By popular request (and permission from Nina and Rob), the first of my two songs for the Lead’s upcoming 4-song EP is available for download at Area 1234. I actually wrote this in 2000, and even back then I thought I could eventually record it with the Lead since the lyric is based on something that happened to the Lead.

Back in 1985, shortly after we put out our first EP,  I sent a check and an ad to the yet-to-be-legendary #1 punk political rag Maximum RockNRoll along with a review copy of said EP. I got the ad and check back from already-infamous publisher Tim Yohannan along with a note declining to run the ad. Of course I wrote a letter back to Yohannon in a futile attempt to save his soul (and a successful attempt to dis Castro and the Sandinistas), and we traded a couple more letters. Old Warrior from The Past Behind was the first response to this.

As the years seasoned my perspective a bit, I realized that I had no reason to brand Yohannon’s rejection of the ad as censorship. In fact, as the nominal owner of his business (although I’m sure he’d bite, kick, scratch and scream saying it’s not a business), he was perfectly within his rights to refuse to deal with us. So I wrote this other tune basically calling him out on being a Stalinist Pharisee while saying (as he did in his letter to me) that he had no tolerance for people with other beliefs but the same intransigence. All well and good, except Yohannan was already dead and gone as of April 1998.

Lyrics- written in 1999 and revised in 2011:

What I Should Have Told Tim Yohannon in 1985

Good evening old warrior the muzzle fits just fine
Before you go back to the rag my I have a little of your time?
Your morality’s direction as you made me understand
Abhor every intolerant and dogmatic command
And you went on and described the zealots
And, so naively, yourself
The minds in your hands never did know
Shouting I think for myself but you – you will never know

Sheep of another color are sheep nonetheless
The way it will be will be the way that it is
Your worldview these days only seems to sport false teeth
The guns and the wars are tiring of propping your beliefs
You’re printing and we are moshing
Mommy’s got our bed for after the slogans
The system you decry is keeping you afloat
You are part of the machine but you – you will never know

You say no rules while you make rules yourself
Falling into your toilet with everything else
What is good to you you have the right to say
And the right to say that it is the only correct way
But my religion that you hated for its ways
Bore the precepts you so embrace
Erase it from the earth-your dream come true
Take Him away from this world – but you’ll never think it true
What hope left for you?

2000 March 2, 11, 17, 20
2011 June 2

The price of being able to login and download the aural delights and view the blackmail photos is simply your email address. No, I won’t sell the emails to anybody. I’ll send you the occasional email with an update on what I’ve got going on and the occasional exclusive deal or giveaway.

And of course I’m going to continue to populate Area 1234 with all the detritus my crazed mind can manufacture. I’m sure you’ll want to have a ticket to all that. See ya there!

• Mr. Joyless
• That Was My Song
• The Child Is Crying
• Baby’s Eyes
• In The Presence Of My Love
• Not My Enemy

My 2004 expansion of the Astrid EP. Same four tracks as before plus two more. Still that electric guitar-driven pop rock with the touches of Caribbean and dance and jazz and grunge, even in the two new songs which start edging back towards punk. Digital booklet included. Download here. Background info here.

• Enraged
• Tony Montana
• New York Hate Of Mind
• Sick To Myself

The 2002 EP which was Frank’s Enemy’s first recordings since 1998. Some rapcore, some reggaeton-core, some hardcore. Download it here. Read up on its creation here.

Musical styles in order of appearance are punk, reggae with a touch of mariachi, old school hardcore when it wasn’t old school with a touch of eastern dissonance, 70s style funk, classic rock when it wasn’t classic drenched in Neil Young guitar strangulation, country with a touch of spoken word, and Gregorian chant with no detectable intelligible actual words.

Big download, worth every meg. Get it at area1234.

• Don’t Wanna Be No Gumby
• Mission To Mexico
• Johnny’s In A Cult
• Peabody Went To High School
• Movies About Jesus
• Last Of The Nubs
• The Monastery

Back in 1996, when you actually had to press 1,000 CDs to get your music out, Frank’s Enemy played three shows’ worth of punk rock as Loogie Soup. We put out a tape (remember them?) too.

Now Loogie Soup has returned with a pop/punk serving of holiday turkey with green stuffing. Dowload it here and regurgitate.

Take your sleighbells and shove ‘em
Eat your gift wrap for dinner
We’re all getting together
And we’re choking down our dinners

It’s time to watch the budget
It’s time for relentless smiling
It’s time to manage the debt
And erect your last defenses

I’ll be punk for Christmas
I’ll be gone for Christmas

Time to fight the subtle battles
With people you did not choose
Every single word and gesture
Scrutinized and reviewed

Time for wordless desperation
Among the ribbons and lights
Waiting to see the wounds
Of good will for all mankind

Was Jesus born for this?
Oh Jesus were you born for this?

Submarine – Old school hardcore cover of the Porno Para Ricardo track, incorporating recording of state-sponsored bullying of PPR singer Gorki’s supporters during his incarceration last August. Download here. Lyrics here.

As promised, there’s a new Frank’s Enemy track in Area1234. All the grindcore fun is right here.

It’s been a summer of configuration and population, and now I’ve got Not Silent to the point where I can announce it to the ever-elusive ‘general public.’

In celebration, the Lead’s Hardcore For Jesus 2-CD set (signed and numbered by the Lead) is only $10 at the store. It’s the lowest-ever price that this collector’s item has seen, and it’s gone on Sept 30. More merch to come, including old-school stuff that hasn’t seen the light of day in years.

I’ve also established a new area1234, which is the place for the free downloads. These are deluxe downloads: full projects in zip files with lyrics and artwork included.

There are a couple of Lead downloads there already.

The Past Behind, ripped from one of the initial cassettes, which were a different mix than the one used for Hardcore For Jesus.

There’s also an EP, Wink Of An Eye, consisting of the one-second track of the same name at the end of Burn This Record which was accidentally left off of Hardcore For Jesus. There are multiple masters of the track. The whole EP is ten seconds long (with six seconds of dead lead-out time).

More downloads from The Lead, Frank’s Enemy and my solo releases to come.

I’ve been able to populate photo galleries for The Lead and Frank’s Enemy. More photos and galleries are on their way. Vids too, later on.

The Lead at CBGB, 1988.

I’m also documenting works in progress. So far I’ve got a few new Frank’s Enemy lyrics posted.

All this business now means this blog will be more of a ‘real’ blog, with more personal BS as opposed to music promotion (and yeah, I’m still going to help Porno Para Ricardo try to overthrow the Castros).

Six of those seconds are lead-out time. So it’s four tracks in four seconds.

Download it here at area1234. It’s another freebie, BTW.