tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-49537781051566842062024-02-19T12:00:17.937-05:00I'm the Living Proof of Reagan's LiesI want to promote individuality, not conformity. I want people to make up their own minds, not have their loser friends decide what's good and right for them. Mankind, and woman alike, can make this world of ours a better place to be in, but not unless we embrace our differences without being judgmental assholes. ANARCHY & PEACE + UNITY = a better world for us allPaul "Cripple" Bakijahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13118373591310015721noreply@blogger.comBlogger11125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4953778105156684206.post-87231783439307237592014-06-07T11:59:00.000-04:002014-06-07T12:04:14.843-04:004 DAYS IN CANADA TOUR I don't know what to say about Canada. The flight from New York to Toronto was like nothing and when we landed we had a day off to chillax in Toronto for a day before we headed to Hamilton where we stayed with two of the coolest people, Jen Brewer, whose place we stayed at and Paul Kuntz who we hung out with before we headed out to finally play a show. The show went off fine.<br />
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We continued on the tour with two bands as our tour mates; The Nasties and Dayglo Abortions. The next night we played Toronto and I have to admit it was a bit weird when you're hanging out and you think you have plenty of time before you go on but people were like "you're on now!". And we're like "Now! How's that?" because this was an over 21 years to enter show but we were going on, like, way too early. After we were halfway through our set we were told to get off the stage. How mighty white of them.<br />
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And the next show, an all ages show in London, they put us to go on last! Don't these people know that Reagan Youth's core crowd is under 21yrs and anyone over 40, because those people usually want to see us but give up when we go on that late.<br />
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Travelling to Montreal was hellish. I am 100% positive we weren't awoken for breakfast and when someone finally did bang on our door was so we could be told to hurry up, so we did. We hurried up and got into a van and the van drove us to someone else's house where we caught up on some more sleep but when we left, all our stuff, like jackets and laptops were being driven in one vehicle. As for us, we're smushed in a van packed with hardware that we could hardly adjust ourselves. $250 worth of gas later (the driver told me all the extra weight he was hauling had nothing to do with the fat gas bill. That's like saying I have hair growing from the top of my head (I don't). But, for some reason, there was talk that Reagan Youth "didn't know what they're doing'' and I'm sure it looked like that when I arrived in Montreal freezing and my leather jacket hadn't arrived along with me. But we were no longer in Ontario, now we're in Quebec, and the Pouzza fest was clicking. It was packed (saw a line waiting outside to get in, because it was too crowded already inside) and I was psyched for that one, really psyched. So we played our set and when those French Canadians asked for an encore by screaming "Reagan Youth!" "Reagan Youth!" that did touch my heart just like maybe I touched theirs by starting the songs "Un, deux, trois, quatre". <br />
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While on tour I did find out some interesting facts, like Canada was the only country to ever invade the U.S., and they actually burned down the White House (the war of 1812). Too bad the guy never heard about the Arabs from Arabia burning down the Twin Towers with bombs known as jet liners packed with passengers and jet fuel. Maybe he thought that didn't count but I was in New York on September 11th and I can assure you, it does so maybe I guess they're learning history that involves Canada and Canadians alone? Dunno, don't really care. Now it was fun, it wasn't exactly Ottawa's Ottawa Sucks Vol. 2 festival, but Montreal was mad cool. Toronto had great people in the crowd and I got to see the Greek area on Toronto's East End. Now I just know the next time I play Hamilton, it's gotta be with PantyChrist because those girls are too cool and I'm a bringin' my other band, yeah fuck that shit, DUST ANGEL baby! And then I will blow everyone away, just watch (No offense to PantyChrist).<br />
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Peace out until next time.Paul "Cripple" Bakijahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13118373591310015721noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4953778105156684206.post-72898669558465052262013-08-11T19:05:00.001-04:002013-08-12T14:25:50.996-04:00SONGS TAKING WAY TOO LONG...AND WHY IT ISSince Reagan Youth's resurrection back in 2006 one of my goals was to put out one last Reagan Youth album, about the life and times of the band's most important and most essential member; <b>DAVE INSURGENT</b>. It popped into my head a year after playing with two of my old rhythm section guys; Al Pike and Johnny Aztec and this is how far I have gotten since then.<br />
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When I started playing again 18yrs after the demise of the musical collaboration I had considered the most significant part of my life, with Dave Insurgent, when we started a new band called <b>HOUSE OF GOD</b>. A few of the songs that House of God had written were during the time Dave and I played in Reagan Youth. "<a href="https://soundcloud.com/paulcrotona/on-the-day-i-die" target="_blank">On the Day I Die</a>" can be traced back before Reagan Youth's first gig when I wrote the riff (when I played it for Dave he said it reminded him of Blue Oyster Cult) and then some 6yrs later Dave writes a chorus when we were tripping on mushrooms in a cabin at the Grand Canyon after we stopped by there on our way from touring the west coast in '87. Another song, "<a href="https://soundcloud.com/paulcrotona/in-the-beginning" target="_blank">In the Beginning</a>" was played by Reagan Youth during it's final run. The rest of the songs were written when I moved in with Dave and his girlfriend Susan Cordon moved out. This was both good and bad, good that we wrote an entire set of songs but bad when Dave no longer got that support from Susan to steer clear of heroin. You see she would cry incessantly whenever he'd cop so without her there to get in his face he quickly became addicted, within months actually.<br />
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I never liked the way it ended and can you blame me? So when I had the chance, 18yrs later, to play the old songs, once again, I used three musicians I had just taught the songs weeks earlier, I had to say yes, long story and I'm not going to tell it here, but when people started questioning the two band mates I had chosen and the one who had already been chosen for me, Memphis Mike, I understood that I should get the musicians I had not only played live shows with, back in the 80s, but had actually recorded albums with.<br />
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Al Pike was the second bass player after the original bass player, who went by the name Andy Apathy who had taken it upon himself about him and I playing Reagan Youth songs for one of Jack Rabid's anniversary shows at CBGBs back in 2002. Unfortunately, before we could play he passed away, but I'll get to more of that later on. And I couldn't get the original drummer, who is alive and well in Richmond, VA (go Charlie Tripper, Go!) so I procured the drummer, Johnny Aztec. He played with Reagan Youth the last 4yrs of Ronald Reagan's presidential term (shows you just how effective the band's political message was during his 1st term) and Johnny Aztec was indeed the only musician, besides Dave and I, on <a href="http://paulcripple.blogspot.com/2008/05/volume-two.html" target="_blank">Volume II</a>. I always liked the way he played "Jesus was a Communist". But it didn't last....<br />
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Johnny Aztec is also Javier Madariaga, the drummer for one of the NYHC's original; Heart Attack. Jesse Malin was the singer/guitarist in that band and Javier's drumming on those recordings supersede any drumming Dave Insurgent, and I as well, had asked him to embrace. You could listen to early Heart Attack with Javier. I can't listen to it, because of the drumming. It sounds like I could actually like these songs, that Jesse wrote, except that drumming makes it un-listenable. I once asked Jesse why he had stopped playing with Javier and he looked at me like I had asked him the most ridiculous question. After a few moments he looked at me straight at my face and said "his drumming of course". I took it that Javier/Johnny Aztec was a great sweetheart of a guy but would never play a style of drums that would fit the song he needed to play. He called his style by exclaiming "I'm a Mexican drummer!". Reagan Youth does not only focus on one country bucko, but the entire world, it's heart, body and soul so adios Johnny Aztec.<br />
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Al Pike could still play bass like a bad ass mofo when I meant him 18yrs later and maybe he didn't play in any bands during that time, but he kept up his chops and runs and his natural feel could be so compatible to the songs, to my guitar, to kick ass drumming and Dave Insurgent's singing. Regrettably nothing had changed with him. Al Pike is one of the rare ones cause he could play so good but he had his demons too; fits of anger during his time with the band. I'm sorry but the man suffers from emotional problems and that explains a lot. When someone recently asked me "what happened to Al's bass playing on the first album? I can't hear it" I told him "after just over a year of recording, Al Pike made his bass sound like a mad fart sound" and Dave Insurgent did not want that sound coming from the bass so he refused to put it in the final mix and after a year of begging Dave gave up, but it was a blessing in disguise for the drummer (Steve) and I had a lot of extra time to get our 'sound' down on the guitars/drums on "Youth Anthems For The New Order". We also had recorded so many different versions from spring '83 to spring '84 and that we only focused on 7 songs in 14 months, and that allowed Dave to pick 7 new recordings of the original 7 + 3 extra songs for Volume I. Some think the songs from Youth Anthems were used on Volume I and the mixes were fucked. Those people are wrong. Dave just wanted 7 alternate versions of those 7 original songs so there were more to choose from (obviously the best ones were chosen for our first record ever....duh) and we weren't going to put out the same exact thing because redundancy sucks. Hope you can understand and see it from the artist's perspective. And I hope you can understand mental illness and drug addiction are both diseases that if you don't go get help for it you only get worse. Al I'm rooting for you to be happy and content and thank you for believing in the new songs. I will never forget you Al Pike.<br />
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Someone who didn't believe in the new songs was Pat Distraction, the first singer after I got the band back together and when we set out to go to Europe the second time around I had promised the fans over there, the first time we went, that we would bring back some new recorded songs. I spent $600 for those recordings and Pat sang the exact opposite way that the songs needed to be sung so I couldn't use any of it and Javier as well didn't seem too interested in recording, but Al balanced it all out with positive outlook and spot on bass playing. I let Pat go after three long excruciating years of hearing him sing worse and then worst (a lot of people walked out on us in Europe. It was the first time I ever played in a band that actually sucked). He would sing the opposite of Dave Insurgent's lyrical intent and made up his own vocal melodies which were out of time and worse, totally annoyingly sounding like a kid going <span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: arial, helvetica, clean, sans-serif; font-size: 12.727272033691406px; line-height: 15.994318008422852px;">♪ </span>na na ♫ na na na <span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: arial, helvetica, clean, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 16px;">♪</span>....then I just had to say goodbye at which point Pat demanded that Johnny Aztec repay all the money Pat had lent him up until that moment. I was bit shocked when I realized Johnny Aztec stuck up for Pat, not because he believed in him, but for money. Worse than a Judas because he betrayed Dave Insurgent's memory, words, art and music and for what?!? Al Pike had spoke of removing Pat after a year because Al was all about timing, like a rhythm section player, and Pat had absolutely none when it came to Reagan Youth songs. I can play you live recordings and I did have to remove all his videos where he's the singer off of YouTube. I was embarrassed and I apologize for having made the horrible decision. I still continue to speak with Javier and Al actually called me during my year long hiatus to remind me that we couldn't stop because the new songs were worth putting out. So after Al got a drummer to replace Javier who spoke about nothing except his disgruntlement about Pat going out on tour of the U.S. for a year with his new band while we did nothing. I had to remind Javier that just because Pat told him that, that it didn't make it anything close to the truth, but he wouldn't listen so Al Pike got a new drummer, Mike Sabatino and then things got interesting.<br />
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Mike "Thunderkicks" Sabatino is a very talented drummer, but he's not a punk rocker. I was so enamored with his skills, especially when he hooked up his friend <b>Gary Arnold</b> of Gary's Chop Shop to record our new songs. At this time I decided to give an old acquaintance from back in the day a chance to play along side of me again. It didn't work out for us back in the early 90s when I asked him to help me record Dave's singing all the House of God songs because Kenny Young was a brilliant bass player. But things soon fell apart when drugs turned us both into assholes and then we preceded to go our separate ways until I ran into him, 20yrs later, playing bass for <b>Tibbie X</b>'s band <b>The X-Possibles</b> (who I have once tried out as the band's singer along with Pat Distraction and one other guy from NYC punk scene in 2006). I had hope that Kenny had put the drugs behind, at least long enough to function, so he could sing for the band, old songs and new. When we got to the studio Gary Arnold was so impressed with the 8 basic tracks we had laid down that he spoke of contacting his friend from the Fuse channel about possibly filming the sessions while throwing in reminiscences of Dave Insurgent, New York city in the 80s, Reaganomics. The next day Kenny Young shows up with contracts for everyone to sign stating that he was going to make a Reagan Youth movie. Gary felt stunned, I felt I was in shock. Here was an engineer, Gary Arnold, who was allowing us to record for free in his incredible studio and spoke of getting<br />
some show on the air so we could all take part in it equally and Kenny presents us with contracts that the movie would be the property of 'Kenneth Young'. I couldn't believe Kenny's shock that Gary wouldn't allow him to film anything in the Chop Shop. Worse was recording 8 basic tracks, some guitar soloing (Viktor Venom even showed up and laid an incredible solo to "<b>Necrophilia</b>") but Kenny would only sing on one song, and then there was one with me (I can't sing) to show the Kenny the vocal melody, and that left us with 6 instrumentals. That really sucks. It didn't matter that I had lyrics, Kenny was not going to sing anymore songs, so we wasted time and Gary's money. Al Pike refused to show up to the recording studios known as Gary's Chop Shop because Gary had dated Al Pike's first wife right before Al won Abby's heart and Al just couldn't deal because the jealously was still there 30yrs later.<br />
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So we went out on tour and for an emergency I chose <b>Dave Manzullo</b> from NYHC's original band Ultra Violence. He was primarily a guitar player but just had recently brought a bass so I had him join the band for the Midwest tour of 2011 and we played half good and half bad. Mike Sabatino was a total professional with the his immaculate musicianship but Kenny Young was a different story. When you bleed all over an album I signed for the promoter, <b>Matt Tard,</b> at the <b>BoneYard</b> in Columbus, OH and he goes pulls out the jacket and proceeds to bleed all over it. Kenny had been injecting, poking his arm repeatedly because of his 'rolling veins' and then, to top it all off, he hits on many beautiful girls, who all just happened to have boyfriends, and when they weren't interested, Kenny proceeded to tell their boyfriends "I'm HIV positive" or "I have AIDS". I didn't learn about this until a year later, during my second gig at The BoneYard, and <b>Charlie Checkpoint </b>clearly explained all of his bullshit drama, how Kenny was disrespectful to the max, like some Bitch. Other guys I recognized who were there the first time were mighty eager to add pertinent facts that made me cringe, begging the good folk who run The BoneYard to cop coke to cook up into crack in the kitchen...what an asshole. Along with a Bloody Mess that came along with warning everyone " I have AIDS ", it was like telling a bit of the truth with all of the rest being lies,...he's sick, and hope he could stop being a self centered Egotiste! <b>Adam Allard</b>, the drummer for <b>StressBomb</b> (now w/<b>Dead City Riot</b>), was on tour and saw it all. I'm just saying, I'm not jumping to conclusions but Dave Manzullo had no problem hooking up with a young, beautiful, college student majoring in "modeling" and she had brought two guy friends along and that she instigated the sensual session with Dave, not vice versa, it was fitting because after 30yrs of being a hardcore for life NYHC original he deserved it. Why did Mike Sabatino have to get jealous and when Thunderkicks made it clear he wasn't comfortable around the female race, it was time to look for new band mates again. And of course, Kenny had to dismiss Dave's sweet and lovable conquest like some envious bitch ass, but Mike didn't have to threaten to leave the band behind unless we started behaving, as if getting pussy in a rock band is a bad thing.<br />
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As soon as that tour ended, I asked Mike Sabatino to not contact me for a few days to process our experience on the road. He calls me to say he can't play and with a weekend worth of gigs in Florida I got Mike "Thundersocks", a.k.a. Mikey Wildwood from De-Generation, to fill in just for those shows. The show at Churchills in Miami was un fuckin' forgetable But Mike 'Thunderkicks' Sabatino started begging me, telling he "wanted to be the drummer for Reagan Youth". So we continued on with Sabatino, but Kenny blows off a gig in Maryland. A few weekends later he blows off Boston, while trying to convince Dave Manzullo, who is as original NYHC dude you could can get laughed at Kenny and Manzullo, Thunderkicks and I performed as a true power trio that night at <b>Midway Cafe </b>in <b>Boston.</b> The crowd cheered and sang and shared the mic so we did have a singer.... the crowd, which rocked (<b>Samantha Salvi</b> rulez) as they sang along to each and every song... I mean 'everyone'! The crowd at The Midway Cafe were confused after a couple of songs and so I apologized to them, explaining that our singer would rather get high instead of rock these songs with us, "sorry" and the next thing I know is that everyone starts cheering and I hear a lot of "Fuck Yeahs!". I was pleasantly surprised that everyone yelled out a cheer and support and the promoter didn't pay out Kenny's share cause he didn't show up like a bitch ass. Thank you <b>Shawn Refuse </b>for being a stand up guy and welcome to <b>New York</b>.<br />
