Gutter Gospel By General Labor: Dr. Jill Stein, Bananarama, Icicle Works, George Carlin, Biafra, Chris Hedges, Jimmy Dore, Julian Assange, Eat ‘Em & Smile Band, Pretenders, Jonesin For Old New Wave And Cheap Champagne, Rev. Paul S. Cunningham Video!

“Parts of the so called ‘Left’ hate comedian podcasters more than the crooks they say they are fighting against but keep voting for in the Democratic Party.” (-Black In The Empire)

 EIGHTIES

The way the boomers carried The Beatles and the Kennedys in their hearts, I mean prior to 9/11-Obama-Fauchi, that’s how I feel about the eighties. I wanna go back to the Martha Quinn-1999-Rebel Yell-She’s So Unusual era, like the Cult sang on their masterpiece perfect album, “Love”, “All my beautiful friends have all gone away”…I tried to reach out to some of my my old pals and former cronies, but they’ve sadly all joined the adult world, gone over to the dark side of the force, become these blind slaves to the consensus, pleasing the inlaws, all about the Benjamins and keeping up with the Kardashians, reciting official narratives, fitting in at the sports bar. They are all afraid of being cancelled on Twitter. Many of my lifetime’s once favorite people are so invested in the system and in protecting their own personal privileges, they willingly goose step towards total fucking fascism, and therefore obviously have to avoid people like me-it’s pretty heartbreaking. I’m still all like, ROSE TATTOO! MC5, Ralph Nader, Malcolm X and Abbie Hoffman, motherfuckers. If the Good Lord is willing and the creek don’t rise, me and my most immediate family will be easin’ on down the road sometime soon to another nearby dead end desert ghost town. I got a lotta worries. Estranged loved ones, propagandized loved ones, people with health problems, and loved ones suffering from mental illness. It’s been a wild ride. I am tired. I wrote a lot of songs you should have heard by now, but they gave you like, Taylor Swift, instead. I still love all the Glitter People.

BANANARAMA

My kid’s show “Cobra Kai” rebooted “Cruel Summer” but slowed it way down and man did it ever take me back. So yeah, I read “SMASH HITS” religiously at 12 and 14 and loved it all. Duran, Prince, INXS, Blow Monkeys, Wham, Belouise Some, ABC, Scritti Politti, King-you name it-all that fey and twee kinda androgynous fake reggae and new wave shit. Paul Young? Love ‘im. Culture Club, Frankie Goes To Hollywood, English Beat, General Public, Eddie Grant, Madness, Strawberry Switchblade, Fun Boy Three, Tears For Fears, Anrde Cymone, Roxy Music-anything like that. Where I lived, there were only about three even semi pseudo cool girls. Two of ’em, actually named Lisa and Michelle, Madonna wannabes with all the silver bracelets and bangles and bleached hair and rosaries and black lace and a very impressive Siouxsie and the Banshees t shirt from the Big City, dismissed me curtly one time when I meekly approached them at the lunch table poring over their pinups of various new wave idols with funny haircuts like A-Ha, with a Valley Girl voiced, “Oh Gawd, you are like, SO QUEER!” So when I met a real cool chick through an absurd series of unlikely events who was also into post punk, new wave, art, and crazy fashion, I was naturally en thralled. We both liked U2 and the Police and Bowie and the Furs which was all edgy and semi taboo where we came from back then. I was so head over heels in love with her that other girls just became pale shadows of her. Even famous blondes like Aimee Mann or Bananarama. They all just reminded me of her-every Rick Springfield B-Side. Every Prince song. Ya know? All I did for years was listen to The Smiths and OMD and Jesus & Mary Chain and Duran and dream of her. We were both smart and arty and her dad had died and I had never known my own dad, both of us were misunderstood or rejected by our stupid peers, and both of us had friction with a series of step figures. I really loved her so much, I ended up kinda seeing her in everything for a real long time. Her mother had vetoed me instantly though, so it was all too brief. She did make me feel a lot more confident about myself though when I was a real shy weirdo kid. My next girlfriend after her was 25 and I was 15, beautiful, glamourous, queen of the after hours scene in the Lower East Side-a filmmaker. I came to know many marvelously exceptional and wonderful talented women who I learned everything I know from, but it all started with her. I can say she discovered me. She was totally my teenage Venus. I might have written a song about her. Or two. 

NEW CULT SONG

JOHN DISSED 

Diary of a Madman – Strummertime | Podcast on Spotify

DAN DENTON

‎The Blue Collar Gospel Hour on Apple Podcasts

JIMMY DORE VERSUS THE CORRUPT ESTABLISHMENT

In the last big bogus election cycle, all your Amazon Shopping shitlib friends, who bought into the window dressing of the fraudsquad told us they were going to push Biden to the left, but instead, they all went Full Pelosi, completely dropped the idea of universal healthcare or free education, and pushed the gentrified shitlibs to the police state, pro war, hardcore imperialist right. People who used to be antiwar and anti racist have become satiated with some high visibility token females, some slogans, and an “I Voted Today” sticker. College educated folks are so baffled by media that all they talk about now is Blaming Trump, enforcing gender pro nouns, and unconditionally worshipping the blue no matter who diversity squad tweeting about Trump, that shit is supposed to replace all radical action and organizing and any authentic leftish principle. U2 started off as like, anti war Martin Luther King Jr. emissaries and ended up as richman stooges for the World Economic Forum, Bill Gates and Bush/Cheney. Middleclassers care more about Obama fanclub membership than embodying or protecting any traditional liberal value. All they did is wring their hands for years blaming Trump for building a wall that Biden continues construction on. Blaming Trump for all the immigrant children human trafficked and seperated from their parents in for profit border gulags that Biden has quadrupled the population of. Blaming Trump for big giveaways to billionaires and perpetuating bogus Bush wars that Biden expands. Blaming Trump for groping young women when Biden does the same. Chastising Trump’s kids for being corrupt and inept flunkies but looking the other way when it comes to Hunter and his Azov battalion friends in the Ukraine. Shitlibs support every rightwing policy s’long as they trot out a token model to co sign it. makes it ALLL just apple pie okeydokey-drones, domestic spying, torture—they celebrate mass murder and endless war now like it’s some kinda transfriendly feminist victory, when Dems are in office doinbg all the same exact rightwing shit, they just make excuses, look the other way, don’t wanna know. Can we just talk about much they love the person in the pink dress from Hamilton and Kamala and the Obamas some more, how they got their fourth monkeypox booster for the babies in the Ukraine? Media is powerful. It’s all gone. There is nothing left of the left. Just me, Jimmy Dore and Caitlin and Nader screaming in the wind. Media is so powerful it has trained people who describe themselves as liberals and progressives to admire the Cheneys, W Bush, Big Pharma, billionaires, idle heiresses, lady torturers, Ukraine nazis, Cait Jenner, royals, the CIA, kkkops, etc. All conversations about income inequality, class, Flint water, and Citizen’s United Ruling corruption are deflected by these puppets by changing the topic to gender. Everytime. Phony Balonies-muppet show.

The Kissinger Continuum: The Unauthorized History of the WEF’s Young Global Leaders Program (unlimitedhangout.com)

It’s “Unreasonable” for Banks to Share Your Financial Info With the Government, 8 in 10 Americans Say – Activist Post

Macroaggressions: #265: One Nation Under Blackmail | Whitney Webb on Apple Podcasts

“The Democrats tried to subvert democracy and kick Green party candidate @MatthewPHoh

 off the ballot in the North Carolina Senate race, but they failed. Thank you Matthew for taking on the corrupt duopoly and giving the people a real choice on election day.” (-Ryan Knight)

“At precisely the same time Leonard Peltier was complaining about the cruelty of Covid lockdowns in his prison in early 2022, large segments of the organized US left were calling for placing the entire US population under an inhumane Covid lockdown.” (-Max Blumenthal)

US’s longest-serving political prisoner Leonard Peltier says prison is ‘torture chamber’ amid Covid lockdowns | The Independent

