Welcome to this website. Here you'll find information about the soundtrack for bodyboarding videos from the 1990s, including Chris Stroh's Underground Tapes and Brian Stokes' Riders of Tubes.

This section is for extra content such as interviews.

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• 2026-07-08   Cartoon Horrors interview

Cartoon Horrors interview

As I was looking for some information on a band named Cartoon Horrors that's featured on Waves From Hell, I eventually stumbled upon John, one of its original members. I reached out to him on Facebook, and him and former band member Damian were kind enough to answer some of my questions. For context, Cartoon Horrors has two songs on Waves From Hell: "Invite me" which is the song you can hear in the section named The Reef. And "Something to Say" which is from the Eppo section.

Massive thanks to both John and Damian who were really awesome and who allowed me to share their answers here.

Also, be sure to check John's current band, Johnny Law & The Pistol Packin' Daddies.

John: Cartoon Horrors started when I met a guy I was working with at the time named Damian Rinaldi. We were both looking to start a new band project, so we decided to put something together. Damian already had a drummer he'd worked with before (Anthony Cochran), so the next step was finding a bass player, which ended up being Stephan Lund.

John: Before our only live performance Stephan left the band and was replaced on bass by Leith Kay.

John: In early 1992 we recorded at Planet Studios in Perth, which at the time was one of the city's best studios and where a lot of well-known local bands recorded, including The Stems. We had originally intended to record a demo, but Planet Studios were advertising a five-song recording deal and we decided to jump on it.

Damian: It wasn't a "recording deal" per se, but more a deal to record five songs.

John: What the studio hadn't specified in the advertisement was a time limit for the session, and we definitely took advantage of that. We stayed in there squeezing every possible minute out of the recording time until the engineer joked that they'd be changing the ad to include a time limit in future.

Damian: I recall us buying Graham Owens a carton of beer and no doubt some pizza to keep him sweet!

John: So what had originally been intended as a demo ended up becoming more like a full-blown EP. The songs recorded during that session included:

• "Pretty Girl"
• "Psychologically Changed"
• "Something To Say"
• "Soon Now Before"
• "Slightly Crazy"

John: Another song called "Invite Me" was also recorded around that time.

Damian: We did that later, with someone you knew who was a student at SAE (or somewhere similar). I distinctly remember it being in mid 1992 as I have mid-year law exams and therefore could only spend limited time in the studio.

John: Most of the songs were written by me, although I believe "Soon Now Before" was written by Damian.

Damian: That's correct, although that's not my finest moment. I also have a credit on "Psychologically Changed", but only because I come up with some lyrics!

John: The recordings were released on cassette under the title Clouded Crystal Ball, which was available locally through Dada Records in Perth.

Damian: Through key Perth independent retailers (such as Dada Records, 78s and Echo Chamber).

John: Cartoon Horrors only played one live show, which was our debut gig at Club Original in Perth on May 29, 1992, alongside a band called The Tired Starlings.

John: As far as the Underground Tapes connection goes, I believe that was something Damian organised. I'm not entirely sure whether someone approached him or if he reached out to them.

Damian: A school buddy of mine and Anthony's, Tim Poga, was heavily into the bodyboarding scheme at the time, and from memory was driving Chris Stroh around the surf spots in WA when Chris was filming in WA. Tim gave our cassette to Chris, and it went from there.

John: I was actually pretty heavily into surfing when I was younger. I had my own custom-made board from about the age of 15 and used to surf every week. I did quite a few trips down to Yallingup as well - a friend of mine worked at Caves House and had accommodation there, so I used to head down and surf the main break there. So it's kind of funny that one of my songs eventually ended up in a bodyboarding video.

John: At the time though, I wasn't really aware that our music had been used in the Underground Tapes videos, and I never personally met anyone who discovered the band through them.

John: I do vaguely remember the name Front End Loader from back then, although I'm not sure that I ever saw them play.

Damian: FEL had a big hit with "Pulse" in 1997.

John: These days I'm still playing music. In 2001 I formed a rockabilly band called Johnny Law & The Pistol Packin' Daddies, and I'm still the frontman, guitarist and songwriter for that band today. We've released four CDs and have toured in the US and Europe, including a few shows in France.

John: More recently I've also been playing double bass in another project called Antsville, where we play a mix of country, rockabilly and trucker songs.

John: Unfortunately the name Ampersand doesn't ring a bell for me, sorry.

John: Years ago I had the Cartoon Horrors cassette transferred to CD at a copy shop in Perth and made two copies - one for me and one for Damian - so I'm currently trying to track that down. If I manage to find it I'll definitely let you know.

Damian: I definitely have the CD somewhere and it's from the CD that I have the digital sound files I've shared with you. I do also have about 10 cassettes!

John: Thanks again for getting in touch - it's pretty amazing that people are still discovering those songs after all these years.

Damian: PS The "Invite Me" sessions (which I dubbed "Eclectic Vibrato" because vibrato was everywhere - Mark Waterhouse at Procopy then called it "Electric Vibrator"!) also included "Mr President" and "Memory Behind", both of which I thought showed real sonic development and breadth from where we started.

Cheers, Johnny & Damian