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Kenny had to go and with a tour of the west coast, booked far advanced, we needed a replacement and it was between a football player who was singing in a New Jersey cover band and a cool rocker out west. With time running out I was convinced to give him a chance, but after seeing him play and meeting him I knew he wasn't right I had my own choice for a replacement; <b>Paul Rye</b>, of NYC's<b> Blood Runners</b>, one of my favorite bands. The football player was there and Mr. Rye was out in <b>L.A.</b> and we couldn't rehearse the songs unless we flew out early and Mike Sabatino did not want to do that because he wanted 'his guy'; <a href="http://paulcripple.blogspot.com/2013/04/jim-pepe-ultimate-douchebag.html" target="_blank">Jim Diesel Pepe</a>, who was in fact rehearsing with us out in Jersey. I told him that it wasn't going to work out and that we were going to fly out Kenny out instead, because he at least made merch for the band. Jim did impress me by learning all the songs within weeks, but he only sounded 80% there and he let his pop singing voice infect the song, like an ugly virus. Obviously that was never gonna work, but it in the end the Jersey guy did not smoke crack and we shook hands like men and we promised the usual promise everything split evenly. But Jim Diesel Pepe ended acting like he was more even than everyone else in the band.<br />
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We fly out to Seattle and the band sounds rough. We had some good shows on the West is the Best tour of 2011, a few of them. Then we had some real crap shows and maybe, here or there we actually clicked. We hadn't played together enough and Mike Sabatino had become addicted to pills, speed, in diet pill form. Nothing like crashing at someone's pad and the drummer stays up all night, looses his wallet, complains about cruising down the Pacific Coast Highway because, as he put it, "I complete waste of time" and I am embarrassed for the way my singer Jim carried himself, like a spoiled child. Mike "Thunderkicks" Sabatino was not sounding precise, now it was power drumming, but still, like he'd use 'soft rock' drum sticks while playing Alex Van Halen type stuff and what was worse was Jim Diesel refusing to sing any new songs, and the one I just put out, as a demo from the Gary Arnold session, the one and only song that Kenny sang on was called "<a href="https://soundcloud.com/paulcrotona/lucky-7-demo" target="_blank"><b>Lucky 7</b></a>" . Gary did an amazing mix and Kenny's bass playing reminded me when we played back in 1990. And Mike"Thunderkicks" Sabatino didn't suck at that time, like he was the 'real' Thunderkicks, but now he was playing his drums fucked up. You see the disease of addiction is nothing to discount when your drummer is a pill popping motor head but being myself one who suffers from the disease of addiction, I try to realize 'it's the problem, not the individual' but that is a hard thing to do when you're 3,000 miles from home. I took a step back and looked again and noticed he didn't belong, nor his singer who I shook hands on a deal and when I shake hands with a man, I consider that a bond, a contract, and this psychotic fuck who just cried and whined until you paid him, extra..... for nuthin'.<br />
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I went back with Kenny who swore he was clean, and he was, but had the dry drunk syndrome where even though you're not abusing the drugs, you're still acting out old behaviors, like scamming and conniving, and Jim was in Florida, he lied to us about living in New Jersey and started insisting on airfare for him to fly up to play "hardcore punk gigs".......I think Jim Pepe might have some mental issues himself but his daddy's trust fund help's him hide it behind his BMW. And then Kenny acted like a jerk and I brought Jim back, because he was flying up for the holidays to kiss his dad's ass for more money because the jeans he likes to wear cost $500.00, not because he's a true punk rocker....so why did keep on insisting on singing for this band? Sicko!<br />
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Before the band decided to do go anywhere else, in February 2012, <b>Dust Angel </b>with Mike Sabatino on drums and Frank McGlynn as engineer recorded a fast, six song demo in two days. The recordings were paid and provided for by a generous grant from the pharmaceutical giant percocet. Some of the new Reagan Youth songs could be heard on <a href="https://soundcloud.com/dustangel/sets/the-life-times-of-stig-rotsky" target="_blank">Soundcloud</a> with <b>Madame St. Beatrice</b> singing. For the Drivin' South Tour of October 2012, I no longer had crappy singers, I'm only gonna use guys that actually know the band and respect it enough to sing the songs correctly. I got the guy who I wanted to replace Kenny. That's not really true, I asked him before I asked Kenny and we both agreed but nothing came of it and now it's my chance to be in a band with a real singer again, since Pat could sing, but wouldn't. Kenny used to be able to sing, but lost it, forever it seems and Jim......nope, never had it, never will. And all that time my girlfriend, Madame St Beatrice, was listening to me complain, so we finally decide to make our own band and we called it DUST ANGEL. And Dust Angel will always go on tour so I could see which band, Reagan Youth or Dust angel has it that night and for the future in general. But it was a time for goodbyes as well as Dave Manzullo parted ways when his girlfriend cracked the whip on his ass and his priorities had changed. I'll always love Dave Manzullo, he's my man, a true N.Y.H.C. original and he will always have my respect for his guitar playing and his rock and roll lifestyle that is born into him! But that was OK cause I got myself Reagan Youth's last bass player, <b>Tibbie X</b>...and she's a keeper, fo' real, fo' real.<br />
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So we go on our Drivin' South Tour of October 2012 and I'm looking forward to going to New Orleans my first time ever but things get off to a rocky start when Mike Sabatino brought a girl he was sure was going to become his girlfriend as the band's merch girl. I was more convinced that the problem is that when you're taking speed in diet pill form, you shouldn't add adderall to that mix, and he did. Thunderkicks' actions on that tour was one of the most bizarre insane crapp I've ever experienced, everyone got quickly repulsed by his ultra jealous bitch ass of an attitude which grew worse and worse and the merch girl, Heather Gallo did her best to support him, but there was no way she was gonna ever let that happen. I was disappointed to finally have a lead singer that could sing the songs proper and speedy Sabatino knocking on our motel doors at 4 in the morning, calling our cell phones at 3am and other shenanigans...enough was enough. When Mike blew off a show in Orlando it was time to leave his ass in Miami and the band used their trusty roadie, <b>Trey Oswald </b>as our drummer for Tampa, FL along the way Trey had been singing one different Reagan Youth song a night and he sounded really good, I mean really good and near the end of the tour my singer <b>Paul Rye, </b>who did a great job by the way, asked me if Trey was coming with the band as the drummer or as the singer for our 4 Daze in Texas of December 2012 tour I thought to myself why is my singer asking me if he is being replaced when I told him that I had already lined up a new drummer for Texas. Worse still was the fact he stuck up for Mike Sabatino and that back fired on him when Mike called him a greedy Jew. No one liked the fact that Mike drove to the most expensive gas stations to fill up with super unleaded every single time to show off to Heather, that everyone was going to be broke because of his gasoline games, but that did not do shit. He didn't get laid and he sure got fired.<br />
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So I left Paul Rye to go figure things out for himself. Tibbie X and I welcomed Trey Oswald as the new Reagan Youth singer and more importantly the last Reagan Youth singer I'll ever use, fo' real, fo' real. Our new drummer sounded a million times better than Mike Sabatino ever could and he learned the set in a matter of days and Trey Oswald made the effort to come from Louisville to Brooklyn to play his first show with Reagan Youth as well as Felipe Torres' debut on drums. We actually sounded really good that night and I had hope for the first time in a long time.<br />
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A month later we end up in Texas doing our 4 Daze in Tejas tour. Heather Gallo, whom I remain friends with calls me to tell me that Mike is telling everyone in his small town that we are begging him to rejoin the band I told her why don't you listen to these new live recordings on Soundcloud to compare with Mike's sound which is like he has been left back four times for a reason. She laughed and I was happy to hear her laugh when it was only months earlier she was crying because Mike Sabatino turned into Chester the molester down south....creepy, real creepy, but thankfully all in the past now and we've all moved on, except for Mike....<br />
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We go to Texas and though Felipe is a brilliant technician on drums it eventually comes to my attention that he has no feel for rock n' roll. He looks cool, sounds great, but instead of living the mantra of sex, drugs and rock and roll, he's all about being a concerned father, waiting for the cops to come when we smoke weed and math metal. So it wasn't going to work! Austin, TX, which we played twice was a great show and Houston is always spot on to play an awesome show. Even tiny McAllen, TX was killer. And then I came back and recorded 5 songs with Felipe on drums, because you see....all this while I'm stock piling new songs for the <b>LAST REAGAN YOUTH ALBUM</b>. So I have all these songs; "<b>Love is Between My Legs</b>", because Dave was a punk rock hippie who believed in free love (those dreads were fo 'real for real). "<b>Necrophilia</b>" is about the serial killer, and "<b>Temptress</b>" is about Dave's ill fated, fiancee who supported their habits by being a working girl (I wanted a pretty song for a pretty girl..rip). "<b>In The Thirsty Hour</b>" which will be the B side to "<b>Lucky 7</b>'" as the A side deals with flaunting drug use, and the flip side of that, not being able to control your thirst (these two songs were the only ones I got former singers to sing on, Kenny's demo and a live track where Pat changes the chorus to "He's Thirsty" instead of "I'm Thirsty".... because he became a jealous bitch ass when the first time we played that song at the first Punk Island, the punx started singing along to the chorus "I'm Thirsty"). There is also "<b>Idle Hands</b>" about Dave's take on working for society, "<b>Hapless Misfits</b>" whose title should be self explanatory and "<b>Altercation at Saint Peter's Gate</b>" about Dave busting into Heaven even though he's banned for committing suicide. "<b>Crown of Thorns</b>" is about surviving a lobotomy. So I do have songs, some are fully written, some are practically there.<br />
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What's more is I have asked the cream of the early NYHC class of singers to each contribute a song. <b>Roger Miret</b> will sing "<b>Haplesss Misfits</b>' whose distinct vocal style fits perfectly wit h the song that will open the album, "<b>Lucky 7</b>" has got to be <b>Jimmy Gestapo</b> because <b>Murphy's Law</b> is all about partying and that's what that song is about. <b>Antidote</b>'s <b>Drew Stone</b> on "<b>In The Thirsty Hour</b>", <b>Paul Bearer</b> from <b>Sheer Terror </b>for "<b>Necrophilia</b>", <b>Jesse Malin</b> will sing on "Love is Between My Legs" (reminds me of a <b>De-Generation</b> song...really) and other guys. <b>Ralphie</b> from <b>The Mob</b>, get home soon as well as you too Mr. <b>Kenny Waste</b>! And of course I have others lined up,.... Damn, can't I keep a couple of secrets to myself? Aight !<br />
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I got flustered with this lack of playing new songs so I started a another band, <a href="http://www.dust-angel.com/" target="_blank">DUST ANGEL</a>, and I split it down the middle; we'll play some songs from the 'Last Reagan Youth album' and pure DUST ANGEL songs like "<b>New, Improved Mother Earth</b>", "<b>Image of Man</b>", "<b>Do What Thou Wilt</b>" and so much more. But with no singer having no balls whatsoever, I had my final bass playa; <b>Tibbie X </b>and rock steady drummer <b>Stig Whisper </b>play it all. One person who was always around, and I do mean always, was my partner <b>Madame St. Beatrice</b>. I wish I had started a band with her way earlier. She inspires me like some muse from Heaven and I don't work well when I'm alone, I need that human connection. First it was Dave Insurgent and now, with <b>DUST ANGEL</b>, I have the dependable <b>Beatrice Demesier</b> help me in writing and arranging the new songs, as I bounce off ideas she tells me what sounds stupid and what's a keeper. I have turned her onto a whole world of music (primarily the 70's, and some 60's) as her love of metal music has somewhat permeated my bones and has inspired me in a new direction. Psychometallic music, hard rock from the 70's mixed with thrash from the 80's, with any and all genres mixed in. I always loved that I was a kid playing in a band with Dave, the best singer. The band we had lined up next; House Of God, never had a chance and it broke my heart as well as the bass player's, <b>Chris Simunek</b>. Now I just have no expectations except enjoying my time here and doing my utmost to play on my guitar songs that can mean anything, but end up meaning the same thing over and over, the world is beautiful and so can we all be if we just see our similarities as opposed to our bitter hatreds.<br />
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So I'm going to make that one last album for Dave Insurgent, who was the only one to have sung the songs but now the songs will be about Dave's life and tribulations in the Lower East Side during the 80's while the city got a shot of Reaganomics where crack became dirt cheap and decimated many neighborhoods and landlords now charged exorbitant amounts for the same real estate that was a tenth of the cost years earlier. Yes, the rich got richer and celebrated with base cocaine while the poor got crack cocaine....until heroin became chic because of the insidious disease of addiction tells your mind; this white powder, which I have no clue what's really inside, is chic to ingest through my nose,...... or is it better in the arm,...NO! Straight in the vain? It's a story that I want to tell praising my fallen singer, where no judgment should be cast, unless you think the new songs suck, for real....NOT!<br />
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Last but definitely not least I have to thank Madame St. Beatrice for actually singing the new songs with the musicians from Reagan Youth when we play under my new band's moniker; DUST ANGEL. So we'll be sharp for when it's time to record this final tribute to one of New York Hardcore's greatest singer/lyricist/front man ever to grace the stage from our first gig at A7 or Max's Kansas City, right before it closed, and we shared the stage with bands like Heart Attack, Bad Brains, The Beastie Boys, Vinnie Stigma and The Eliminators, and let's not forget Doug or Kraut as other guys like Jimmy G, Harley, Louis Rivera and Rob Nunzio along with Jon Watson waited before they sang for their respective and respected bands by tearing it up in the pit, moshing to The Mob, as kids no longer wanted to sit still smokin' weed, or worse, pogoing? And it would be bringing on a bigger and grander wave, which lead to another and there are remnants, but a stronger, thriving scene here in New York, especially it's Lower East Side, where the bands made their bones..... We were following the Loud, Fast Rules. And I wonder if Mike D, from the Beastie Boys, would contribute a vocal track if asked. I should friend him on Facebook and see if I can find out. One things for sure, time is on my side now.<br />
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So bear with me, I have sent out music to a couple of hardcore singers from back in the day and I'll send more out soon, I don't care when they find the time, I'll always work around their schedule, they just gotta sing it like they're truly singing it in Dave Insurgent's honor, for the honor of those days, and for the honor to survive it all ..... Salute!Paul "Cripple" Bakijahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13118373591310015721noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4953778105156684206.post-303988564377977592013-05-27T14:53:00.000-04:002013-05-28T11:46:57.452-04:00THIS MUSIC Pieces on Heavy Metal, Punk Rock & Hardcore Punk by Lewis Dimmick<div style="text-align: center;">
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Some time ago I was contacted by Lewis Dimmick to give some information on Dave Insurgent and as usual I was happy to hear from someone who wanted to know about my dearly departed singer. Sure Dave was like most of us, he had his good points and he had his bad points but unlike most of us, he had these amazingly great ones. So I messaged Mr. Dimmick back the answer to his question and didn't think anymore of it. Then recently I was sent a book titled<a href="https://www.facebook.com/this.music.nyc" target="_blank"> THIS MUSIC Pieces on Heavy Metal, Punk Rock & Hardcore Punk</a>. I immediately glanced through it and the first pages that opened up for me were pages 44 and 45, which just happen to mention the song "Anytown" as well as a quote by me, about how drugs took away all of Dave Insurgent's creativity, humor and goodness. To be honest I only glanced at the the second paragraph from page 45 and saw my 'punk name' as well as my 'legal name' and the quote attributed to me and then I put the book down, I had a bunch of things I've blown off already and I was going away in a few weeks.I didn't have the time nor the attention span to read it so I put it down for some other time.</div>
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Before I left for a tour of the mid west I saw the book and thought "why not?" and slid the book alongside my lap top where I put my computer and off it went with me. I shuffled off to Buffalo and then went to places like Warren, Michigan and Chicago but still I hadn't taken the book out every time I went for the lap top. Then I played Milwaukee, which has a strong Heavy Metal following and it was time to drive to Madison, the capital of Wisconsin. I was bored in the back seat of the rental so I decided to take the book out and see what it had to say.</div>
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First thing I want to tell you about THIS MUSIC is that once I picked it up it wasn't something I could put down. It's not a difficult read as it's only 'pieces' on the subjects of Heavy Metal, Punk Rock and Hardcore Punk, but that wasn't why I couldn't put it down. The reason was, besides being well written, it was like Lewis Dimmick was telling my story at times. There was his relationship with his friend Hobi which I automatically associated with my relationship with Dave Insurgent; two youngsters enraptured with music and the vinyl that carried that music to our ears. Lewis' older sister taking down her Robert Plant poster and deciding to grow up, that was kind of like my older sister doing the same shit, only my sister went on and destroyed one of my albums when she and my mom decided to kick me out from the only home I'd ever knew. I left and I guess my parents thought I was going to come back with my tail between my legs but I was popular, so my good friends made damn sure I didn't go back (once, just so I could pick up my measly belongings) until a few years had past. Eventually Dave Insurgent and I needed to pick up the amplifier that was in my parent's building's basement as we had already stopped playing gigs but with a new band on our horizon, House Of God, it was time to take care of the Marshall bottoms once again. I kind of made peace with them but it was always going to be weird as I never forgave them for not backing up my career choice; bitchin' lead guitarist instead of being a lawyer or some job like that.</div>
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Now Lewis didn't have it as bad as me and yet, when reading his story, it seems at times he had it worse. His father passed away where as my dad is not only alive, but I just can't see him dying anytime soon. I never knew Lewis nor his friend Hobi but his description of their first rehearsals did strike a chord with me ( pardon that pun ) as I'd have to say I sucked when I started out, or at least I heard enough people, including my so called friends, tell me that. Nothing was funnier to me than when Dave asked me to play for his father the first song I ever wrote, a song that ended up being the last song we ever recorded; "Back to the Garden Parts I -IV", and of course he had to say it sucked. Dave's dad even brought our first release "Youth Anthem's For The New Order" to a man who lived down his block, who was 'in the music business' and as Dave's dad put it "he said this record sucks". Wow, with that kind of support, how could his son not beam with pride? I saw Dave's father much like my father, a miserable prick who was still around to make our lives miserable and I couldn't help but wonder, was Lewis luckier than Dave and I for having a father pass away before his time? Or maybe it was that both Dave's dad and my father had endured World War Two and had become plain ole' mean.</div>
