Suburban Lawns

Suburban Lawns
Origin	Long Beach, California, United States
Genres	New wave, post-punk
Years active	1978–1983
Labels	Suburban Industrial, I.R.S. Records
Past members	Su Tissue (Sue McLane) Frankie Ennui (Richard Whitney) John Gleur (John McBurney) Vex Billingsgate (William Ranson) Chuck Roast (Charles Rodriguez)

Suburban Lawns were an American post-punk band formed in Long Beach, California, United States, in 1978 by CalArts students William "Vex Billingsgate" Ranson and Sue "Su Tissue" McLane. They later recruited Richard "Frankie Ennui" Whitney, Charles "Chuck Roast" Rodriguez, and John "John Gleur" McBurney.

The 1979 debut single "Gidget Goes to Hell" (released on their own Suburban Industrial label) gained the band notoriety when its Jonathan Demme-directed music video was shown on Saturday Night Live.

Their sole album, Suburban Lawns, produced and engineered by EJ Emmons and Troy Mathisen, was released in 1981 on I.R.S. Records, featuring new wave radio favorite "Janitor."

It has been said that the lyrics of "Janitor" were derived from a real-life conversation between Sue "Su Tissue" McLane and friend Brian Smith. According to Smith, the two were conversing in a loud room when they first met:

According to Richard Whitney, this story is somewhat backwards; the music and all of the lyrics apart from “Oh, my genitals! I’m a janitor!” were already written when Sue McLane added them herself:

Gleur departed during the recording of the Richard Mazda-produced 5-song EP Baby, released in 1983, and the band folded shortly afterward. After the split, Whitney and Ranson formed a new, short-lived band called The Lawns, while McLane attended Berklee College of Music, where she studied piano.

In 1982 McLane recorded a solo album, Salon de Musique. She also played the role of Peggy Dillman in Demme's 1986 comedy movie Something Wild opposite Melanie Griffith, Jeff Daniels, and Ray Liotta.

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