When I Was A B-Boy

          The Cocaine City Boys were out in full force this balmy summer evening. Tired day laborers/office workers & civil servants, coming off the #7 train, cast a weary glance towards the menacing presence gathered at the foot of the 90th street station in Jackson Heights. An unavoidable gauntlet arrayed in front of them; a pack of surly teenagers ready to strike out with the maximum amount of violence at the slightest hint of provocation over real or perceived slights.
          It was the summer of 1982 & the CC Boys were a walking anachronism, a throwback to an earlier era of 70's style street gang culture. As Hip Hop's B-Boy's aesthetics was just about to break in to the mainstream's consciousness via groundbreaking appearances such as the Rock Steady breakdance crew & their scene-stealing moment via movies like FLASHDANCE. The CC Boys stubbornly clung on to outdated rituals & motiffs from a bygone era. Gang colors were still proudly worn on sleeve-less denim vests over leather jackets. Assorted World War II/Civil War paraphernalia, bandannas & motorcycle boots completed their daily ensemble. By the end of the year, various members with names like Junebug/Chocolate/Chiquitin/Pan Quemao, would be headed to gladiator academies like Spofford's juvenile correctional facility up in the Bronx. From there, as the 80s continued, most of them would end caught up in an endless downward spiral of drugs/crime followed by recurring stints of doing hard time at Rykers or any of the upstate NY prison farms.
            I was a big Science Fiction nerd growing up & I remember reading Norman Spinrad's short story "The Last Hurrah of the Golden Horde". This story, set in a dystopian future, told the tale of a group of obsolete Mongol horsemen that launch a last futile mounted charge against technologically superior odds. While the CC Boys were nowhere as romantic sounding as this, there was a melancholic aura of tragedy surrounding them. One knew that their days were numbered & if they could have spoken what they intuitively must have felt; I'm sure they considered themselves last of a dying breed, struggling to hold on to the familiar as events far out of their control turned their world upside down. My parents used them as a cautionary tale of who not to be & stay away from. They needn't have bothered as me & my crew of aspiring 13 year old B-Boys from the neighborhood were scared shitless of them.
            The CC boys were only about 4-5 years older than us at most, but they looked like grown-ass men to us with a ferocious reputation for mayhem. Rumors of other "divisions" of the gang, culled from other parts of the city, were ready to back them up at a moment's notice. Stories of a legendary rumble at Flushing Meadows park in '79 still circulated around the way. The dawn of the Hip Hop era was supposed to have replaced fights with choreographed Breakdance battles, loosely affiliated Graffitti crews over gang chapters & an overall cease-fire that trumped the violent urban decay of the 1970s. A lot of people I knew growing up didn't get this memo, those Breakdance showdowns more often than not degenerated into violent melees, Graffitti writers beat down rival crews on sight & bands of roving stick-up kids declared open season on everyone's gear; snatching up sneakers/jackets/jewelry & your last nickel if you let your guard down.
            The term B-Boy comes from the original Rap parties up in the Bronx during the early 70's. Whenever the DJ would replay the coolest part, or break, from a classic Funk/Soul or Rock jam that would get everyone moving en masse to the dance floor. The Break or B-Boys for short would command the center, showing off stylized routines that would eventually be codified into Breakdancing patterns. By the time this emerging style filtered down to our neck of the woods in Queens & the rest of New York City's 5 boroughs; being a B-Boy meant the 4 distinct, yet interrelated aspects of the culture: Graffitti, Breakdancing, DJing & Rapping/MCing. All of these elements came together at block parties & events held at community youth centers. We soon discovered the local mecca for the burgeoning Hip Hop scene, a skating rink called US Skates Of America. I can't say I did much skating in there, me & my friends hung out on the sidelines, feverishly absorbing the heady, excitement-filled atmosphere.

                    
             My first exposure to a live musical performance took place at US Skates that same summer of '82. Afrika Bambaataa's groundbreaking "Planet Rock" 12"record had just come out. I can still vividly recall the indelible impression he made on me 30 years after the fact. Afrika & his backing group, the Soul Sonic Force, came out onstage in these over the top superhero/sci fi outfits of neo-futuristic garb; sporting Samurai & Native American headgear. They looked like a wild mish-mash of George Clinton's P-Funk All Stars, Marvel Comic's Fantastic Four characters & swaggering Superfly attitude, nothing like I'd ever seen before or since. The music was on another level; I wouldn't learn this or fully appreciate it until much later, but his sampling of the unhip german electronic group Kraftwerk as the base for Planet Rock & layering rap's visceral energy on top of it was pure genius. A prime example of Hip Hop taking some previously existing influences & creating something brand-new & vital out of it, all the while coping with the reality of inner city life.
               Afrika was a veteran of the 70's gang wars in the South Bronx, he'd learned firsthand what the CC Boys were about to (belatedly) discover. That world was slowly coming to an end, a new era was being forged & music would be the answer & through a philosophy espoused by the organization he started, the Universal Zulu Nation, whose credo could be summed up as: "Love, Peace, Unity & Having Fun". This was an outlook my teenage self could fully embrace. At heart, me & my friends, were good catholic school kids from working-class families that were striving for a better future. Seeing our neighborhood tough guys heading to a life of crime served as a powerful deterrent on who not to be & hip Hop provided tools for us to channel that restless energy into more creative endeavors. I was never very good at chosen field of Graffitti & even less at Breakdancing, but no matter; I still felt a part of the whole. A vibrant youth culture, full of intricate terminology that only its participants could understand & relate to.
                As the looming specter of middle-age now appears before me. Hip Hop's once "outsider" status has become a moot point, its fashion/music/attitude has been irrevocably integrated into the mainstream's fabric, in such an extensive way; far more than the originators could have imagined beyond their wildest dreams. My initial love of Hip Hop has never wavered. I might not listen to anything that passes for rap these days (haven't in a while) or exhibit any of the current accoutrement of the culture. It's something that's become more internalized; that initial joy & wonder of using the music as an endless source of inspiration has stayed with me. Long after I've put away the spray paint cans & hung up my Adidas shell-top sneakers up on the shelf.