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As the book progressed the only thing that could pop into my head was "oh, this guy was around for it all for sure" and what I mean by "it all" was hanging out in the east village and seeing how rock changed from what is now called 'classic rock' into Heavy Metal, Punk Rock and Hardcore Punk. I remember that exact moment for me, when the main scalper in the Rego Park/Forest Hills neighborhood mentioned kids were asking him for tickets for a show to some band he'd never heard of; Metallica. I laughed when I heard him say that and when some kid, in junior high, asked if I had ever heard of Metallica, it was pretty funny seeing his jaw drop when I not only told him I had heard of Metallica (he didn't believe me) hut that I actually brought up "Trapped Under Ice". The astonishment to this kid's facee that I could know all about Zeppelin.... and Metallica.</div>
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It was guys like that scalper that made guys like Dave Insurgent and I look towards a better place to hang out. A place that didn't play by the old set of rules, where you could go and play and not hear the people say your songs or your playing sucked, and there was only one place that was like that; New York City's East Village/Alphabet City aka Lower East Side. That place remained a sanctuary for guys like Lewis, Dave and I and countless others until, as Mr. Dimmick explained so aptly, when the hardcore matinees at CBGB's had to have a line outside the venue so you could enter in order. Who the fuck wanted order? Dave Insurgent put it so well with his lyric "New Order, No Order, DISORDER". That shit was too much order and the matinees ended right soon after that 'getting in line bullshit'.</div>
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When I got to the page where Lewis writes about Dave Insurgent, how he spotted Dave walking down the block and Lewis asks Dave how he could get a Reagan Youth tee shirt but Dave, as usual, is too busy, I remembered that way too well. Lewis's description of Dave is so spot on and to tell you the truth, being that I always viewed Dave Insurgent not only as a friend but as a mentor, I was always running around with not enough time as well. That's what usually happens when drugs start dictating to you what you should be doing. The evil law of diminishing return. You buy the same amount but it does less and less for you so you end up buying more and more...... until your band dissipates, your friendships disappear and your life ends up being the biggest fuck up that you've never imagined. When I look back I see how Dave tossed away his life over some white powder because, and I'm quoting from the book now; "I wonder if the difficulty of achieving an independent, idealized life apart from society fueled Dave Insurgent's addiction? The drugs took over, leaving no room for the person, the man who carried the idea. Or was Dave's life, and death, the realization of the idea in all its ugliness?". All I was able to think when I read that was I can't believe how this guy could write such insightful stuff about my dearly, departed singer, Do I know this guy Lewis? It was cold out driving to Madison, Wisconsin , even for April, and the snow and then the hail was hitting the windshield pretty frickin' hard and I wasn't able to tell if my eyes were watery from the weather or Lewis Dimmick's description of Dave Insurgent. Probably a bit of both but regardless my heart swelled up for sure from what I had just read.</div>
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Now I could go on and on.... and on about what's in the book but I think I can say it best like this; If you ever wondered what it was like growing up during the 80's, going to all the Heavy Metal, Punk Rock and Hardcore Punk shows during that era, then reading THIS MUSIC should be a must on your list because I can't see anyone describing it better then the creative writing professor from the College of Staten Island; Prof. Lewis Dimmick. He has the same gift that Dave Insurgent had, though with a different art form. He, just like Dave I., can say so much by using the least amount of their words possible. a true gift. Pretty fuckin' amazing shit so yes I suggest everyone to pick it up. Go find it and buy it, borrow it or better still steal a copy of THIS MUSIC Pieces in Heavy Metal, Punk Rock & Hardcore Punk and check it out because it should be an essential for anyone interested in the kind of stuff that pissed off your dad, embarrassed your mom or disappointed your sister because you just had to go live your life the only way you knew how, by being real to yourself and your calling.</div>
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Thank You Lewis</div>
Paul "Cripple" Bakijahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13118373591310015721noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4953778105156684206.post-43628259677658606002013-05-14T03:15:00.000-04:002013-05-23T01:53:24.742-04:00RUSTBELT TOUR 2013<div style="text-align: center;">
I am back home after touring the Midwest with <span style="font-size: large;"><b>Reagan Youth</b></span> AND my brand spanking new band <span style="font-size: large;"><b>Dust Angel</b></span>. We started off in <span style="font-size: large;"><b>Trenton, N.J</b></span>. where I was raised by the praise of a fan who said I upset her...because the band didn't have enough original members (Dave Insurgent and Andy Apathy, your absence sill hurts our hearts). The next night we played <b><span style="font-size: large;">Brooklyn </span></b>and our the bill was Empty Vessels, New Scum and the always cool Crusty P. It was our last night before we had to to hit the road so the next day my band mates left their jobs early, as possible, Tibbie had the hard task of telling her baby boy goodbye before we hopped into our rental. So I tossed my most punk guitar, Fender's cheapest strat, the Squirer because I wasn't gonna trust the weather of the Midwest as wood is very susceptible to expanding and contracting, doing whatever it wants and that sucks when you wanna play your songs as well as you should. So I left my prized Gibson Les Paul at home and headed out with my two singers <span style="font-size: large;"><b>Trey Oswald </b></span>and <b><span style="font-size: large;">Madame St. Beatrice </span></b>and my new drummer, <span style="font-size: large;"><b>Stig Whisper</b></span>. Reagan Youth never played Albany before and we heard that they had a good punk scene, so we all left psyched, excited to play.
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We arrived at the venue in <span style="font-size: large;"><b>Albany</b></span>, named Bogies, and as soon as I got out of the car I encountered a short, chubby guy wearing a hat and glasses telling me that the club was closing because we arrived too late to play. He ranted something about how we were supposed to load in at 5:00 pm (though all we were supposed to load in were our guitars and cymbals, things you sling over your back because we were supposed to be backlined, as we had the entire Rustbelt tour) and because we were from a big city like New York, it was obvious we were used to showing up late, so 'too bad for us'. But the time was only 9:30 pm so I tried to reason with him but he acted like an ass wipe. We had driven up to Albany,and we had to anyway to get to Buffalo, but why drive over 4 hours to go to some club so some ass-wipe, who was NOT <b><span style="font-size: large;">Joe Chaos </span></b>for everyone's information, tell me such foul ass shit. When they closed the club at 9:30 pm, and in my eyes, for no legit reason, and on a Saturday night no less, some fans for sure clamored for a refund since was the bands were present and ready, willing and able to go on. What could I do, it's not like the cops were gonna make the club give refunds, even if they should being that there was more patrol officers and police cruisers all over Albany on that Saturday night, so I brought both my bands to play at<b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"> Twon</span></b>'s House who was kind and generous enough to allow us to rock Twon's House. Now at this point I want to express my deepest apologies to Mr. Joe Chaos for assuming he was the guy that was responsible for shutting the club at 9:30. Joe Chaos wasn't even the promoter of the show but someone who was helping promote the show but the band was given bad intel. It was a fucked up mistake for me to make an assumption that it was Joe, sorry my deepest regrets go out to Mr. Joe Chaos, for you see I had some not so very nice things to say about Mr. Joe Chaos when I posted a status on Reagan Youth's Facebook. That it got over 100 comments and there were many that stuck up for Joe Chaos showed me that he must be a good promoter, a stand up guy, someone any band would have no problem working with. Madame St. Beatrice of Dust Angel hid the post telling me "enough with that crap Paul" so I focused on other things, like the rest of the tour. Now just recently someone, who was present when all that nonsense went down, contacted the band and told me exactly who the guy that closed the club was, the promoter for our Albany show; Dan Asylum.</div>
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What truly baffles me is why this ass wipe, DAN ASYLUM, or let me call him by his full name;<b><span style="font-size: large;"> DAN "ASS WIPE" ASYLUM</span></b>, why didn't he or why wouldn't he contact the post Reagan Youth made about Joe Chaos and tell us that Joe didn't have nothing to do with closing the club at 9:30pm. It's easy to figure out. people had paid to see Reagan youth play and why not keep our guaranteed money and close down the club early so Dan the ass wipe could go out early and spend the moeny people paid to see us on chicken wings and sandwiches and anything else he could stuff into his fat ass, but be man enough to tell me that my beef wasn't with Joe Chaos, but that it was with him, Dan "Ass Wipe" Asylum. Just shows you what type of man Dan "the ass wipe" Asylum is, that fat chunk of shit. I don't know what bands would want to deal with him, but telling me that I'm no longer welcomed at Bogies is like telling me.. absolutely nothing. Whoop dee fuckin doo "Ass Wipe Dan". But enough with that ugly piece of shit fuck face Dan Asylum because it's time to talk about the good that we had in Albany. Dust Angel and Reagan Youth got to play our entire sets in Albany, at Twon's House, and our fans wanted more so I got the band to play some covers; "Basement" by The Ramones, "Class War" by The Exploited, "Clash City Rockers" and "Raison D'Etre" by the Buzzcocks. And some real big phat love to Twon for putting us up as well. But Albany is mostly about my bad for making a stupid mistake so I can ask Joe Chaos to forgive me for my derogatory words towards him and the club Bogies, it's neither of their fault that Dan Asylum is a piece of shit ass wipe. It was quick and easy to get over what happened because of that sweet gig at Twon's House and having a cozy bed to crash in made things all the more sweeter. The next thing we know, it's time to shuffle off to Buffalo. </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXKnXyaekyjlneahUQHB7tpXsS1V0d-gGEqGpG206JyxJPDHyc7bjHEARG7C7b9DZmyY0kMUBsoSY2-8NOwsVW9-cLnsPZ9PybT12DIxPmOpYIpvp2BPvm-5qkfwS6QGfXIWrVDbtEZqRR/s1600/734012_lindsaybuffalo.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXKnXyaekyjlneahUQHB7tpXsS1V0d-gGEqGpG206JyxJPDHyc7bjHEARG7C7b9DZmyY0kMUBsoSY2-8NOwsVW9-cLnsPZ9PybT12DIxPmOpYIpvp2BPvm-5qkfwS6QGfXIWrVDbtEZqRR/s200/734012_lindsaybuffalo.jpg" width="200" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9Qo3ncbAdgLes9JYGQYBnX46CyKQ_u6mtNyfLswSL_RvKQg14cc3JDAUKYip4ZNH5xrOWPAUzQaZUwUZTjZ40mAJ0pcIMK8DfaOsyAuJ_eREGa8XPNPgz34dDmkyDygg-jYXBMtQL_R8j/s1600/72112_darthvader.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9Qo3ncbAdgLes9JYGQYBnX46CyKQ_u6mtNyfLswSL_RvKQg14cc3JDAUKYip4ZNH5xrOWPAUzQaZUwUZTjZ40mAJ0pcIMK8DfaOsyAuJ_eREGa8XPNPgz34dDmkyDygg-jYXBMtQL_R8j/s200/72112_darthvader.jpg" width="133" /></a>In <b><span style="font-size: large;">Buffalo</span></b> we played a club called The Funeral Home which was converted from a funeral home. <b style="font-size: x-large;">Darth Sarah </b>and <span style="font-size: large;"><b>Lindsay </b></span>had some amazingly great energy and it was nice to see a mixed crowd. One of the better shows on the RUSTBELT tour. It was cold in Buffalo but a great crowd for a Sunday show, no bullshitting, just some great down home punk rock. The club put us up and it was pretty cozy sleeping in a place that was once a dead person's last stop before disappearing. Sweet ; )</div>
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We then made our way to <span style="font-size: large;"><b>Peabody's</b></span> in<b><span style="font-size: large;"> Cleveland.</span></b> I played Cleveland once before at Now That's Class and I wanted to see what else Cleveland offered so we played at Peabody's. An interesting club which was huge with two shows going on at the same night. One was a metal show (I had to check that out and the band, I believe they were from Florida, were super talented on their instruments and I always respect musical abilities) and then there was the punk show which included Sour Towel.</div>
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After we played we needed some time for just the band so we checked into a motel, and we do that, every once in a blue moon, because crashing at crash pads saves the band money, but more importantly, we get to hang with the locals and get a good feel of the places we visit. Motels are the same everywhere, and it doesn't hurt that people's places are usually 100 times cleaner than some place where people will use as a stop over, or a place to fiend on drugs, or to leave bodily fluids everywhere. But before we went there we did a radio interview for Cleveland State University's radio station <span style="font-size: large;"><b>WCSB</b></span>. Now it was only supposed to be a ten minute interview, but the deejay wanted both Dust Angel and Reagan Youth and before you know it, we're ranting for an hour, at least. Listening to my band mates spread their good words and positive message enlightened me to the fact, that for the first time since I got Reagan Youth rolling again, I had a two bands with some great chemistry; the brethren Trey Oswald, Stig Whisper and Mike Nowek and sistren Madame St. Beatrice and <span style="font-size: large;"><b>Tibbie X-Kamikaze</b></span>. It's always fun to do a radio interview but this one warmed my heart and made me feel proud to be associated with such great musicians, friends, human beings. Thank you. </div>
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In all honestly if it wasn't for <span style="font-size: large;"><b>Sour Towel</b></span> I'm not sure barely anyone would have showed up for us and they were great fun. But in Cleveland it was when we found out about the bombing in Boston. For some reason whenever I go on tour something with terrorism has to happen. I remember telling an audience in Baltimore that Osama Bin Laden had been killed. My drummer Greg had a friend who went to college in Boston and a few days later his friend called to tell him that a swat team had stormed his college with a black hawk helicopter hovering above. We watched the news for information everyday about that, which sounded like serious news, but nothing was ever put out on any news channel about that. That's why you can't believe everything the news tell you, when it's more about not keeping us informed or just informed enough so you really just know squat. What I did see end up seeing was an interview with a curmudgeon saying the bomber should be sent back to Russia to get buried. Wow, they had to put on an old fart who still believed the cold war was still going on since the dead bomber was a Chechen. Now Chechnya only had two really nasty wars with Russia recently, so why would they put on an idiot saying something so stupid. Fox news, can't you just disappear or at least, stop spreading lies and bullshit on a consistent basis? So we left for Detroit after Cleveland, and Detroit/Michigan has a great musical history MC5, The Stooges, The Amboy Dukes, Grand Funk Railroad and Slim Shady so it was no surprise to us that it was in Warren, Michigan that rock and roll was living up to it's reputation, because that gig had the best bands we played with that night. When the tour was being booked there was a band called Glitter Trash from <span style="font-size: large;"><b>Detroit, MI </b></span>that wanted to play with us but had been banned because the singer liked to perform topless, sure wish they showed up but we played with Raw Dogs instead that happened to they were show a lot of skin that night. Raw Dogs sounded pretty fuckin' amazing!<br />
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As a matter of fact every band that played that night at <span style="font-size: large;"><b>Toepher's House</b></span> in <b><span style="font-size: large;">Warren, MI </span></b>sounded hot. The promoter, from <span style="font-size: large;"><b>Suicide Machine</b></span>, had the flu and didn't show up and we hope he made a full recovery. He booked a great gig and we drove to Chicago over night so we could crash at Ivan and <span style="font-size: large;"><b>Deborah</b></span>'s; good buddies of Madame St. Beatrice and I. </div>
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In <b><span style="font-size: large;">Chicago</span></b> I played two shows, one was all ages at <span style="font-size: large;"><b>Township </b></span>and another at <span style="font-size: large;"><b>Ultra Lounge</b></span>. The all ages show we played were with kids that were my age when I started Reagan Youth way, way back with Dave Insurgent. It was great seeing and playing on the same bill with <b style="font-size: x-large;">When Flying feels Like Falling </b>with <b style="font-size: x-large;">V</b><span style="font-size: large;"><b>iolet</b></span>, Saffron and the rest of their band. Funny thing was when one of the other band's had one of their dad's at the show. he told me "So you're the reason I have to stay for the whole show"., but when we played the song 'Reagan Youth' that dad stormed out of the club during the "heil, heil, heil" chorus. So he didn't know what the band is about, but I respect that dad for his reaction. Al least I know he's not a Nazi. Now playing two shows in a single night is tough and so we went to Ultra Lounge to play our second show. There I met <span style="font-size: large;"><b>Ari Lehman </b></span>who showed up for the show. Ari went to N.Y.U. with Dave Insurgent and stayed in the same dorm. It was great seeing him after all these years. He started a band called <span style="font-size: large;"><b>First Jason</b></span> because he was in the first Friday the 13th movie, as Jason Vorhees. Funny stuff, especially when he lit up some amazing herb, which made it even funnier. My drummer Greg kicked himself for not getting a photo with the 'first Jason'. I told Greg not to worry, we'll go see First Jason next time they play New York. And in Chicago it continued to rain, and rain. It rained so much the Ivan and Deborah's house got flooded. We drove off but not before checking out Chicago and my bass player, <span style="font-size: large;"><b>Tibbie X,</b></span> bought me this cool Rush tee shirt that just happened to be red with a skull and swords on it. We went to a humongous guitar store that had a <span style="font-size: large;"><b>Fender Mustang</b></span> bass with cool racing stripes. <span style="text-align: center;">Tibbie tried that bass on and it was such a perfect fit. I'm gonna have to find a way to get her that bass even though Tibbie will eventually be playing second guitar for Dust Angel, it just looked way too cool on her. </span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhv-DXTPMoWCZC_tKddaPYzJpOycSdoNCwQZzir-Hy9OESz-FfSrmd3CsXwMpS0OkWgDAbn85-WTSiTA6JLvyszt0plonzYBCvzhO9ROeLvp2DfkEP38A6LM-bL_RrM04y7TrbNxTR3nWdY/s1600/521849_mgt.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhv-DXTPMoWCZC_tKddaPYzJpOycSdoNCwQZzir-Hy9OESz-FfSrmd3CsXwMpS0OkWgDAbn85-WTSiTA6JLvyszt0plonzYBCvzhO9ROeLvp2DfkEP38A6LM-bL_RrM04y7TrbNxTR3nWdY/s200/521849_mgt.jpg" width="200" /></a>So we drove off the highways towards <span style="font-size: large;"><b>Milwaukee</b> </span>and I <br />
