“There are chance meetings with strangers that interest us from the first moment, before a word is spoken.” - Fyodor Dostoevsky

Landing into the correct date of my recollection and I would have to think it's pretty accurate - it was October, 1977 and Zolar X had just finished a weekend at the Mabuhay Gardens in San Francisco. I’ve returned to

“There are chance meetings with strangers that interest us from the first moment, before a word is spoken.” - Fyodor Dostoevsky

Landing into the correct date of my recollection and I would have to think it's pretty accurate - it was October, 1977 and Zolar X had just finished a weekend at the Mabuhay Gardens in San Francisco. I’ve returned to L.A., 1055 La Jolla, across the street from The Starwood. While I was gone, Charlie our benefactor, had moved from Apt 3 downstairs to Apt 6 upstairs with the windows facing Santa Monica Blvd. During this time, I mean Zolar X is together and not together - we're just scattered. Where we lived, right at this point, it's kind of like I'm in L.A., Eon Flash is floating between L.A. and Northern California, Ufoian Ufar is with his girlfriend who's pregnant and Zory Zenith is living up North (Santa Clara) with his wife and their babies. As far as mentally what's happening, I’m tired of banging on the music industry’s doors and never getting signed! So I turned to booze - I drank every day.

Speaking of alcohol, you're waking up in the morning and you've got a lot of empties. So I gathered them up and took them down to the garbage dumpster. This is where I first meet Rock Bottom. I thought he was a punk rocker. He was cool, nice and visiting the girls in Apartment 2 downstairs. They called it the Plunger Pit. They had had a party the night before and he was doing the same thing as me-throwing away empties. We introduced ourselves. Chatting at the dumpster, I found out he was a musician and invited him up to my place. Later that day, he showed up with his friend Elias. Immediately we started talking and playing music on my acoustic guitars. Since my Hiwatt and my Les Paul were right there in the room, I decided to show off and turn it up! That's basically the attitude so I blasted out a few power chords and laser leads. Having gotten their attention I decided to play some Punk. I wasn’t serious about the songs, I was just making up ideas that were easy to play. It wasn't like I was writing the Horizon Suite! That night I made up at least 10 Punk musical ideas that went on to become No Good, Deathtrap, Rich Girl, 1055 La Jolla, I Don’t Like You and I’m No Surfer aka Slab Lab. They loved ‘em. So, we decided to form a band and I decided to move them in.

Zolar X now have a global footprint thanks to the powers that be in the cosmos…fans, the internet, and social media. The Spys have a much smaller footprint, but it is never-the-less a stamp that they were here. What some and maybe many do not know is that I was in both bands at the same time (‘77-81), going back and forth between the two. If you know this, then you can hear it – the influence of one affecting the other. Raidii and I have had many talks over zakoo (coffee) about getting more of the story out there about the Spys – and resurrecting the music. I am the only living member of the original Spys and since I co-wrote the songs with Rock Bottom, they’re still inside me. So, the idea of the album came about many months ago that since I was in both bands, why not put out an album with Zolar X on side A and The Spys on side B. Hence the vinyl project/picture disc, 00X: When Worlds Collide was born. Ygarr Ygarrist

Interesting side notes: Don Bolles on drums, Engineered by Paul Roessler, Mastered by Geza X, vocals Ygarr Ygarrist, Zory Zenith, Raidii X, Don Bolles, Paul Roessler, Richard Simpson (Rock Bottom’s brother). The digital download mp3s were remastered in 2022.