#uj3rk5

There isn’t much info available about U-J3RK5 online (at least, from what I’ve seen in my preliminary searches). Apparently their (only?) album came out in 1980, but two of their tracks on that 1980 album (Work For Police and Naum Gabo) had already appeared on a compilation album of music released in 1979.

U-J3RK5 (especially with songs like Eisenhower and the Hippies) sounds a bit like the B-52′s, especially The B-52′s, that first self-titled album... but the B-52′s first album was released mid-1979, so not really that much longer before U-J3RK5′s first album.

It’s also the earliest documented use of (what looks like) 1337 speak that I’ve seen. Know Your Meme dates the origin of 1337 speak as being 1980, but doesn’t provide much more history than this:

1337 first started on Bulletin Board Systems in which if you had elite status you could access the file folders, games, and V.I.P chatrooms.

However, Wikipedia states it originated “in the 1980s” as opposed to 1980 itself.

I’m interested in the origin of the name U-J3RK5.

It’s possible this band name pre-dates use of 1337 speak online.

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Update: I found an article in the Tyee providing some information about them: Vancouver's Über Famous Band That Never Was

The one official recording made by the Vancouver rock band UJ3RK5 -- pronounced You Jerk (the 5 is silent) -- was a four-song EP produced in 1979... UJ3RK5 formed in 1978 when a group of friends started to meet at the SFU studio to hang out and jam... Our first public appearance was at the Helen Pitt Gallery on Pender Street in Vancouver, in March 1979, in a lineup with E, Exxotone, The Generators and The Shades. Joey Shithead of DOA, who had never heard us play, volunteered to be our roadie in exchange for a case of beer...