tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18726848016077772792024-03-14T02:46:33.653-07:00Church PoliceLife Is Fun.David Blakesleehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12167200509158903679noreply@blogger.comBlogger20125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1872684801607777279.post-65086716761579797692008-09-28T10:09:00.000-07:002008-09-28T10:12:45.380-07:00Gilligan's Wings Single - Available on eBayWhen our 7" single was released last year, I received a box of approximately 50 records and I'm making some of them available on eBay. If you missed out on the original release, here's your chance to add it to your collection. These particular items are unique in that they are all at the lower end of the numbered edition of 300. I also plan to include some bonus goodies in the package that are truly unavailable anywhere else. So look up Church Police on eBay and get in on the auction.David Blakesleehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12167200509158903679noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1872684801607777279.post-65126705052704088592008-06-29T12:16:00.000-07:002008-06-29T12:21:44.280-07:00Advice for Young People<span style="font-style: italic;">I wrote this short essay today for submission to a newsletter, at the request of John Haluska, a Church Police fan I met on Facebook. He asked me to tell a little bit about how I got in the band and the work I do now. The publication is aimed at teens in Northern California. Apparently this article will follow a similar piece written by Flipper's Bruce Loose, which I would love to read myself! - DB</span><br /><br />When someone asks me where I grew up, my answer is usually something like “Suburbia USA.” I was born in Grand Rapids, Michigan (where I now live) but throughout my childhood, my family relocated every single year so that up until high school, I started each school year in a different town, often a different state, than the one I finished in the previous spring.<br /> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">The story behind that isn't really important here. My point is that I don't have much of a regional locus to pin my childhood memories on – what sticks with me isn't “place” as much as culture. TV was my constant, along with pop music, Mad magazine, Marvel comics, Hollywood movies and all that stuff that in the 60's and 70's was already well underway in homogenizing the USA into one massive consumerist society. I grew up on junk food basically – even though I didn't really know what it was I was missing, I got to a point where I realized that what I was being fed wasn't really what humans tend to thrive on.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">I liked listening to my parents' records when I was a kid. My mom had some cool old Elvis 45s and other stuff from her teenage years and in the late 60s exposed me to bands like the Doors, the Ohio Express, the Fifth Dimension and the soundtrack to the musical “Hair.” An eclectic mix already. My dad was heavily into Janis Joplin. And a lot of AM radio pop music got stuck in my head in those years. But it wasn't until 1975 that I started buying my own records. I was a 14 year old freshman in high school and I remember hearing an older guy talk about Kiss “Alive,” this awesome double-album record he was eager to get. I wanted to be cool so one day when my mom took me shopping I showed her the album – four freaky looking guys wielding instruments, grimacing for the camera and strutting their stuff on a smoke-filled stage. Looked pretty attractive to me, enough to push me past my mom's tentative objections and get her to let me buy it.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">So I brought it home, tore off the shrink wrap and immediately got drawn into the rock and roll scene on a personal level. The innuendos were still a bit beyond me, but not too much, and the music provided a swift education on what a blast it is being a kick-ass rock star living the high life and doing whatever you feel like. It wasn't too much longer before I had picked up the Kiss back catalog and expanded my collection to include pivotal discs from bands like Aerosmith, Led Zeppelin, Queen, Ted Nugent, Thin Lizzy and Foghat. And that was just for starters.