wanna give Dust Angel's bass player <span style="font-size: large;"><b>Mike Nowek </b></span>mad props for getting us to Milwaukee because we heard there was so much traffic from that massive rainfall, one the area hadn't had so bad since 2008. I hadn't realized I would be playing most of the shows from our mid west tour in Wisconsin but I did and found out why. It's the state with some serious music, serious musicians and serious fans.We played the Frank's Power Plant in Milwaukee and we were told there was a big heavy metal show going on earlier and we would get the spill over crowd coming to see us. When Dust Angel went on my guitar broke a string and with the tremolo system I have losing that A string made the tuning go wacky. Nothing I could do at that time (no way I was gonna restring up because besides it taking too much time) and yes, I was stoned out of my mind. You see, <b><span style="font-size: large;">Wisconsin</span></b> is like the California of the Midwest, the state with the best sweet leaf. So I tried to play the song that was next up; <b><span style="font-size: large;">"Love Is Between My Legs</span></b>" and out of tune it sounded like total shit. Before I could get through the opening chords Tibbie X, my bassist in Reagan Youth, grabbed someone's guitar and I tuned it as quick as quick can be and next thing I know I played the whole set with this cool looking heavy metal guitar in black. The crowd at Frank's Power Plant was very kind but not as sweet as Mike of Population Control whose guitar saved my ass that night. When Reagan Youth went on I had put an E string on Mike's guitar but the crowd, which spilled over from the other metal show that ended earlier, didn't care much for our brand of punk rock, even if we were playing the "Heavy Metal Shuffle", the crowd emptied out and we went out in the cold night and got ready for the next gig in Madison. </div>
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">Madison</span></b> is the capital of Wisconsin and is a very beautiful place. We played at the Frequency that night and it was one of our better shows. A band from Vegas called the Vampirates blew my mind by sounding totally disorientated yet tight. Can't describe it really, go out and give them a listen, you will not be disappointed. Then there was Tim and Pyroplast and his lead guitarist tore that shit up! After the show it was a bit sad because our bassist Tibbie X had to go home because she's a mother and her babysitter couldn't babysit no longer. So I drowned my sorrow in that amazing Wisconsin sweet leaf and played table hockey until my lower back started aching like my heart did for Tibbie X leaving us. </div>
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We were supposed to pick up Tibbie's replacement for the rest of the tour, Shiro Aoki, a good guy I know from the rock scene in NYC but the airlines fucked his flight up something fierce. There was no way he was making it to <b><span style="font-size: large;">Appleton </span></b>so I proposed playing the set as a trio but my singer Trey had another idea. He contacted <span style="font-size: large;"><b>Eric from Wartorn</b></span> and we met him earlier that day and ran through the set. </div>
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It was colder than a witch's tit that night and when I went to get my guitar from the trunk of our rental there was icy condensation on my Strat and I thanked myself for leaving the Gibson Les Paul back home. I played the Dust Angel set as a trio because we didn't have a bassist anymore since Mike Nowek was driving Tibbie back home and we were able to play some songs we weren't able to before with Mr. Nowek so that was fun. Then Eric from Wartorn came on stage with us that night and played our entire set as good as anyone could have after learning the tunes hours earlier. His band Wartorn tore it up and that he promoted the show as well just goes to show how freakin' amazing he is, not to mention that he also loaded the equipment to and fro the show. After the set I ate some amazing vegan lasagna and I have to admit there was a sense of relief from all of us but there was another party to go to so we huffed, and puffed and blew away so many brain cells. We deserved it so why not. Too bad we had an 8 hour ride to <b style="font-size: x-large;">Des Moines </b>the next day. </div>
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At this point, since we lost two bass players and their car, we had to upgrade our rental. Our first rental, when I opened the glove compartment I found a pack of cigarettes and asked "whose are these?". Everyone said "not mine". I dug into the glove compartment a little deeper and found something a bit more insidious than a strange pack of cigarettes; cocaine, cooked up. I'm glad none of us indulged in the base cocaine that was left behind by the last car renters. With our new rental, true to form, something was left behind for us yet again; a Nintendo DS. No one wanted that either, so after driving all the way to <b><span style="font-size: large;">Des Moines</span></b> no one cared about returning that or smoking up base cocaine. But I digress.............So we had to make it to Des Moines in 8 hours and when you go to sleep when the sun is coming up it's kind of hard to make good time. I wasn't gonna break any speed limit but I couldn't take a break and driving 8 hours was hellish on my lower back and to top shit off I had to pick up <b><span style="font-size: large;">Shiro</span> </b>who finally had the airline fly him into Des Moines. So we picked up Shiro, headed right to the Lucky Cat, plugged in and played our two sets. Nothing like having a full, complete band again. We could have partied, and Shiro really wanted to, but we explained to him that every night we've played there was a party waiting for us right after, so Shiro took pity on us and we crashed at our singer's friends, Tim & Tabatha's house, and we were finally able to catch up with some much needed sleep. </div>
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We drove to <b><span style="font-size: large;">Omaha </span></b>the next day and finally checked into a motel, for it had been a while, since Cleveland. We needed to have some alone time as so we got it. I chilled out, watched a Simpson episode (I'm a big fan) and headed out to the Hideout to play. It was a slammin' crowd for a Monday night and we played one of our more inspired sets because, in the back of our minds we couldn't help but think "dang, this tour is gonna be over soon". Of course after the show we were blazed up and then given some killer bud as a present. Nebraska punks are as great as they come, I'll swear to that just as I'll swear The Shidiots are a great punk band. </div>
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So we headed to<b><span style="font-size: large;"> St.Louis</span></b> and as soon as we hit the venue we were given enough money to go eat up some good ole' St.Louis food, so kind of Bob who promoted the show. Another good turn out. I'm not gonna lie and tell you we were feeling 100%, especially when you play 25 sets in 12 days. I played a Dust Angel set every night and then followed it up with a Reagan Youth set , and that's counting two shows for Reagan Youth in Chicago, so I did my best to sound at 100%. The crowd at Fubar was great and that made a big difference in both sets especially with a fan singing all the lyrics into my mic (just like in Omaha). Afterwards we were given an interview by the lovely Devin Wright and her sweet friend Tess was kind enough to put us up. I have to say it was the most interesting night for me because I didn't just meet musicians but a a filmmaker as well; Jim D. Fuller (look him up in IMBD). He gave his short films "Demons Play", "Die Naked At The Hands Of Your Killer", At First Sight" and "A Cosmic Kiss Goodnight"....sweet! And then the next morning I got to go see <span style="font-size: large;"><b>CBGBs...</b></span>again, but it was closed. And it was in St. Louis, but still.....Devin later confessed to me that she became political science major because of Reagan Youth. Dave, you had to be smiling down from heaven from that one :-) and everyone gave off some of the best vibes we had ever encountered and believe you me, that's saying something, especially after meeting so many great people who were different as individuals but copacetic as only Reagan Youth fans can only be. Needless to say it was sad to drive off to our last show, to our singer's Trey's hometown; Louisville. </div>
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Entering <b><span style="font-size: large;">Louisville</span></b> we lost an hour due to the timeline and we hung out at St. Louis a bit longer than usual because it was so chillax there but that meant we missed our man, <span style="font-size: large;"><b>Mike Defendant</b> </span>from Ohio, when he performed as our opener at Spinelli's Downtown. After the show the band let loose at this great bar, Cahoots, because it was the end of the tour, it was time to indulge at a really beautifully decadent scale. Yet I still was able to find time to jam with Mike on a Jethro Tull acoustic classic; "Mother Goose", and the next day he recorded a country version of "Degenerated" with the guys I brought out whom I owe a many thanks to, most especially to Trey Oswald, Stig Whisper and Shiro Aoki. And mad love to Mike Nowek and ofc ourse mad props have to go out to my band mate extraordinaire Tibbie X. So I partied the night away drinking Bullelit Bourbon (what else should one drink in Louisville, Kentucky?) and then I crashed, hard, at Sam and Bonnie's and woke up late. What to do? Eat at waffle house for some of their well known hash browns, and then just like I was ready to head home.</div>
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You would think after driving this entire tour with no car drama \the one drive home would be simple but we got pulled over for speeding in Ohio. The State Trooper took Stig's drivers license and came back a few minutes later and told Stig he wasn't allowed to drive because his license was "dropped"! That's right "Dropped"? Not suspended, nor revoked, not even stolen, just "dropped". So Shiro went on the internet and searched the internet about anything about a driver's licence being dropped and found absolutely nothing. So we had a ball busting, bull shit artist State Trooper who then asked if anyone else in the car had driver's licences and we all said no, because no of us did (Trey did most of the driving, he's a maniac like that) and then he asked if we knew anyone in Columbus, where we were near. But why wake up people we like at some God forsaken hour, for bullshit and if he could lie to us why shouldn't we do the same to him so we said "No". Well he said he couldn't allow us to sit on the side of the highway because if some car comes plowing into us that would be some lawsuit against that State Trooper who wouldn't let Stig drive because of a "dropped" driver's licence being dropped? So he escorted us to a motel, hung around the parking lot to see if we'd check into some roach motel (we didn't), he then lost interest and we got back to heading home.</div>
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So, let me end by saying this, thank you to everyone, and there was a whole bunch of you who were so super kind to both <b><span style="font-size: large;">Dust Angel and Reagan Youth</span></b>. Next time we'll bring merch for Dust Angel and more merch for Reagan Youth so you could spread some positivity around and not to mention some catchy tunes and great singing. Trust me, you'll see we're only going to sound tighter and better with new tunes being written and rehearsed all the time. And last but certainly not least, once again , my bad <b><span style="font-size: large;">Joe Chaos</span></b>, you did nothing wrong because to ASSUME it was you I was beefing with, I made an ASS out of U and ME. <b><span style="font-size: large;">LONG LIVE THE MIDWEST MUSIC SCENE!</span></b> from your most faithful Axe Meister, Paul Cripple ; )> </div>
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Paul "Cripple" Bakijahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13118373591310015721noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4953778105156684206.post-53528433870926982212011-05-29T23:42:00.015-04:002012-07-10T22:12:33.917-04:00Long Island; Land Of The Ugly American Male<b>LONG ISLAND</b> What the hell is wrong with the male population from long island? Now I ask this question because I am well acquainted with long island as I grew up one county over, in the land of Rego Park, part of Queens county. As I reached my teens I knew it was time to spread my wings and go someplace different from Rego Park... and that was Manhattan, specifically the Lower East Side to play punk rock. But I did go to Long island as well only it wasn't with my friends and band mates, it was with my family. Sometimes we went to the Hamptons to spend all day on a beach catching rays like a true Sun worshiper, digging my feet into the murky waters looking for clams. Other times it was visiting my cousins who lived on a private golf course. Beautiful piece of property Long island. No wonder the native Americans loved it so much. But Native Americans do not live there anymore for there is a new type of people living out in Long Island, and I must say that if God hates "ugly", then he must really, really despise the men residing in Long Island. But I will be focusing primarily on three of those men, all of whom played in the band Reagan Youth at one time or another.<br />
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The first band mate from Long Island was a serious musician. Dave Insurgent loved his playing and asked that he join the band. It seemed like a perfect fit, the guy was knowledgeable about the sound we expected from him, and he did it really well when we tried him out. I asked Dave "what about the other guys" but Dave was dead set on having the Long Islander. So Reagan Youth had it's first Long islander in the band, and what's the first thing he does; he does a complete 180 on the sound coming from his instrument. It wasn't perfect sounding like he played at the band's try outs, it was totally different; it sounded like shit, and arguments between Dave and the Long Islander started and never ceased. But we played live shows and we came up with new songs regardless and when three out of four guys in a band are rockin' it, and one isn't, and the one guy who isn't rocking it ain't the singer, well it was good enough. But then it came time to record our first record and the arguments just grew nastier and louder. Me and the other musician watched as Dave and the Long Islander argued and argued. Now the way I looked at it was "Hey, didn't this guy join 'our' band? Reagan Youth didn't ask to join him, so why isn't doing what he promised to do when he joined the band". It just didn't make sense to me.
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So we end up recording and then releasing our very first record, an e.p. named "Youth Anthems for the New Order" and everything sounded pretty on... except for the Long Islander. His playing sucked so much that he can not really be heard on the record as much as the rest of us. And why isn't he heard as much as the rest of us? His instrument was vital to the band's sound, it's just that the sound recorded from his instrument sounded a lot like a big fart sound and Dave Insurgent was not going to give that crappy sound the same volume as the rest of us who played the songs the way they were supposed to.
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Shortly after we recorded the record Reagan Youth made plans to go and play the west coast and in true fashion the Long Islander said "No". So we parted ways and we didn't see him at all for years and I'll admit it, the guy was never a friend and I would never consider him anything more than someone that I played in a band with. But he was never a friend because people that self absorbed with themselves don't have friends (still doesn't all these years later... the guy hasn't learned anything about being a stand up human being). Before Dave died we met up with this Long islander because we were re-releasing the e.p as an entire l.p. with three new songs added to be called Volume I. I can remember him telling Dave and I that "Reagan Youth never existed before he joined and after he left the band Reagan Youth ceased to exist". I told him "No, we played all these shows with the original members, how can you not remember that? And after you left we continued to play without you, and we wrote some new songs that are gonna be released as our second record". Long Islander quickly said "Hey I'll play on that new record" and Dave and I looked at each other like he was from another planet. No way we wanted to go through his nonsense all over again.<br />
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Well we ended up releasing the second record but only after the band had ended it's run. I assumed that was that except all these years later when I had a chance to play these songs all over again and that's when I met the other Long Islander. I needed replacement players and the other Long Islander tried out and after I asked him to join. I explained to him that I needed him to learn the songs the only way; the correct way, and to not change them. The only other thing I explained was the band's politics which were anti-racist, anti-hatred and though we were anti republican, that in no way that meant we were pro democracy. Reagan Youth is an anarchist band which meant we do what you want, as long as what you wanna do doesn't hurt other people. It's the only way to be an individual, not a conformist. It's what a true punk rocker would believe in. So what does the other Long Islander do when he is firmly entrenched in the band? Well let me tell you it wasn't pretty and very, very pathetic. Even way more pathetic than Long Islander #1. Read on....<br />
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Well the other Long Islander thought the band Reagan Youth was now property that he, and he alone owned. When I would say this isn't so he would say "Well if they aren't my songs the it's not 'my' band". And I would say "How can they be your songs when you weren't even born when some of them were written and you were a small child when the rest were written". but this did not stop him from telling people "hey you have Reagan Youth on your ipod? that's me on your ipod". Of course the girl with the ipod was confused and the other Long Islander admitted she was but that he explained it to her. I was like "What did you explain, that you lied and that it isn't you on her ipod?"...lol. Or the time we walked into a record store and the other Long Islander picks up the band's first album, walks over to the counter and tells the store owner "you see this record, that's me" and the record store owner just laughed in his face. I was terribly embarrassed for the other Long Islander but he didn't seem to care, he was too busy living a lie. Just how big the lie he was living I would soon find out.<br />
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You see this other Long Islander claimed he was in love with a girl, but you can't love someone else when you can only love yourself. But regardless he would have long conversations to me about his love for this girl, except one thing always happened, and that was that he wouldn't speak of his love for the girl, but rather his hatred for her boyfriend. What I finally found out was that the other Long Islander was dressing up like the boyfriend/fiancee (he's now her husband, and I good man... he moved out of Long Island) of the girl he claimed to love. what's more is the Other Long Islander had his girlfriend dress up exactly like the girl he claimed to love. he even had his girlfriend add on to her name the name of the girl he claimed to love. And I thought I was having problems with this guy.<br />
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Well needless to say I got rid of the other Long Islander and last I heard he has moved into the same neighborhood as the girl he claims to love so she can be more easily stalked. This is not funny because this poor girl is gonna have to move to another neighborhood because of the other Long Islander having this sick problem of wanting to be someone else, and having his girlfriend be someone else. talk about a sick, sick man. But unfortunately when his hair starting falling out he had no problem popping propecia pills to put hair back on his head. But to take meds that would make him sane, well he thought that was just too outrageous, you know, like a true Long Island asshole.
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Now the Last Long Islander was the biggest doozy of them all. Like a true Long Islander he was a Jets fan, you know, because they play in New Jersey. Now I grew up loving to play sports and American football was one I loved. I was a Steelers fan growing up, and Dave Insurgent loved the Dallas Cowboys, but when it came to the New York teams we both like the Jets over the Giants.
