...the TV and the distortion is just what people do. Sitting in front of a TV, going from channel to channel having your life directed by the norm. Consulting your TV to guide your life. It's the way we see things coming to in the world. Especially in LA nothing is getting better. They're wasting time on pre-occupations.
- Shaun Ross / Excel interview, Ripping Headaches #12, 1990
EXCEL released their excellent second LP, The Joke's on You, on this day in 1989.
Excel never wanted to be the next Suicidal Tenancies or the next Metallica. Excel just wanted to be the first Excel. With all these bands acknowledging and paying tribute to us now, it's validating. There was a time where I thought nobody got it. It almost had to die and be rediscovered. Then, when I was working at a store out in Echo Park, it was always a trip when kids found out that I worked out there. They wanted to come out and look at flyers and hear stories. It eased any bitterness I had at the time and proved to me that both we and our fans were onto something right.
- Dan Clements / Excel interview, Noisecreep, 2013