COC Blind opens metalists eyes once again

Corrosion of Conformity Blind tears through Seattle. (All Cat Rose photos)

By Andy

The last time I heard Karl Agell belt out a scorching set of Corrosion of Conformity "Blind" tunes was in 1992 at the Cow Palace in Daly City, CA.

It was an interesting night to say the least.

After COC did their thing, Testament took over and then headliner Iron Maiden went all Spinal Tap on us when their huge banner toppled to the ground mid-song and had us all bursting into laughter. Don't get me wrong, Maiden was RAGING, but a banner taking a digger isn't something you see every day. We couldn't contain ourselves.

But back to the Agell-led COC. That "Blind" album is a stunner and took the band into uncharted territory along their metal path. Just heavy, HEAVY tuneage that was a solid progression from "Technocracy." I've been on board with COC's musical offerings since Day 1 (yes, the "NoCore" tape) and devoured "Blind" just as much as the other records and styles.

So, last Friday night, Agell, drummer Reed Mullin and their crew -- Jerry Barrett on bass and Scott Little and Mike Brown as axemen -- were back in front of our eyes as COC Blind, giving that album a FEROCIOUS run-through at Studio Seven in Seattle. We hadn't forgotten those tunes, they had just been stored away for safe keeping until the lid of the past was blown off like a six-string pack of M80s. Thanks for lighting the fuse, guys, as it was well worth the wait for those songs to be unleashed again.

So, here's some COC Blind shots from Cat, along with a Death Angel gallery (previous entry) for a Bay Area tie-in from the beginning. Also on the bill were headliners Cavalera Conspiracy, Lody Kong and Sanction VIII.

... And, microphones be damned (for all time)

Here's some video action, as well:

Death Angel descends upon Seattle

Cat Rose got up front and raged with Death Angel on Friday night at Studio Seven in Seattle.

Lights, camera... thrash!

Everything turns video: Agent Orange leads solid lineup in Seattle

All videos shot by Andy ... settle in and dig it.


AGENT ORANGE

EXPIRED LOGIC

IN THE WHALE

THE BOSS MARTIANS

Sorry, FCON... just a photo... nice raging hardcore set ala  LA band Circle One and Canada's Stretch Marks.

'Salad Days': A musical victory for the Washington, DC scene /Interview with writer-director Scott Crawford

Ian MacKaye of Minor Threat. (Jim Saah photo)

By Andy

When the film started rolling, Scott Crawford was a bundle of nerves.

It was hometown premiere night and the writer-director of "Salad Days - 1980-1990: A Decade of Punk in Washington, DC" leaned forward in his seat and poked his head around the AFI Silver Theatre and Cultural Center on Dec. 19, 2014.

Ian MacKaye was there, someone whom Crawford interviewed for his Metrozine when he was 12 years old in 1984 and extensively for "Salad Days." What would MacKaye think of Crawford's work on the 100-minute documentary that features his bands Teen Idles, Minor Threat, Embrace and Fugazi and a wealth of other pivotal groups that put DC on the punk map? How would the other musicians included in the film react while watching the DC premiere?

Like when the pre-teen Crawford witnessed his first gig 32 years ago -- MDC at a Rock Against Reagan event in DC -- the grown-up was also anxious and thrilled at what was unfolding before his eyes, this time on the big screen.

"The DC premiere was pretty emotional for me. The folks that came were so supportive and happy and had great things to say," Crawford, 44, said in a phone interview last Sunday. "That whole night was pretty overwhelming, but it was all worth it when it was over. You're making this film not just for you -- you wanna make the city proud, but you also wanna make it for folks that weren't there. Definitely a night I won't forget."

At another "Salad Days" screening, HR from the Bad Brains was in the house and gave Crawford a thumbs up afterward.

"Salad Days" had its world premiere on Nov. 14, 2014 at the SVA Theatre in New York and continues to garner rave reviews each time it hits screens worldwide. Prior to his There's Something Hard in There interview, Crawford had a Skype discussion with a writer in Buenos Aires, Argentina, where the film is currently showing at the BAFICI Film Festival.

