 This was our cute promo shot for the teen market. |
ODFx (aka Zero Defects, aka Zero
Defex) was formed in Akron, Ohio in late 1981 by Tommy Strange (aka Tom
Seiler) of local punk sensations The Bursting Brains, Mickey X-Nelson
(Mick Hurray) of the neo-surf group The
Nelsons and Jimi Imij (Jim Friend) of V-Nervz another area punk rock
group. Tommy recounts that he
approached Mickey in a bar and said, "Do you wanna start a real fast
punk rock band?" Mickey did. But rather than playing bass as he had in
The Nelsons, he wanted to play drums. Jimi was the bass player in
V-Nervz but was elected to become lead singer in ODFx. The band's first
bass player, Alan Nelson (Alan Litt), also from The Nelsons,
didn't last very long. So they recruited Frank N. File (Franklin
Tarver)
who played several shows before he abruptly quit without warning or
explanation. Johnny Phlegm (John Despins), who had been in V-Nervz with
Jimi and in The Bursting Brains with Tommy, played bass for a few gigs
while the band searched for a permanent bassist. It was through an ad
in a local rock paper that they found Brad No Sweat (Brad Warner) who
had been in a new wave group called Mmaxx. Brad
stayed with ODFx till the end. |
 Here's my favorite of the many hairstyles of Jimi Imij. |
The band first considered calling themselves Activated Sludge. But they never played out under this name. Mickey had a poster from the local Firestone Tire Company which said "We're shooting for Zero Defects," a quality control slogan they were using at the time. The name Zero Defects stuck and was often abbreviated as ODFx and sometimes spelled Zero Defex. The band's first gig was at Garbage, Inc. a tiny punk rock themed store in Kent, run by Tommy and Randy Russell along with Cleveland bands The Dark and The Offbeats. They then played a few shows at Akron's legendary rock club The Bank not long before that venue closed its doors forever. Around this time a hardcore scene was evolving in Akron and Cleveland and the bands would frequently rent out halls and support each other in massive multi-band shows. ODFx also opened for numerous touring bands including The Misfits, The Meat Puppets, MDC, D.R.I., The Crucifucks, Really Red and The Dicks. They were scheduled to play with Black Flag but the Flag's van broke down on the way to the gig. |
 Here's another shot from that same night. This was at a Knights of Columbus Hall in Cleveland which was rented out for a benefit show to raise money for the compilation LP, The New Hope. |
By late 1982, ODFx was playing quite frequently in the Akron/Cleveland area. Though they never actually toured, they did travel to Toledo and to Detroit for shows with Negative Approach. Around this time, the band played almost every week at a tiny Irish-themed pub called The Dale near Akron University. Significantly, two of ODFx's gigs in small rural Ohio towns ended with the band being escorted out of town by the cops for the band's own protection. In early 1983, ODFx went to a 16 track studio called The Island and laid down some tracks which ended up on a local compilation LP called The New Hope. One of these tracks, Drop the A-Bomb on Me, also appeared on a nationally released comp called P.E.A.C.E./War which still remains in print. By the time either of these releases came out in late 1983, though, ODFx was gone. The hardcore scene had become too limiting and all members were ready to move on to other things. Jimi Imij remained closest to hardcore with his bands PPG and Plasma Alliance. These days he maintains an amazing archive of pop culture memorobilia which he has lent to such films as The Nomi Song. Tommy joined Da Thangs, which included Keith Busch, Randy Russell and ex-ODFX bassist Johnny Phlegm. Da Thangs became the Ragged Bags. Later he moved to San Francisco and headed up Strawman and Songs for Emma. Mickey joined the power pop group Bongo's Jungle Party and now plays fine Irish music in The Mickeys. Brad recorded several neo-psychedelic LPs for New York's Midnight Records label under the name Dimentia 13 and later became a Zen Buddhist priest and wrote a book about his journey from punk to preist. We'd all like to know what became of Frank "N-File" Traver. |
 Here we are at The Dale, a tiny Irish theme pub we took over for a few months. The swastika on the Nazi flag is crossed out, by the way. |
The Akron/Cleveland hardcore scene was never as big or as cultural significant as similar scenes in Los Angeles, Washington D.C. or Boston. But to those of us who were there, it was an important time. The scene we created was very much our own. In those days the only way you learned about what was happening in other parts of the country was through a loose network of fanzines and like-minded friends in far away places. So each area developed its own unique interpretation of what it meant to be punk. I (this is Brad writing) first noticed our impact the second time MDC came through town. The first time we played with them they were playing mid-tempo 1977-style punk rock. They were a great group. But, frankly, we blew 'em off stage that night playing eight times as fast and with ten times the power and fury. About six months later they came back and sounded just like ODFx. That's when I knew we had made our mark. |
