LARRY LIFELESS-VOCALS.
RICO PETROLEUM-GUITARS,
BIG DADDY-BASS & DRUMS,
CHEESELY-BASS,
MONGOLOID-GUITAR,
TY-DRUMS,
CHRIS THE CUP-PIANO,
LARRY KELLEY-GUITAR................................................
CURRENT LINE-UP.............................................................................
LARRY LIFELESS - VOCALS
BIG DADDY - DRUMS
LARRY KELLEY - GUITAR
JOHN KOZIK - BASS
JOHN DARGA - GUITAR
Influences
R.I.P. BROTHER CHEESE
THANKS TO KELLY FOR ALL OUR RECENT FLYER AND MERCH. ARTWORK.
KILSLUG,GROINOIDS,OINTMENT,UPSIDEDOWN CROSS,ANGRY HATE,ADOLF SATAN,SICKNESS - ALL PART OF THE SAME DISFUNCTIONAL FAMILY......
Kilslug in New York City Janurary 2008
Jim Hildreth....................................
Back in mid-1980’s Boston, as far as I was concerned, Kilslug was the only band that mattered. With
timeless American classic anthems like “Autopsy Performing” and “Bringing Back the Dead”, their
heavy slow sludgey sound was the perfect counterpoint to the superfast hardcore we were enjoying at
that time. Kilslug took the heavy riffs of Black Sabbath with the dense molasses of Flipper, propelled
by an almost free jazz drumming, a dose of Vault of Horror, and churned it all into one mighty beast.
In early 1987 I interviewed vocalist Larry Lifeless and then-bassist Cheese outside their gig at Green
Street Station in Jamaica Plain for my fanzine, Trendy Rag. I was underage and they tried to get me in
as a ‘photographer’, but the club wasn’t having it, and I believe that show may have been their last
performance. At any rate, I never heard anything else about them until the first Upsidedown Cross lp
came out in the early 90’s. For people who weren’t there, it’s hard to understand how there just
weren’t any clear lines of communication about underground music back then. My best hope was the
monthly issue of Maximum Rocknroll that would only be 3-4 months behind, information wise. Or
maybe Flipside. One really had to work to get most decent zines other than MRR or Flipside, or
around Boston the local Suburban Punk (later Suburban Voice) or XXX. There was no email or
internet or BBS then. Hell, most kids today don’t understand how expensive just LONG
DISTANCE was – unlimited calling was some kind of utopian ideal. And we were all broke, living on
$5 an hour jobs.
At any rate, when I heard last year Kilslug was reuniting my feelings went back and forth ‘it will suck to
it will be great’; so many of these reunions just seem to be overpriced bullshit – although I have been
very impressed with all my run-ins with the reformed Mission of Burma. But the Kilslug appearances
on 4 Jan at the Midway in Manhattan and on 5 Jan at Don Pedro’s in Brooklyn were as good if not
better than I remember and proved they are more relevant than ever!
I arrived at The Midway in time to catch Psycho’s set. I was very curious to see Psycho as they were
one of the best real hardcore bands in the 80’s (and I say ‘real’ meaning that they played
HARDCORE PUNK music not half-assed punkpop or metalpop and also supported the scene by
helping out young bands, playing backwater gigs with little expectation of getting paid much and
putting out records on their own label). The Psycho guys never got the respect they deserved, and are
actually one of the oldest US punk bands around –their first 12” was released in 83 on Axction, their
own label. I was superpleased to see that not only was Charlie Infection drumming with guitarist
Johnny X, but Eddie was playing bass – the classic Psycho lineup from the mid 80’s!
Psycho freakin wailed, Johnny X has a powerful charging Marshall guitar sound, supported by fast
drums and crazy speeding bass, and their set even included some favorites from the 80’s like “PMS”
and “Stupid People”. Psycho tricked me into remembering how much I enjoy good hardcore punk.
After a short break, Kilslug took the stage. I recognized some of the band. They looked a little older
but all seemed in good shape. Singer Larry Lifeless’s hair was thinner and longer, drummer Big
Daddy appeared determined and chiseled, and guitarist Rico Petroleum looked just about the same!
The other guitarist, Larry Kelly, was an original member of the band but he had left before I first saw
them play in 1985. Bassist John Kozik used to be in Anal Cunt and looked a little younger than the other guys
and studious with his spectacles. The bassist is the KEY musical position in Kilslug, and he fulfilled all
expectations. From the first song the band was right into it, their massive heavy sound just crushed
the room. They did most of the old favorites like “Death Squad” and “Make It Rain” and “Answer
The Call” but also a bunch of really good songs I’d heard on live tapes but have never been released,
like “March of the Skeletons” or “Power of Darkness”. An excellent 3-4 song 12” could easily be
produced with these tracks (hint hint hint).
There was this mustached young dude snapping pictures with his digital camera, and as the set went on
and as he drank more, dude started getting right into the band’s faces, and doing the thing digital
camera owners like to do because they have no film cost - just start snapping 100’s of images every
which way. The constant flashing and movement is really annoying to me as a audience member and
must be especially annoying to the band. But the dude was happy/crazy as a loon and Larry tried to
be nice and maybe the dude mistook that as approval.