BLACK AGENDA REPORT

Black Agenda Radio September 16, 2022 | Black Agenda Report

Biden Keeps Pledging Direct US War With China Over Taiwan


❖”The president of the United States has once again committed the US military to direct hot war with China in the event of an attack on Taiwan, a commitment that was once again walked back by his White House handlers.In a recent 60 Minutes interview, Biden was asked point-blank by CBS News’ Scott Pelley if US forces would defend Taiwan from an attack by the mainland.”Yes, if in fact there was an unprecedented attack,” Biden said.”After our interview a White House official told us US policy has not changed,” Pelly narrates after the comment. “Officially, the U.S. will not say whether American forces would defend Taiwan. But the commander-in-chief had a view of his own.””So unlike Ukraine, to be clear, sir, US Forces, US men and women would defend Taiwan in the event of a Chinese invasion?” Pelley asked.”Yes,” Biden replied.This is by my count the fourth time the US president has made such remarks in transgression of his government’s standing policy of “strategic ambiguity” on this issue only to have them walked back by administration staff.This past May Biden said “yes” when asked by the press if the US would defend Taiwan militarily in the event of a Chinese invasion, adding, “That’s the commitment we made.” A White House official later stated that the president’s comments did not reflect a change in US policy.At a CNN forum in October of last year Biden responded in the affirmative when asked by an audience member if the US would intervene to defend Taiwan, and said “Yes, we have a commitment” when asked to clarify if he meant intervening against an attack from China. Again, the White House quickly clarified that “there is no change in our policy.”In an interview with ABC’s George Stephanopoulos in August of last year Biden implied that the US would defend Taiwan as it would a NATO ally, saying that the US has “kept every commitment… same with Taiwan” when asked if China might be emboldened to attack the island by the US military withdrawal from Afghanistan. Again a senior administration official told the press, “Our policy with regard to Taiwan has not changed.”(It is worth noting at this time that Biden’s repeated assertion that the US has a “commitment” to defend Taiwan militarily is objectively false; that hasn’t been the case for over 40 years.)I’ve listed these statements in reverse chronological order, and you can see they get more vague the earlier they are. Now you’ve got the president clearly and explicitly saying that he will send US troops to kill and be killed in a direct hot war with China to defend Taiwan.The White House says official US policy hasn’t changed on Taiwan, but it doesn’t matter. Biden’s made clear this is his policy, and whether he would follow through or not, that’s the message that’s been conveyed to China. This isn’t dementia, it’s deliberate. https://t.co/Lg5ZpTqieF— Dave DeCamp (@DecampDave) September 19, 2022I don’t know why the US president keeps verbally committing his armed forces to a third world war against a nuclear-armed nation only to have it walked back over and over again by the administration he’s supposed to be in charge of. Is this just some neurological glitch in an aging brain which promoted war and militarism throughout its entire time in office? Is it some weird new tactic in “strategic ambiguity” to have different parts of the administration saying completely different things in totally unambiguous ways? Is Biden just a crazy warmonger? I don’t know. But what I do know is that all this chaos and confusion is happening at the worst possible time.As Brett Wilkins explains for Common Dreams, a new bill from the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee threatens to bring the world much closer to a horrific war due to the way it would upend existing US policy on China with its recognition of Taiwan as a major “non-NATO ally” as part of a commitment to send billions of dollars worth of weapons to the island. Fears of what this could unleash upon our world have caused even fairly reliable empire facilitators like Ed Markey to vote against the bill, which Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning says would “greatly shake the political foundation of China-US relations and cause extremely serious consequences to China-US relations and peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait.”This is just one of the ways that tensions with China are being ramped up with astonishing speed over Taiwan, among them also the normalization of sending an increasingly high number of US officials to Taipei in steadily rising contempt for Washington’s One China policy which has kept the peace along this flashpoint for decades.This Taiwan situation is getting uglier and uglier, much faster than many expected, and the president of the the world’s mightiest war machine is either two stupid, too bloodthirsty, too careless or too demented to navigate this situation with the sensitivity it deserves. Things never should have been allowed to get this far, and the US empire is showing us every indication that it intends to take things much, much further.” (-Caitlin Johnstone)Propaganda Warps Our Very Humanity: Notes From The Edge Of The Narrative Matrix – Caitlin Johnstone

❖”The president of the United States has once again committed the US military to direct hot war with China in the event of an attack on Taiwan, a commitment that was once again walked back by his White House handlers.In a recent 60 Minutes interview, Biden was asked point-blank by CBS News’ Scott Pelley if US forces would defend Taiwan from an attack by the mainland.”Yes, if in fact there was an unprecedented attack,” Biden said.”After our interview a White House official told us US policy has not changed,” Pelly narrates after the comment. “Officially, the U.S. will not say whether American forces would defend Taiwan. But the commander-in-chief had a view of his own.””So unlike Ukraine, to be clear, sir, US Forces, US men and women would defend Taiwan in the event of a Chinese invasion?” Pelley asked.”Yes,” Biden replied.This is by my count the fourth time the US president has made such remarks in transgression of his government’s standing policy of “strategic ambiguity” on this issue only to have them walked back by administration staff.This past May Biden said “yes” when asked by the press if the US would defend Taiwan militarily in the event of a Chinese invasion, adding, “That’s the commitment we made.” A White House official later stated that the president’s comments did not reflect a change in US policy.At a CNN forum in October of last year Biden responded in the affirmative when asked by an audience member if the US would intervene to defend Taiwan, and said “Yes, we have a commitment” when asked to clarify if he meant intervening against an attack from China. Again, the White House quickly clarified that “there is no change in our policy.”In an interview with ABC’s George Stephanopoulos in August of last year Biden implied that the US would defend Taiwan as it would a NATO ally, saying that the US has “kept every commitment… same with Taiwan” when asked if China might be emboldened to attack the island by the US military withdrawal from Afghanistan. Again a senior administration official told the press, “Our policy with regard to Taiwan has not changed.”(It is worth noting at this time that Biden’s repeated assertion that the US has a “commitment” to defend Taiwan militarily is objectively false; that hasn’t been the case for over 40 years.)I’ve listed these statements in reverse chronological order, and you can see they get more vague the earlier they are. Now you’ve got the president clearly and explicitly saying that he will send US troops to kill and be killed in a direct hot war with China to defend Taiwan.The White House says official US policy hasn’t changed on Taiwan, but it doesn’t matter. Biden’s made clear this is his policy, and whether he would follow through or not, that’s the message that’s been conveyed to China. This isn’t dementia, it’s deliberate. https://t.co/Lg5ZpTqieF— Dave DeCamp (@DecampDave) September 19, 2022I don’t know why the US president keeps verbally committing his armed forces to a third world war against a nuclear-armed nation only to have it walked back over and over again by the administration he’s supposed to be in charge of. Is this just some neurological glitch in an aging brain which promoted war and militarism throughout its entire time in office? Is it some weird new tactic in “strategic ambiguity” to have different parts of the administration saying completely different things in totally unambiguous ways? Is Biden just a crazy warmonger? I don’t know. But what I do know is that all this chaos and confusion is happening at the worst possible time.As Brett Wilkins explains for Common Dreams, a new bill from the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee threatens to bring the world much closer to a horrific war due to the way it would upend existing US policy on China with its recognition of Taiwan as a major “non-NATO ally” as part of a commitment to send billions of dollars worth of weapons to the island. Fears of what this could unleash upon our world have caused even fairly reliable empire facilitators like Ed Markey to vote against the bill, which Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning says would “greatly shake the political foundation of China-US relations and cause extremely serious consequences to China-US relations and peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait.”This is just one of the ways that tensions with China are being ramped up with astonishing speed over Taiwan, among them also the normalization of sending an increasingly high number of US officials to Taipei in steadily rising contempt for Washington’s One China policy which has kept the peace along this flashpoint for decades.This Taiwan situation is getting uglier and uglier, much faster than many expected, and the president of the the world’s mightiest war machine is either two stupid, too bloodthirsty, too careless or too demented to navigate this situation with the sensitivity it deserves. Things never should have been allowed to get this far, and the US empire is showing us every indication that it intends to take things much, much further.” (-Caitlin Johnstone)Propaganda Warps Our Very Humanity: Notes From The Edge Of The Narrative Matrix – Caitlin Johnstone
Propaganda Warps Our Very Humanity: Notes From The Edge Of The Narrative Matrix – Caitlin JohnstoneThere’s so much more to propaganda than just manufacturing consent for governments and wars. It trains us what to value. What to think a successful human being looks like.caitlinjohnstone.comProposal: Just Run All Western News Media Directly Out Of CIA Headquarters – Caitlin Johnstone

Sedition #2 Of Treazine Is Ready! – Caitlin Johnstone

“The Soviet Union lost more than 27 million people fighting Nazism. China lost more than 20 million people fighting Japanese fascism. The world owes both an immeasurable debt.” (-Danny Haiphong)

Black Alliance for Peace on Twitter: “Join BAP Coordinating Committee member Charisse Burden-Stelly (@blackleftaf) & Jodi Dean (@Jodi7768) in conversation with Dev Springer for a book launch & signing of Organize, Fight, Win: Black Communist Women’s Political Writing on Oct 7 in Atlanta: https://t.co/WFpwYpvJSb” / Twitter

Revealed: How the US and UK Stopped Peace Deal in Ukraine (mintpressnews.com)

ICICLE WORKS

I dunno if I was 13 or 14 when I first fell in love, I only know it was magical, musical, mythical, mystical, had a real life heightened reality, full blast fairytale quality, and my strange and embarrassing life had taken on this new and wide awake intensity, all the music we were listening to in those initial spark holy moments stayed with me all these years. Even if that first love was too good to be true, or I just fucked it up, or whatever happened, the songs remain in my heart. I never got over anything.