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcw_KomUOS_A_nLdCle91Jk-hDXK5QvKFxOofCgczFxwJYINrvB3ojQYqDnb4DBfkc2ayWkdlNHRBeczAuiAL2IF4uyTWrOr21NuPVmuhrT8SskzQVKlVj_vWQRAGt58jXhZ82l4OJ6-Vh/s1600/JoeNamathBeaverCrusher.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear:left; float:left;margin-right:1em; margin-bottom:1em"><img border="0" height="200" width="151" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcw_KomUOS_A_nLdCle91Jk-hDXK5QvKFxOofCgczFxwJYINrvB3ojQYqDnb4DBfkc2ayWkdlNHRBeczAuiAL2IF4uyTWrOr21NuPVmuhrT8SskzQVKlVj_vWQRAGt58jXhZ82l4OJ6-Vh/s200/JoeNamathBeaverCrusher.jpg" /></a></div> Let's face it, the Jets with Joe Namath and his anti-establishment look and attitude was way cooler, as was John Riggins growing a mohawk and moving to New York city's village to reside. these were true individuals, not conformists. But the Jets of today are nothing like that. it's all about Fireman Ed, the creepiest football fan alive. Well anyhow the Last long Islander was a monster Jet's fan, so much that he has a room in his home filled with jet paraphernalia. That's not so bad, but what is bad about the room is that no girls are allowed. I guess the last Long Islander doesn't want any women in the room, but who would when viewing bestiality porn of a snake being pulled out of a female's vagina. But enough about the Jets, let's talk music because the Last Long Islander was an amazing musician.
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The Last Long Islander played his instrument as good as anyone I've ever heard and when we went on tour he was not like the other Long Islanders, he didn't suck playing live. But after the gig he was as horrible as horrible gets. You see, the Last Long Islander has a problem with women/girls; females will always be beneath him, as they either need his saving because of their weakness or are nothing but a bunch of whores...but never too ugly to fuck. And that's a big problem because when Reagan Youth plays a lot of pretty girls show up. But the Last Long Islander walked past every pretty girl and headed straight for the scariest looking woman I've seen in a long while and proceeded to tell her "You smell like a piece of candy".<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWUZ263Av-29nFm4NEC2S5gKP8WPWYLzEHguqCo70XhTJGyHHNMSb7efj_xeuucsx2Vyziiq-LpgJtpf8pbFvfifPfypYK1cqCNpb3FJOi3c3bI9nyLIGE-5TsInr5C6s6Ah3fBiJozFnp/s1600/seahag.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear:right; float:right; margin-left:1em; margin-bottom:1em"><img border="0" height="320" width="215" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWUZ263Av-29nFm4NEC2S5gKP8WPWYLzEHguqCo70XhTJGyHHNMSb7efj_xeuucsx2Vyziiq-LpgJtpf8pbFvfifPfypYK1cqCNpb3FJOi3c3bI9nyLIGE-5TsInr5C6s6Ah3fBiJozFnp/s320/seahag.jpg" /></a></div>Now even the ugliest woman alive can smell desperation miles away, so of course she was completely creeped out by the Last Long Islander. But that didn't stop the Last Long Islander, even if it meant costing the band hundreds of dollars, which it did, as well as hours and hours being wasted. And it's not like the Last Long Islander got any sex, because he didn't, he just got rejected and Reagan Youth ended up driving 4 more hours in the rain (we drove eight hours in the rain earlier that day) and instead of being a man and admitting to a mistake, he said to me "But Paul, I was coked out". yeah, whenever I do cocaine I make a bee line for the ugliest woman at the venue and tell her she smells like a piece of candy. I mean 'who does that'? And then he just went onto complain about my girlfriend, like she was the problem, but she wasn't even there, so what the fuck did she have to do with that fiasco? It was then that the other band member's told me how the Last long Islander had called them up to ask "What are we gonna do about Paul's girlfriend?". The other band member's told the Last Long Islander "Look, I'm busy at work and don't call me about this shit again" and the other band member said "Paul, I like your girlfriend and I didn't know what he meant, so I didn't know what to say". And this band member was a Jets fan just like the Last Long Islander and he must have thought that meant it was all right to call him with that bullshit and worse the Last long Islander would use the word "Nigger" around him, a lot. Obviously this does not work, at all, for Reagan Youth. But we had more gigs to play.<br />
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So the next gig we play one of the band members, and obviously it wasn't the Last Long Islander, actually got some sex from this pretty girl/Reagan Youth fan, only it was completely opposite of what happened the night before. There was no "hey, you smell like a piece of candy", but just a matter of plain ole drunken revelry. It was harmless fun but the Last Long Islander didn't see it that way because he was too busy being a jealous bitch ass. The next thing you know he's threatening to leave us stranded even though the band paid for the vehicle (the tour van was in the Last Long Islander's name) we were using. Real stand up guy that Last Long Islander, huh? Now I had to open up on the Last Long Islander and boy did I ever. I had to explain that this wasn't 'his' band or even 'his' tour van, it was Reagan Youth's tour and since 'we' paid for the van, what the fuck was he talking about. He said "point taken' and nothing else because, what else could he say? So the tour went on but he was miserable because young pretty girls of legal age not only showed up to watch us play, but were in our dressing room. So the Last Long Islander would storm out of the dressing room because he thought it should be like his Jet's room in his house out on Long Island, The room where no females are allowed, only him and his non friends allowed. Well the tour ended and we haven't spoken since because, obviously, because he's way too embarrassed that everyone in Reagan Youth knows what a jerk the Last Long Islander is.<br />
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Now after this I thought "hey, there must be a connection between these three assholes" so I did decided to do some research but before I could I had to relax, being that I just came home from tour. Osama Bin Laden had just been killed by navy seals who kept his wives alive, you know, because the wives actually attacked the navy seals but they just had to blow Osama Bin Laden's brain's out because his brain held a treasure trove of Al Qaeda secrets and America thought it best just to blow out brain and dump it into the Arabian Sea. <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpgJwyzNSlnS-Qtn0a8nxeMFvZxfrwC3JpA3Yx3on_kCuTM5v1hwgeKe_G8TjTYbtfg7XhFkdPtdBVRouE9uv4xKpp424GCShNg8EqIEyws8zGIswERLxd9mkifkDaXefdYrn42YrEDb3U/s1600/110308_peter_king_ap_605.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear:left; float:left;margin-right:1em; margin-bottom:1em"><img border="0" height="174" width="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpgJwyzNSlnS-Qtn0a8nxeMFvZxfrwC3JpA3Yx3on_kCuTM5v1hwgeKe_G8TjTYbtfg7XhFkdPtdBVRouE9uv4xKpp424GCShNg8EqIEyws8zGIswERLxd9mkifkDaXefdYrn42YrEDb3U/s320/110308_peter_king_ap_605.jpg" /></a></div>And was it the right thing to do? Maybe we should ask Pete King,Chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, and he's from, you guessed it; Long Island. But there was other news on that day, like that an off duty Long Island police officer pulled his loaded revolver from his holster and pointed it at a bartender who was doing absolutely nothing but serving him drinks all night.
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It made me remember when we were in Chattanooga and the local police officer apologized to the Last Long Islander because Chattanooga didn't have a Chase Bank for us to make a deposit. The Last long Islander thought that was so surreal for an officer of the law to be so courteous and hospitable, and of course he would, he's from Long Island.
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But eventually I searched the internet about Long Island and what did I find? That Long Islanders are talking of secession from New York state. On March 28, 2008 Suffolk County proposed a plan that would make Long Island (specifically, Nassau and Suffolk counties) the 51st state of the United States of America so that all the Long Island taxpayers' money would stay on Long Island, rather than have it shared with the rest of the state of New York, because, you know, Long Islanders are special like that.
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNpmlftRtj15WOkoDb99rYk6IHamA4cmiwR9FIphTAdwP40oASDqXia3EC2X7TNI8tTX8tQhle8AxNrIySz9piHeBMxHmVtV1TrXBcaWEfaj92cwINCJFYAs4yev98lENAm8btw-O7XhE0/s1600/ili-flag-medium.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left:1em; margin-right:1em"><img border="0" height="192" width="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNpmlftRtj15WOkoDb99rYk6IHamA4cmiwR9FIphTAdwP40oASDqXia3EC2X7TNI8tTX8tQhle8AxNrIySz9piHeBMxHmVtV1TrXBcaWEfaj92cwINCJFYAs4yev98lENAm8btw-O7XhE0/s320/ili-flag-medium.png" /></a></div>
<p>That reminded me of when the Long Islander put out a Reagan Youth c.d. and told the record label that he would be the only one to get paid from it. Like that happened .....lol. Or when the Other Long Islander thought because he would do the 'Heil Hitler' salute "for real" when we played Berlin, that it meant he was the leader of Reagan Youth and that all the songs now belonged to him and him alone..... yeah right....lmao. Or when the Last Long Islander, and he is the last Long Islander that will ever be in Reagan Youth, thought that he was in charge of the band. The Last Long Islander can't get any sex from the ugliest woman I've seen in years and that makes him in charge .... yeah sure it does ....lol.<br />
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In closing let me say this; Long Islanders epitomize what is wrong with the United States today. The U.S. of A is not the best country in the world, it's only different than all the other countries. Is the U.S. better because it allows British Petrol to pollute Louisiana and then watches as the C.E.O. of British Petrol gets a big bonus because Gas prices went up because of it's fiasco? Is it better because the rich get big tax breaks but the middle and working class get screwed? I don't believe that makes the U.S. better than all the other countries in the world. Different? for sure, but certainly not better. Now I know the ugly American male from Long Island can't believe any country in the world can be better than the U.S. and nowhere in the U.S. is there a better place to be than Long Island. Well I believe that as much as I believe that Al Qaeda is planning to blow up Nassau Coliseum because the Islanders are such a great hockey team these days.
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My apologies to all the Long Islanders that I know that happen to be cool, upstanding people. People that I know are good people. But the three that played in Reagan Youth that hail form Long Island? Stop blaming women for your problems and get over yourselves.
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibi92uShsx3BIhdmOLY9ehrOCJxBBYMe60K9IQCFP0XqIKLVSLODZQMHwQIN1UGhay-43zLxpsRjFv-P5PaxIT-4CXHt0RIP4Vz3D61sSpRBVVJNhnEElU2NS865qpawuhcLultmZns5D1/s1600/image.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear:left; float:left;margin-right:1em; margin-bottom:1em"><img border="0" height="320" width="233" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibi92uShsx3BIhdmOLY9ehrOCJxBBYMe60K9IQCFP0XqIKLVSLODZQMHwQIN1UGhay-43zLxpsRjFv-P5PaxIT-4CXHt0RIP4Vz3D61sSpRBVVJNhnEElU2NS865qpawuhcLultmZns5D1/s320/image.JPG" /></a></div>And lest we forget serial killer Joel Rifkin that murdered Dave Insurgent's finance, Tiffany. Where was he from?.....exactly.<br />
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Now let's see, not long after I wrote this, a Long Islander murders, in cold blood, 4 people while robbing a pharmacy. The crime "didn't make sense" according to the police commissioner, but it did, if you see where he's from. A self centered human being, not caring about anyone else but them self, that's what happens when you don't have neighbors to the north, south, or east and your only neighbors are in the 'wild west' with freaky New Yorkers. The "Pain Killer" did not show any remorse for what he did, of course he didn't, why would anyone who only cares for themselves show remorse? They don't and never won't.<br />
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Here's a Thanksgiving update, specifically to the person who thinks Quakers were at the 'first' Thanksgiving. Funny, I was always taught it was the Pilgrims and Quakers came way later to Pennsylvania. Hey, maybe he can go share some cranberries and squash with someone, anyone from the Algonquin tribe. Highly doubt that, but he can always share a slice of sweet potato pie with this racist garbage picking asshole in the video below.<br />
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As for the video below about this great American war hero, just keep in mind, McCain is a republican who ran for the presidency against Barack Obama. He had to be thinking about the three guys that were once in Reagan Youth that were born and raised in the very place he disparaged. <br />
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</object>Paul "Cripple" Bakijahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13118373591310015721noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4953778105156684206.post-56886946170922456832008-05-12T14:58:00.088-04:002011-05-29T21:37:15.338-04:00Volume Two<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3GCMiVgZnDOmBS33Hymxs-MlXco6z7TIA5I7s0ScAXwnq6HVLK1cEyGuNa9BCVbTFbX-C6T5d7B0GG88rENyiqZbVlq_JBPm7xs1UJVLEiWI_yQKP84jlUT_RI98GOvpV7U02SfrnJmMb/s1600-h/Reagan+Youth+Volume+II.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3GCMiVgZnDOmBS33Hymxs-MlXco6z7TIA5I7s0ScAXwnq6HVLK1cEyGuNa9BCVbTFbX-C6T5d7B0GG88rENyiqZbVlq_JBPm7xs1UJVLEiWI_yQKP84jlUT_RI98GOvpV7U02SfrnJmMb/s320/Reagan+Youth+Volume+II.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5202580828889100466" /></a><br />
Yes, I know, a bunch of you went "What the fuck?" after hearing Volume Two, especially when you compare it to Volume One. I can definitely understand that. What I will do is explain why this all came to be. Now let me just make clear that Dave and I had been writing songs since junior high and by the time Reagan Youth's first gig, we had a full set of songs ready to go. At that very first show, at A7, for an encore we played "One Holy Bible" though the drummer wanted to do the breakdown part of "Queen Babylon". Now they were called by different names back then, and they went through several name changes until they were finally recorded on Volume Two. So those songs were around at the exact same time as everything from "Youth Anthems For the New Order". But the tunes remained the same, and so did a few of the lyrics. But we continued to write songs, but some of the songs we wrote were not for Reagan Youth, so we reserved those tunes for our next band, which we called House of God. Three of us (Dave, Javier and I) were playing in House of God when recording we started recording Volume Two. But all the songs on Volume Two are in no way, shape or form House Of God songs, I mean shit, we played "Back To the Garden" back at Max's Kansas City and just look at the last time that place was open. Now that I got the fact that a majority of those songs we had from the beginning, let me explain what happened.<br />
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We started recording in the Spring of 1989, right after Reagan Youth had disbanded. We wanted to play that one last Reagan Youth show, in D.C., as our farewell, so I called up our bassist, Victor Venom, and asked him about playing it. Victor answers the phone and tells me that he never wants to see us, let alone play a gig with us, again. So that was the end of that. Javier, Dave and I were playing in a new band, House of God, with a new bassist, Chris Simunek, and we were ready to fuck with organized religion the way Reagan Youth fucked with right wing politics, and that wasn't going to be the only change. The music had became more complex, but it would still remain catchy as hell. So instead of two minute political punk rock songs, we were going to play 8 minute songs about the evils of organized religion. Around this time is when Dave and I met Nicky Garratt, the guitarist from the U.K. Subs.<br />
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<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFQ2tHgfpmqhgwDyx21Me-gGHBp3PBACCRIUn_yKgPWbyWm5VuyuIgqmtIUmpTfLncC1mzs6zPjqJtBCoa66AnZcVoh8GawC-UtONDCRpKJs6bni947Pzx_GnxwoGQ06XhODATrXCsyM29/s1600-h/NickyGarrett+UK+SUBS+03.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFQ2tHgfpmqhgwDyx21Me-gGHBp3PBACCRIUn_yKgPWbyWm5VuyuIgqmtIUmpTfLncC1mzs6zPjqJtBCoa66AnZcVoh8GawC-UtONDCRpKJs6bni947Pzx_GnxwoGQ06XhODATrXCsyM29/s320/NickyGarrett+UK+SUBS+03.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5202585471748747506" /></a> <br />
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Dave and I met Nicky at the Palllidium and he told us about his new label, "New Red Archives'. He offers to re-release our only record, a seven song e.p., under the condition that we add whatever songs were leftover from those 'Youth Anthems For The New order' sessions, making it album length. Dave and I had a condition of our own; we wanted to put out another album which would consist of all the other Reagan Youth songs that we never got around to recording. So we gave Nicky a demo tape of that stuff. Now the only other thing we ever did with that demo was bring it to Metal Blade (or was it Road Runner?) records. We were told that they only release metal, no punk, and that we should come back when we had House Of God ready. So we took home our complimentary King Diamond (or was it Mercyful Fate?) records and nothing more was ever done with the demo, until we gave it to Nicky Garratt. So Nicky ends up agreeing.<br />
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Now a whole year goes by when I finally gave Nicky a call. I told him "Alright, we're ready to do this" and he's like "But Paul, that was a year ago?". We end up having a discussion about Dave and his drug use and I ended up assuring Nicky that I'd be responsible for making sure the shit got done. What one has to understand putting out one last Reagan youth album, let alone re-releasing our first e.p. as a complete album was taking aback seat to our new band, House Of God. Our new band was so much more important to Dave and I because we had been developing these songs for the past two or three years. It wasn't that putting out some more Reagan Youth material was unimportant, it's just that House Of God was gonna be the band that I, and I can assume Dave, felt that we could actually make it in the music business. Reagan Youth was well known, but we were viewing House of God as being something that could be more than just well known; that we could actually become "big". Oh well, so much for that dream happening.<br />