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Since I liked discovering new sounds but didn't have the funds to buy everything that looked interesting, I needed help finding out who was good. And that led me to start checking out the rock magazines that were kept on a rack at my favorite local hangout, Flaming Rat Records. The guys who worked there were pretty cool – they'd put on albums at my request if they had an open copy. But it wasn't too long before the stuff that sounded most interesting to me exceeded the contents of their demo bin. Creem magazine hit the spot for me better than Rolling Stone (too smug), Circus (too dumb) or Crawdaddy (too mellow.) Creem introduced me to a lot of bands that the other magazines ignored or were just didn't know about. Iggy and The Stooges took on a legendary status in my mind well over a year or two before I'd even heard any of their music (this was back when their albums were out of print and impossible to find) simply from how Iggy Pop's antics and persona were described. He seemed to be the perfect embodiment of the wild manic rejection of social norms that I was feeling at the time – and if his music rocked as hard as the Creem writers made it seem, all the better.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">But Creem's endorsement went beyond their hometown favorites like the MC5 or Nugent. They also introduced me to the Ramones, a new band coming up out of New York City who played hard fast riffs with simple but stupidly funny lyrics – and their record wasn't out of print yet. Over the years I have bought a lot of records, tapes and CDs but I don't know of many other purchases as fateful as the day that I bought the Ramones first album – along with Led Zeppelin's “Houses of the Holy.” How big a deal was it? Well, within the next two years, my collection of punk rock grew immensely, while that Zeppelin album, along with the rest of their catalog that I owned, was given away by me before I graduated high school because I simply had no more use for arena rock bands anymore. </p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">The Ramones, and later punk bands like the Dead Boys, the Damned and the Sex Pistols, provided the evidence and the inspiration I needed to convince myself that I too could be in a band. I knew I couldn't compete with Kiss when it came to spectacle or Led Zeppelin when it came to musicianship. But I could definitely see myself taking to the stage and doing my own version of young, loud and snotty. It was about the time that punk rock was coalescing in New York and London that I moved out to live with my dad in Alameda, just across the bay from San Francisco. I turned 16 in 1977 when “Never Mind the Bollocks Here's The Sex Pistols” came out, and I had the band's UK singles in my collection before the import version of the LP was released. I think that's the perfect age to be for hearing that album for the first time. I graduated from high school in 1979, one of maybe three or four kids there who even knew what punk rock was, and the only one who dared to wear shirts and jeans held together with safety pins in class.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Living as close as I did to the city, I was able to go to a few shows at the Mabuhay Gardens, and I also got to see the last Sex Pistols show at Winterland in January 1978 – even though the band failed to live up to my expectations, it was still a major event. By that time, I had bought a guitar and taught myself a few techniques of rhythmic pounding and bending of strings. Not really chords in any traditional musical sense of the word, but they enabled me to play along with some of my records and gave me the sense that I was making progress toward being in a band. Problem for me was that I was still socially isolated and not very clear on who I would join up with when it came time to really form that band.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">After graduation, my dad moved out to Contra Costa County, further into the depths of the East Bay. The move was fine to me – I didn't have many close friends in Alameda and the new house was nice. I enrolled in Diablo Valley Community College, completely unfocused and unclear about what I was trying to accomplish with further education. I only lasted one semester basically (though I did stay in one creative writing class for the second term) but it was there that I met my future bandmates Tim and Bruce, and through them, Eric. The four of us went on to become the Church Police, an obscure and short-lived combo that nevertheless went on to become a significant part of my life story.