The original crop of juvenile poets calling themselves “punks” in New York were drawn to the style for it’s straightforwardness and it’s malleable confines. Unsophisticated rock music served as the perfect milieu for their verbal torrents. This is unquestionably true for a variety of first wave west coast punk bands but is especially true for the Flesheaters from Los Angeles. Less celebrated to almost a tragic degree when compared to his New York punk contemporaries, Chris Desjardins was ambitious enough to lyrically encompass such topics as murder, vampirism, and having sex with the dead over some of the most demented music backdrops of the era. “A Minute To Pray, a Second to Die” still ranks as one of my favorite records from this period. I suppose that’s not hard to accomplish when you include tracks such as “Digging My Grave”, “See You in the Boneyard”, and “Diving Horseman”. It also doesn’t hurt when you have John Doe and DJ Bonebreak in your backing band either.
This performance is complemented greatly by the fact that this recording is nearly faultless when considering most unreleased live recordings from this era. Much of this may have to do with the gig happening at Clutch Cargo’s as many decent to excellent soundboard tapes have circulated from this venue. This performance recorded for their tour to promote the recently released “Forever Came Today”. The band unselfconsciously tears through 11 tracks with a snarling viciousness. Desjardin’s voice is so sharp that is cuts through the chaos behind it. If you enjoy this recording half as much as I have, you’re certainly in for a treat.
For some reason the song titles to tracks 6 and 10 are escaping me. If you can identify these tracks please post in the comments or drop me a quick email at the address posted on this archive.
Track listing:
1. Home Of The Brave
2. Pretty Sweat
3. Hand Of Glory
4. A Minute To Pray A Second To Die
5. Pony Dress
6. ???
7. Eyes Without A Face
8. Every Time I Call Your Name
9. River Of Fever
10. ???
11. The Wedding
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Brilliant Post ! Not something I was ever expecting to find. Thank You !!!
ReplyDelete2 is pray til you sweat
ReplyDelete6 is tightrope on fire
10 is buried treasure
11 is the wedding dice
Chris D. is still very active as a writer - we published a 500 page career anthology of his lyrics, poetry, stories, autobiography and more late last year; it's called A MINUTE TO PRAY, A SECOND TO DIE.
ReplyDeleteHe's been doing readings in New York and Los Angeles, too, with more cities to come.
You can keep tabs on the doings at NewTextureBlog.com and read excerpts from his work at NewTexture.com
awesome, thanks so much!
ReplyDeleteGREAT TAPE
ReplyDelete