BLACK FUNKY METAL vs. BLACK FLAG

I saw two interesting discussions in the world of Rock in March. For some reason I care about such unimportant stuff that happened over 25 years ago. One was a lengthy interview with producer and mixing engineer Steve Thompson. The whole interview is amazing because of the variety of projects and musical styles the man has worked on over the years. But the main focus on the internet was his story about how Lars Ulrich did not only ruin the drum sound on Metallica’s first-single-then-double LP “And Justice forAll”, but also the bass sound. It is a great example of what can happen when egos clash in a studio during mixing. I have been in similar discussions and situations – but none of my productions went on to reach multiplatinum, unfortunately. Find the complete interview on ultimateguitar.com.   

The more hilarious story was the one where Cronos of VENOM replied to Henry Rollins‘ remarks about a concert they played together in New Jersey in 1986. The gig is mentioned in the book that later became a Grammy-award-winning audio book “Get in the Van” by Henry Rollins which is based on his tour diary of BLACK FLAG’s 1986 tour. So at that gig the mighty BLACK FLAG met VENOM, the inventors of the term "Black Metal", though they hardly invent the musical genre.

Rollins is totally slagging off VENOM in the book for their live performance and states in no uncertain terms how much they sucked, reminding him of SPINAL TAP: "VENOM suck. They are so full of shit. What a bad joke. They don't sweat and they probably don't even fuck."
So now, 21 years after the book came out, Cronos replies with accusations that BLACK FLAG sucked and can't play (hm), that Rollins got the date of the concert wrong in the book (I think Cronos is correct), and that Rollins misspelled Cronos name (Cronos is right, his name is not “Kronos”). Cronos wants to set the record straight by saying "Let me tell you the truth about that concert. Henry Rollins's mom phoned us up and told us that they were the next big thing in New York and that they had such a huge following, blah blah blah blah blah. Little did we know that they were a fucking sad little band that had no following."

This is the first time I read anything about BLACK FLAG relying on a mother of a band member to organize their tour or concerts. Why would they, in their final phase, after being in existence for over seven years, rely on Henry Rollins' mother to set up a concert and go there with them. You can read the whole story here on Blabbermouth.  

This video has excellent stage banter by Cronos: 

Cronos, who got kicked out of VENOM in the 80s temporarily, also goes on to lament "This is why Henry Rollins writes books and is no longer in a band. Because he's not a fucking musician; he's a fool." Of course on the Blabbermouth website a lengthy discussion starts, mainly with posts by folks who either don't know VENOM or BLACK FLAG. Or both.
The discussion soon swings towards including Ross the Boss and Danzig, and who is stronger of them "Rollins has the muscles, but if Cronos hits him with a head butt it's all over for Hank." Even my man Brian Walsby joins the discussion – wow!

Henry Rollins interview on the art and business of DIY media

I am currently reading a lot about the trend towards content marketing and media marketing and find many similarities to DIY publishing or even DIY punk record labels. The whole approach I grew up with, the paradigm of being unhappy with mainstream media that forces people to start their own thing and "become to media". 

So I am following the websites Copyblogger Media and the Rainmaker Platform www.newrainmaker.com, which is more technical. They recently featured an interview with Henry Rollins which is very interesting. It suffers a little from sounding too much like a phone interview, and yes, Henry likes to have longer monologues, but he has got interesting things to say.

Besides historic things you might already know if you have been into punk for a while, he talks about his work ethics and his upbringing in Washington D.C. with friends who do things DIY style, like Ian MacKaye. I especially liked his stories about doing things independently, but then switching to major labels or big book publishers for certain projects. Funny enough, some of his weirdest projects have been on majors, like WARTIME. The label must have lost a lot of money on them. Check them out here: http://www.discogs.com/artist/521490-Wartime

The interview also has the story behind the famous "Parent" sticker on back cover of the classic "Damaged" LP. The members of BLACK FLAG surely spent a lot of time in that warehouse glueing on all those stickers. But it is in line with the concept of taking some projects to big corporations to get exposure. And, in that case, failing.

Speaking of projects, it’s time to check out one of my favorite Rollins projects again, HENRIETTA COLLINS AND THE WIFEBEATING CHILDHATERS - Cut It Off! The Whole Thing!