To Be Continued....

Wardance Records Redux

     Eons ago, I did a NYC-based HC record label. Actually between the years of 1990-1994. Those were pivotal times for me & the records I got to put were not only, to use an oft-overused phrase, seminal & widely influential i.e. Citizens Arrest "Light in the Distance" ep, Rorschach's "Needlepack"ep/"Protestant" Lp etc.. They were also released by good friends of mine, so the end result was doubly rewarding; I got to document inspiring sounds by people that I cared about.
     I took a "sabbatical" from the HC scene for a good 10-12 years until 2009, when I decided to put up online, an old compilation of mine that never got a proper release. This was the "Fuck Rock- @Abc No Rio '91" comp. An old penpal contacted me about doing a vinyl release of it & before you could say Deja Vu all over again; I was back in business.

                                                                
    I've jumped back feet first into the fray, a 7" was just released on Wardance, by a band called My Rifle. It's made up of guys that I met back in the '80's NYHC scene & it will be a curious experiment to see how they (& myself) react to the reality of being involved in a music genre that by definition is youth-oriented. Things were not supposed to turn out this way, at best, a pit-stop on the way to adulthood. I along with my peers, got into HC in our teens, as a conduit to channel adolescent aggression, differentiate oneself from the crowd & define your views along an alternative sub-culture that embraced non-conformism. How do you reconcile these beliefs in the face of (looming) middle-age? When a career/family/mortgage & well, all the trappings of becoming an adult are upon us, what is it about this loud/fast music that's still appealing?
  The best answer I can come up with is that this music, when is made from the heart, is still a visceral punch to your gut. When it becomes embedded in you, it's far-reaching influence can take decades to decipher, but it becomes a part of you. My old friend, Gavin from Absolution, put it best: "Influencing someone (via the music) is our best shot at immortality". If some kid, or kid at heart, can hear these records & go to the sounds that influenced the making of them & repeat ad nausem; all the way to those original pioneers that defined & codified the  HC/Punk ethos. Then, it will all be worth it. The added bonus for me is that I get to (once again) put out music by friends that are still making relevant sounds.
  Whether those particular tunes these days are of the classic Punk or NYHC variety, Hip-Hop tracks, Country-ish Gothic acoustic ditties; the result & energy are the same. The angst is still there, not as one-dimensional as before. It's more subtle & nuanced, but peel back the layers & you'll still find it there.
   Growing younger never seemed so appealing.

                                                www.wardancerecords.com

                                                        
                                    

                                                          

                                            

70's Peruvian Psych-Rock Primer

                                                        Laghonia 1971      
      
       Imagine you're growing up in a Latin American country at the tail end of the 60's/early 70's. You are entranced by rock music & the burgeoning counter-culture movement sweeping the states & the rest of the world. There's a "benign" leftist military government in power that doesn't look took kindly on electric guitars/long hair or anything else that reeks of hippiedom. Compound the fact that the vast majority of the country lives in abject poverty & once those teeming millions seek musical entertainment, to escape their deplorable conditions; they find it in salsa/tropical sounds, syrupy spanish pop or native folk styles.          
        Luckily for you, being a member of the more affluent classes, allows access to those subversive objects of desire: vinyl lp's by life-changing groups like The Doors/Jimi Hendrix Experience/Pink Floyd et al. Cover versions by said groups start to take up the time of your neighborhood garage band. You soon get to a point that original material starts to develop & instead of being content in aping those foreign influences; a synthesis of fuzz guitar/wind instruments/studio manipulations occurs, coupled with intense readings of the mystical teachings of Carlos Castaneda's Don Juan treatises plus esoteric Peruvian pagan folklore. Copious intake of homegrown hallucinogens like Ayahuasca help to cement your vision of a pychedelic rock sound that acknowledges its Anglo-Saxon roots, all the while layering upon its foundation elements that reflect the Peruvian reality.
     Once the providence of obscure record collectors, the onslaught of the Internet age has made these forgotten gems available to new generations. I've chosen some of the main players along with a 'lil blurb on them, but I prefer to let the music do the talking. A lot of this material has been reissued, especially by the great Repsychled Records. There are also some good compilations in print: Back To Peru Vol. 1-2, Demoler- Rock Peruano 1965-1974, Sons of Ymac (bootleg cd). Pick them up if you get a chance.

TARKUS- These guys only put out one lp in '72 , but it's a killer, heavy Sabbath/Hendrix influences. Probably the loudest band in Peru at the time, only 50 copies of the lp were made as the record label decided to shelve the release due to low demand. The band was actually half Peruvian & half Argentinian. They broke up soon after the recording, leaving behind this heavy classic & a personal favorite that still sounds as vital as when it was recorded.

TRAFFIC SOUND- Standard bearers of the Peruvian psych sound. They originally started as a merseybeat/surf cover band, but by the time of their second lp "Virgin"; they had morphed into a very unique blend of psychedelic rock with Latin & Andean rhythms. Their 3rd lp called "Tibetis Suzette" is the culmination of that outlook & a true masterpiece. They were also the first Peruvian band to tour South America, sponsored by an airplane company no less. They still gig periodically at music halls in Lima.