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Mixing Volume I went smooth enough, with Dave choosing alternate versions of every song on "Youth Anthems for the New Order" and adding three new songs; "In nDog We Trust", "No Class" and "Anytown". But it was time now to record the songs for Volume II. I called Victor and asked him if he could put aside whatever bullshit there was and to 'just come in and play' bass. Victor said he'd do it so we were set going into the studio. Nicky books studio time at Saatchi & Saatchi, an advertising company who have a topof the line recording equipment so they can record all their jingles and shit. It was going to be real fuckin' sweet recording the rest of our songs there. Unfortunately, that would be our only visit to Saatchi Studios because the security & staff from the building told Nicky that Dave wasn't to be allowed back in there, not even allowed to walk through the front door into the lobby. It had everything to do with the way he looked, or more to the point, the way he smelled. Dave's addiction had made him 'tore up from the floor up' but at least at that time he was showin' up. <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtukO6mCjSdz1EVFtZRuRqLrf692z8IFvO7H4IOsUN3rtLxoee2p21x5ZFEfiMbD2Ac7hyphenhyphenauUgMqgoMFWHNr88YZbDyxT3EquNvgAJtmvsfpJQHBwwzFGLtBRQ4nM0fGmsh4PePAITiEc4/s1600-h/JohnnyAztec.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtukO6mCjSdz1EVFtZRuRqLrf692z8IFvO7H4IOsUN3rtLxoee2p21x5ZFEfiMbD2Ac7hyphenhyphenauUgMqgoMFWHNr88YZbDyxT3EquNvgAJtmvsfpJQHBwwzFGLtBRQ4nM0fGmsh4PePAITiEc4/s320/JohnnyAztec.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5202582671430070482" /></a>So we went to record at Toxic studios instead, and first thing I did was borrow a Fender Precision for Victor to play. We always had to supply Victor with a bass when he played in the band, he considered himself a guitarist first, and soon he began playing bass like it was beneath him. And now when it was time to record, it was no different, but actually, way worse. <br />
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Now we hadn't seen, let alone played with, Victor in the longest time but I was certain of one thing, that Victor could play. The only thing was that Victor came in and played some real uninspired shit. I'm sure he thought he was keeping it punk and snotty but the only time Victor showed any real interest, at all, was when he asked me "So how does Nausea get the same record deal as Reagan Youth?". I pointed to Nicky, who was present in the studio at the time, and said "Well Nicky's right over there. I mean, he is the guy to ask, the label owner, not me". So Victor just shrugged his broad, lean, masculine shoulders and walked over to speak with Nicky. Well it was no more than a week before Victor tells us that he has to leave, that he can't record with us any more because he has to go on tour with Nausea. The record wasn't close to being finished but he just shrugged and said "too bad".<br />
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Right after he left I went and recorded an alternate bass track for "Get the Ruler Out". I told Dave and Nicky that Victor's bass playing wasn't worth shit, and they wanted to hear Vic's playing before any decisions were made. So I told the engineer, Jim Fourniadis, to play for them Vic's bass track so they could hear it for themselves. He plays them "Get The Ruler Out" and they immediately tell me "The bass sounds great" and "Vic's playing is fine, don't touch it, what are you crazy?". Now I'm listening to it along with them and I'm like "What the fuck?" because it didn't sound like this before. So I go and ask Jim "Is that the bass that Victor's playing?" and Jim tells me he's playing the bass track I recorded. So I went and explained to Dave and Nicky that Jim had played my bass track instead of Vic's and right away Dave said "You should play bass on the album"/ It would be extra work for me to record the bass on all of the songs but Dave wanted that and Nicky was cool with it immediately. On Volume II I'm listed as; Pusi Koorahtz, bassist. <br />
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Now when you go in a re-record the songs again, that means time is a wasting, and even bigger, money is being wasted. Dave would say "You're taking the costs out of the record sales, so what does it matter" but Nicky was uncomfortable, and how could he not be? But even more important, was the music itself. When you record songs without a full band being present, problems arise. For instance, on "One Holy Bible", the 'improved' part was to be played by all three musicians simultaneously. When Victor left, I had to focus on getting the arrangement right instead of playing the improvisation. On "Queen Babylon", during the 'breakdown' part, we mistakenly played it five times instead of the usual four, so I had to throw out what I usually did as a guitar solo and start from scratch. And when I said let's go record it again the engineer, Jim, told me "Nicky said no more of that, if it sounds decent, then we go to the next song". Now for the most part, we were able to get through it, but those songs and some others could have and should have been played much better, not to mention mixed down. So No Thanks To Victor the Sphincter for all the time and money <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEEP94sxDJzfNyLuAY6_vKDdg8vCzjCHPV2GqPIdt0ZnlyRajxClnB7AgofLXewbMmjRH3YVusGaLtvU0A7KHkaXRrdLxWbGOQZBFTW-IRBo_KTaG0Qlok-h8o6tg51vBiO18GT8epKEf6/s1600-h/Vic+Venom+and+Dave+Insurgent.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEEP94sxDJzfNyLuAY6_vKDdg8vCzjCHPV2GqPIdt0ZnlyRajxClnB7AgofLXewbMmjRH3YVusGaLtvU0A7KHkaXRrdLxWbGOQZBFTW-IRBo_KTaG0Qlok-h8o6tg51vBiO18GT8epKEf6/s320/Vic+Venom+and+Dave+Insurgent.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5202581846796349634" /></a><br />
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Another band member who also went missing, but for different reasons, was the most crucial one, the singer, the leader; Dave Insurgent. "Since I don't play an instrument, I really don't need to be here" was his excuse whenever he didn't show up for the basic track recordings but at least he would show up enough times. When the music was finished it was time for Dave's vocals. A block of time was booked for Dave to come in and sing but he doesn't show up. I called him up and asked "What happened?" and he comes up with some lame story about waiting the entire night for his superintendent to come by and fix his toilet. So another block of time was booked but Dave blows it off again. When I called him up this second time, he starts in with the nonsense about his super and his toilet. Well this goes on and on, again and again and Nicky and I begin to wonder if Dave is ever gonna show up. And just if you're wondering, yes, Dave knew he was welcomed to bring his drugs and paraphernalia into the studio. None of us were gonna bust his balls about pulling hits off his crack pipe in between singing his verses, we knew Dave was not ready to give up drugs, we just wanted him to come in and do what he did, sing Reagan youth songs. <br />
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So it got to the point where Nicky comes up with the idea of bouncing Dave's vocals from the band's demo onto the new recordings. I thought that would sound like shit so I came up with a better idea; I'd go down, find Dave, and personally escort him to the studio. I went to his place but he wasn't there so I left a note on his door, basically saying that he better show up tonight, and sing every fuckin' song, or I'd take giant shit on him like something fierce, you motherfucker, you better show up! Y'know, like that. It got his attention because he called me, pronto, and told me how fucked up my note was I'm was like "Yeah, yeah, whatever. Now make sure you just show the fuck up.", and yes, he did. <br />
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That night Nicky and I met up with Dave at a deli that was near the studio. Nicky bought him a tea and some lozenges to soothe his throat and then we escorted Dave to the studio and explained to Jim, the engineer, that Dave could not leave, under no circumstances, the studio until he sand a take on every song. Nicky and I leave them alone to do their thing and I go home. The next time I see Jim I ask him how Dave's vocal session went. He told me that Dave sang two tracks on each song before he left, and that he said he'd come back to fix up all his weak spots, which were many, let's face it. But days went by and soon they turned to weeks and it became obvious that Dave wasn't in any rush to come by the studio. As the lead singer, laying down vocal tracks are important, but as the leader of the band, mixing down the record was just as, if not, more important. Nicky had been so patient with us but by this time his patience was just about gone. So Nicky asks me what should be done and I tell him "Just go use whatever we have" as I figured Dave would call up eventually, outraged that he didn't sort through and edit out all the bullshit. Basically, to come in and give it a final mix. I was pissed something fierce at the way Dave was behaving, so my thinking at that time was "Let Dave go bitch to Nicky about how it can't be released like that when he finally decides to show up". I knew in the back of my mind that Nicky would allow Dave to do that, but unfortunately, Dave never ever did show up at the studio.<br />
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Soon after that I get this phone call, but it's not from Dave or Nicky. Some police officer is calling to ask me what I know about Dave. I ask him "What happened?" and the cop says "You tell me" like some real wise ass. So I'm like "Okay, so Dave's in jail?" and the cop says "No, no, no. He's not in jail". Next I ask "Is he dead?" and the cop chuckles at that one as he says "Oh no, he's not dead". I take a moment to think what's left and I say "So he's in rehab?" and the cop says "Nope. He's not in rehab". At this point I'm all out of ideas so I'm like "I give up, so where is he?" and the cop tells me to "Go call his parents if you want to find out", and so I do. I get Dave's mom on the line and she tells me that "Someone beat David up with a baseball bat and he just came out of a coma". <br />
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The next day I visit Dave in the hospital and boy is it tough, he looks like hell. Dave's eye lid was swollen so much it reached all the way down to his upper lip. His parents were there and I find out that he needed a lobotomy to save his life. Eventually, he gets discharged from the hospital but Dave now has stitches going around his forehead from ear to ear. When Dave finally recovered, as best he could, I asked him what happened. Dave told me he couldn't remember anything. Neither Dave nor I insisted on getting back the tapes and giving it a real final mix. At that time, I was just hoping that Dave would be able to do the artwork for the album and the ensuing CD. I'm sure Dave could have convinced Nicky to get back the tapes, and allow him to re-mix it, but how could Dave even think about that stuff when life altering events, for the worse, had happened to him. Of course I wish I had actually taken home a cassette of the recordings, and dissected them, and then actually mixed it down, but I had assumed Dave would have eventually taken care of it. I remember when Nicky sent us the final mix on cassette, I kept telling Dave that I had put backing vocals throughout "Acid Rain" and boy did that freak him out. When he finally heard it, he was cool with the backing vocals, but not all those lead guitar tracks. The lead guitar track behind Dave's vocals on "Urban Savages" works just fine, on "Miss Teen America" and "Get The Ruler Out", it doesn't. It was too late to go back, just like it was too late for Dave to go back and live without having Frankenstein like stitches forever crowning his countenance. And so that is how Volume Two ended up sounding the way it did.<br />
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In retrospect, things just went from bad to worse from the time I called Victor to play on the record. So many sessions (weeks and weeks worth) were wasted because of his shit playing. Javier told us, afterwards, that Victor had told him the only reason he was going to do the record with us was because he knew the record would make money, and that's all he was doing it for. Too bad Victor didn't show up to play some bass that didn't suck instead. Then there was the time when Javier had brought his brand new motorcycle to the studio in order to show it to us. He parked it out front, on the street, and by the end of the session it had been stolen. Things were going like that and it didn't make things better, obviously. That it all culminated with Dave getting beaten an inch from his life just made it all pretty miserable. Do I hate Volume Two? No, I do not, but that my bass playing is way better than my guitar playing says a whole lot. I love the songs on it, I just wish we could've played them way better.Paul "Cripple" Bakijahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13118373591310015721noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4953778105156684206.post-17652606461935333742008-05-05T00:47:00.026-04:002011-05-29T21:41:37.862-04:00Andy Zapathy<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMArkwdeG8jQDBoJhnuJAocqAODQc98tQd-iUEGC1jRG5O5HXhz9BdVuoAAJOt0jbEBzsordOtomCGxbeKVyW4ocWFUyWZlXrmVA7xwcaiMIhgiKmigZ2agv97kg6Ypl2Nts2m4eeTI5OW/s1600-h/l_b82a6d1e3e2a729f360b9d8d1fcf00b6.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMArkwdeG8jQDBoJhnuJAocqAODQc98tQd-iUEGC1jRG5O5HXhz9BdVuoAAJOt0jbEBzsordOtomCGxbeKVyW4ocWFUyWZlXrmVA7xwcaiMIhgiKmigZ2agv97kg6Ypl2Nts2m4eeTI5OW/s320/l_b82a6d1e3e2a729f360b9d8d1fcf00b6.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5223838962720702674" /></a><br />
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This is a story I just have to tell, it's about the first bassist of Reagan Youth, Andy Apathy. Andy Bryan, his real name, was from Rego Park, Queens and he was one of the most amazing people I've ever had the pleasure to know. So allow me to tell you a story of one of the coolest people ever to have graced this planet.<br />
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Dave Insurgent and I were already playing in a punk rock band called PUS back in junior high and by the time we went to high school, we had already met our first drummer, Charley Bonet. Charley looked a lot like Marky Ramone and played a lot like Tommy Ramone so he was a perfect fit. But we had problems finding a bassist. After running through a few guys, Charley knew a guy from his side of Rego Park (the north side of Queens Boulevard, Dave and I were from the south side), so we decided to give him a try. When I first met Andy he was a guitarist, not a bassist, and when he was approached about joining our band he told me "Why I don't join the band as a second guitarist instead of bass and me and you could be like Jimmy Zero and Cheetah Chrome of the Dead Boys". It sounded cool but it still wouldn't have solved our 'bassist problem'. Eventually we heard that he traded his Gibson S.G. and got a Rickenbacker bass and so finally he became a member of the band.<br />
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Andy was already established on the punk scene in New York city. He had somehow got himself in John Holmstrom's Punk magazine, and you can see him standing beside Joey Ramone and Debbie Harry in a picture where those two punk legends are supposedly getting married. Andy was credited as Andy Zap: ring bearer. Andy was so far ahead of the curve when it came to other things as well. While we were losing our virginity, Andy was already having threesomes. Andy was doing the best drugs while we were trying drugs for the first time. He was hanging out with cool people from Manhattan while we were hanging out with Jewish American princesses in Queens. He was basically living the punk rock lifestyle better than we could have imagined. <br />
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Back home in Queens, we'd be hanging out and Andy would tell us that he knew the exact basement which the Ramones sang about in their song Basement ( y'know... hey daddy O, I don't wanna go, down, to the base). We'd go into this basement and it wasn't anything special except it was really easy to get into. We'd be rolling joints and opening quarts of beer as we sat on the washers and dryers. Funny enough, no tenants, let alone police ever came to bother us. We'd bring a boom box and crank punk songs all night long as we got wasted. Andy also took us to the building Joey Ramone grew up in. He took us to a building on Queens boulevard and we'd walk into the lobby. he showed us a buzzer with the name Hymen next to it. "That's Joey Ramones' real last name." he'd tell us, "Y'know, like a girl's pussy, the hymen." and we'd laugh because it was funny and we were way stoned (I know this sounds so stupid, but when you're young stone that's what you are, is stupid). What was really cool to us was that the Ramones had gone to the same high school we were going to, Forest Hills High. Andy was no longer going to that school because he was way to cool for that shit. <br />
<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhuebfS5A1HrhA02KYGlsc_5XqVPgeHfUO5jbfzMjlomzr3GRcLRB7Mjb4hN-3f3AX25rfu17bll8IGlh8_jWKnMZnktP39sOWzkjd1LkwW4Uemm90OFfSoXX07HmHTQIIE9LRmuAvWQezi/s1600-h/gefREAGAN+YOUTH3.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhuebfS5A1HrhA02KYGlsc_5XqVPgeHfUO5jbfzMjlomzr3GRcLRB7Mjb4hN-3f3AX25rfu17bll8IGlh8_jWKnMZnktP39sOWzkjd1LkwW4Uemm90OFfSoXX07HmHTQIIE9LRmuAvWQezi/s320/gefREAGAN+YOUTH3.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5198927315640559410" /></a> Andy was the one who hooked up our first gig at A7, opening for Butch Lust and the Hypocrites. The Hypocrites had, as their bassist, Screaming Mad George, formerly from the Mad, a great early New York city punk band. Andy knew him personally. The hypocrites also had an amazing guitarist in Lenny Steel but I digress. Well right before we played that first gig we decided it be best to change the band's name for the childish PUS to the more profound Reagan Youth. It was our first gig and it went over just fine. We started playing more gigs and we quickly gained a following. <br />
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With the band becoming popular, Dave Insurgent was now becoming obsessed with being a perfectionist. One of the first things Dave felt needed changing was Andy's punk name, which was 'Zap'. It didn't seem to matter to Dave that Punk magazine had no problem with crediting Andy as 'Andy Zap'. Dave said it was a stupid name that didn't mean anything. Andy didn't grouse or anything and changed his name to the more politically orientated Andy Apathy. Our drummer, Charley, also had a punk name. He called himself Charley Tripper. When Charley was asked about his punk name he told us it was given to him because he always acted all goofy like John Ritter's character on Three's Company called Jack 'Tripper'. I remember Dave asking Charley "So the name has nothing to do with tripping on acid or anything like that?" and Charley answered how it was a "Threes Company thang". Talk about a punk name that had it's origins in something so unpunk. Now Dave never insisted Charley change his name like Andy had to, and I am sure it was because Charley was not way more popular than Dave was at that time, like Andy surely was. To be honest, Screaming Mad George and his wife (I forget her name) had a talk with me about how swollen Andy's head had become since the band had become popular. I'm sure it also drove Dave crazy. And so the band continued to play gigs around the city and things were going great. That's right about the time when Dave told me he wanted Andy out of the band.<br />