Be careful what you dream of
It may come up and surprise you
I can’t confess, my life’s a mess
I’ve come to idolise you
You liken it to walking on hot coals
I’ll keep my boots on
Wisen up and fly straight
There’s a shape on the horizon

In a hollow horse I’ll steal my way
Inside your guarded heart
So selfishly the needs I harbour
When we are apart
My past strung out behind me
Contradiction and disaster
I’m in search of charity
A union I could master

We’ll be as we are
When all the fools
Who doubt us fade away
Fortune deep and wide
Intimidated, restless in the wait

Things I chose to value
I no longer have a use for
I ridicule myself for all the things
Those symbols stood for
When vanity has played a part
In every leader’s downfall
Wait to storm the gates, what’s left
Undone to hang around for

We’ll be as we are
When all the fools
Who doubt us fade away
Fortune deep and wide
Intimidated, restless in the wait

We’ll be as we are
When all the fools
Who doubt us fade away
Fortune deep and wide
Intimidated, restless in the wait


 REV. PAUL S. CUNNINGHAM VIDEO!

“And the poor stay poor and the rich get rich and the cops get paid to look away as the 1% rules america. Spreading the Disease, everybody needs, but one one wants to see, the way society keeps spreading the disease.” (1988 – Queensryche ~ Spreading the Disease)

Documents show Bill Gates has given $319 million to media outlets to promote his global agenda – The Grayzone

10 Ways in Which Our Rights Have Been Usurped – Activist Post

Strike, Strike, Strike – The Chris Hedges Report (substack.com)

WATCH: CN Live! — ‘The War on Journalism’ – Consortium News

Craig Murray: Mass Hysteria, UK-Royal Style – Consortium News

“If you talk about the problem of crime in the United States and fail to prioritize the financial and war crimes of the one percent, congratulations you are either a victim of or willing participant in copaganda.” (-Danny Haiphong)

“Mexico just honored Julian with the keys to the city & invited his family. Russian artist Jorit painted a mural of Julian in Moscow. Meanwhile the UK approved  Julian’s extradition to the US where he faces 175 yrs for the crime of journalism. Who’s the dangerous country here?” (-Fiorella Isabel)

“People ignore politics because they perceive (correctly) that neither of their country’s two mainstream political factions cares about them, and because they perceive (incorrectly) that those two mainstream political factions are the only possible framework for political action. A tremendous amount of perception management has gone in to getting people to buy into the absurd delusion that status quo politics can be used to change the status quo. People stop ignoring politics when they learn there’s a whole meaningful reality underneath that delusion.” (-Caitlin Johnstone)

“There isn’t Democracy in any country, worldwide. The US overthrew them all.” (-Estebon Martinez)

Host of the Sabby Sabs podcast,

@SabbySabs2, gives discusses how progressive Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) has fallen in line with corporate Democrats, and that this could hurt her in the future.

Rising on Twitter: “Host of the Sabby Sabs podcast, @SabbySabs2, gives discusses how progressive Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) has fallen in line with corporate Democrats, and that this could hurt her in the future. https://t.co/eH68MpjSka” / Twitter

PATTI SMITH

Obviously, as an outlaw singer writer lyricist performer, one of my biggest influences was Patti Smith. I remember being a dumb new wave kid and an older friend trying to turn me onto her but the Patti Smith Group were too garagey for my Duran Duran and synthpop sensibilities, back then, I was not ready for her, yet, but by the time she caught me, she REALLY got me, I was a deeply moved devotee. One of my last bands sadly fractured before we really got to accomplish what we were capable of, my dudes abandoned the promising project to hookup with other people who were much better funded than I was and it was real heartbreaking at the time, I felt really wounded about it. We had been invited to perform at some very prestigious events and two big name artists even suggested we go on tour with them as their opening act. I was planning on opening our NYC debut show with a cover version of “Privilege Set Me Free” which I always resonated with for very self evident reasons if you listen to the words. I’m not a fucking sceretary.  I can still rock like fuck.

www.opensecrets.org

www.projectcensored.org 

How about “died instantly”? (substack.com)

Joe Biden Thinks a Rail Strike has Been Averted. Do Rail Workers? | Labor Notes

PRAYERS FOR JEFF WATSON

I sincerely like “When You Close Your Eyes” and “Don’t Tell Me You Love Me”. I like all kinds of stuff the record collector/hipster snob/record store types all cringe over for being too sappy or mainstream or overproduced. I like everything from Howard Jones, Dexy’s, Nik Kershaw and Thompson Twins to the Lep’s first three albums, Night Ranger and 38 Special, who one of my former drinking buddies hilariously used to call, “The Beatles Of The South”. My buddy Matt Thorne has a music snob group online called Desert island Dickheads with people like Elliot Easton in it and they memorably all went nuts for weeks on end because I casually referred to 38 Special as power pop, arguing that some of their songs were as catchy as Rick Springfield or the Shoes, or most any skinny tie band.  I’m not being at all ironic when I say I dig the heartfelt sentiment of Night Ranger’s corny teen anthems. My old songwriter friend, Max O’Donnal from Ill-starred, Streetcar Named Disaster, and Bang Bang Satellite agrees: “Those first 3 Night Ranger records are beautiful. Camaraderie, big choruses, long hair, denim & the girl next door. They’re the 80’s teenage boy version of Norman Rockwell. “

Former Night Ranger guitarist Jeff Watson recovering from two brain surgeries – Sleaze Roxx

Whatever Became Of A Streetcar Named Disaster? – Interview With Underground Cult Hero Max O’ Donnal By Darkstar General – Veglam

STEVE VAI INTERVIEW “KIDS IN ACTION”

Listening to this old Vai interview remembering when the older flyover country punksters had all these rules about what punks were allowed to like-supposedly, it was forbidden to enjoy the busier, flashy guitarists like Steve Vai, Steve Stevens or Eddie Van Halen. A stray hardcore kid we knew used to bleat on and on about how I shouldn’t be “allowed” to have the long hair and makeup-we were supposed to only ever have short hair like the military, cause The Clash did, and just limit our listening habits to Thunders and Jones or some shit. The Black Flag/Circle Jerks/Suicidal Tendencies gang-like factions. You remember them, right? They were just like their sports moms-fascists. I was not born to obey conformists with many pairs of imported boots. Idiots-all those tedious fucking Minor Threat/Fugazi/DC hardcore people. I’d go to Ft. Wayne on the weekends and the aggressive males there were even worse-emboldened by their numbers-half of them were in those junior ROTC military school programs, some were neo fucking nazis, and the rest were like drunken macho, English Punk wannabes with the foot tall mohawks, talking in Clockwork Orange dialog in fake British accents, wanting to slamdance, rough house, male bond like fratboys, or just straightup outright Sid Vicious clones. They all had all these rules, which were not for me. The girls were much cooler-goths, crusties, do your own thing anarchists. Me, too, sisters. I was always a rocker, even in the punk days, not apologizing. Of course the big muscled hometown Transmarao driving suburban shredders who liked Journey and Judas Priest all called me Devo or Boy George or Joey Ramone. I always had bruises from them punching me in the hallways or locker room. I was being held hostage at the Oneida Baptist Institute in darkest Appalachia when the US FEST happened in California and Strummer and Roth famously sniped back n forth at the press conference and Dave accused them of putting iced tea in their Jack Daniels bottles-I was always like part Clash, part Van Halen. Still am, really! Then, Guns N Roses hit the mainstream like five years later, and eventually, after all the hesher mullets got used to them wearing blue eyeshadow, a couple years after that, around the time of “Paradise City”, the bandwagon chasers were all insisting I should be able to do that high pitched AXL screech, that my vocal style was not metal enough. I can’t hit the Queensryche/Iron Maiden highs-no way. More like the Mary Chain or Bators vocal range. That’s always been the great comedy of my life-too punk for metal, too metal for punk. A patriarchal privileged cys born, culture appropriating colonizer male in the oh so gentrified, navel studies collegetowns, a gutter trash pinko commie queer fag Antifa race traitor in the Midwest. I remember being real excited by “RIP” magazine in the “Appetite For Destruction” era cause they covered all those new sleaze bands coming out of Hollywood and NYC like Junkyard and Rock City Angels, Circus Of Power, and The Throbs: it was all about breaking down those barriers between punk and metal. Like me and my friends and Hanoi Rocks and later Guns N Roses and the Four Horsemen and Danzig. My own crew were part “Thrasher” magazine skaterat headbangers, a skinhead, an older 70’s scuzzpunk, a jock, and a new romantic. I had to replace about half those guys with an AC/DC barnstorming hellraiser and some Go Betweens/Replacements fan, richass pop geeks from Walden fucking Pond, and a goth-folkie telemarketing warlock, when our shithot romeo guitar hero split the scene for med school. My life has been a weird and frequently sad as fuck misadventure. I can’t believe we never even got to make a fucking record. It just kills me. I mean, I try listening to summa my ex associates’ cds and they are generally hard to sit all the way through, there’s just very little content there-just feels like rich people throwing their money around- so I guess I’m glad I don’t have boxes full of mediocre unsold cd’s someone paid for so I can be pretend famous, but man we had SONGS! Catchy fucking memorable songs, so it’s an injustice that all these people who don’t even LIKE me or my main songwriting amigo, have been able to record way way more versions of OUR SONGS in the studio than we have. That’s crazy, but it’s all just because of money-they got it and we don’t. It’s so fuckedup. So I’ve always known my friendly reminder wakeup call, prayer for peace, S.O.S. message in a bottle rants and columns are infinitely more powerful when accompanied by a heavy backbeat and the Bang A Gong riff, but the rest of the kids got swept up by the warpig juggernaut or ratrace V.I.P. room beauty contest Botox bullshit, so here we are.