The band had set up three large hollow plastic Wise Men of Christmas figurines on the front of the
stage, the kind you’d see in the snow on a suburban front lawn with light bulbs glowing inside. Around
the 2nd or 3rd song Larry tackled the biggest Wise Man, handed his vocal mic to the dude (still in
Larry’s face) and proceeded to use an electric compass saw to sheer off the Wise Man’s head. Then
Larry took back the mike from the dude who also handed Larry his beer, which Larry immediately
chugged empty. The scene was funny and that should have been the end of it.
Have you ever seen an electric compass saw? It’s a vicious thing – the blade is only several inches
long, but it is unsheathed and has a jagged edge.
The kid started getting into Larry’s face, snapping off picture after picture, flaring the damned flash
again and again. I could see Larry was getting really pissed. On stage he was waving around his live
electric compass saw. “We’re working up here” he said, holding up the vicious saw. “I’ve got to get to
work.” The kid started making faces at Larry and when Larry fake jabbed at him with the saw, the kid
fake jabbed back. The kid didn’t seem to understand he was toying with a dangerous man! In 1986, I
was at the Hannum Hall show where Larry waved a large knife around and the crowd suddenly
jumped back because they knew HE WAS NOT PLAYING.
Someone in the crowd yelled “Just say the word, Larry! Just say the word!” When the kid drunkenly
rolled back into me, I yelled into his ear, ‘Dude, Larry will fuck you up!” but he just didn’t get it and
started to get up on stage. Larry just lifted his leg and BOOM! Kicked him perfectly in the chest and
the kid went flying.
Then this punker with an orange mohawk jumped up on stage and started messing with the Three
Wise Men remains and somehow pissed off Larry who pummeled the guy and they spun off stage into
the crowd where Larry continued to punch him until they got separated by the audience. Larry
returned to the stage, the doorman now stood nearby looking worried, the band is shuffling around
uncertainly, Larry’s microphone was laying on the floor out on the other side of the audience – no one
made a move to return it to Larry and I got the feeling ‘ they're gonna wrap it up’ and my thought was,
‘no, that will not happen’. I really didn’t want them to stop because the band sounded tighter and
more focused with each song. Larry’s voice sounds better than ever, primarily because he has
expanded his sound to include this vicious shrieking banshee wail.
So I retrieved the mic and placed it on the stage at Larry’s feet, like a dog dropping a stick so his
master will throw it. I wasn’t sure if this is going to generate more explosive behavior or not, but it was
the right move because Larry picked up the mic and the band continued. At this point, a young punk
woman with dyed short blonde hair started some energetic and acrobatic dancing, running and rolling
around from one side of the audience to the other! They played for about 50 minutes in total and
there were no more problems.
The nest day, I skipped the Kilslug instore at Pass Out Records because I wanted to see the mv/ee &
golden road set out at Issue Project Room. Around 11 pm I left there – quite happy with mv/ee’s
excellent 2 hour set incidentally – and caught the F/G subway to Don Pedro’s, not sure if I’d get there
in time, but I arrived at the Don’s just as Full Blown Aids started – I didn’t realize this was Seth
Putnam’s band until later after I had been introduced to him. Their songs veered between fast
blurring noise and more enjoyed-by-me heavy slow dirges, with Putnam’s shrieking vocals.
Kilslug came on around 1:30 am and played for an hour, no interruptions this time, Although Larry’s
voice was somewhat blown out by this point, he was really into it and the band was right in the zone,
sports fans. There was also a problem with the mic or cable and for a song or so Larry’s voice was
cutting in and out until the sound engineer replaced the gear. Larry joked he was doing a comedy act
between songs and goofed on the musicians and audience, improvised lyrics, cleverly and subtly
switched lyrics from one song to another, and even improvised PiL’s “Religion” at one point! It was
awesome! About halfway into this set, a different young punk woman with dyed short blonde hair
started her own energetic and acrobatic dancing. I had managed to get a chair, so I was comfortably
seated about 10 feet back from the stage. As she danced around I had a direct view of her frequent
pushups that put her hind end squarely in my face. No complaints there. She tried to get me to dance
and I had to decline with sign language as I was attached to my microphones. I guess my favorite part
was when I yelled out for “Elizabeth” which was not on that list and then they friggin played it! I just
can’t say enough how tight and dense the band was. I’ve listened to these songs HUNDRED’s of
times over 20 years and they sounded as good as they did when I was 19.
After the set I overcame my usual antisociality to thank Rico for coming to NYC and I ended up
talking to him and the band for another half hour. The upcoming version of Answer The Call
to be released on CD will also have a DVD with OLD Kilslug videos – that will be essential.........................................................................................................
A BIG THANKS TO OUR GOOD FRIEND SETH PUTNAM FOR FILLING IN ON GUITAR AT THE GOVERNORS ISLAND SHOW IN N.Y.C. 6/21/08.
10/13/08 AT CHURCH. BOSTON.
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