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Sure there was a lot of bickering going on between Andy and Dave. In all fairness to Dave, Andy did things that were questionable. Andy would do things like tell Dave he wrote a song, a Public Image Limited type song and then Dave would tell me to go over to Andy's place to check it out. I would go over there and Andy would play, on bass, P.I.L.'s Low Life as if it was his new song. I would say "Andy, that's a Public Image song, Low Life, what the fuck did you write?" and then he'd admit that he'd written nothing at all. I'd have to go back to tell Dave that Andy came up with squat and then I'd end up playing for Dave my new idea for a Public Image song which would end up being One Holy Bible. Yeah, we had a new song to fuck around with but it just made Andy look like some kind of idiot. So I guess Dave had enough with his nonsense and his popularity and we began to argue about whether he should get another chance. In the end, Dave as the leader of the band, had the final say and so it was time to give Andy the heave ho. Of course it was decided that it would be me that would tell Andy the bad news so this way Andy wouldn't kick Dave's ass..... literally. <br />
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Of course Andy didn't take the news all that well but he was a man, not some little boy, so he accepted the news like a man. The band would try out a bunch of bassists and would settle on Al Pike, who is, without a doubt, the best bassist Reagan Youth ever had. Andy went on to form a new band, a heavy metal concoction called Mega Nex. It had something to do with Aleister Crowley <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEir6me2dYI7kbk6j9DOuMRSXTwil27uOmOhFCoSTO13ffiTnCXoNRqqktqSGLI2H2q2EV-obVyjxgpCJ3jIZfpfXhwVrEEqRNXW6FPULJyvA-HYn9neoakRTSVEj5pdmCVtdGhWDjorevq3/s1600-h/Aleister_Crowley.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEir6me2dYI7kbk6j9DOuMRSXTwil27uOmOhFCoSTO13ffiTnCXoNRqqktqSGLI2H2q2EV-obVyjxgpCJ3jIZfpfXhwVrEEqRNXW6FPULJyvA-HYn9neoakRTSVEj5pdmCVtdGhWDjorevq3/s320/Aleister_Crowley.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5198930562635835234" /></a>and the band covered Set Me Free by the Sweet. We played a gig with Mega Nex in Queens. Mega Nex didn't last but Andy later found his way into a new band called Urban Waste. Andy and Mega Nex' guitarist Jeff Bensaul co-wrote, what I believe is their best song, Police Brutality. At the end of that song you can hear Andy's voice, crystal clear, saying "Police brutality" in only the way Andy could say it. <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgedKjBtllLOgTHM-Z5-fs-SiIapxRasSTLd16hIRxeMmTS0PAHmR3a5pe55pm3uRgKK5bzwQwOPbp7pdB0og_6ogg9dj0Fh9PNsqDZrlfpMFEfxjspUCoDBxxaI_UYhgap18R_EKtI_NAp/s1600-h/MYDC0003.JPG"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgedKjBtllLOgTHM-Z5-fs-SiIapxRasSTLd16hIRxeMmTS0PAHmR3a5pe55pm3uRgKK5bzwQwOPbp7pdB0og_6ogg9dj0Fh9PNsqDZrlfpMFEfxjspUCoDBxxaI_UYhgap18R_EKtI_NAp/s320/MYDC0003.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5198928917663360834" /></a> I recently played it for Stephanie Plungis and I was so happy when she recognized the song and especially the ending when you hear Andy say "Police brutality" like it was some kind of sexual act that you'd really want to have happen to you.<br />
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Charley did not take the news of Andy getting kicked out very well. Eventually, during one of our rehearsals, Dave had Charley and I play the song Anytown over and over and over again and each time Charley sounded worse and worse. Charley finally snapped and stormed out saying he was leaving the band. Now we were on the prowl for a new drummer and finding a new drummer was a lot harder than finding that new bassist. Charley came back later on to record with us and said he'd be willing to rejoin the band. Dave told me "Well I guess we're gonna have to take Charley back" and that's when I told Dave "So we could kick out Andy, even though his base playing was good but you want to take Charley back even though his drumming sucks?". Well Dave couldn't argue with that logic and we never took Charley back and thank God for that because he was eventually replaced by Steve, who was easily the best drummer we ever had. We didn't call Steve "Keith Moon's ghost" for nothing y'know. As for Charley, he went on to play drums in a band called the Abused.<br />
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Even though Andy was no longer in Reagan Youth he still came to all our shows, and he would always be right next to my amp, driving Dave and I crazy. Andy would always be fucking around with the knobs on my amp, changing the settings on the volume, the treble and bass, shit like that. Dave would be yelling at him to stop but he'd just keep on doin' it. And even though Andy was no longer in my band, he was definitely still my friend. I could honestly say that out of all of my band mates that were in Reagan Youth, Andy was the only one that was truly my friend. After I no longer played with Charley, Al, Steve, Rick, Vic and Javier, I no longer kept contact with any of those guys, but Andy would always remain my good friend.<br />
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When Andy and I would get together and hang out, we'd partake in his favorite activity: smoking angel dust. We'd take the 4 or 5 train up to 125th and Lexington avenue and go cop Crazy Eddie, the best dust in Harlem. Andy didn't just smoke dust with me, he'd smoked dust with Johnny Blitz, the drummer from the Dead Boys. Andy, always one of the coolest mother fuckers around. Later on we lost touch but we'd always get together every now and then and of course when we did, we'd get high. It's what we loved to do.<br />
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Later on in my life I had become addicted to heroin and Andy found out. He immediately called my mother and told her I was shooting needles into my arm. This idiot once told me "And you count this guy as your friend after he did that?", as if it was bad thing for Andy to contact my parents and tell them I was killing myself slowly. I replied "That's what a real fuckin' friend does you fuckin' moron". <br />
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The years continued to roll by and I would see Andy sporadically. He had moved to Florida and had remarried. He also became a chef but continued to play music. Then one day, out of the blue, he contacts me. "I booked us to play at CBGBs". I asked him what the fuck he was talking about and he explained that Jack Rabid, from the band Even Worse, had booked two nights at CBGBs for the 20th anniversary of the New York City punk rock compilation record. Even though Reagan Youth wasn't on that compilation, Jack Rabid said Andy and I could play under the name 'Paul and Andy from Reagan Youth'. He also told me he was now calling himself Andy Zapathy, hence, the title of my blog. So the very next day Andy shows up, from Florida, and he's at my apartment and he's with his old Mega Nex' drummer, Michael Argo. Andy explains to me he could get Charley to play but that Mike was way better on drums. I said "Fine, let's do it". We then go drive to the city and so I can buy him heroin. I had offered him some of my methadone but he refused. He said "Nah, I want that street shit". I was in the process of getting clean at the time and I hadn't bought heroin in the longest. When we were young Andy would always have to buy me my drugs because he knew the connections. When I became addicted later on, things changed, and it was I who had to cop for Andy. So I went and bought him some stuff, from the streets of the Lower East Side, my old stomping grounds. I knew it wasn't going to be really good but I had lost all my old connections so what could I do? Andy actually said after sniffing some, "The shit you got for me last year blows this shit away". <br />
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The next thing I know we're back in Queens, at the Guitar Center and he's talkin' about buying me an amp... and also a guitar! I had a Stratocaster at the time but when Andy and I played together back in the day, I used a les Paul (neither the Stratocaster nor the Les Paul were real by the way), so Andy reasoned that I should be playing a Les Paul for the upcoming gig. He told me how he was opening a restaurant with the help of his friends who were gonna be the investors. Andy was going to be getting a big amount of money from his investors and on Friday, he was gonna take some of that money and definitely buy me the amp...and probably the Les Paul too. I got real excited because one thing Andy was not, was a bullshit artist. When he said he'd be buying you an amp you were gonna get an amp. So we plug some guitars and Andy asks me to play the song Reagan Youth along with him. I tell him "Sure, but check this shit out first" and I begin to play a song called In The Beginning that I had written along with Dave Insurgent, for our new band, House Of God. Andy and Mike listen to it and are impressed. I tell them "We'll play this gig but afterwards, let's start a new band, one where we play real music, like this" and I continue to play some of my neo-classic rock. Then I make him happy by playing Reagan Youth, Andy on the bass and me on the guitar, just like old times. <br />
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Afterwards, Andy takes us out for dinner. He tells me I can work with him in his new restaurant. He asks me "Do you wanna be a waiter, or a sous chef and work under me? Or do you want me to send you to bartending school?". He even tells me that he'll pay me off the books so I can keep collecting unemployment. The conversation then turns to baldness and he tells me to take off my baseball cap. "Y'know the hairclub for men, well I'm not just the client, I'm also the vice-president". He said it backwards and it was funny as shit. Oh my God, now he's talking about paying to put hair on my head, Andy was like no other, let me tell you. We're wasted and laughing and feeling good and I explain to him. "Y'know, we could have done some great shit in the past but egos got in the way. You're great with money and getting shit done, but you can't write a song to save your life. And I'm all about the music but I suck with money. So can't we just do what we're good at and make this shit finally happen?". He agrees with me and we shake hands on it and then Andy tells me how we have to rehearse the next day. Mike drives us back to my place and I give Andy A Collection Of Pop Classics. I tell Andy and Mike which songs to learn for the CBGBs gig. Andy tells me he'll call me tomorrow and we say good night. It would be the last time I would see Andy alive.<br />
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The next day, which was a Wednesday, I don't get a call from Andy. I wait all day but nothing. I'm hesitant to contact him as I believe this means his restaurant investors are pulling out and it's all falling apart for him. I say to myself "Let me leave him alone until he sorts this shit out" but I do get a call later that evening, from my friend Mortali, who used to be a singer in Andy's band. Mortali tells me "Did you hear what happened to Andy?" and at that moment I just knew he was dead. Mortali tells me "He had a heart attack and died." I had already yelled out "FUCK!" and began to cry. I yell at Mortali "This really sucks" and he replies "Tell me about it". Mortali then gives me the details concerning his funeral. It's on Friday, the day he was supposed to take me to Guitar Center to buy me an amp... and probably a new guitar too.<br />
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I go to the funeral and I meet his widow right after I kneel at his coffin and kiss it. She asks me "What happened? He left me in Florida just fine and tha next thing I hear is he's dead?! "What happened? You were with him that day, right?". How can you tell Andy's widow that Andy left me that night and went to stay at some cheap motel, somewhere in New Jersey, in a neighborhood with even cheaper crack cocaine. He had just come from Florida and being a chef, he had put on some pounds from all the rich food he'd been eating. He smoked some crack cocaine and had a heart attack. Instead of helping Andy the local scumbags took his wallet and his Hamer bass and whatever else they could. He was found dead. At his age, and in the shape he was in, a blast of crack can do you in like that. A cocaine induced heart attack did him in. This guy, who used to drive around on his black motorcycle, wearing nothing but black engineer boots, black leather pants, a leather jacket and a black motorcycle helmet. I mean completely black from head to toe, and his headlight on his black motorcycle was out. He'd drive around, dressed like that, on that motorcycle, at night no less, dusted out of his mind... and he never died, not even a scratch. Um 'fuckin' believable, just Um 'fuckin' believable.<br />
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<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjU6nn9HOb0yjfOvAw6yu_C0TXDRsO5ehyphenhyphenq84GFKfGLS4KGjPqxNoVVJ1bIndA0ErgIAWeiiXIn9SI5aOWbcgrlwr23fgB0yG2Nhyphenhyphen_MOzvX1PZ_9zs4VLQYK3C9OLiRs9J8QTm4xUyQuQ4u/s1600-h/1563032424_l.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjU6nn9HOb0yjfOvAw6yu_C0TXDRsO5ehyphenhyphenq84GFKfGLS4KGjPqxNoVVJ1bIndA0ErgIAWeiiXIn9SI5aOWbcgrlwr23fgB0yG2Nhyphenhyphen_MOzvX1PZ_9zs4VLQYK3C9OLiRs9J8QTm4xUyQuQ4u/s320/1563032424_l.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5223839254234244882" /></a><br />
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At the funeral, the Rabbi spoke of how Andy was such a bright light and the brightest lights burn out the fastest. It made perfect sense to me but I still felt gyped. The rabbi asked if anyone would like to say some words about him and I was the only one. I spoke about how he hooked up the gig at CBs, how he was gonna hook me up with a job, how he was gonna buy me the amp, and the guitar. And how he was the only friend I ever had who, when he told you he would do those things, you knew he meant it. When Dave "Insurgent" Rubinstein died, you had to be blind not to see it coming. But with Andy, you just assumed he'd always be there. Lordy, do I ever miss my ole bassist, my ole friend and one of the greatest human beings I ever knew.<br />
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Amen.Paul "Cripple" Bakijahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13118373591310015721noreply@blogger.com20tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4953778105156684206.post-415599613581657102008-04-16T21:16:00.022-04:002008-05-20T18:19:58.514-04:00Songs Reagan Youth Have CoveredReagan Youth always covered songs, but we never wanted to be known as a band familiar for covering that one song, so we covered many. <br /><br /><span style="font-style:italic;">(Note: the italics fonts are the band members that played the songs)</span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">1.Right To Work by Chelsea</span> - The first song we covered as Reagan Youth and the only punk song we covered. <span style="font-style:italic;">(Andy Apathy and Charley Tripper)</span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">2.Have You Seen Your Mother, Baby Standing In The Shadows by The Rolling Stones</span> - I remember Jesse Malin, from Heart Attack, telling me he really liked when we did this cover... and telling me that he didn't like the way we covered My Generation. <span style="font-style:italic;">(Andy and Charley)</span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">3.My Generation by The Who</span> - Dave Insurgent changed the lyrics from "Why don't you all just fade away" to "Why don't you all just fuck off". <span style="font-style:italic;">(Al Pike, Steve and Vic Venom)</span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">4.Communication Breakdown, Dazed and Confused by Led Zeppelin</span> - I distinctly remember playing "Dazed and Confused" on a RAR float that went up 6th Avenue on the way to the United Nations. It was so cheesy. <span style="font-style:italic;">(Al, Steve, Rick Royale and Vic)</span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">5.Misty Mountain Hop, Rock N' Roll and Whole Lotta Love by Led Zeppelin</span> - Because too much Led Zeppelin is never 'enuff. We covered these songs back to back to back to back at CBGBS and we didn't care if it wasn't considered punk. <span style="font-style:italic;">(Al and Steve)</span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">6.Ace Of Spades by Motorhead </span> - Dave used to invite Vic Venom onto the stage to sing this song before he was in the band. <span style="font-style:italic;">(Al, Steve, Rick and Vic)</span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">7.Sweet Leaf by Black Sabbath </span> - We did a reggae version of this song.<span style="font-style:italic;"> (Rick and Vic)</span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">8.War Pigs by Black Sabbath</span> - Only the greatest war protest song ever. When we opened for the Dead Kennedys in L.A., Jello Biafra told Dave that we couldn't play this song in our set. We did it anyway and after the show I asked Dave "What did Jello say about us playing it anyway?", Dave said Jello told him "I think they got the message" or something like that. It was back in '84 so I don't remember his exact words.<span style="font-style:italic;"> (Rick and Vic)</span><br /> <br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">9.NIB by Black Sabbath</span> - What can I say, we really, really loved Sabbath. <span style="font-style:italic;"> (Rick and Vic)</span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">10.Over, Under, Sideways, Down by Yardbirds </span> - I remember playing this New Mexico in '84, what a great fuckin' riff. <span style="font-style:italic;"> (Rick and Vic)</span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">11.In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida by Iron Butterfly</span> - I actually did a bit of the keyboard intro to start off the song. <span style="font-style:italic;"> (Rick and Vic)</span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">12.That's It For The Other One by The Grateful Dead </span> - Dave and I would laugh that punk rockers were actually slam dancing to a Grateful Dead song. If they only knew what they were slam dancing to! And we played this while we toured across the states in 1987, when the Dead were popular as fuck. The punks really hated them and their "I will survive" song (Touch Of Grey) was on the radio constantly at that time. <span style="font-style:italic;">(Javier and Vic)</span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">13.Electric Funeral by Black Sabbath</span> - Reagan Youth did not cover this song, but Lucifer's Imperial Knights of Eternal Schism did. That band consisted of Dave on drums, me on the guitar and Mike Diamond from the Beastie Boys singing while wearing a rasta wig as he perused a rasta bible. Of course it had to be a reggae version. <br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">14. Fire by Jimi Hendrix</span> - We were in between bass players after Al Pike left so we covered this song with the engineer from our first album, Jay Dublee, playing bass or guitar (he and I would switch instruments while on stage) for us. <span style="font-style:italic;">(Rick)</span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">15. Live Like An Angel (die, Like A Devil) by Venom</span> - In the one gig that I did not participate in, Vic Venom took over on guitar and Andy Apathy came back to play on bass. With Vic Venom on guitar, is it a wonder that a Venom song was covered? <span style="font-style:italic;">(Rick)</span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">16.Purple Haze by Jimi Hendrix</span> - We covered it simply because Hendrix is the shit and it's only one of the all time great songs of all time. <span style="font-style:italic;"> (Rick and Vic)</span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">17.Rock N' Roll Part II by Gary Glitter</span> - Steve, Al and I learned this song and played it live without Dave knowing that we were going to play it at the end of the show. Dave was a good sport about it and went along with it, Vegas style.