   If I coulda told those eighties kids that in the future rocknroll of any real rebellious kind would be removed from the airwaves, replaced with corny, say nothing, athletic post-grunge or soft porn pop-rap, and that they would all be cool with every fucking rightwing Reagan policy s’long as the fraud squad have empty lip service to gay pride and black lives mattering, that they’d have self proclaimed educated, liberal people cheering for wars and baying for more kkkops and laws against protests on the capital, PLUS the government would be spying on all their electronic communications and wiretapping everybody’s phonecalls and removing all the pay phones so if you were ever in trouble, you had to have a cellphone, and that they would roll out some phony pinup celebrities like Obama and AOC that would make everybody feel all warm and fuzzy and okeydokey with endless wars, drone mass murdering, kidnapped journalists, warehouses full of separated families near the border, and torture camps, they never would have believed me. That the only “movement” allowed by the mimosa slurping gatekeeping middleclassers was the pink triangle-rainbow flag-save the whales, virtue signaling bumper sticker bullshit, that changes nothing. Man, I always wanted Roth to reunite with the “And Smile” band and write more music! “Eat ‘Em & Smile” was Damn Good rocknroll, “Skyscraper” had some good parts, too. “I bet if you asked them our heroes would say
“Hey, we’re already gone.”

I know, somehow I know…”

Podcast Releases Never-Before-Heard Steve Vai ‘Eat ‘Em And Smile’ Interview With Greg Renoff From 2016 [AUDIO] (vhnd.com)

David Lee Roth covers a Kim Mitchell song | The Canadian Guitar Forum (guitarscanada.com)

(We want modern thrills) Yeah, we want modern thrills
(We want rock and roll that kills)
Tell me, who we gonna get high over if we can’t get high together
(We want modern thrills)
(We want rock and roll that kills)
Tell me, who gonna die over if we can’t die together

PEZ DISPENSERS AND MAD MAGAZINES DEPARTMENT

This makes me think of my long lost brothers in arms. The Records – “Starry Eyes” – video Dailymotion What happened to those guys, it’s like invasion of the body snatchers, mass hypnosis, pod people, fluoride or some shit, Straight up “Twilight Zone” cable zombified, they’ve all lost their minds. Imitation Songs!

“When I was a kid all I wanted to be
Was the meanest dude on the meanest machine
Now I’m going to wrong way on a one-way street
I never fit this society” (-MM)

“I think that the horrific crimes committed by U.S. settler-colonialsim is responsible for the denialism & split in consciousness that requires them to dehumanize their adversaries while pretending the U.S. walks with the Gods. We see this now with the Russians & Chinese.” (-Ajamu Baraka)

“Azov don’t like having to pretend they aren’t Nazis and many of them won’t, but some realize they have to if they want to guarantee continuing to get our Gov’t to keep stealing Americans money to fund this US proxy war.” (-Black In The Empire)

“It is absolutely insane how many Americans worship the politicians and billionaires who are fucking us all over. You are not supposed to worship these greedy psychopaths. You are supposed to make them fear the people. That is the only way anything will ever change.” (-Ryan Knight)

“Telesur reporter, Alejandro Kirk, was hit with a fragment of a projectile in the center of Donetsk after Ukraine attacked a civilian-filled area. He is now hospitalized.” (-Fiorella Isabel)

Texas claims victory in censorship fight — RT World News

Chris Hedges: The Greatest Evil is War | KPFA

The Justice Department Was Dangerous Before Trump. It’s Out of Control Now (substack.com)

Demonstrators gather to oppose the war in Ukraine – Santa Cruz Sentinel

Zelensky and NATO plan to transform post-war Ukraine into ‘a big Israel’ – The Grayzone

No Tech For Apartheid Israel: Google Whistleblower Ariel Koren Exposes Project Nimbus (mintpressnews.com)

DEAD KENNEDYS

   I was reading the Debbie Harry autobiography and thinking to myself I would not want to be involved with the artist/illustrator, H.R. Giger, personally, though I’m a lifelong Blondie fan and apparently, Chris Stein is an occultist. Having said that, you know it was batshit crazy bonkers when the Establishment brought the hammer down on Jello Biafra for including a poster with their record that was supposedly a metaphor for consumer culture called “Penis Landscape”. While Jello almost singlehandedly took on the Capitalist Hierarchy, his bandmates decided he was too activist oriented or exerted too much control over his “Alternative Tentacles” record label or was too full of himself or whatever. Same shit always happened to me. They replaced him with a former child actor who continued trading on the brandname singing songs Jello wrote. In the 80’s, even kids who did not specifically self identify as hardcores, every punk, all of us, had Dead Kennedys albums and thought what they were saying was righteous as fuck. It was the PMRC/Top Gun/Reagan era. That was before the government think tanks infiltrated the College Left with their p.c. woke horseshit, before ignorant asshole, evil poser, boneheads crippled Jello, absurdly accusing him of selling out at the Gilman Street Collective Clubhouse. It’s a really sad mystery to me how so many of my former friends and colleagues and once seemingly radical progressives have been so media bamboozled and browbeaten by fear since 9/11, that they’ve all become these conservative, hut-two goosestepping, television believers. Russiagate, Muslim hating, official narrative spewing, Obama Thanking, pro war, police state apologist, billionaire worshippers, making excuses for AOC and Biden and the corrupt DNC rigging primaries and doing all that rightwing shit. It’s sad as fuck, and there’s not really much of an underground punk press in Murkkka anymore. Everybody’s been trained by college to buy into empty slogans and identity tokenism and superficial gesturing while obediently preserving the evil corporatist status quo. Phil fucking Donahue and John Denver were more radical than the faux wokes we got now. The righteous liberal position was, dig this, suckers: fucking ANTI CENSORSHIP, PRO FREE SPEECH. You sacrificed every single anti-war and pro free speech, leftist value for meaningless gender celebrity worship and a rainbow flag, and all outta sheer TDS. So what? Trump’s a bad man. So are all your “Classy” shitlib centerfolds. You don’t okeydoke laws against protest and mass surveillance and censorship cause you like some fucking personality. I lost all faith in you fuckers. Blueblood crunchy granolas like Michael Stipe and Natalie Merchant seem like antifa black block street fightin molotov rebels compared to all my former friends. It’s so sad how everybody fell for that fucking bullshit false flag Dick Cheney propaganda. It’s gotten worse and worse, ever since. I know motherfuckin ex punks who believe that Bill Gates is their loving philanthropic, super scientific savior for social justice. It’s a crazy time to be alive. Where are the Dead Kennedys when you need ’em? Infiltrated or assassinated, killed dead by the government Cointelpro disruption programs. One by one by one. From Lenny Bruce to Phil Ochs, From Fred Hampton to Paul Wellstone. From John Lennon to Michael Hastings. Fuckin’ sad. Ya even gotta wonder about Angela Davis now. A few years ago, Peter Crowley sent me a link to Jello talking about going on one of those special trips to Israel and kinda promoting or excusing or justifying Netanyahu shit. That was a bit sad. Saw Rollins do some big Boo-yah Hoorah pro war standup special, too. What happens to motherfuckers? Ya think they get threatened? Like some men in black show up and say they gotta spew the script or else? What happened to Bernie Sanders? Ya know? Bill Hicks dead. Stiv Bators dead. Joe Strummer dead. John Trudell dead. Seth Rich murdered. Assange in captivity. Dave Chappelle, cancelled for not wanting to be in movies while wearing a dress. Not transfriendly woke enough. That’s like the Only Cause allowed by shitlibs. Pro Nouns and mandatory men in dresses. All else gets you deplatformed, demonetized, you can’t say the  things Dead Kennedys or Tupac Shakur used to say anymore. Here’s more Foo Fighters and Miley Cyrus, instead. WTF? People I grew up with don’t even organize protests against these bullshit forever wars.