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">I could go into story-telling mode here and lay out any number of little anecdotes about the band, but what I really want to say here is that it's pretty easy to undervalue an experience like that when you're in the middle of it. Our group was not all that proficient in terms of musical talent, a coherent message or even purpose for existing, but we had fun and I think in significant ways we connected with a small group of people who saw something in our bumbling madness and gleeful chaos that one doesn't always find when watching bands strive to become popular entertainers. We had somehow found a way to sidestep the customary need to be “good” on our instruments or to develop a concise musical package that would fit tidily onto the bill of an evening's schedule of performances. And in an industry where image and style and trendiness wield enormous clout in determining who even makes it to the stage, the Church Police, along with many other groups who muddled their way through the first “post-punk” era of the early 1980s, found a way to strike a unique pose by being ourselves, not thinking too much about what we looked like or more crucially perhaps, who liked us. We just took our spot on the bill, walked on stage, made our noise, and let the roof crash down upon us, until either the audience erupted in weary impatience for us to get off the damn stage, or the house management decided we'd gone on too long and simply shut off the power.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">To me, the Church Police epitomize not just the goofy youthful fun that I try to describe above, but also a potential for creative expression that wasn't adequately fulfilled. I'm not going to lay out a long list of regrets here, but let me just say that if you, the reader, are involved in any kind of a creative endeavor at this time or in the future, give it your fullest effort and attention – especially if it involves other people. It is too easy to get caught in traps of self-doubt or distraction or discouragement – that you're not good enough, or that you're bored of the scene, or that it's just not going anywhere. Maybe that's what the final verdict will render – certainly all things must come to an end – but don't get there until you're sure you've explored the full potential. I think the Church Police underachieved, but for what we did, I'm pleased with how much life has grown out of it. </p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Given that I can't go and change the past, I make do with the knowledge that my life after the band turned out pretty good, so far anyway. I was able to take some of the hard times that I experienced during those years (the loneliness, the confusion, the poverty, the depression, the drug abuse...) and get a new perspective on what I went through, what it all meant. For nearly 20 years now I've worked with teenage victims of abuse and neglect as a mental health care provider. It's not always easy work and many of the youth I've gotten to know really don't like the circumstances they're in – including the treatment that my colleagues and I seek to provide. I think I understand the reasons for their struggles and resistance. Learning the things that life has to teach us is not usually very fun, convenient or easy. Often, a lot of pain and bitterness accompany those “lessons” - and the words of an adult who's trying to be all nice and empathetic and “I've been there too” are not nearly enough to remove the crappy aftertaste of what we've been dealt. </p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">But one mistake that I wish I had avoided was my tendency to get stuck in dumb habits that I did over and over again. Whether it was smoking pot as a routine, choosing my likes and dislikes based on what I saw others around me saying, or just buying into self-defeating, “I'll never make it” attitudes... those were behaviors that did me in, when it wouldn't have been that hard to reframe my situation in a different (not even a “better”) way. Look at life from as many different angles as you can imagine. Don't get too stuck on any one way of seeing the world – think of yourself as awesomely great at what you do and who you are – and then remind yourself of what a screw-up you have been too. Build for yourself a mind that can handle big and complex ideas, and still stay sane. Press your limits, but strive for the best health you can achieve. Being a teenager or a person in your early 20s is a pretty unique and incredible time of life. Don't let fear or discouragement hold you back and rob you of the joy in life, both now and in decades to come.