Cat and I checked out "Salad Days" on Feb. 27 at Seattle's Grand Illusion Cinema and I sported my Youth Brigade "Full Speed Ahead" T-shirt -- thanks to that band's drummer Danny Ingram -- for the occasion. While watching the film, my past flashed before my eyes, as I kept a close watch on the DC scene back in the day and ordered many Dischord Records releases that were delivered to my Redondo Beach, Calif., home -- some 3,000 miles away from the harDCore action. I saw Minor Threat five times in the LA area, the Bad Brains three times and witnessed a memorable Government Issue set, as well, so I got an in-your-face taste of the DC bands to go along with those crucial vinyl offerings.

The film is a victory for Crawford and for all of us music fans who appreciated what was transpiring in the nation's capital during that decade.

How could you not smile when bands like Marginal Man, Soulside, Black Market Baby and countless others get some screen time? And what about when Alec MacKaye mentions with a smirk about how people are still debating which side of the Faith/VOID split LP is best?

The interviews are insightful, intriguing and humorous, and as Crawford said, he was conversing with old friends so there's a natural feel to the documentary. The viewer feels as if they're in the same room and part of the discussion. Another triumph.

Guy Picciotto of Fugazi. (Jim Saah photo)

Crawford worked on the film every day for 3 1/2 years and was joined on the journey by Jim Saah, director of photography, who snapped countless stellar photos of early DC bands. The total budget for "Salad Days" was about $45,000 and Crawford received financial help from more than 900 Kickstarter contributors.

The whole experience has been a labor of love for Crawford and he hoped that it would resonate with others.

"I knew that it was really special. Obviously, that period of time was huge for a lot of people, including me, and the music really meant a lot and it was a big deal, at least in my mind," he said. "It wasn't really until the Kickstarter campaign until I realized that maybe I was on to something.

"If I had it my way, I'd do a documentary on every single band that's in the film. The whole experience has been so satisfying on every level -- and therapeutic (laughs)."

As the years ticked by, Crawford kept plugging away by interviewing 100 people -- he noted Ian MacKaye, Henry Rollins and Mark Anderson of Positive Force as particularly engaging discussions -- and developing his storyline, which featured his and others' journeys through the years on the DC scene.

Crawford knew all his hard work would come to fruition.

"I never felt like it wasn't gonna come about, there was never a moment where I just said, 'I can't do this.' It was always just pushing ahead, pushing through whatever challenge I was dealing with on any given day, which at times felt a little insurmountable," said Crawford, noting that locating archival footage of bands from the 1980s was an arduous task in the filmmaking process.

While his film was in the waiting room, so to speak, Crawford reflected on his past and used one particular instance as inspiration.

"I did refer back to this one thing that Ian MacKaye said to me, first time I ever interviewed him. He was talking about just what a mess (the DC hardcore scene) was and he was pretty disillusioned. He wasn't in a band, it was right after Minor Threat broke up, and I remember him saying that HR had said to him a few years earlier: 'Ian, you know, when this is all over, when the smoke clears, only the true rebels will stand,' and I think he was actually quoting Bob Marley.

"At 12, I was sort of like, 'I don't know what the fuck you're talking about.' But it's something I've thought about a lot through the course of my life, and I guess what I mean by that is: While you're doing something like this, there are a lot of outside voices or opinions or people suggesting you do it this way or that way or you're not doing it the right way. And I just kind of remembered that and I just kind of felt like, 'Well, you know, stick to your vision and when this all over and all is said and done, there's this document out there of this time and the only thing I can do is tell it the way I saw it or at least the things that I was interested in and stick to that.'

"When I came to that conclusion, it kind of freed me up a little bit and I stopped trying to just make it everything to everybody."

When "Salad Days" was released, the emotions began to flow, not just for Crawford, but for the movie-goers, as well. While attending screenings and participating in Q and A's, Crawford said people have given him heartfelt, positive feedback about the movie and the music that has influenced their lives.

It's been a surreal, out-of-body experience for Crawford, who feels he's come full circle in his excitement of discovering the music at age 12 and sharing this documentary with people with equal elation. Perhaps there's a 12-year-old out there on the verge of plowing through their parents' record collection, blasting some Rites of Spring and sharing lyrics from "For Want Of" in their poetry class.

Speaking of pivotal DC songs, 3's "Swann Street" closes out the film and stirs the emotions all over again.