“Don’t be fooled by the illusion of democracy in the U.S. A country where 3 billionaires are hoarding more wealth than half of the population is NOT democratic. The U.S. is a capitalist oligarchy where the rich get richer by exploiting workers & depriving people of basic rights.” (-Ryan Knight)

“Before NAFO, there was retired Gen. Stanley McChrystal’s “Defeat Disinfo,” which used AI to identify critics of Covid restrictions and boost attacks on them through a network of 3.4 million influencers, even paying them to advance chosen counter-narratives” (-Max Blumenthal)

“Were you “traumatized” by US “failures” in Afghanistan & Iraq? Luckily, retired US diplomat Daniel Fried of the Atlantic Council has a path to healing: the Ukraine proxy war. For “traumatized” warmongers like Fried, Ukraine “is a situation where an actual success is possible.” (-Aaron Mate’)

“Black Alliance For Peace  will not fight for the rich. We understand our interests as an oppressed people & class & will not be moved by appeals to national chauvinism meant to galvanize working class to support wars of choice by the colonial/capitalist oligarchy. help us fight: Donate — The Black Alliance for Peace” (-Ajamu Baraka)

How One Spook-Run London College Department Is Training the World’s Social Media Managers (mintpressnews.com)

https://www.middleeasteye.net/opinion/russia-ukraine-war-europe-putin-energy-crisis-blame

US involved in Ukrainian strikes on nuclear plant – Moscow — RT Russia & Former Soviet Union

Decolonizing the Mind | Black Agenda Report

“Biden’s proposed $813,000,000,000 military budget could: End homelessness in the US 40x. End world hunger 20x. End poverty in the US 2.5x. The U.S. is the real threat to humanity.” (-Danny Haiphong)

Zelensky quietly deletes photo of his bodyguard’s pro-Hitler patch – The Grayzone

Veteran Intelligence Professionals: Ukraine Decision Time for Biden – Ray McGovern

Zelensky quietly deletes photo of his bodyguard’s pro-Hitler patch – The Grayzone

 garland nixon – Twitter Search / Twitter

I AM THE PAST, THE PISSED, WHAT’S LEFT OF THE LEFT. FUCK YOUR BULLSHIT MAKEOVERS. NO THANKS. I’LL PROBABLY ALWAYS BE LIKE THIS. NOT SORRY.

I been in love with Chrissie since I was about nine. She influences all my songwriting. Just listen to the words of “Revolution” and then try to live like that. Thanks.

How ‘Back on the Chain Gang’ Gave Purpose to Grieving Pretenders (ultimateclassicrock.com)

NYC GODDAMN

Choking of Eric Garner [WITH UNSEEN FOOTAGE] – Staten Island, New York – July 17th 2014 – YouTube

GarlandNixon

Radio Talkshow Host & Political Analyst in Washington DC ROKFIN – https://rokfin.com/garlandnixon TELEGRAM – http://t.me/garlandnixon YOUTUBE – http://bit.ly/3EReHyn

www.antiwar.com

Inflation Causing Hardship For Majority Of US Households – Activist Post

“If you would be a real seeker after truth, it is necessary that at least once in your life you doubt, as far as possible, all things.”
RENÉ DESCARTES

Decolonizing the Mind | Black Agenda Report

The Sickness of the American Left and the Path to Recovery | Black Agenda Report

There go Ol’ Schmo again… | Black Agenda Report

https://www.youtube.com/c/thejimmydoreshow

youtu.be/FVT7_WFoU04

“The 1st amendment is 1st for a reason. Don’t let warmongers destroy it.” (-Dr. Jill Stein)

Bill Gates Wants “conspiracy theories” About Him To Go Away – Activist Post

The End of Cheap Food – Activist Post

STIV: No Compromise No Regrets DVD

(-REVIEW by Moses Midnight)

ATTITUDE AND SOCIAL CHANGE

1983 was the year we first formed our goth gang. We were dirty and sweet untamed youth, a loose collective of much hated misfits, new wave poseurs, Smash Hits magazine readers, and Baby Bowies, discovering new music and makeup and styling products, just kissing to be clever. The only thing more unforgivable than androgyny, in the macho midewestern culture of rigid conformity, non-stop violence, and sports competition was, poverty. We were condemned for both, from an early age. The Lords Of The New Church were outside of society sovereign kings unto themselves, and their songs taught us about history revisionism, propaganda, psy-ops, and the true nature of authentic rebellion. That post-apocalyptic poster that came with the first Lords record made an indelible impression upon our tortured little psyches. We knew there was no place for us in the fix-is-in mainstream world and that we’d eventually have to create our own subcultural kingdoms and take up residency in the bonfire light of no man’s sand. My old sidekick gave me my Dead Boys skull tattoo the year before he went to med-school. “Disconnected” is still my favorite record besides “Mystery City” and “Into The Valley Of the Dolls”. The Lords Of The New Church taught us to see through the smokescreens of goose-stepping totalitarianism, perverted religious zealotry, and controlled-media propaganda. They made us believe it was possible to create a new society away from the bigotry, hate, paranoia, and us versus them social control, programmed into us since birth, by the honky death machine. Everything Stiv warned us about in 1983-a dystopian police state, and Orwellian torture gulags, and endless war, has long since come true. Gimee some of that old time religion! “I’ll recruit a ragged army/why let your hatred scar me?” He was like a time travelling messenger from the future.

I was a sucker for all that lively and colorful MTV escapism-I loved it all-Boy George and Cyndi Lauper, Prince, Psychedelic Furs, and Flesh For Lulu, but when my space pirate new romantic icons Duran Duran started glamourizing the Reagan/Thatcher lifestyle of safaris and acquisition, cocktail parties on yachts with coked-out models and pink pastel Miami Vice suits, the Lords Of The New Church were already prophesizing about secret societies, totalitarian regimes, the deep state permanent government, and the one percent elite’s ominously secretive movements towards global slavery and corporate prison states; while pointing us towards a more righteous and free, alternative vision of truth and soul, steely-eyed clarity, and egalitarian values. While Bowie and George Michael were making big cash grab commercials for Diet Coke, the New Church were sermonizing that television is nothing but lies, the prison’s filled while the rich still rob, to be here now, throw-away youth you gotta make a stand, no one’s gonna help you but yourself, start your gang, etc. I answered his call. When many of my former peers were into RATT and Mötley Crüe, or grunge, or unreality tv lifestyle programming, I was a down in flames detention hall sonic reducer, already ready, anytime, ready to snap! A choirboy at the New Church. He informed my core values, entire belief system, and life’s work. Sometimes it’s felt like not enough people really heard the message. For a mighty long time, it felt like the congregation had dwindled to almost nothing. Most of my lunatic fringe dancing old friends are long dead. I mean, me, I’m still seething with sedition, my old lady’s anointed with wisdom, and my old fun hog, road buddy just wants to duck walk on the rubble of shock doctrine, shock and awe, imperial disaster capitalism, but very few gadget guided I-Phoners and rah-rah warpig consumerist zombies of rightwing Murkkka really seem to have any desire to open their eyes, anymore. Like I said, nearly every grim and dreary thing Stiv warned us about-the dystopian police state and military and prison industrial complex and Orwellian torture gulags and panopticon surveillance has all come true. There are brown babies in cages. Racist gestapo. Poison in the water. War all the time. Robot muzak. It is harrowing to behold. Most of my countrymen are too bamboozled by cable tv diversions and too busy Keeping Up With The Kardashians to even notice, let alone, give a fuck. Luckily, this crucial, must-have DVD, and some of his old pal’s various other projects have created a renewed interest in his music that is probably more important and meaningful now, than ever before. A whole new generation of black haired scarf wearers are discovering his always heartfelt and provocative and thoughtful songs. Stiv lives in the hearts of the musicians and outlaws, the artists and rastas and dreams.

