J U S T   S A Y   N O  

Randal Huiskens was living in East Lansing, MI when he joined Just Say No in the fall of 1988. Steve Miller, the founder/guitarist of the band had asked him to join some months earler while at a Blunt Objects show, and when the Blunt Objects dissolved, the offer was again made. This time Randal joined, and immediately found himself in one of the hardest working bands he had ever been in. In the 2 years Randal was in the band, they produced 4 records, did two long-distance tours, and played hundreds of shows all over the Mid-West with several East Coast "long weekend" gigs.

The band consisted of Ken Knott (vocals), Steve Miller (guitar), Mike Achtenberg (bass) and, at the time Randal joined on drums, Tom Potter (guitar). The older members of the group had very established punk pedigrees: Ken Knott was formerly in the seminal 80s punk band Violent Apathy; Steve and Mike were in the bands The Fix and Blight, and Mike was also in the Meatmen just long enough to be the bass player on the live side of We're The Meatmen and You Suck LP. Tom Potter would later go on to earn his own accolades as the guitarist/vocalist of detroit's Bantam Rooster. This was the lineup for the first two records Girls Say Yes To Boys Who Say No and Pitbulls on Crack. Tom Potter left the band just before the first tour, and Tim Weber (of the Blunt Objects, and much later Blood Gin) filled in on guitar for the tour. Dave Brehr (currently with The Crucifucks) was brought in to replace Tom, and the band continued on, recording The Rave Records release Crickets with Dave on guitar. Dave soon left the band and was replaced by Jaques, who did the second tour with the band and with whom JSN recorded their only full-length album Let's Do It.

The first tour was just before the release of the Pitbulls on Crack EP, and took the band through Chicago, Carbondale IL, Louisville Ky., Asheville NC, Charlotte NC, Atlanta, Newport Ky and then home to Michigan, with shows in Detroit and East Lansing. The second tour was in the fall of 1990 and took the band up and down the East Coast, with shows in Harrisburg PA (The Core), Washington DC (9:30 Club), Cambridge MA (Middle East), Boston (Greenstreets), Storrs CT (WHUF radio live performance), Philadelphia (Khyber Pass), Providence RI (Club Babyhead), Buffalo and Rochester NY. In addition to these tours, the band played shows just about every weekend for two years straight, in clubs in Kalamazoo, Grand Rapids, Ann Arbor, Youngstown, Dayton, Cincinatti OH, Madison WI, and Chicago. Several trips to play shows in Philadelphia helped facilitate the release of JSN's third record (Crickets 7" single) on Philadelphia's Rave Records label.

Randal left the band in 1991. JSN continued with a new drummer and eventually dissolved in 1992 or 1993(?).