"Well I don't care how picturesque or incomplex your life gets; the ground's un-solid don't forget to keep your ear to the ground," it goes, as Geoff Turner belts out the melodic vocals while 8-millimeter footage rolls of Positive Force outdoor gigs in Dupont Circle, with bands playing, carrying their amps from the van to the stage and audience members dancing and laughing.

"That song has given me goosebumps since 1987, so I knew all along, before we even shot the first interview, that that song was going to play a major role at some point in the film," said Crawford, noting that the footage had gone unseen until someone gave it to him and he kept it under lock and key until the film's release.

"When I saw that 8-mm footage, I said, 'Jim, we gotta put 'Swann Street' over top of that. That's the fucking end of the film right there. We had the end of the film for like two years. I always felt that that song should have been a huge hit," Crawford said. "I get emails almost every day from somebody saying, 'What was that last song? I love that song.' So it's nice to know that I wasn't the only one that felt that was a great song (laughs).

"You put it with that footage ..." Crawford reflects, looking for the perfect connector... "To me, it was just so powerful and I was hoping that others would feel that way."

Rockin' for the Rat City Roller Girls

The Burnz

Fans of the Dead Boys, MC5, Ramones, Kim Wilde, Venus and Unit 3, The Cult and AC/DC were in heaven last night at Darrell's Tavern in Shoreline, WA.

A power trio of bands ripped it up in those bands' styles with their own edge for the Rat City Roller Girls' after-bout party: The Burnz, Jaguar Paw and The Chasers.

Cat Rose captured the action.


THE BURNZ

JAGUAR PAW

THE CHASERS

... AND YOU CAN NEVER HAVE ENOUGH COW BELL, RIGHT?

Mad Parade belts out new single on Hostage Records / Interview

Mad Parade with singer Billy Ledges, middle. (Bainphoto)

By Andy

As a teen in 1985, I'd been a fan of Mad Parade's debut album, but had never seen the band play live.

However, that doesn't mean I didn't witness vocalist Billy Ledges "perform." While attending a record show in Anaheim, Calif., he was selling punk vinyl at his table and broke out into an impromptu chorus of an Undertones song: "Jump Boys, oooh, Jump Boys," he sang while standing on a chair when someone asked him about the fab Northern Ireland band.

Just brilliant, I thought, and shook my head and smiled.

Cat and I finally saw Mad Parade, which formed in West Covina in 1982, at the Cactus Club in San Jose with 999 in 2000. I sang along, yelled out song requests from the crowd and was probably a nuisance, but that's punk rock, right?

I spoke with guitarist Joey Kelly afterward and told the above tale about his older brother's record-show performance. We both chuckled as we strolled backstage to hang out with the guys from 999, who I and several others joined onstage that night to sing backup vocals on "Homicide."

Also that night, I purchased Mad Parade's "God Bless America" CD, which is a solid offering of old-school, English-style punk rock with a Southern California flair that gets me going every time I spin it.

Mad Parade is back in the game, folks, with a new sterling 45 on Hostage Records: "The Fool" and "Lovers and Strangers." And another slab o' 7-inch vinyl is on the way. (Along with Ledges and Kelly, the band consists of Mike Sosa on drums, Stevo on bass and Danny Tessier on guitar.)

I caught up with Ledges, 53, by phone on Thursday night and here's the lowdown on Mad Parade and his punk-rock life.


** What were some of your early musical influences that pushed you to start a band?

See, I'm an older guy, so pre-punk, I've always liked Alice Cooper, David Bowie and that stuff, but I always figured those guys were so out of touch because it seemed like they dropped down from stars.

So it wasn't until '76 when (I first heard) punk rock, I'm like, you know what's great about this music? I figured, not only is it great, I never heard music like this before, but I could do this, too. Before that stuff came out, I was in different bands, we were doing covers of songs that I couldn't even sing if I wanted to, not that I was particularly thrilled to sing: "Rock and Roll," KISS or whatever. I thought to myself, 'Alice Cooper's great and everything,' but I remember buying, especially the 'Bollocks,' I got that home and my life changed. The music, there was a feeling of camaraderie, everybody's accepted and I like that a lot. So I was instantly attracted to that, and from that point on, I stopped doing covers and I talked to my little brother, who was still even younger than I: 'Dude, we gotta get a band together' ... and Mad Parade started from there.