PAX- These guys, along with Tarkus, were probably the heaviest of the blues-based pysch bands. The band featured guitar hero, Pico Ego Aguirre, a veteran of the early 60's pop group Los Shains. They managed to put out a couple before dissolving in '73. They later reformed in the early '80s & updated their sound to echo current NWOBHM bands like Judas Priest, releasing a 45 in '84 that featured a rousing cover of Golden Earring's "Radar Love" en espanol. They still gig on a regular basis.

LAGHONIA- Classic band whose name is a play on the words that sound like The Agony- LA AGONIA- but with an extra h in the middle to join the words. One thing that set them apart was the use of a Hammond organ, probably one of the first South American bands to record with one. The band also included the Cornejo brothers (Saul on guitar & Manuel on drums) along with a 16-year old American backpacker whom the brothers had heard playing guitar on a park bench. the song Glue is a thinly-veiled reference to the narcotic properties of adhesive substances. They would release 2 lp's & the brothers would later go on to start We All Together, a band that mined the lighter side of the Beatles (think Paul McCartney & Wings).

JEAN PAUL "EL TROGLODITA"- Members of Laghonia served as the backing band for this talented singer-songwriter's 'Vudu' lp.  Jean Paul's nickname, the troglodyte, came from when he starred in a mid-60's beatnik flick in which he played a savage/cro-magnon rock'nroll  biker type. The range on his Lp's is amazing: full orchestral pieces, string sections, lush baroque arrangements mixed in with trippy psychedelic sounds & a dark subject matter. This all made him something like a peruvian Lee Hazelwood. He passed away in 2004, but future generations can forever enjoy the beat of El Troglodita!

LOS TEXAO- Most of the bands I've mentioned up to now were from Lima, the capital. The southern city of Arequipa, on the border with Chile, nicknamed the "white city" due to its desert-themed architecture; also had a thriving rock scene. This heavy Santana/Malo-influenced combo hailed from there and put out 3 fuzz-laden 45's, which this song called Stone highlights. There is a great compilation of Los Texao & other bands from "La Ciudad Blanca" called 'Rock en Arequipa 1969-1974' put out by Repsychled Records.

GERARDO MANUEL Y EL HUMO- Gerardo has a long & storied history in Peru's rock scene. Playing in the early '60s teen combo's Los Shain's/Los Doltons & the Cream-influenced Pepper Smelter group. His self-titled records with El Humo: Apocallipsis & Machu Pichu 2000 Lp's, are an incredibly potent synthesis of all his influences filtered through a psychedelic prism. He also started up what was arguably, the first music video show in the 80's, called Disco Club, beating MTV to the punch. He still performs regularly & writes a weekly music column/blog for a local newspaper. A peruvian rock'nroll institution!

DON JUAN MATUS- This is actually a current band, formed in 2006, by guys that were born around the time of the bands I've just highlighted. They grew up with the HC/Punk explosion of Lima in the 80's & somewhere around the way, decided to dig into their roots & formed this combo that's a direct spiritual heir to their psychedelic forefathers. The band's name, coming from the main character in Castaneda's books & the participation of LAGHONIA's Manuel Cornejo on one of their lp's; brings everything full-cycle. They've put out several Lp's & are gearing up for some new releases, check out their page here: http://www.myspace.com/donjuanmatusofficial

SERPENTINA SATELITE- Another current band formed in 2003. They incorporate Kraut Rock/Prog elements to their spacey jams. The 3 lp's they've done so far layer mostly long instrumental tracks that build a hypnotic loop, superimposing spoken word/native religious texts & swirling drones in a kaleidoscope of trance-inducing sounds. Truly great music to take drugs to make music to. For info on them, check here: http://www.myspace.com/serpentinasatelite

     I hope this served as basic introduction to these amazing sounds, I'm biased of course, Peru being the land of my birth. My own introduction to these lp's were on summer holidays to Lima in the early 90's: there were outdoor record flea markets where one could pick these up for pennies as no one outside of a small circle of collectors & fans with long memories cared. All this changed as music critics created cultural trends deeming South American rock sounds worthy of retrospection. I hope that the same thing that happened to the 60's Brazilian Tropicalia movement & its subsequent reappraisal in the last couple of years, will also occur with this uniquely Peruvian hybrid. Enjoy the music.

Abraham Rodriguez: A So. Bronx Tale

                    Abraham was the singer & guitarist for URGENT FURY, a band that blew me away when I was a teenager & getting into Punk/HC. Their poignant political lyrics coupled with raw aggression & melodic leanings made then an atypical sound that stood out in the mid-80's NY scene. Since UF's ultimate dissolution in '92, Abraham has become a celebrated author, winning tons of writing accolades. He's also been writing new music, since relocating to Berlin. I got a chance to reconnect with him during one of his semi-annual pilgrimages to NYC. There's talk of a UF reunion to coincide with the reissue of their discography in late 2011.
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Urgent-FURY/190107927711149

At CBGB's in 1985.

                                                    

Ok! The big start, a south bronx tale. Tell me a little bit about your background, where you grew up etc..

    I was born in the south bronx, where I grew up. Pretty tough turf. Back then in the 70s, it was like somebody had bombed the town: burned-out buildings in rows, empty lots, whole blocks decimated. Not the best place to grow up positive...

 Your parents originally from the island?

    Yeah, my mom's from Fajardo and my dad's from San Juan. I was 'first generation' born in NY, 'Nuyorquino', part of that first generation born in the USA. Did I bother to mention I'm Puerto Rican?

Ha! So, how did a Nuyorican kid like you get into Punk Rock?

    Good question, I was a freak kid. That is, I had a name like 'Abraham', so everyone thought I was Jewish.

I know lots of Puerto Rican guys named Israel & Moses!

