Our story begins in the summer of 1979 on the basketball court of Franklin Elementary School, when through a mutual friend, Brent and I first met. We soon discovered that we had the same budding interests since we were only nine years old at the time.

These interests consisted basically Devo, punk rock, and marijuana.

Besides having an Atari machine, Brent also had an acoustic guitar and I knew how to play a little bit!

During the following two years, we became good friends; and after I moved to another neighborhood, we lost touch for another two years.

Reacquainted, we went to see Fear, China White, The Minutemen, and Twisted Roots at the world-famous Whiskey Au Go Go.

Brent was no longer the innocent-looking surfer kid I knew. He was now all punked out - complete with red, spiky cones, biker boots, and flannel shirt to boot!

He was still playing guitar, too. So I told my friend (a then local punk guru and mastermind of more than a few of Echo Park's more original, but unknown garage groups.) about my friend Brent and to both of our surprise, Marcel already knew "Little Brent" and had not seen him for years. Marcel couldn't believe it, but was happy Brent had become a full-blown, skanking, stage-diving, and especially guitar playing kid of eleven years.

Brent and Marcel immediately started playing together, Marcel switching positions between drums, vocals, (then later) bass. Brent always on guitar. Through the next two years they played in the following groups with the following people:

The Establishment: Marcel on drums then vocals, Quincy Kawada on guitar, Mark Corona on bass, Ramses drums, Vince Corona drums, Nick on drums.

The Underworld: Marcel on bass and vocals, Brent on guitar, Ramses on drums. Then later Rhonda on lead vocals.

In 1982, Marcel and the guys from the Marsden St. scene let me join in on the fun. Brent and I had just begun going to the same school and it was the first year of junior high, when I began singin' lead vocals for The Creeps with Marcel on bass and vocals, Brent Zoom guitar, Ramses on drums. Our friend Max would sit in three or four times during this period.

This lineup lasted almost two years. By then, the music became increasingly experimental with a more gloomy theatrical sound as opposed to the beer-drenched punk from the days of old, it was moody and conceptual. This was because Marcel, who was the main writer and influence was older than Brent and myself and had been a film student from a young age.

I eventually (due to lack of cooperation) got booted from the lineup and was replaced by an early Hollywood punk scenester-turn-gloom doom Diva Kim or "Jet". R.I.P.

They changed the name of the group to "Chartreuse". They played around a while and actually sounded pretty good.

Chartreuse remained a group for nearly three years of "musical chairs", later recruiting a Hollywood hotshot drummer, sixteen year old "B.G."

B.G. later brought in his friend Steve to take over on bass towards the end. These two had a more metal sound and began to incorporate a heavier approach and played well together.

At this point, Marcel took over singing lead himself.

When they finally disbanded, there wasn't much live music around our block for a while. Especially in Marcel's parent's (Gerry and Brenda) garage.

I guess everyone needed a break.

It was around this time Mark and I began writing songs for a three-piece group we played in with our uncle Andy called The Mud Men.

Marcel and Brent made their final incarnation of Chartreuse when they recruited (ex-Undertakers bass player) Tracy and his wife Angie on bass and keyboard.

The new lineup's crawling sound never flew so Tracy and Angie moved on to form Insulin Reaction. Marcel decided to throw in the music towel to focus on art instead.

It was a whirlwind relationship with a growing musical family all learning and changing.

It was cool because through everything, we all got along and remained friends, that is except for Ramses and Marcel, who had grown up together like Brent and myself.

Even though they lived on the same street, they would never speak to each other.

After summer of 1985, Brent and I would be going to different high schools of local rivals, :Marshall Barristers" and "Belmont Sentinels". Towards the beginning of the summer, Brent called me (I think it was out of boredom, determination, and inspiration) and asked me if I would like to start a new group with him. I said "Yeah, I'll play bass"

At the time, I knew almost nothing about playing bass. I only knew a couple of riffs on acoustic.

Brent knew I was not a bass player, but we just got together and started writing songs with some riffs he had. Brent had a couple of guitar lines and ideas for bass lines. I filled in the blanks.

He showed me what he cold and I learned fast with the help of some great teachers on old records.

We played all originals from the beginning and developed our own sound early on (without a drummer)

It was great, but weird and fun at the same time. Punk rock was waning, psychedelic and gloom, or gothic, was in full bloom.

We weren't any of these things or anything at all, but we knew we were making our own music.

This is when we decided to "hunt" for a drummer. We found one a few blocks away. A guy Brent knew from school named Ray Thomas.

When Ray agreed to play with us, he also invited us to practice in his "basement studio". We called it the "dungeon" It was small, but we were allowed to play as loud as we wanted. Good thing there were only three of us. The house, they said, was haunted.

After a good amount of practicing, Brent and myself felt we wanted to begin playing parties and stuff. ray didn't seem interested. He stated that he wasn't ready and wished to continue practicing, honing his drum skills. We tried to convince him otherwise, but to no avail.

Determined to play, we began looking for another drummer and ended up jamming with Andy Corona. My uncle Andy had not played drums since about fifteen years prior, but he was a real banger from the sixties "caveman" school of drumming. He helped us plenty with the development of the heavy sound we were after. Andy also knew a lot about almost every type of music from working in the record industry for many years. He turned me on to music the way Brent's Dad did to him.

Around this time, we had agreed to call the band "Jasmine Sunrise" (after my first love "Jasmine") I had already secretly been calling us that at school.

