David Schlabach's Page

Founded in 1983, The Repellents ambushed the unsuspecting Indianapolis/Cincinnati music scene with its brand of fast, loud, straight-edged hardcore influenced primarily by the Ramones. The Indy scene had several great punk bands around (Zero Boys, Slammies, and others), but The Repellents stood apart by being older,snobbier and appearing more spaced out, and playing much sloppier than any of their counterparts.

Drummer Yukki and Bassist Jakki provided the raw horsepower to drive the monster sound. Lumpy's virtuoso performances were legendary. Dave, the singer ( who was mildly retarded and who suffered from attention deficit syndrome) would frequently fly into a rage for no apparent reason and dive onto patrons table , upsetting both the patrons and their drinks.
Down in hill-jack land, in Newport, Kentucky, The Jockey Club was the center of the Cincinnati underground music scene in those years, and The Repellents quickly found a home there. In the early years of the band, lack of money and drugs kept the quartet from traveling much. The Repellents found a way to play a short tour of Ohio.

The first line-up of The Repellents recorded and released some songs on the master tape, thanks to punk rock maverick Bill " tricksie" Levin. It was well received in the national punk press and fanzine network and even garnered some airplay on college radio stations throughout the United States and Europe. Locally, The Repellents gained notoriety for being the first band to make no apologies for habitually being too drunk to perform well. Legendary disk jockey Handsome Clem Carpenter regularly featured the the Repellents on his weekly punk show, Search and Destroy, on WAIF in Cincinnati.

As members changed and the musical interests of the members evolved, The Repellents moved away from the thrash sound of D.C. toward the metallic appeal of Motorhead. This direction was an appropriate one, as guitarist Lumpy had matured into an accomplished lead player. In their later days, singer Dave Repellent Jr., having completely overcome his initial shyness, put on an extraordinary show by leaping around the stage with a sweaty face while Lumpy displayed his virtuoso guitar work. The Bassist for this line up was the legendary Julie Huffaker ( She lives, Last four (5) digits,etc.) and Eric Stouder ( Ivan ) on drums.
The Repellents had a Reunion show on Aug. 8th at Radio Radio in Indy. It was truly a knock-your-socks off performance. Several people in the audience were stunned (stoned).

The second and third incarnations of The Repellents each produced studio recordings that for a variety of reasons were never released. Fortunately, the master tapes survived the intervening years and they have been digitally re-mastered, now sounding better than ever. These second two tapes, along with the original " Rocker Bob" EP, also digitally remastered, will all soon be available to the public. Stay tuned.