<br /><br /> Before we were Reagan Youth, the band called itself PUS. What can I say except we were really young when we came up with the name. I'm talking junior high school here. Back in those days, as PUS, we did practice songs by The Sex Pistols, The Clash, Generation X, The Dead Boys, The Ramones and The Damned. As House Of God, we covered Heaven and Hell by The Who. Lastly, Dave and I always thought it'd be funny if Reagan Youth covered some southern rock classics like "Whipping Post" or "Green Grass and High Tides", but never "Free Bird". Too bad we never got around to that, talk about a contradiction of styles! And Dave really wanted us to cover "If Six Was Nine" by Hendrix so he could change the line "If all the hippies cut off all their hair" to "If all the skinheads grew out all their hair" and of course, because it's a great fuckin' song. Unfortunately, our bassist said he didn't want to bother learning that song, something about it being too hard. If I can remember anymore songs then I'll post them. Sure hope this is some interest to some of you, blah, blah, blah, blah....<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;"><br />DAVE INSURGENT AND ANDY APATHY MY BROTHERS, R.I.P., I MISS YOU AND I WISH YOU WERE STILL HERE.<br /></span>Paul "Cripple" Bakijahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13118373591310015721noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4953778105156684206.post-6510368603512174282008-01-14T01:28:00.005-05:002008-05-19T11:52:16.536-04:00Is Reagan Youth a socialist band?<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJc6IbKnDjWlSmDED1Kbua-xFWyQgSG2nKtRt_WxjsVcl3nO7WurkekyNyFxn99KEX4bTbowsvO077H_Yfq2TAmGckB4X7o2-Wh4IdLlXZ_jv5bq8jx5ba8Ab78nCdaC7eBaETQLJUaFaH/s1600-h/bakunin1863.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJc6IbKnDjWlSmDED1Kbua-xFWyQgSG2nKtRt_WxjsVcl3nO7WurkekyNyFxn99KEX4bTbowsvO077H_Yfq2TAmGckB4X7o2-Wh4IdLlXZ_jv5bq8jx5ba8Ab78nCdaC7eBaETQLJUaFaH/s320/bakunin1863.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5155223492593708194" /></a><br /><br /><br />Dave Insurgent was an anarchist so Reagan Youth is an anarchist hardcore punk band like Crass, but it was peace punk band too. Not the type of anarchist that carries around a molotov cocktail with black kerchief around our faces. I personally love that communism, gives the little guy, the worker bee, a say in running the country, but it means a little more to me when "they" were on the front lines fighting fascism with molotov cocktail in their hands. So Reagan Youth is an anarchist band that plays commie "red" metal. And digs socialism, especially their medical plan.<br /><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4oD1yUggsSZgpgGQSnYjVypU4_pSE3AypVlDEVuuOsg0qAW7liHlJd9zfcS07flbXfeGczcP8Fl6Fh7Vb6XBoHOFdjttAg4WnPBbJN1oklrBJ8bAPMjOfIWfM9gAd5wrktmtCcJABs1he/s1600-h/author09-6241.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4oD1yUggsSZgpgGQSnYjVypU4_pSE3AypVlDEVuuOsg0qAW7liHlJd9zfcS07flbXfeGczcP8Fl6Fh7Vb6XBoHOFdjttAg4WnPBbJN1oklrBJ8bAPMjOfIWfM9gAd5wrktmtCcJABs1he/s320/author09-6241.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5155222745269398674" /></a>Paul "Cripple" Bakijahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13118373591310015721noreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4953778105156684206.post-70026981466405000522008-01-14T00:54:00.009-05:002011-05-05T14:20:39.577-04:00Long Island Punks<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e, Howie Fightback) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQr8_DFATplltTXwxSn30KmEgPoeWLYQUUu_OaZvpw1C4D2o3im7b0xwoIdglwGR5EqMUpB8FuM7EFFz5d6wS227uy4ZYvuRT8PMzJ7i4dsv3mlPCav9PU0-xnKcCYpJPP_LpJ6xgqVVjV/s1600-h/JANUARY,+12,+2008.png"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQr8_DFATplltTXwxSn30KmEgPoeWLYQUUu_OaZvpw1C4D2o3im7b0xwoIdglwGR5EqMUpB8FuM7EFFz5d6wS227uy4ZYvuRT8PMzJ7i4dsv3mlPCav9PU0-xnKcCYpJPP_LpJ6xgqVVjV/s320/JANUARY,+12,+2008.png" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5155214589126503458" /></a><br />
<span style="font-weight:bold;">JANUARY, 12, 2008, THE CAFE BADA BING, PORT JEFFERSON, LONG ISLAND SHOW!</span><br />
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When a band says that they're going to show up and play, and people make there way out to see you, out in Long Island, a real band is expected to show up. Unfortunately, a band showed up but it wasn't a 'real' band, put some patchwork . The bassist bailed a few days earlier and then the drummer left it up until the last moment until he decided he wouldn't play. I'm sorry for they're unprofessional behavior. Yeah, sure, I know it's just punk music, but I do take it seriously. <br />
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I want to thank everyone who showed up and allowed us to do the best with what Pat and I were left with. Chuck from A.P.P.L.E. did a fine 'fill in' job on bass and Adam, from Stressbomb, was 'Johnny on the Spot' good on drums. Praise God that it was only 'Punk Rock'. So let me give Chuck and Adam their props, because they were great, as was Jae Monroe, who was magikal, beautiful and pharmaceutical throughout the entire night.<br />
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<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzGDa0aDbgtthCaRZJ7zijvUyVw5UyXYA5AfENlX7uiGRgTKWRvd0JqMsi1BssDDfEQRKzTAefVGvRfG0XxrVAOmUv3ern2ewZepOAgvfC_Uehd-FbdrDYuJ3WbnIVmv56E-pkIzkhF3NB/s1600-h/l_3104a37556cee2aee25e6eec9bb9b5aa.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzGDa0aDbgtthCaRZJ7zijvUyVw5UyXYA5AfENlX7uiGRgTKWRvd0JqMsi1BssDDfEQRKzTAefVGvRfG0XxrVAOmUv3ern2ewZepOAgvfC_Uehd-FbdrDYuJ3WbnIVmv56E-pkIzkhF3NB/s320/l_3104a37556cee2aee25e6eec9bb9b5aa.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5155214219759315986" /></a><br />
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<center><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEieAfMkaVa5pg028F5j8Yvmzw1S8YqKaSsL3jxI4Se7-A4rtEFmt6owwLXNKuOMmKUXBokpbMeM7hPcj9x50jiiyd2koSmVTXk_ltXTICkNurhHAgY0X8pmF9VeL0XvwGe_1UK10toexOjp/s1600-h/Adam+Stressbomb.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEieAfMkaVa5pg028F5j8Yvmzw1S8YqKaSsL3jxI4Se7-A4rtEFmt6owwLXNKuOMmKUXBokpbMeM7hPcj9x50jiiyd2koSmVTXk_ltXTICkNurhHAgY0X8pmF9VeL0XvwGe_1UK10toexOjp/s320/Adam+Stressbomb.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5155207047163931570" /></a></center><br />
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But it really sucks when anyone, but especially KayC, Natalie, Mary, who travel all the way out to Long Island to see us, and then they don't see or hear what they're supposed to. And also Jordan "Woody Allen " Romano, who all though is an Islander, still deserved to hear Reagan Youth played like it should be. And lest we forget Howie, the promoter, he's only one of the nicest and coolest out there. <br />
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<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdxCEMgAPVFXMswsPVuSy7z1qsv7yNNMt7NKhFsW0f3uMXXaeTbBMxCkIpAnSGXg-LNOfrNXTBqxf0KW6_79fP4rH6c5H_C966lJQCeP49wcQ1JnP2BFSrfQjMuXTKeqpmhXMRVJVN6chs/s1600-h/MYDC0150.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdxCEMgAPVFXMswsPVuSy7z1qsv7yNNMt7NKhFsW0f3uMXXaeTbBMxCkIpAnSGXg-LNOfrNXTBqxf0KW6_79fP4rH6c5H_C966lJQCeP49wcQ1JnP2BFSrfQjMuXTKeqpmhXMRVJVN6chs/s320/MYDC0150.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5155209443755682802" /></a><br />
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<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHt_rtej3CUpI7Hf-ONSVPTCMmC-7rO3bLggz4pRNlr4SqmL9HOi45bQNzCxTFRduil5pKTFJuzLLDUyjwt8pDerenNCdz8vV8fgxWAE5i8ZBT051a6AqPxkcjglTF66B8FiEslUldoFzu/s1600-h/MYDC0162.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHt_rtej3CUpI7Hf-ONSVPTCMmC-7rO3bLggz4pRNlr4SqmL9HOi45bQNzCxTFRduil5pKTFJuzLLDUyjwt8pDerenNCdz8vV8fgxWAE5i8ZBT051a6AqPxkcjglTF66B8FiEslUldoFzu/s320/MYDC0162.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5155208717906209746" /></a><br />
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I can truly say Long Island punks are as as they come, and I mean anywhere in the world. And it was great that they decided to get into it and enjoy what we had to offer instead of raggin' on us. But you all deserved better. And unfortunately, Al Pike and Javier don't share that view. I'll always enjoy playin' music, especially with a tight, cohesive group. That wasn't the case Saturday nite but I still enjoyed it because you all were in' great. Just wanted to apologize because the band was not. <br />
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As soon as this band gets it's house in order, I'll make sure to play a free gig in Long Island because the band owes you. And thank you for turning what was sure to be a ty night for me into one in which I had fun playin'. I won't forget that.<br />
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Hey Long Island Punks,<br />
God Bless ya'll for you are the best,<br />
-Paul<br />
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<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrNqZD22kHCvs-py0KMB5p6FyYpeLNt7Tgsy1QyfYt4qQb1Ws92y1CWFS9owzkS67rdCwS_r1Xfi-L2WM8HLKCX2QjyLGSPnGuaN9L7JzA4KTApQhN2svCsa6hplA5R-8FS8BkpV5pqjwP/s1600-h/MYDC0163.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrNqZD22kHCvs-py0KMB5p6FyYpeLNt7Tgsy1QyfYt4qQb1Ws92y1CWFS9owzkS67rdCwS_r1Xfi-L2WM8HLKCX2QjyLGSPnGuaN9L7JzA4KTApQhN2svCsa6hplA5R-8FS8BkpV5pqjwP/s320/MYDC0163.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5155208997079084002" /></a>Paul "Cripple" Bakijahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13118373591310015721noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4953778105156684206.post-89297182476879000822007-11-21T13:32:00.018-05:002011-05-29T21:40:01.295-04:00FA - Q (Frequently Asked Questions)<span style="font-style:italic;"><span style="font-style:italic;"><div id="itembody"><p class="blogContent"><span style="font-style: italic;"> <span style="font-weight:bold;">1. Is Reagan Youth a racist band?</span> <br />
<span style="font-style: italic;">Fuck No!</span></span> <br />
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<span style="font-style: italic;">2. Who are the original members?</span> <br />
<span style="font-weight:bold;"><span style="font-style: italic;">-Andy Apathy played bass (R.I.P)</span></span> <br />
<span style="font-style: italic;">-Charley Tripper played drums</span> <br />
<span style="font-style: italic;">-I (Paul Cripple) played guitar</span> <br />
<span style="font-style: italic;">-Dave Insurgent sang (R.I.P)</span> <br />
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<span style="font-style: italic;">These band members recorded New Aryans, Reagan Youth, Degenerated and U.S.A at 171 A Studios with Jay Dublee as the engineer, these recordings are lost and waiting to be found.</span> <br />
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<span style="font-style: italic;">3. Who are the other members that played in the band?</span> <br />
<span style="font-style: italic;">Al Pike replaced Andy Apathy when he was fired and Steve replaced Charley Tripper when he left. When the band went across America in 1984, neither Al or Steve could do it, so Vic Venom replaced Al and</span><span style="font-style: italic;"> Rick Royale</span><span style="font-style: italic;"> replaced Steve. After a year, Rick left and Javier a.k.a Johnny Aztec replaced him. The band went out to California again in 1987 with Vic and Javier. Vic left the band before Reagan left office so they was no final Reagan Youth show.</span> <br />
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<span style="font-style: italic;">4. Why did you guys get back together?</span> <br />
<span style="font-style: italic;">It was supposed to be a one shot deal (to play the Woodstock of hardcore) and then CBGBs was closing and we were able to play there and the day after that we were asked ot play Tompkins Square Park, and it soon took on a life of it's own.</span> <br />
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<span style="font-style: italic;">5. What do you think of people who believes you are tarnishing Reagan Youth's legacy?</span> <br />
<span style="font-style: italic;">I can understand their opinion and they have every right to it, but I see it as a nice way to honor Dave Insurgent's legacy. </span> <br />
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<span style="font-weight:bold;"><span style="font-style: italic;">6. How did Degenerated get into "Airheads"?</span> <br />
<span style="font-style: italic;">A band name Degeneration submitted the song on a demo that they gave to 20th Century Fox. The people at Fox decided to use the song on the soundtrack and in the movie and when I was contacted I asked them if they could "Heavy Metal Shuffle" instead, but they already filmed the scene with the song and I had no real choice, but to allow them to use "Degenerated".</span></span> <br />
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<span style="font-weight:bold;"><span style="font-style: italic;">7. Is Reagan Youth going to put out new material?</span> <br />
<span style="font-style: italic;">I would love to do one last record, a concept album about Dave Insurgent, but the other band members will have to allow that to happen. So far, we have two new songs that we are playing and only one of those songs fits in with the concept.</span></span> <br />
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<span style="font-style: italic;">8. Are you still going to call the band Reagan Youth with the new material?</span> <br />
<span style="font-style: italic;">Maybe...maybe not, we don't know.</span> <br />
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<span style="font-weight:bold;"><span style="font-style: italic;">9. Why is the second album so different from the first album?</span> <br />
<span style="font-style: italic;">Sure, we did get better on our instruments, so that was obviously a factor, but Dave was badly beaten and left in a coma on the same night he sang on the recordings for the record was a bigger factor. Also, Vic showed up and played the bass uninspired (to say the least) and then he up and left with only half the songs being recorded. Dave made the decision, with Nicky Garratt's (the label owner) blessing, to have me play bass on all the songs, not just the songs Victor hadn't recorded. Unfortunately, some of the songs needed an entire band to be present in order for them to be played correctly. But songs such as "Back To Garden", "One Holy Bible" and "Queen Babylon" were around since 1980, with the original lineup. I know it sounds like we were taking the band in a new direction but that was not the case. Those songs, though longer and with more complex arrangements, are definitely Reagan Youth 'type' songs. And every song we recorded was played live at one time or another between 1981-1989.</span></span> <br />
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<span style="font-weight:bold;"><span style="font-style: italic;">10. Why did we let Pat SpEd go?</span> <br />
<span style="font-style: italic;">Because it's all about the new album and Pat just didn't click with us on the new songs. After three years we came to the conclusion that it could never work with him singing our new songs. </span></span> <br />
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<span style="font-style: italic;">11. What happened to the band that Dave was ready to start after Reagan Youth?</span> <br />
<span style="font-style: italic;">It was called House Of God. Javier was still on drums, I was still on guitar and we found a pretty amazing bassist. If you are interested to hear what it was going to sound like, just go to myspace (</span><a style="font-style: italic;" href="http://blog.myspace.com/www.myspace.com/jojo_turk" target="_self">www.myspace.com/jojo_turk</a><span style="font-style: italic;">) or buzznet (</span><a style="font-style: italic;" href="http://paulcripple.buzznet.com/user/main/" target="_self">http://paulcripple.buzznet.com/user/main/</a><span style="font-style: italic;">) or youtube and you can see us playing a song called "In The Beginning". The song was completed but we would have never recorded it under Reagan Youth because, stylistically, it wasn't punk rock.</span> <br />
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<span style="font-style: italic;">If you want to know more about Reagan Youth log on to </span><a style="font-style: italic;" href="http://www.unitewebzine.com/" target="_self">http://www.unitewebzine.com</a><span style="font-style: italic;">, they will have an interview up on that site soon.</span></p>And also, check out these two interviews</span></p><span style="font-style: italic;">download Pando to listen to R.Y's interview W/Crapple on The Left & Right Show that was aired on </span><a style="font-style: italic; color: rgb(204, 0, 0); text-decoration: underline;" href="http://www.kruxradio.com/" target="_self">KRUX RADIO</a><span style="font-style: italic; color: rgb(204, 0, 0); text-decoration: underline;"> </span><span style="font-style: italic;">8-15-07.</span> <br />
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<a href="http://www.msplinks.com/MDFodHRwOi8vY2FjaGUucGFuZG8uY29tL3NvYXBzZXJ2aWNlcy9QYWNrYWdlL3BhY2thZ2UucGFuZG8/aWQ9OEQ3OTdGMDI2REE3RkNCMDQxOTQ3RDhENEI3NDJCRjdGQzYwMjc0MSZrZXk9N0ZGREEyRjQyQjVFOEZEQUVDODE5ODUxNkFEMkVCOEVCOTE0Mjg2ODM4QkIyNDJEMUJGRTEwOTk1MzI1MzA3QyZ0dD1TMlcmZW1iZWRJZD03MzA4NTU0Qjc0MkVEQUI3MjQyRDg4MDVCMDFDRTRENQ=="><img src="http://cache.pando.com/soapservices/SendToWeb/8D797F026DA7FCB041947D8D4B742BF7FC602741/0C7A8DEAFC7A462AE61C0A08A1EEEA6A/Preview.png" alt="Pando Package" border="0" height="76" width="292" /></a><br />
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<span style="font-style: italic;">Also, check out R.Y's interview with Mike that was aired on </span><span style="text-decoration: underline; font-style: italic; color: rgb(204, 0, 0);">PIRATE CAT RADIO</span><span style="font-style: italic;"> 8-13-07.</span><p class="blogContent"><span style="font-style: italic;"><br />
</span></p></div><span style="font-style: italic;"></span></div><p class="blogContent"><span style="font-style: italic;"></span></p></span></span><i></i><i></i>Paul "Cripple" Bakijahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13118373591310015721noreply@blogger.com0