The impeccable and sensitive film-maker, Danny Garcia shines through, once again, with a really lovely and poignant and often hilarious valentine to our beloved alley Bator. If you are anything like me, you will only wish it was a ten part series. I never get tired of hearing first hand Stiv anecdotes from his intimate apostles, loves, and collaborators. Many of my favorite rocknroll super heroes, like Ray Hanson, Neal X, Nicky Turner, Dave Tregunna, Frank Secich, Jimmy Zero, Cynthia Ross, Nina Antonia, and Eddy Best share unseen photographs, rare music, and intimate reflections about the King Of The Brats. If you ever loved the Stiv Bators band on Bomp!, Dead Boys, Wanderers, or Lords, you will want to own this dvd and watch it again and again. To my little crew of merry pranksters, lostboy mischief makers, and snotty glam kids, Stiv was like Alice Cooper, Iggy Pop, Bill Hicks and Joe Strummer rolled into one. Join The New Church!

“He’s Good-Bad But He’s Not Evil….” Tribute To Cheetah Chrome by Pepsi Sheen & The Rocknroll People…

“I have a hand-made badge with Cheetah’s pic on it. It was obviously made by an art rocker ’cause the caption reads, Cheetah Chrome FAN CLUB – ONLY MEMBER.
If I was roasting him, I’d say, ‘Good evening ladies and germs. As the president and only member of the Cheetah Chrome Fan Club, I welcome you to an evening of….”
(-Peter Crowley)

“First time I met Cheetah I was with Stiv Bators in L.A., I think in ’88, Cheetah walks into my friends apartment, Stiv introduces us: This is Sami Yaffa and this Prick With Ears…..”
(-Sami Yaffa)

”Along with Brian James and Robert Quine,Cheetah is my favourite guitar player to emerge from the punk rock scene.
Always loved both Dead Boys albums…But his real genius is on the Rocket from the Tombs stuff, which if had ever seen a proper release at the time…In my opinion we’d be talking the greatest punk album of all time!!!!”
(-Darren Birch, bassist of Gunfire Dance)

“I just love Cheetah. I’ll leave the roasting to others! Thanks though!”
(-Alison Gordy NYC legendary singer in Johnny Thunders And The Oddballs)

“A fiery character from the great band The Dead Boys that the Ramones loved. Cheetah’s still keeping up the Punk spirit”.
(-Monte A. Melnick Ramones Tour Manager and author of “On The Road with the Ramones”.)

 “Well, I never knew him too well. but I met him several times and I thought that he’s a lovely character. and a great guitarist of course. plus he was a close friend of Stiv and he (Stiv) naturally told me a lot of stories about him.”
(-Danny Fury, lead singer of Tango Pirates)

CheetahStivIggy

 “These past 10 years I have seen many changes …It’s a toss up between triumphs and roadside burning wreckage….I think the hardest thing for me is seeing family, friends, lovers and the ones we have seen as leaders in the past change before our eyes…They become less familiar and more of an un-answered question: “Why?”….What I’m alluding to is the many musical figures that have crossed over to strange political camps that seem very mean spirited in agendas towards our fellow man ….Knowing this, I try and always keep a non-judgmental ear and just let the music do the talking…Having said this, my mind is guilt free when I hear the Dead Boys cranked …. All the time knowing that Cheetah is still  ‘A man of the people’…..Hard workin’, Hard Travellin’, Hard Playing soul….It’s this familiarity that rocks you back to your teen years where we were all idealistic and invincible …Hey–I can Handle the world changing, because from where I came from, it’s always in constant change, at the end of a gun…but to see souls that you respect do a 360 on your senses I can’t express how disappointing that is. Thankfully, that hasn’t happened to Mister Chrome. I wish him many more years of sonically assaulting our senses! God Speed!”
(-Neen Youkhana singer/guitarist of Trash Gallery)

 “He’s great.”
(-Ena Kostabi)

“I have one recollection of seeing The Dead Boys for the first time when I was about 16 years old… I didn’t know who was who in the band at that time, but they performed on the Uncle Floyd Show on UHF TV Channel 68 in New Jersey. I knew I was seeing something pretty special, but didn’t quite understand it yet. I was still new to the whole Punk thing, but the energy and urgency and fuck-all attitude came across and was a total turn on, something I have not forgotten in over 30 years. They were the new generation of rock stars… And ‘Uncle’ Floyd Vivino would go on to introduce me and my high school buddies to other great “local” bands at that time and soon after like The Ramones, Randazzo, Dramarama, Shrapnel and others.”
(-Joe Normal, guitarist of Cold Blue Rebels)

SonicReducer

“My crystal meth nightmare began with ‘her’ talking about Cheetah Chrome. Later she racked-out lines and played Sonic Reducer at full volume. I tried to make it louder. She became the subject of my first book … Last night I watched Cheetah play Sonic Reducer at a tiny Lower East side bar (a warm-up gig for tonight’s Bowery Electrik show). I was glad that she wasn’t there.”
(-Jeff Ward, guitarist of Gunfire Dance, author of “Parasite Joyous Flashbacks Amidst A Crystal Meth Nightmare”)

“I remember seeing the Dead Boys at Hurrah and if I remember correctly (not likely), CBGB’s in NY late 70’s;later on my old band Circus of Power opened a Dead Boys reunion show at the Ritz and we used to see Cheetah around a bit in NY around that time, not sure if he really knew me but I knew him and would say hello if I saw him, an important part of an important and clearly hard rocking band and I was happy to have watched a bit of that history.”
(-Gary Sunshine, songwriter; guitarist for Circus Of Power and NY Loose)

“Cheetah is one of the finest songwriters I know. I will never forget an afternoon I had with him n’ Stiv in the spring of 88′ It made me what I am today. I hope to see you soon my friend.”
(-Stevie Klasson)

“1977, and I’m stuck in a small town in the middle of nowhere, all harvest gold and bellbottoms flapping with dust in the wind as the yokels are jolted awake by a new sound, a new look, a new attitude: Disco. Yep, my backwash burg slept right through Punk. Probably hasn’t woken up even now. Just in time for my own teenage tumult, Punk spoke to me as it happened, and rather far beyond as it turned out. Alienation as visually manifested by young reprobates with forked hair and eyes like burning flares. There were many such figures tearing through the bland cultural and musical landscape of the era, all of them dangerous and as such, enthralling. But one particular group seemed somehow more familiar. The Dead Boys were a product of the great unwashed Midwest: Ohio boys. Just like me. OK, from the other side of the state, and from an actual city. Still, knowing that these cats could come out of a place as hopeless as 1970’s Cleveland, and do some real damage right in the heart of the Bowery, a mythical place I longed to dive into while poring over mail-ordered copies of Punk magazine and New York Rocker, was heartening. They were also the first American Punk band I heard that exuded the howl of adolescent frustration and rage that attracted me to UK Punk bands like the Sex Pistols, The Clash, and The Damned. Patti Smith and Television were great, but rather cerebral and artsy, whereas I wanted to break things. The Ramones were a revelation, but I could still hear echoes of summers at the beach in the mid-60’s within their melodies. On the other hand, the Dead Boys snarled, they spat. Their guitars were too loud. They looked dirty, pissed off, and definitely up to no good. Your parents were never, ever going to be happy about you bringing their album home to blast out of your record player. With perfect timing, they got me. Having by then determined that I was going to be the guitar player in a big deal punk rock band, my attention was more often given over to whoever was abusing the six strings than to the front man. Cheetah Chrome was that guy in the Dead Boys. What more could I have wished for than the unharnessed electricity of a James Williamson, with the classic skill of a Glen Buxton? All battered Les Paul slashing and burning holes through every teacher, jock bully, disapproving adult and anyone else on the wrong side of the line in the sand that punk drew for me. It didn’t last long, but that kind of white-heat intensity never can. Sadly, as is the case for so many of the folks from that era, the ensuing decades were less than kind to the man. He’s been down lower than probably anyone, anyone who lived to tell about it anyway. But he’s always been the real deal. Fortunately, he’s still out there, and still loves playing the guitar really loud, and best of all, seems to have found some happiness. I’m glad he made it out the other side, and that he shared his stories via his memoir. Most of all though, I’m thankful for the time, some 36 years ago, when a misfit kid from the other side of Ohio with a shock of red hair and a crazed stare plugged in his guitar and sonically reduced all of my boredom and doubt to a pile of wreckage. I’ve never forgotten…”
(-Brian Morgan, guitarist of Carvels, Saviors, and Disruptors)

