A Short history

Years before he became the award winning established singer songwriter performer &well known roots rock/Folk &Honky Tonk Blues renegade we know today

Michael Ubaldini's teenage band 'The Earwigs' recorded an album and single in 1981.

A lone 45 RPM single was released from those sessions  in January 1982.

"She’s So Naive’/’Here Come The Earwigs’.

(Now a desired & sought after  collectible selling up to 400 dollars on the market) .

The album never was released as the label who was to release it closed shop. This most sought after & mysterious album of it's era has been collecting dust on reel to reels

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Until now!

 

It was mastered and pressed at the legendary

 Gold Star recording Studios in Hollywood.

Home of Eddie Cochran –The Beach Boys &

Phil Spector's ‘Wall of sound ’which was right up The Earwigs alley. The single was played all over Southern Cal Radio by cutting edge punk rock and new music record spinners on Rodney Bingenheimers ‘Rodney On The Roq’ show &

Sue Minks KNAC ‘New music show’  . Sue and Rodney  worked The Earwigs into the rotation on their shows  by playing  cassette tapes of the bands unreleased album and single-Sue Mink along w/Rodney was especially supportive –playing the band regularly and interviewing them on the air- and since the band was broke and teenagers- she asked for listeners to start an “Earwig fund’ to get something pressed .That is how a rock n roll band with no album pressed became one of the most influential bands on the Orange County & LA county .& the first ones  mixing a harder raw garage rock n roll w/power pop playing the same circuit as The Pandoras & Social Distortion

strangely The Earwigs have a modern young cult following to this day-

 the debut album that never saw the light of day & sat on 'analog reels' for 45 years.

Sixteen blistering tracks that pre-dated Wild Billy Childish's The Milkshakes and also preceded later on bands  The Strokes, Vines,& The Strypes by decades .

 

The Earwigs  had a large following mostly  filled with out cast kids  &  a strong female following who screamed their lungs out for the band sometimes even swarming them on stage ( an infamous Holiday Skate rink incident  in Garden grove CA a show  never to forget -  a rare type of  reaction for a Punk rockabilly /Mod  influenced band in that era

 not to mention infamous  police shut down club riots at The Cuckoos nest turned 'Concert Factory').They had a rebel guy fan base as well since the Earwigs were like a real life grittier version of SE Hinton novels 'The Outsiders & Rumble Fish' and hung out with their fellow rock n roll brothers as if they were all one big gang.

Then the Band as fast as they burst on the scene ..........disappeared without a trace.

Well the  legendary 1981 vinyl because of heavy demand will be issued Sept 2025 from the original analog tapes in a first pressing 40 years later and sounds timeless never dated and could have been recorded yesterday!Two of the 16 songs What you can't do & No Sad Tomorrow had to be re mastered from an original cassette from Gold star as the reel of those two songs vanished.

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So if you own the original single or bootleg cassettes recorded from long ago radio plays from of the album that never was - dig into the  Garage rock n roll/power pop history of its most mysterious band - spin the platter -play the platter play the  cassette  -drop the needle and  let the hot wax burn your turntable-and make sure ya'......

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Turn it Up!

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​NOTE:

The album has been released on limited edition colored vinyl in Sept 2025-(Pre order above) The first two pressings sold out in 5 days !

there's a lot of interest for the Kings of OC Garage rock n roll  & power pop

The Earwigs have a strong modern fan base & cult following which amazingly happened organically since there has never been one ounce of PR ,shows or anything since the band called it quits in 84  .It all came to fruition by word of mouth  ..quite miraculous!

 

The reunion shows-held September 6th 2025 at Mambas in Huntington Beach CA was sold out & gridlocked traffic . The 2nd a free

In-store at Vinyl Solution record store in Orange County Huntington Beach CA. 

Oct 19th 2025- 7pm so the young fans can attend!

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READ THE LA TIMES FEATURE STORY ON THE EARWIGS SEPT 6 2025 by Nate Jackson Author of book 'Tearing Down The Orange Curtain- How punk rock brought Orange county to the world

CLICK PIC BELOW TO READ