</p>David Blakesleehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12167200509158903679noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1872684801607777279.post-51099565619998644462008-05-04T15:14:00.000-07:002008-12-11T03:05:30.205-08:00Pin-up Pix of Teen Heart-throb Dave<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXpT5W23RXnaS8bBBQeOF3CeuhVj9RmIQdjLsFJz4fu9NmxfM1tWQq0_CITrpS8DgqaVfkSNgf5RVfOMpKadXdhSrMzolpb4jHHVrzQZytLlw7lCs0MOFVuEEPKqQnc-ZHGyfF28ZfWss/s1600-h/peeking.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXpT5W23RXnaS8bBBQeOF3CeuhVj9RmIQdjLsFJz4fu9NmxfM1tWQq0_CITrpS8DgqaVfkSNgf5RVfOMpKadXdhSrMzolpb4jHHVrzQZytLlw7lCs0MOFVuEEPKqQnc-ZHGyfF28ZfWss/s200/peeking.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5196650969148510242" border="0" /></a><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgZqQvTCKfu83P8vV_z60BEUDuSXAgqTW3xZimZc9m3YK-Mm1u1HGAptb7EaQpeFTY5qvD7Eo_q1ow3TyVbl9fgARgpW3gRifJjYVGHYsKonW2mrMWUXsRJCQ_AJxiP3AHBNmlTMtxI0M/s1600-h/glaringDave.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgZqQvTCKfu83P8vV_z60BEUDuSXAgqTW3xZimZc9m3YK-Mm1u1HGAptb7EaQpeFTY5qvD7Eo_q1ow3TyVbl9fgARgpW3gRifJjYVGHYsKonW2mrMWUXsRJCQ_AJxiP3AHBNmlTMtxI0M/s200/glaringDave.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5196650977738444850" border="0" /></a><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvX05ZFGH_BGgPotkRUJkablmKTyArXmqdhyE3mN7uPmBuBd9Y3uHiEkwtEkl3KEI34AG2yUWGnZSDq0w66YjasirFYpaH2KNF1m_vJXqsvOmdfKlQMqU9pPC-r7m8MiXZMPkBNzI-VHM/s1600-h/gumpyDave.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvX05ZFGH_BGgPotkRUJkablmKTyArXmqdhyE3mN7uPmBuBd9Y3uHiEkwtEkl3KEI34AG2yUWGnZSDq0w66YjasirFYpaH2KNF1m_vJXqsvOmdfKlQMqU9pPC-r7m8MiXZMPkBNzI-VHM/s200/gumpyDave.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5196650982033412162" border="0" /></a><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbeTNrxKOdsoN8PJKjvJ36Dx2Nwr8sS4_l6Ad4UrwXHrq8CoSovCSj0Kfmjv041EYqkI720yT_m-sXInpU2vka65vCqqyTb8rzWjXnK1bFxg-EPA-F8jBVkrY59jmypPAUsVlFivs3P0c/s1600-h/smirkyDave.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbeTNrxKOdsoN8PJKjvJ36Dx2Nwr8sS4_l6Ad4UrwXHrq8CoSovCSj0Kfmjv041EYqkI720yT_m-sXInpU2vka65vCqqyTb8rzWjXnK1bFxg-EPA-F8jBVkrY59jmypPAUsVlFivs3P0c/s200/smirkyDave.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5196650982033412178" border="0" /></a><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgU86CRXEtZOXZ0bVcY_8AiMmJqyFMjCnp2gI0Ep9SRxQyfXy4TsEyxt4rVRdcT7ojANjjUoaYb0IQOqCTs-0l6KiIH8M9goEZur0eIJXhZh4b9rxjYyPCyA-R0ObW6GGSF1InTB5teOZY/s1600-h/scrunchedDave.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgU86CRXEtZOXZ0bVcY_8AiMmJqyFMjCnp2gI0Ep9SRxQyfXy4TsEyxt4rVRdcT7ojANjjUoaYb0IQOqCTs-0l6KiIH8M9goEZur0eIJXhZh4b9rxjYyPCyA-R0ObW6GGSF1InTB5teOZY/s200/scrunchedDave.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5196650234709102578" border="0" /></a><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjY8eCmHDm25GWdFvxFS1rXJxn5FGvDCqoC8vA18WeSCnWha4ErQFij1_vGR92bScZ94AN2mMdsaPwZgB0pfS609V5d3D8YABSr9nBY0J9n4fIzZO-dPoGR_JGzMT7aoJfARiSUab2OnqU/s1600-h/dementedDave.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjY8eCmHDm25GWdFvxFS1rXJxn5FGvDCqoC8vA18WeSCnWha4ErQFij1_vGR92bScZ94AN2mMdsaPwZgB0pfS609V5d3D8YABSr9nBY0J9n4fIzZO-dPoGR_JGzMT7aoJfARiSUab2OnqU/s200/dementedDave.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5196650243299037202" border="0" /></a><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiykPjSDkAEkxaxJbcUVzybAImYPDg1dRx6rUN0e5tOk7LtqlOppPb3BJ_TUX98tYjKeQDVKYfv9tDtL2GO5OefO3I7rXeAo8QrP5G6hT5W7VAsjxhGTazKXDBf65dBj6RmDlNFNYSZ1JY/s1600-h/goonyDave.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiykPjSDkAEkxaxJbcUVzybAImYPDg1dRx6rUN0e5tOk7LtqlOppPb3BJ_TUX98tYjKeQDVKYfv9tDtL2GO5OefO3I7rXeAo8QrP5G6hT5W7VAsjxhGTazKXDBf65dBj6RmDlNFNYSZ1JY/s200/goonyDave.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5196650226119167954" border="0" /></a><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiU-y_7usANF65PqYV9bhMgqVdMQzJwidrrw53UZ_PHKcC68iETyFOY16bRLGPsos7y3JFHUBdtLOL0uVFxiVgIYhDOlPrp5L5LMljMS0RUxPKigdnR21Wtu3lB4V3gpOKfBrw1hGbDaG4/s1600-h/gnarlyDave.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiU-y_7usANF65PqYV9bhMgqVdMQzJwidrrw53UZ_PHKcC68iETyFOY16bRLGPsos7y3JFHUBdtLOL0uVFxiVgIYhDOlPrp5L5LMljMS0RUxPKigdnR21Wtu3lB4V3gpOKfBrw1hGbDaG4/s200/gnarlyDave.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5196650230414135266" border="0" /></a><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDZoKdnMVUkKyhi0UpDerCt6U9rfy_Cnlze5xkSURMZtElKT1uLlBpdaJSbOoF1atqzqsc8QBSCwZDABkC4rp62avXbcfbnUXSFVpW-7VXEv3_kkabraGFMjYTG5AZ7XzH6fa91UEZSVo/s1600-h/mushedDave.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDZoKdnMVUkKyhi0UpDerCt6U9rfy_Cnlze5xkSURMZtElKT1uLlBpdaJSbOoF1atqzqsc8QBSCwZDABkC4rp62avXbcfbnUXSFVpW-7VXEv3_kkabraGFMjYTG5AZ7XzH6fa91UEZSVo/s200/mushedDave.