Cheetah

 
ONLY WAY TO DIE IS KEEP ON LIVIN’ THE DREAM…

   Consider if you will all, the hyperbolic language used by advertising weasels to sell crooked politicians, mediocre rappers, and blow-dried Ken doll actors on cable shows about vampires to America’s intentionally dumbed down Taco Bell drive-thru customers. All the extravagant descriptions squandered on the latest round of emo sissy Fauntleroy’s and champagne room heiresses with boring sex tapes.“Maverick…Revolutionary…Outlaw…Survivor….Diehard….Renegade….Elder Statesmen….” We’re all so numb from being sold false goods all day that it’s hard to even tap into that true vein, but all of these descriptions really do apply to this wise, heroic, and profane artist, Cheetah Chrome. (“That’s MISTER Scumbag to you!”) One of the funniest, biggest hearted, and most true blue human beings I’ve ever brushed with. He used to let me follow him around Manhattan and we’d joke about being in the “loser’s club”, there was a moment, when he had nothing and I had nothing, too, we were both in a bad way on the NY streets, but would still find ourselves laughing compulsively almost daily and telling each other stories for hours on end. He was one of the most sincere folks I ever met, back then, we were both in mourning, and making the kind of decisions desperately poor and broken hearted people, who both have the mischievous souls of clowns, are inclined to make, but thankfully, he doesn’t have to worry about that, anymore.Nowadays, if he’s not ushering his son, Rogan, backstage to meet Aerosmith, he’s lecturing at some university. His legacy is daunting to even skim the surface of, from collaborating with Laughner and Rockets, to Stiv, he co-wrote with some of rocknroll’s all-time great lyricists. He hangs around both lowlife hoodlums like Keith and Belushi, and showbiz royals like Spacely and Vicious. He’d even personally lined Lou motherfuckin’ Reed (R.I.P.) up to produce the Deadboys next album, but was thwarted by the business weasels who wanted them to go “new wave” in commercial suits and skinny ties. The always controversial Deadboys were, obviously, every bit as important to C.B.G.B.’s and the development of what is now called “punk” as any of their art school friends, or disco queen crossovers, though, in most corporate “punk” documentaries, they barely get mentioned in between the Ramones and Devo and Talking Heads. That big movie with the good looking youngsters portraying all the venerable artists of the seventies is being endlessly picked apart and argued about on a million chat rooms and music pages, online. I haven’t seen it, but I love the idea of the kid from Harry Potter playing Chrome, even if I’m a bit surly about not being asked to audition for the Stiv role. Ask around-I know how to lose weight, fast.DeadBoyTaleThe indestructible Cheetah Chrome’s a busy man nowadays, juggling fatherhood with writing his critically acclaimed memoirs “Cheetah Chrome: A Dead Boy’s Tale: From the Front Lines of Punk Rock” , book tours, having a day job, rocking is his business, etc. In recent years, we’ve seen him working with people as diverse as (the reunion of) Deadboys, (the reunion) of Rocket From The Tombs, the Batusis with Sylvain Sylvain, Alejandro Escovedo, Bebe Buell, Blondie, Michael Monroe, Jeff Dahl, Texas Terri. He’s jammed with Bob Stinson and even Nico. In what some consider his darkest hours, when Stiv and Johnny died, his songs were being covered by Pearl Jam, Guns N Roses, Hanoi Rocks alumni, and a million dead-end kid bands in Midwestern garages and rented farmhouses on the edge of town in between the car dealership and the Christian bookstore. I see why the fan base is divided on the punk nostalgia. We’re all grateful to behold some of the more deserving trailblazers and genuine figureheads finally receiving their long awaited and well deserved acclaim, better late than never, but I think everybody’s pretty jaded by the capitalist cash-cow milking oversaturation, and lack of deep feeling for our favorite artists, who changed some of our lives irreparably forever. Cheetah released a live disc recorded in Detroit about ten years ago, surrounded by longtime friends and his rabid Motor City following, but “SOLO” is the real record that his most fervent and dedicated constituents have been waiting for ever since we wore out that pink and white splattered “Ghetto Dogs” vinyl from twenty years ago. 


“There ain’t no future and there ain’t no past, there’s just a graveyard and it’s comin’ fast…When you check out of this hotel, Jack, you ain’t nuthin’ but an autograph…All my boyhood friends told me I’d fail…Don’t need no pretty face, don’t need no human race…virgins with tainted saviors…I don’t wanna be no Catholic Boy…” The Deadboys gang spoke straight to the heart of Midwestern j.d.’s and expelled Catholic school outcasts like me…Bators and Chrome….”Sick in the head, she’s in my bed, how can I laugh when I’m three quarters dead?” They really affirmed something primal, and honest, and true in all of us sneering, porn-hearted hellions, who just weren’t put here to shutup and obey, and punch the clock, and watch tv. It was actually PAINFUL to discover their legions of fratboy fans when we finally fled smalltown hell to seek our own rocknroll redemption in the big city only to end up singing hymns for a cup of soup. Fuckin’ A, man, I felt every note those guys ever played. The original Frankenstein monsters of rock. All their offensive, straight society scorning, square-baiting, anti-social stoogery resonated with all of us smutty weirdos and marauding, hard partying, dropouts ,who learned their songs and imitated their blueprint, preposterously, out of time. We were the ones who became the devoted congregation of the Lords Of The New Church. The bloody nosed, leather jacketed losers with duct taped creepers and jailhouse tattoos. We had, similarly, broken up every band that we ever begun, we fucked up everything that we’d ever done. Some of us didn’t even successfully die young. We just got fat and brokenhearted–retail knees, ruined backs, bad teeth, and chronic heartburn. “Used to get what you paid for, but not anymore.”

CHEETAH CHROME “SOLO” (-Plowboy Records)

 cheetah-chrome-solo “Sharky” surprisingly boasts some retro sixties sounding keyboards reminiscent of the Batusi’s cover of “Blue’s Theme”, or any of your other favorite “Nuggets” era surf/garage scuzzery. Finally, one of the most essential guitarists in the world gets back in a real recording studio and what does the still unpredictable crazy kook open the album with? A teenage delinquent instrumental. The searing guitar lines will remind you of Link Wray, Wayne Kramer, Dick Dale, Buxton/Bruce. In spite of his legendary reputation as a hell raising hotel destroyer, smashing up stages and pissing in the ice machine, Chrome is foremost a motherfucker guitarist. “East Side Story” is stone beauty-confessional, soulful, and as thoughtful as any bruised rumination by Keith Richards, Tom Waits, Johnny Thunders, or Peter Perrett. To me, it’s as lovely as anything Cheetah has ever written. Brings back a lot of hazy memories of stumblin’ around in the moonlight of the Lower East Side. Really exceptionally gorgeous, surpasses our expectations.

“Rollin’ Voodoo” is pure blues, like a midnight knife fight between Bo Diddley and Willie Deville. Cheetah still has Robert Johnson and Peter Laughner’s hellhound on his trail. Still killer, after all these years. Love it to death. Demonstrates how few of his imitators ever came close. A lot of people have worn animal print scarves and smoked cigarettes. Very, very, very few of ’em have ever faintly demonstrated anything similar to Chrome’s stamina, integrity, feel, guts, or imagination. Just fantastic. Cheetah sings the hell outta this one, guitars go wild like a self-immolating Mick Taylor. Breathtakingly beyond. Coarse, scabby vocals, always full of irrefutable sincerity, pain and pathos, with menacing, glowering, evil guitar work. “Whoo, whoo.”

“Stare Into The Night” sounds like classic Chrome, ya know, catchy, tough guy power pop. If you love the Deadboys, the Ghetto Dogs, or any old seventies pop bands like the Real Kids or Knots, this one’s for you. The kind of rocknroll I can listen to everyday, something that goes on a cassette tape in between the Flaming Groovies and Dictators. His trademark charring lead guitar playing and innate mastery of sixties pop forms. “No Credit” is a somber rooftop Cheetah Chrome, surveying his savage kingdom in the a.m., in the burnt-out Mad Max cityscape of Lower Manhattan before the venal white collar criminals and pinstriped billionaire elites and hedge-fund scumbags kicked all the poor people out and Disneyfied the once dangerous, melting pot, art-ghetto, downtown.

“This ain’t Sears”. I remember rolling smokes outta cigarette butts while looking at the limos lined up outside the Palladium through a broken window with the generous and compassionate, hilarious and always humane, Cheetah Chrome. “Nuthin'” is dark. We don’t hear music like this, too often, no more. Will remind the youngsters of top-shelf Social Distortion, and oldsters of the real Alice Cooper, when he was part of a band, not a brand, and the Dead Fuckin’ Boys. Proves again, and again, how Cheetah is the very essence of rocknroll. He’s the meanest mean, he’s the blackest black, the last man standing, the minister of mayhem. “Love Song To Death” is another pitch black spooky ballad, from someone who’s been all the way to the bottom, about walkin’ around in the dark alone. Extraordinary, one of the greatest guitar players to ever grace a stage reminds us how he is also still one of the great punk rock SONGWRITERS. Naturally, this one’s steadily becoming one of my own personal favorites. If you only purchase one autobiography, compact disc, and t-shirt this Christmas, it should be Cheetah Chrome’s. The man is every bit the wildly courageous and incorrigible personification of rocknroll as Lemmy, Keith, or Iggy…and those other guys don’t need the money. I love you, Cheetah. Just ’cause we don’t talk every day, that don’t mean we ain’t cool.  Long live Cheetah Chrome.