     My father got me into Rock. When I was a kid he bought me Beatles albums, that changed my life completely. I was obsessed with rock music & soon found other bands I couldn't get enough of: T. Rex, David Bowie (this was 1972 man), Badfinger, The Stones/Kinks... I was looking  for anything LOUD & energetic. My father also got me into books & typewriters very young so I was a book nerd. I used to hide the books from the other kids so they wouldn't see them. If they saw you with a book and ask you why you're reading it, don't say it's because you like it! Say it's for a class.

 Sounds familiar, I had the same issue growing up, such a shame we had to be undercover with stuff like that.

      I know! And dude, I would've killed to know anyone that was into Rock music, everyone around me hated it. Back then rock was 'honky' music. Forget that its roots are as black as John Lee Hooker. Everyone around me was into black stuff: Soul, Funk, stuff that would shortly become Disco.

I take it Disco & early Hip-Hop ruled the streets?

       Yeah. mostly black music in the beginning. Remember the Chi-Lites? the Chakachas? How about Dennis Coffey & his funky instrumentals. Stuff like 'Scorpio' and 'Taurus'? Isaac Hayes!!

Jimmy Castor Bunch!

       Wow! Yeah, I even have a single from at home from Joe Tex! And the Jackson Five were everywhere. 'The love you save', what a killer song.

So, did you hear The Sex Pistols/Clash first? 

       Yeah, Punk crawled over to me slowly. I was a big CREEM reader and was already hearing about this stuff from England. The first time I saw the Ramones was on Don Kirschner's rock concert series, I was like, what is this shit? My Ritchie Blackmore sensibilities clashed with it somehow, but I couldn't get them out of my mind. I was a 12-year old with a crush--I was in love. The Sex Pistols I caught on TV too, some special report they did on England & I was flabbergasted by the energy and power.

They inspired you to take up the guitar? What were your first Punk shows?

        The Ramones influenced me first, followed by the Sex Pistols. Then I discovered those first shops where I could find import singles... then I met The Jam, The Clash, The Adverts, Slaughter & The Dogs, Wire. YEAH! I had a dream of being in a band already for many years and was even writing songs and putting together 'albums' of them, but it was punk that made me go get a guitar. My first show was actually 999. they came over in 1979. I had just turned 18. My father did not allow me to go out to clubs until I was officially an adult! It was a big fight. I saw all 3 of their shows of theirs. I also caught The Damned, the Reds, Sham 69. AND the biggest thrill was catching The Clash when they first came over in early '79 to play The Palladium. I had to run out & get scalped seats..

Wow, did you catch The Clash at their Bond's residency of 5 shows in a row?

         NAH! I did not see them during the Bonds time. I was obsessed with The Clash. To me they were set to change all of rock'n'roll with their fire and passion! Seeing them was my church! I was in the 3rd row, bro!! And Joe Strummer flicked his earnie ball pick right at me! I still have it, but when 'London Calling' came out, I was disgusted and bummed. I saw them again in the fall of '79 and it was a lousy concert. I refused to see them again. The thought that they came along to bring dance music & hip-hop awareness to the world totally infuriated me. I'm from the bronx! I don't need them to do that!!

You never liked 'Rocking the Casbah?'

         NOOOO Rock the casbah NOOOO, ugh- 'train in vain'- ugh. Yet I loved them so much, but I guess like many ultra-fans, you put all your hopes on the artist when the artist...gotta go his own way. I blame Mick Jones for all of it. And I still love Joe Strummer. Ok, I forgive Mick too.

Save that souvenir from Joe, Strummer forever! How did Urgent Fury come about? Did you play in any other bands prior?

         Yeah, I played in a band I formed in 1980 called White Riot. It lasted for about 6 months and there's a tape of me doing songs, some of which would pop up with Fury. There were other lesser bands I played with, including a pop band & a reggae group of big rastafarians. I was the token 'rock' guy. I was in college when I started Fury. After White Riot fizzled, I 'left' the punk scene. I was playing with Rastafarians uptown, when a friend of mine dragged me to my very first Hardcore show. Hardcore?? I thought that was about porno. The impression the 18 or so bands that played that CBGB's matinee left an indelible mark. Most of them sucked, but the energy, the power, and a few pulled it off enough... My friend connected me with a guy named Zev, who played bass & went to city college like me! So I met him, and he suggested bringing in a friend named Harry Viderci (drums) and there's your Fury right there. I gave them demos I had of some songs & when we went into the studio, we just went for it.

Harry Verduci, I was just gonna ask you about him, played in the legendary Sic* Fuc*s! (Original class of '77 CBGB's band)

         Yeah, he played with the Sic* Fuc*s and almost ended up in The Ramones. He's full of stories & he's met virtually everyone. the moment we played, it just clicked, this must have been around 1982.
                                                                                       

Were you doing your State Of Fury fanzine by then too?

         Nah, took a while, the first issue of State Of Fury came out in Jan, 1986. It was a few pages of rant where I bitched mostly about the Hardcore scene.

I remember picking up State Of Fury because it had a great caption: US out of the South Bronx!

         YEAH! That's one of my favorites!

So, did Urgent Fury play with a lot of the early NYHC bands like Agnostic Front? What did you think of the whole Skinhead thing back then?

          Well, we never played with AF. We just didn't see eye to eye with many of the dominant bands at the time in NY, the thuggish stupidities that were going on associated with skins, I tended to blame these ignorant trash bands & goons for that. In the beginning we'd play with anyone, but after a show with a band called US Chaos, we decided to be more selective.

I remember seeing you guys in '85/'86 at the Tin Pan Alley club on 47th. street & it was a totally different universe from the CBGB's HC matinees. Did you feel more an affinity for bands like The False Prophets?