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5196650239004069890" border="0" /></a><br /><br />By popular demand, here are some more scans (of just me) from the legendary Church Police photo session from spring 1982, on my dad's copy machine. Other band member shots may be posted here... eventually.David Blakesleehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12167200509158903679noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1872684801607777279.post-37799748001254365972008-05-04T14:26:00.000-07:002008-12-11T03:05:30.432-08:00MRR #300<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUKiD89WhRcKKAJ8pF-8EFOaYTpG7oIYk3bkwgt2Hv6qPzJuwjxaEK8Yexb2L2J_CMY58QAEHc9YyFPfm-CZac80QnCa7XUyJ_Igmh8V-UPMAl4ihS83Pvx38GdsfBSTrZrRaqYGiV1s0/s1600-h/MRR300.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUKiD89WhRcKKAJ8pF-8EFOaYTpG7oIYk3bkwgt2Hv6qPzJuwjxaEK8Yexb2L2J_CMY58QAEHc9YyFPfm-CZac80QnCa7XUyJ_Igmh8V-UPMAl4ihS83Pvx38GdsfBSTrZrRaqYGiV1s0/s400/MRR300.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5196638844455833538" border="0" /></a><br /><a href="http://maximumrocknroll.com/mainpage/index.html">Issue #300 of Maximum RockNRoll Magazine</a> recently hit the newsstands... some newstands anyway. I haven't seen it at my local Barnes & Noble but the publishers were kind enough to send me a complementary issue, since Tim (the CP singer) and I were interviewed for this edition. The Church Police were also featured in Issue #1. My unedited interview transcript is already posted further down on the blog. I will post the edited text (with Tim's comments included) later on, after the next issue comes out. If you want to read the article now - go buy your own copy!David Blakesleehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12167200509158903679noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1872684801607777279.post-37555320848391047142008-03-09T08:31:00.001-07:002008-12-11T03:05:30.634-08:00Band photos (ultra rare)<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkyqFijtvdW4hrkjJR-pXn996gbqVv2vDCbqsPZtLYwTKdOjltwVjbUdBJudyJ_n1orCi7qaQYAQbXH3LvBby-ZEePfypovmHDsIa5WYDUn2GGOJUIiNNaFcw7nufCJldAzpDsiVVTADo/s1600-h/CP+Pic.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkyqFijtvdW4hrkjJR-pXn996gbqVv2vDCbqsPZtLYwTKdOjltwVjbUdBJudyJ_n1orCi7qaQYAQbXH3LvBby-ZEePfypovmHDsIa5WYDUn2GGOJUIiNNaFcw7nufCJldAzpDsiVVTADo/s400/CP+Pic.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5175765403981174146" border="0" /></a><br /><div style="text-align: center;">This collage was made from scans of pictures we took of ourselves on a photocopy machine in 1982. Clockwise from top left, Tim: vocals, Dave: guitar, Bruce: bass, Eric: drums.<br /></div>David Blakesleehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12167200509158903679noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1872684801607777279.post-53627612207224612802008-03-09T08:20:00.000-07:002008-03-09T08:31:13.683-07:00Another retrospective interview... or, introspective retroviewThe other day I received an "interview by email" which may be published in an upcoming issue of "Maximum Rock'n'Roll" magazine. MRR is nearing it's 500th issue. The Church Police were featured in issue #1 so I've been asked to give an update on what's happened since then. Here are the answers I submitted... we'll see what makes it past the editors desk when the magazine gets printed.<br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">1. First off, could you give a bit of history about the band- How and when did you form?<br /><br /></span> <div> </div> <div>I first met Tim and Bruce when we were all enrolled in a creative writing class at DVC. I think that's mentioned in the MRR article where I got mocked for wearing red pants. I had bought a guitar a year or two before that and spent time figuring out how to play it in my bedroom. Bruce played keyboards and we got together so that he could help me learn a bit of music. That led to a band called the Maroons, with Bruce on organ, me on guitar, a girl named Ba Powell on bass and Tim on a real small and crummy drum kit. Tim knew Eric Lundmark through Bruce, I think. Bruce and Eric were from Concord, Tim and I were from Walnut Creek. That right there accounts for the creative tensions and irreconcilable differences within the band, a cultural rift which ultimately sealed our doom.