 Later, Montiel would gain notoriety in 1989 when Geffen Records signed his newly formed outfit Gutterboy to a $1 million record deal, an unheard-of sum at the time.The band was dropped after its debut and was dubbed one of the most "successful" unsuccessful bands in rock history.In 2003, Montiel published "A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints", a memoir detailing his life growing up in Astoria, Queens in the early 1980s during the rise of the hardcore punk scene.