 

http://plowboyrecords.com/cheetah-chrome/

http://cheetahchrome.net/

The Batusis “S/T” EP

“New York City’s Such A Whore!” (-Electric Frankenstein)ATTN CITIZENS: Speaking as someone who got chased out of public schools for dressing alot like Karen O, at her splashiest, way back in the mid-eighties, I can tell ya, not just anyone can rock the Raggedy Andy look, and “Make It Work”, like Sylvain Sylvain. He’s the only guy I ever saw wearing the “one armed bandit” style, half-sleeveless, leather jacket, and with the personality to carry it off! Not to mention the umbrella hat, or all those kooky jump-suits with lemon piping and eight-inch platform heels he wore before Kiss. When me, and Gunfire Dance, and the Throbs, and Mister Ratboy all started wearing those velvet newsboy caps, in the flash metal era, who but SYLVAIN had already integrated the Little Rascals look into rock’n’roll? Even THE OSMONDS used to copy Sylvain’s crazy looks.
In addition, to cutting quite a dash throughout the decades, and introducing so many styles, and sounds, inventing the fads, and setting the trends, SYLVAIN SYLVAIN has been at the heart of every significant “movement” of the real rock’n’roll era. Heck, the notorious Sex Pistols manager even swindled their best guitar offa, who else, but Sylvain. The NY Dolls have meant so much, to so many. From Morrissey, and the punks, to the drag queens, to the Hair-metallers. Their fans are like a big dysfunctional family-true bohemians, poseurs, junkies, aristocracy, gutter bums, and socialites. The Dolls and their fans are obviously, the “OUR GANG” of rock’n’roll.
I was only two, or three, when the Dolls were getting together, but as a pre-teen, in the early eighties, they made such a big impression on me. Vividly, I recall being just captivated by Alice Cooper in his Wonder Woman t-shirt and silver sequined trousers in the “I’m Eighteen” video, Iggy’s platinum panther “Raw Power” look, Bowie, and all those Dolls album sleeves. Yeah, they only had two studio l.p.’s, but by the time, my rock dreams started blossoming, there were loads of repackaged, reissues, and bootlegs, etc. It was a good decade before I got a hold of Nina’s first Thunders book, so it was mostly old ROCK SCENES and CREEMS, we’d find at garage sales and flea markets. Even the record stores just had stacks of ’em, in boxes, for like a quarter each-there was no internet, and the record store owners weren’t as obnoxiously greedy, back then. I didn’t have no videos of ’em, for years, until someone finally started circulating that dodgy “Live In A Dolls House” VHS tape, so I just stared and stared at the album covers, and waited for my chance to split for Manhattan. I remember when I was young, people wanted to kill me for being a Dolls fan, and that tended to really bond me to my fellow travelers, the other true believers, misfits, jetboys, and rock’n’rollers, who were few and far between, out here in rural, fly-over country….so when I moved to the city, and I initially encountered some less-than-kind people who were flyin’ the Dolls colors, I was really actually shocked for a long while. All the Dolls people I’d ever known, previously, were soul brothers, you understand. It STILL gets in my crawl, sometimes, to see one of those vapid, mainstream, television bimbos, wearing a Dolls t-shirt. Sylvain was one of the few people I confided in, when one of my most beloved family members died, and I was absolutely shattered by it. He innately understood. He’s probably the friendliest rockstar who ever lived. Totally a fan, at heart. Humble, generous, genuine, with a hit wit. Everything you’d want him to be.
After delivering two near-perfect comeback platters with a reconstituted NY DOLLS, Steve Conte and Sam Yaffa have joined the Dolls influenced Michael Monroe, to continue their against the wind campaign to bring back true rock’n’roll without permission, David Johansen’s been doing some bluesy solo gigs, and Saint Sylvain’s joined forced with the kamikaze guitar punk, Cheetah Chrome, and various members of “Electric”-era The Cult and the Blackhearts, wowing life-long fans, currently touring all over the nation as THE BATUSIS.
Cheetah Chrome is the embodiment of wildass rock’n’roll, like Lemmy, or Keef. There’s only one Cheetah Chrome, y’know? It’s hard for me to even discuss what Cheetah and Stiv meant to this Catholic School expulsion, it’s like trying to soundbite the book that first captured your imagination and made you leave home, to seek out a freer existence, unhindered by witch-hunting, tv-watching, hate-radio programmed, flag waving, Wal-Mart shopping, video-game playing, McDonald’s worshipping, suburban nazis and smalltown hard-on authoritarians. It’s like talking about your kids or grandparents-no frivolous matter, something we only talk about as dawn approaches with our tightest amigos.
The Hat Brothers 45 of “Still Wanna Die”. “Here Comes Trouble”. That Ghetto Dogs e.p. on swirly colored vinyl directly resulted in at least one of my own junkyard drunk bands.
“USED TO BE FUN” just SLAYS me: “Kids don’t hang out on the corners no more-they’ve all gone inside…” It’s like Stiv’s “King Of The Brats”, Tom Wait’s “Hold On”, Lazy Cowgirls “Somewhere Down The Line”, Steve Earle’s “Livin’ In The Motherfuckin’ U.S.A.”, or Dee Dee Ramone’s “Poison Heart”. One of those songs that just said EVERYTHING to me.
Cos it used to be FUN. The BATUSIS e.p. sounds exactly like you think it should. If you are too stuck on Johnny Thunders to buy the New New York Dolls records, there’s a good chance you ain’t heard nothin’ this primo since the Waldos “Rent Party”, or the Humpers “Positively Sick On Fourth Street”. Remember how ON FIRE Electric Frankenstein were, in the early days, with Steve Miller? “It’s All Moving Faster”, or the Bobby No More-inspired, “Demolition Joyride”? The Batusis got that same crunchy, ferocious, effortlessly badass, streetpunk down to a science, this is Cheetan and Syl, it just emanates from their core, they have to try really hard to NOT ROCK, so, instantly, you think of how so few groups can do this type of music, authoritatively, anymore…There’s Silver from Norway…that first Stereo Junks e.p. from Finland was pretty good….but mostly, all ya ever hear is that trendy, third-rate, Strokes/Bomb Turks/Hives/Stripes wanna-be, middle-class, poseur, gutless shit that rarely comes within 100 miles of the Batusis’ soul and truth.
It’s funny that they open with “Blue’s Theme” from the “Wild Angels” soundtrack, cos the dangerous biker Vietnam Vet that adopted me and my childhood guitarist, as kids, and who is responsible for all of my unforgivable, G.G. Allin style tattoos, just loves dat tune.
Second song reminds you of Keith Richards, with the slasher riffs, and Johnny Johnson/Ian McLagan/Greg Kuehn style piano pounding, courtesy of Monsieur Mizrahi.
“What You Lack In Brains” reminds me of this baffled blonde I used to know, who had me, the singer of Buck Cherry, J.C. from N’Synch, and a violent Weiland clone with no money and a bad temper, all on her speed dial, and just couldn’t decide…Funny, cool, reminds me of Syl’s solo albums.
“Bury You Alive” is Cheetah protest punk, shades of Stiv. Three chords and a grudge, two fingers in the air, a pox upon the oil barons, torture mongers, secret police, media-monopolizing, murderous, fortunate son, global elite, false flag, prison building, propaganda pimping, Constitution shredding, taser-wielding, thug-financing, austerity bringing, police state shysters who contentedly enslave kids in Wal-Mart swet-shops, contaminate the food supply with G.M.O.’s, pollute the skies with geo-engineering experiments, destroy the Gulf, bust unions, stir-up phony racial divisions, and occupy poor people all over the planet for Fun and Profit. It’s about how nationalism is just power-hunger, tempered by self-deception. ‘Makes you wanna watch “Democracy Now”. Bator would be very proud.
“Big Cat Stomp” is one of those sleazy instrumentals only oldschool motherfuckers like these BATUSIS can successfully bring to life. Right The Fuck On. Come On, Commissioner Gordon! To the Bat Signal!(-Anguish Young)

http://www.myspace.com/batusis