It was supposed to be, pretty much more English stuff than anything else because that's we first heard. I was buying all kinds of stuff, but I was really a fan of the Pistols, the Clash, The Damned, Generation X, Vibrators, Sham 69, UK Subs, all that stuff. And I also liked LA stuff, the NY stuff, basically I just liked the whole thing about it -- it made me feel like, 'This is mine; my ship has come in.' (laughs)

Unlike the music before punk rock, it was kind of like going to concerts, everything was so far away and it was so separated. And punk rock was right up in your face, and you could see these bands at the Whisky... right there, sweating. I thought it was great.


** What was the first punk gig that you went to?

Let me think, let me think, let me think ... (not his first, but...) You wanna hear something funny? In '79, I saw the Ramones open up for Black Sabbath, I kid you not. That was crazy, man! All those hippies and it was at the Swing Auditorium in San Bernardino over here, and the Ramones couldn't get through five songs.

But shows that actually lasted, probably at the Whisky, I saw the Dead Kennedys and Sham 69, I took my little brother to that. I went to the Whisky every weekend, saw Stiff Little Fingers, whatever was playing, they'd have a bunch of great frickin' bands... Magazine, the  Lurkers. You got to see a lot of the LA bands because they would open up for these English bands.  

** Speaking of the new 7-inch, tell me about those new songs, lyrically and musically what they mean to you.

'The Fool' and 'Lovers and Strangers' ... I haven't written anything for Mad Parade for a while, so when I was working on it, it's like a whole new (thing). It kind of reminds me of stuff I've done in the past, it has that bite and everything, I just felt it kind of came naturally.

'The Fool,' that song is just about basically, sometimes considering all the things that are going on in the world today -- just like back when I wrote 'Court Jester' years ago --  sometimes perhaps it's better to be a little foolish, because if you take yourself too serious ... I've done that before.

And 'Lovers and Strangers' ... it's like that one line, morphine and alcohol, which is a really bad combination, so it's like a relationship that doesn't make sense -- you shouldn't be with this person, whether it be a guy and a girl or a band or whatever the situation. Sometimes that person that you're supposed to be closest to can be a complete stranger, even though it might be your parent.


** How does it feel to be still be putting out some tunes here under the Mad Parade banner?

It feels great. It was weird because we got approached to do it from Hostage Records and it kind of came out of nowhere. I heard it from our original bass player, and I was like 'Yeah, right,' I thought he was just jerking around. We hadn't put anything out since 'Bombs and the Bible,' which was in 2004.

I realized one thing -- that I'm not crazy about nostalgia, however, I will say this: I'm trying to have a more open mind about it, because if a band, all you do is continue to play stuff that you wrote years ago and you're not creating anything new, you kind of become a cover version of your own band. If you're gonna do something, make it worthwhile, especially if you're gonna go out of your way and (record).


** It's good to keep it fresh and still know that you can go out there and do it and still make an impact, and it sounds like you're in a good spot right now.

Before the recording, we were playing these shows and I was kind of thinking to myself, 'Ahh, this is alright and everything, but it's kind of redundant.' So, I told my brother, if we're gonna do this, we gotta keep writing songs. (Editor's note: He's got plenty of song ideas to offer that he's been working on all along.)

** The two songs that I heard on that 45 sound driving and it's got your guys' signature sound, but it's taken it a step further and that's how you're gonna be able to thrive nowadays without just relying on the old tunes.

Exactly. Those songs 'The Fool' and 'Lovers and Strangers,' when you put them next to 'Sex and Violence' or 'Horror Show'... it makes those songs better because you're not just repeating something that you've done over and over -- you're bringing something new to the thing. Obviously, when we put our minds to it, we can still kick up and racket and make it sound pretty good. So let this be an example, and I'm just glad that it happened that way.


** What did punk rock mean to you in the early days and what does it mean to you now?

So much. I felt like I had no direction, I was young at the time when it came out and it was like I had this feeling ... and I still get this feeling, if it's done right, that the music basically spoke to me in a sense that said, 'Hey, we accept everybody. Come over and hang out with us. We'll take the misfits, we'll take the rejects, the square pegs in the round holes.' Whatever it might be. It was welcoming.