about the "biggest story since Christ" [sic]

Cardiac Kidz - Get Out /Find Yourself a Way @ Killed By Death

Who Really Killed John Lennon by Steve Lightfoot

The Steve Lightfoot Exhibit @ the Kook Museum

(really, I don't make this stuff up)