           Yeah, there were bands that I saw as more 'punk'. Then there were bands that were more 'hardcore'. We ended getting  shunted into what was referred to as the 'peace-punk' scene, which I hated too! We played a lot with A.P.P.L.E., False Prophets, Stisism and Marginal Man, and....The HC bands I loved were Heart Attack, Virus, Reagan Youth... There were good ones, don't get me wrong! It was great for us to play Tin Pan alley, because it was directly OUTSIDE of the 'scene'. It was a different place and different people and these 3 gigs we eventually did there were all terrific. There was no place Downtown in the 'scene' you could play that would feel like that.

The first demo came in a bag with a pin right? I wish I still had that pin!

            Yeah, we put out a demo cassette. I packed it in a packet with a State Of Fury & a button! I liked the pin, some silhouette of German soldiers jumping off. I'll see if I can find one for you, there were a few out there!

I feel you guys were really undocumented, record-wise, in that period. Were there ever plans for a record back then?

             Nah, we never put out a record in the early days. I don't know, we argued too much about what to do. I wasn't so focused or smart. I wanted to play as much as possible but Harry didn't. Harry thought we could get discovered and get a contract. I wanted records but he didn't, so the cassettes were a compromise.

So, you guys disbanded around '87 & came back in the early 90's with a revamped version, how did that come about?

             We disbanded a few times, first we lost Zev in '87? Something like that, he got married. then we played with a bassist named Mike but that didn't work out. Me & Harry fought too much so I split the band up again. Then Johnny Stiff (do you remember him?) heard we split up and he said that's no good for the world so he found us Adam Hoffman, a young, full-of-energy bassist who revved us up for a couple of years, up to '90 or '91. I insist that UF is the Spinal Tap of the HC scene, except with us, it's bassists that explode!

Besides booking you guys at Abc No Rio in '90, I was also planning on doing a 7" with you guys in '91. a thousand apologies for my PC Punk stance back then & not agreeing to the simple written agreement you guys drew up. I still kick myself!

              Oh wow, you know, it's ME that kicks myself over that & when I think of the lousy split single we did with Youth Gone Mad through one of Harry's deals. We should still do that record though!

Let's do it! So, you broke up again '92, how did that 10" on Broken Records come about?

              Well, after Adam left in '91, we found someone else, but we were on our last legs. Me & Harry were fighting too much 'cause I wanted to put out a record but he didn't want to put any money into it. So I split the band & put out the record on Broken, the 10". pretty much without him. It was to be the Urgent Fury farewell.

What's the agenda for the UF reissue you're working on now & can you talk a bit about your current project, Rope Burns?

              The reissue is going to include all the tracks from the old 10" plus some extra tracks. It'll be available on vinyl/cd & download. Rope Burns! How nice of you to ask. Rope Burns is the music project I started when I got to Berlin. I play with some people, but it's mostly the place I go to write songs, any songs. see, when I was with Harry, it all had to be HARDCORE!. I'm forming a group here & hope to play out. I mostly make demos: me on guitar, bass, drum machine. I must've made 10 demo albums already. I send them out to people, oddly enough, never to record labels.

Personal request: Can you put out the 'Requiem for Miss America' acoustic tape from '88, I love that!

             'Requiem..' Wow! I have the actual 1/4' tape here of that 'album'. I'm gonna walk it over with some other stuff to a studio & see if I can get it digitized. I did the tape in '88 during a hiatus from UF, frustrated that the band was NOT a good vehicle for my musical pursuits. Because I was always making demos, but Harry kept turning down my songs. Not fast enough...

Ok, let's switch gears a bit, how did you get started in your literary career? I started writing when I was little, like about 11 or 12, when my dad bought me my own portable typewriter. I always wrote, but it wasn't until the late 80's that some guy (who knew me because of Fury) published a story of mine in a magazine he put out. This was seen by an editor working on a book, one thing led to another...A woman named Lois Rosenthal approached me & asked if I had any stories for Story magazine. I gave her one she liked & she helped me find an agent

What was the genesis for the short-story collection, 'Boy without a Flag'? Were you surprised by the reaction?

              I put a collection together for my agent, 'Boy without..', and he sold that to Milkweed editions. It caused a bit of a stir & I enjoyed it greatly. I got shit for my writing but I knew I was on the right track somehow. It felt right to write these things and maybe expose things some people didn't like exposed.

 I remember reading about a possible film adaptation of your first novel, Spidertown?

             Yeah, well right after the book came out, people were asking for a novel so I finished something I had been working on: Spidertown. The book was optioned by Columbia Pictures right off the bat. Got me a mention in Variety alongside Robert Rodriguez, we spent a summer together back then because he was eventually slated to write the script (he backed out later, which I think doomed the project). The director was to be Jonathan Demme's cousin, his only recommendation for the assignment: he's the guy that directed Yo! MTV Raps!

Maybe for the best he didn't direct it, bummer, I could totally see it coming out good in the right hands.

             I thought so too. The project dragged out through the 90's. I eventually ended up writing a couple of scripts for them though because the one they showed me was so awful, I mean the hack they found rewrote the whole book! The project eventually fizzled out, the studio wanted a big movie, the production company wanted a small one. The trend for that kind of shit (inner-city kids, drug-trafficking) also faded a bit from the limelight... they paid well for those scripts though.

It'll probably come back, there's always an insatiable need for "Urban Grit". So, South by South Bronx is the last novel you wrote, working on a audio version right? Any other fiction in the works?

             The audio version is taking a long time! I do have lots of other stuff I'm working on, nothing directly finished. Writing takes time and lately time's been no good pal. I'm really into time travel and future stuff right now. Pretty weird but maybe where I want to go next...

Ok, changing topics once again; you're an expatriate living in Germany now. How did you end up there?