I believe it was 1986 when we played our first performance at Pacoima Pop Festival and the Boardman Twins' First Annual Birthday Bash. This was when I began to play and sing.

After a few parties with Andy on drums, we began to play with a guy named Alan (Kim's brother). Alan backed us up as drummer for almost a year at backyards across the Greater Los Angeles area. As our new drummer, Alan helped us gain access to Kim and Duane's studio garage that Marcel helped them build. Not Brent's bedroom, where we used to play.

Alan was a hard working 9-5 man hanging neon and other commercial signs with a crane. He couldn't be there 100 percent for us, but he loved jamming with us ( even though sometimes you could hardly hear him because we would play so loud)

One day, while working, Alan injured his hand when it was pierced by a metal rod and was forced to bow out.

We tried Andy again for a while, but ended up with a hustling, Hollywood surfer named Richard Dale. Richard helped us develop our progressive and new wave curiosities. With Richard, we played more keg parties and began to play local clubs like The Troubadour, and several other rat traps in the Hollywood area. It was with Richard that we gained our initial popularity, as he had a clean "finesse" sound with double bass drums.

Richard eventually got abducted and taken to Hawaii and we have only seen him twice since. When he disappeared, he left Brent and I with the difficult task of finding an appropriate drummer.

We tried our friend Eric, and others who dared sit in with us.

It wasn't until we heard about a kid named Justin Polimeni and started jamming with him that we gained our momentum once again.

Justin, when we first met him, was an unknown but "full blown" rock star - complete with long hair and usually shirtless. He grew up jamming with the Lovato Brothers, was sixteen and played "solid" (similar to Mitch Mitchel.)

Justin first joined in 1989 and has backed us up almost exclusively since. "Cruster" (as they called him) fit in right from the beginning. He not only helped us polish our sound, but became a part of it.

During the period of 1989 - 1990, Jasmine Sunrise released our first four-track demo cassette entitled "Teach This Monster" on Riot Now Sounds. It was recorded live at the legendary Shamrock Cafe on Hollywood Boulevard. One of the only clubs who allowed the then underage band members to play and young fans to enter. They even paid us!! (Thank you Baba.)

They were so cool and supportive with us that it eventually cost them their business license. When the L.A.P.D. (who had a file and investigation focused on, you guessed it! Jasmine Sunrise) threw a sting and raided the joint. Undercover officers from Rampart division who were kissing, drinking, and hanging out sprang into action and rounded everyone up. I have a feeling they found something other than minors. There were more than a few "low" and "shady" looking regulars abound, especially upstairs.

Justin and Brent got out in time, but I got arrested. All of this was enough to close down the Shamrock. we weren't the cause of the close down, but at an earlier show at the Shamrock, a couple of "undercover" officers were sure asking a lot of questions about the band as if we were some kind of psychedelic drug czars in our own little underground "Grateful Dead" type scene (close, but no cigar!) We were amused and pleased that they not only noticed us, but actually paid attention to us, but not our music. They wasted time and energy as well. I actually gave them the flyer they used to plan their "raid" on us. They said they would come "real high", I told them, "Whatever it takes, just come in good spirits." They really know how to ruin a good time.

From 1990 - 1997, we played nearly every club, coffee joint, and moldy bar in town, not to mention more and more backyard beer-bashes, acid parties, and chicken fiascoes.

Jasmine Sunrise became the new kings of Silverlake's original scene. We were the new blood of a very rich and diverse heritage of local native musicians. not the hype you may read about in today's "alternative fanzines".

At Hully Gully rehearsal studios, we continued to hone our own brand of punk rock laced with psychedelic garage elements, playing with bands like The Losers, Nip Drivers, Voodoo Glow Skulls, the Mud Men, Tormentor, Insulin Reaction, U.X.A., Pop Defect, Bottom 12, Beowulf, Black Atmosphere, Kommunity F.K., Mecolodiacs, Mau Maus, Saccharine Trust, Spoon, and countless others.

In 1997, we released our second four track demo called "Goin Nowhere Fast" the title referred to our apparent lack of progress in the previous three years, riddled with problems, such as extreme competition, love, heartbreak, freak accidents, and finally, substance abuse.

And to top it off, we were gaining a bad reputation for being "trouble" wherever we would go to play. We are not responsible for a listener's reaction to our music - are we?

Since 1987, we have continued to play at places like Variety Arts Center to the Gaslight, with the next wave of new groups which have consisted mostly of groups from the "Latino" or Spanish-speaking movement of East L.A. and the related art movement (movimiento) or "Ollin."

Each member of Jasmine Sunrise is an art appreciator and creates nearly all of their own visual artwork.

In the three years previous to 1998, people didn't see or hear much from Jasmine Sunrise unless you know us. (Especially with Justin on drums) He was on a real bender like many others we know and have known.

It seems Justin has returned and "just in time" for the release of our first professional-quality recording on compact disc. (Probably the only thing that kept him on the planet)

Our last release is titled "My Friends" on Riot Now Sounds.

This just about brings us up to date. If you have read this far, you must be interested. We hope you find our music enjoyable, or at least interesting. Hope to see you in this still untamed world.

No one has ever understood where we were coming from perhaps this will help.

To all who have witnessed and carried amps with us, it's been fun! Stay tuned, kids!

Humbly,
Dino Corona