              I ended up living in Germany because Spidertown won a young people's award in the house of literature in Vienna. I didn't really wanna go but I had friends in Berlin and they insisted I stop on my way back. So I de-planed in Frankfurt and hopped on a train to Berlin, with something like $120 bucks on me. I was scared shitless, but once I got to Berlin I felt alive & free and just...bouncy. I walked into my friend's kitchen and there's this beautiful woman sitting there. I was late and the first thing she says is, "what took you so long?". The room began spinning...and that's why I ended up in Berlin, though there are plenty of other reasons. The people here are great, you feel a great sense of freedom and openness. It's a wonderful place, still affordable, and I even have health insurance now...And this flag thing: someone asked me on my last tour. Since I 'found' a life in Germany now, am I still the boy without a flag, or do I have a German one now?

Ha, Fly the GDR one now!

                I just told the lady I don't care much for flags. I respect certainly what people see in them, but I don't know if I 'have' a flag. I just know when I look at the german flag, I feel good. That's because Puerto Rico is NOT a colony of Germany, dig?

I hear you, I'm impressed by your command of the German language too.

                Ohh Vielen Dank! A language I was weirdly obsessed with since I was a kid, like I was preparing for it somehow...

Deja Vu over here, I've got a German father-in-law!

               Wow, so when are you guys coming over to Berlin?. There are a lot of Americans popping up over here. Don't know if I like that so much. I don't have many American friends here and I'm not in the ex-pat scene. I didn't come all the way to Berlin to hang out with Yankees! I tend to like the Germans. They seem to have learned from their history. Not like the Americans at all, you see.

There were some great German bands: Upright Citizens, Jingo de Lunch, Spermbirds...Gonna sing in German anytime soon?

               Also Neurotic Arseholes, Die Art, Spiel 77...Oh yeah, I should give singing in German a try. Of course, my plans when I get back from NY is to get Urgent Fury started here in Berlin. I have a drummer in mind and if I can pick up a bassist...then maybe my first German song....
ROPE BURNS:http://www.myspace.com/rodmusik

Abraham in the middle with his lovely wife,  Jan 2011 NYC.

In Praise of HC Tape Compilations.

    One would be hard pressed, while sifting through the detritus of 20th century culture, to find a more rewarding experience than listening to a HC tape compilation from the genre's golden years. The pleasure in discovering a private universe of "known" bands alongside hopelessly obscure ones was immeasurable, I write this list as a tribute to those humble 'lil plastic vehicles of analog technology that were my gateway to the US/World HC scenes. This inexpensive medium, generally costing no more than $4 a pop, along with the ability to cram as many bands within a 60-90 minute time-frame; fed my ever growing teenage habit of listening to loud/fast music from all corners of the world.

     This is by all means not an exclusive list, those of you that are well versed in this music will no doubt point out some glaring omissions. I am writing this more for the neophyte or someone that at best, has vague knowledge of these gems. I've listed mostly US compilation tapes, some of them included foreign HC with a special mention to the legendary tape label BCT, who deserve an article all by themselves.
     Due to the wonderful web, I've posted links to the actual tapes, so you can download them & let the contents speak for themselves & if that wasn't an option, then a link for obtaining the reissue. I've managed to hang to a lot my tapes throughout the years, someone should showcase all these beauties a la Nuggets-type reissue before the passing of time inevitably take its toll. Maybe I will.

CHARRED REMAINS-  Hands down my all-time favorite comp tape. How can you go wrong with this line-up: Void, Articles Of Faith, Husker Du, Die Kreuzen, Toxic Reasons, the great Personality Crisis from Canada & others. A lot of these versions were demo/live material, some of them unreleased; like the AOF tracks that never made it onto their records. I scored major Punk points with friends like Sam from Born Against, a fellow AOF fanatic, by taping them these exclusive songs long before they were officially reissued. This came out on Version Sound records, who also did the first 7"s by the above mentioned bands. I remember picking this up in '86 & even then, it was spoken of in reverential tones. I later copied the full page/band booklet layout for a comp tape that I did in the late 80's.
http://www.kbdrecords.com/2007/04/09/va-charred-remains-compilation-cassette/

NO CORE- A classic slice of '82 era southern-fried HC by way of North Carolina featuring only 4 bands: COC, No Labels, Colcor & No Rock Stars. The COC tracks always get name-checked by virtue of including their 1st 15 song demo in its entirety. As much as I love those blistering songs, I've always preferred the No Rock Stars tunes on it; blazing mid-tempo Black Flag-like trash. A prime example of why I love these time capsules, if it wasn't for their appearance on this, NRS would be lost to the dustbins of history. I love the image of the Confederate flag burning on the cover, I can only imagine what it must have been it like to look outside the norm around those parts. Between rednecks/jocks & the general population out to get you; the all-too real threats are reflected on the gut-wrenching music found inside.
http://punknotprofit.blogspot.com/2010/10/no-core-1982-hardcore-compilation.html

LIMA ESTA HELADA- I mail-ordered this Peruvian comp in '85 from Europe. The amazing world-wide HC network back in those pre-internet days allowed me to learn about my native country's scene via a tape compiled by a guy in Germany. There are some amazing bands from the '83-'85 explosion in Lima, anyone of them could easily match any of the Italian/Scandinavian trash contingents for sheer power & aggression. Too bad there's scant vinyl documentation of these early years, so a document such as this fills in key gaps. The German who did this, Burkhard Jarisch, later went on to write the exhaustive Flex! series/discography of USHC. I've never seen any download, much less info, on this comp. I will have to digitize my copy & make it available, until then here's another Peruvian comp from '89 that features a lot of the original Peruvian groups like Ataque Frontal, Kaos, G-3.
http://crucifiedforyoursins.blogspot.com/2010/07/va-atropello-peruvian-hardcore-punk.html

AMERICA'S DAIRYLAND-  There must have been something in the water in Wisconsin in '83, as most of the bands featured on this snapshot of Madison, WI & its surroundings are one weird & unique experience. Groups like Die Kruezen, Mecht Mensch, Tar Babies, Bloody Mattresses offer an off-kilter take on HC's standard 1-2 structure. The off the beat sounds are somehow straight forward & disjointed at the same time, giving one a twisted view of the nation's heartland. I also love the generic lo-fi trash of the the other bands like Suburban Mutilation, GNP: Music played by people that were stuck in the middle of nowhere, hated by parents & peers, destined to a life of dead-end jobs & trailer trash-dom. What's more, they don't care, they'll just bash away at simple 2-chord structures blissfully content on the futile nature of it all.
http://youbreedlikerats.blogspot.com/2008/07/americas-dairyland-compilation-tape.html

I TRASH, THEREFORE I AM-  This tape was my gateway to the joys of European HC, especially of the Scandinavian & Italian variety. Mob 47 from Sweden kicks it off with 9 songs that are pure perfection in their economy of delivery. Kudos to Anti-Cimex, also Swedish, for being one of the first (& best) disciples in the now all-too common D-beat style. I remember seeing Raw Power in '85 & then picking up this tape a couple of months later. Their songs on it match the insanity of their live show & made me a fan of HC 'a lo Italiano' for life. I couldn't understand a word of what the other bands from Denmark, Germany, Norway said but the universal language of trash shone through. This classic release on BCT tapes was their biggest seller, they must have made thousands of copies, helping to spread the loud & fast gospel irregardless of national origins. There are blogs where you can download this, but I plead you to acquire if you can, the official reissue that came out several years go. Pick it up  here:
http://interpunk.com/item.cfm?Item=157087&

MUSIC ON FIRE- After listening to Raw Power, I had to check out more Italian HC so I got this '83 sampler also on BCT. There's something about the Italian language that lends itself beautifully to the demands of high-octane trash; words that look poetic, like Dante's writings on paper, become these out of control-violent, almost inhuman screeches that defy the excesses a human puts on his larynx. Case in point is the singer for Wretched & every other band on the tape, are they gargling with drano before recording their parts? It's painful & exhilarating to listen to the vocal gymnastics of these tunes. After finding out about Italy's turbulent history during those years with leftist guerillas, national strikes, entrenched criminal enterprises; I can see why kids that chose to play HC back then exhibited a total nihilist approach. The future was not bright & the present meant living as explicitly as possible. Like the BCT catalog said about Italian-core: "mama mia, that's a spicy piece of plastic".
Incredibly enough, you can pick up the original tape from the guy that put it out at the same price it was in the 80's, $4 ppd.
http://www.socialnapalm.com/other/distroBCT.htm

NEW YORK TRASH- The first HC tape comp I ever bought & a sentimental favorite by virtue of growing up in NY. Bands like Bad Brains, False Prophets, Beastie Boys define the sound I fell in love with in '84. Seeing a band like Kraut from my home borough of Queens on it was a real ego boost. Pretty funny that with all this star power on the comp, the one track people always remember is AOD's "Paul's not home" skit, their smart-aleck approach was completely indicative of their suburban jersey roots & it made me search out more bands of their ilk. This came out on the tapes-only (back then) label ROIR, a company that stubbornly refused to convert to digital once CD's were introduced, a fact that made them all the more endearing to me. They eventually relented & you can now find this classic slice of the big apple on their site, the reissue tags on the Stimulators proto-HC "Loud, Fast Rules" 7", with a pre-pubescent Harley Flanagan on drums.
http://www.roir-usa.com/8244.htm

FRESNO HC 84-  A comp like this makes a strong argument for preserving the format. Besides Capital Punishment, the only band that anyone outside of Fresno in '84, would be aware of. Have you ever heard of Kyos or Primer Grey? How about Burnin Bob & the Big Boys? Didn't think so, the fact all these obscure groups churn out solid performances, while nothing ground-breaking; they still document a particular time & place. How many cities across America had groups like these, basically an 80's version of unknown garage bands, that never made it onto vinyl. If it wasn't for this platter, we would never be able to enjoy the lo-fi charm of some solid bands that who knows, maybe in a more "popular" scene would have gotten the chance to document their music more extensively. There is a myspace page for the comp here:
 http://www.myspace.com/hardcore84compilation
Dale from Capital Punishment also did some CD's for sale available here:
http://www.stagedive-records.com/HC84Jcard.html

WAR BETWEEN THE STATES: NORTH vs SOUTH-
 A genius-themed comp with bands representing both sides of the great divide, 2 tapes altogether. There are almost 100-plus songs in total! My favorite being the Southern portion with some truly unique bands like Born Without a Face, Power of the Spoken Word, Beef People & Like A Horse. Bands that only a very few know about these days & appreciate. The North side is no slouch either with some great tracks by Verbal Assault, Insanity Defense, GG Allin & Urge Overkill yes, the same bad that was on the Pulp Fiction soundtrack. The guys who did this, Wally & The Beaver, went on to release the 1st HC record by a band from Alaska, but this is what their legacy is built on: A virtual encyclopedia of unknown HC from 1985.
http://agzdaredz.blogspot.com/2011/02/war-between-states-north-south.html

                   I could go on as this article only covers tapes from '82-'85, there are so many more from the latter half of the '80's, not to mention European/South American & Japanese comps. Honorable mentions: Empty Skulls, Barefoot & Pregnant, Skate Rock Comps Vol 1-7, Last White X-Mas, Punx Japanese Comp.. The list is endless. Speaking of lists, the Kill From The Heart website has an exhaustive one of just about any comp I can think of here:
http://www.killfromtheheart.com/comps.php?format=tape

Ok, what the hell, here's one more comp that in itself is a present day comp of older comps:
http://deathburger.doodlekit.com/blog/entry/1317791/va-killed-by-tapes-compilation

Killed By Tapes indeed! Thanks for reading- Freddy Alva

The Frank Justich Way

                   Frank Justich was the older brother (by 1 year) of one of my best friends when I was growing up in Jackson Heights, Queens NYC during the early ‘80s. Their home, in those halcyon days of 1982, was the neighborhood clubhouse. Myself, along with his brother Jimmy & friends our age would lay claim to territory on one side of the house; Frank & his buddies would be doing the same thing on the other. While we were a mixed bunch ethnically: White, Spanish, Black & every sort of intermingling in between. The one thing that separated us, besides the age difference, was the at-times insurmountable musical styles that we each pledged allegiance to.

                Afrika Bambaataa’s “Planet Rock” had come out that year, Jimmy & our crew would be in his room blasting that 12” record alongside dubbed tapes of Mr. Magic’s Rap Attack radio show. We would tape his weekly broadcast religiously, Hip-Hop culture was in its nascent pre-breakout stage & we were eager B-Boy disciples. Our preferred gear being shell-top Adidas sneakers, creased Lee pants, name belt-buckles, all worn while practicing our best break-dancing routines like our idols The Rock Steady crew. We also of dreamed of Graffiti glory by copiously practicing sketches on paper that would one day, we hoped, would make it on to the holy grail: an actual NYC subway car. On the other side of the divide, Frank & friends were all about the Rock n Roll look & sound. Long hair with a studded earring on one ear was the de rigueur look.  Alongside Levi jeans or dungarees, jackets with band patches & motorcycle/work boots. Classic guitar fare like Rush/Skynard/Led Zep was on a continuous loop; Hendrix & Duane Allman was their role model along with the zeal of true believers on the all-redeeming powers of Rock music.

              The two factions pretty much kept to themselves except for the weekend beer drinking games that served as the great social lubricant around the kitchen table which was situated in the neutral, non-combatant approved area. I distinctly remember walking one day across no man’s land, en route to the bathroom, and hearing AC/DC’s “Back in Black”. I said to myself “Damn, that’s a funky beat”. I wouldn’t have admitted that in public, as anything with guitars was considered wack or heresy in our circle. Frank must have sensed an interest on my part & he discreetly invited me to hang out in the shrine to all-things Rock: his room. It was there that I was turned on to Neil Peart’s dexterous drumming, Richie Blackmore’s monster riffs & Geezer Butler’s thunderous bass sounds. Frank was patient & generous with expanding my musical vocabulary, all the while remaining tight-lipped about it, lest my crew finding out I was consorting with the other side.

                                         Frank in the middle. Picture by Yvette Rodriguez

           As the years went by & I moved out of the neighborhood, I would keep Frank’s lessons close to heart: Hip Hop & Rock were not mutually exclusive entities. As the former emphasized the beat & the latter was all about the melody or “groove”, they ultimately emanated from the same source, each taking different routes to express themselves. The same could be said for Frank & the other boys from that summer of ’82 as we went through life’s litany of ups & downs. I lost touch with a lot of the guys until, through serendipity; I got an invite in ’09 for Jimmy’s 40^th b-day bash. This proved to be a gathering of the tribes as I had a blast reconnecting with the old crew & seeing Frank again was a bonus. We hadn’t spoken since we were teenagers & at one point I thanked him for opening my musical horizons. His response was something along the lines of: “Man, that stuff didn’t need me to sell it, Rock ‘n Roll rules & it always will!” As I explained it to him, that initial encouragement led me to a life long involvement with guitar-based music, both on the producing & spectator ends of the spectrum. He good-naturedly brushed off my praise & we made some tentative plans to get together at a later date with our respective spouses.

              This was sadly not to be as I heard the news, several months later that a Sanitation worker had been killed on the job in Astoria, Queens. All those years that I’d spent getting away from the old neighborhood, Frank had gone in the opposite direction. He’d joined the Sanitation Dept; keeping sidewalks clean on blocks not too far from where we grew up. The outpouring of appreciation for this, at times, thankless task was overwhelming. The number of people with anecdotes on how Frank always went the extra mile with endless good humor & a cheerful attitude while performing backbreaking labor were a mile long. A couple that stuck with me, was the cleanup trucks were being called back into the garage due to bad weather, Frank pleading to his supervisor  “Please let me stay out there, my people need me”. Another telling detail of how he was the only one along the route that would routinely get Christmas/Birthday gifts of homemade items like knitted hats as a token of appreciation by people that understood he was no ordinary city employee. His subsequent funeral was among the most attended this town has ever seen for a city worker, with the mayor & other dignitaries eulogizing him.

             As times change & the social fabric of our neighborhoods rearrange themselves, Frank’s way of giving back to the community was his last & probably most important lesson to me. The same qualities that defined him as an adult were present when we were growing up: an all-embracing attitude & an innate sense of helping others coupled with the ever-present smile or joke to lighten up the load.  

              I don’t know if kids today have a sense of their neighborhood as a self-containing universe or the concept of distinct musical youth tribes still apply, but if they do, one can only hope they have a kinder older-brother figure like Frank. Someone that can show them it’s ok to step of your comfort zone, check out different views & realize that the place/people you grow up with are forever implanted in your DNA.

 You were right, my big (rock) brother, Rock ‘n Roll will always rule and so will you. RIP Frankie.

http://queens.ny1.com/content/top_stories/112643/sanitation-worker-fatally-struck-by-tractor-trailer

                                                        1968-2010

Donate to the fund set up for his family, view photos/recollections & his artwork at:

                                             www.frankjustich.com