</div> <div> </div> <div><br />Tim and Eric got together one day and wrote a bunch of lyrics. I guess they get ultimate credit for starting the band. They chose the name "Church Police" which came from a Monty Python skit. Either that same day or the next, they came over to my dad's house in Walnut Creek where The Maroons would hang out and practice in the cellar, this dank little underground cavern which provided decent sound insulation. This was 1980 when there was no punk scene even imaginable in Contra Costa County suburbia. The sounds we were making were very alien to that environment at the time.</div> <div> </div> <div><br />Tim and Eric showed me their lyrics so we went down into the cellar and I banged out some very elemental riffs on my guitar. Eric played the drums and Tim sang. Our first bass player was also named Dave, he was Eric's friend. I think the songs we created that day account for about 75% of the material that the Church Police ever performed. Songs like "The Oven Is My Friend," "Life Is Fun," "Robots," "Gourmet Cooking," "Rock and Roll Bank Account," "Holidays" and "Church Attack" were all pretty much the work of a fall afternoon. We added a few other songs later, but it was mostly one burst of creativity that set us in motion. Originally Bruce had nothing to do with the band - in fact, Eric really didn't want Bruce in the band at all but had to accept it because his friend Dave couldn't play as well and Bruce had a bass amp so that sealed the deal. The "other" Dave stuck with the band for awhile playing harmonica and toy saxophone but once we got loud, he couldn't be heard in all the noise and felt dumb being up there on stage so he became our #1 roadie and fan. Bruce and Eric ignored their personal incompatibility enough to eventually forge a decent rhythm section which made my string mangling hackery on guitar at least tolerable, if not acceptable.</div><div class="Ih2E3d"> <blockquote style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;" class="gmail_quote"><div><span style="font-style: italic;"><blockquote></blockquote>Why were no records released?<br /><br /></span> </div></blockquote> <div> </div> </div><div>We were just too inept and couldn't get our act together. We did the one studio session at Bay Sound that has served us well for the number of records we've gotten out of it, I guess. But we never had much money, our equipment was usually in shambles and there was no managerial figure or anyone else to oversee us and get something organized. By the end of 1982, relationships between Bruce and the other three of us deteriorated and my personal living situation in San Francisco fell apart. Not only that, I was going through a bit of a psychic meltdown - too many drugs, the death of one of my best friends and other internal personal conflicts, I'll just leave it at that. So I came to the end of my pursuit, my fantasy really, of being a full-time rocker. I moved on to my dad's sailboat docked at a marina in Oakland for awhile, then he and I decided to go on an epic sailing adventure down the coast and to Central America. I only made it to Catalina Island, then I decided to bail and hitchhiked across the southern USA from Los Angeles to Texas. After doing that for awhile, I moved back to Grand Rapids MI, my hometown. I experienced a religious conversion and got married. Shortly after my wedding, my wife and I moved out to the Bay Area for a few years. I reconnected very briefly with some of my old friends in the scene, but my life had changed, we had a kid a year into our marriage and twins two years after that, which led us to move back to Grand Rapids again just to have a manageable cost of living.<br /><br /></div><div class="Ih2E3d"> <div> </div> <blockquote style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;" class="gmail_quote"><div><span style="font-style: italic;">What happened to the band?</span> </div></blockquote> <div> </div> </div><div><br />Basically, the whole thing was just too unstable and chaotic. I think the actual break-up happened one evening when Bruce told us that he was no longer willing to drive our equipment around to shows. That was pretty much the deal-breaker right there - it just didn't seem like any of us were willing or able to keep it going. We were having a hell of a time finding a rehearsal space - I remember looking at some abandoned beer vats where a bunch of punk kids were living and hanging out but nothing came of that. Bruce's decision messed things up because it was our most reliable way to get our amps and drums from the suburbs to the city. I also think he was tired of the screw-ups that the rest of us had become and his musical tastes were moving in other directions too.<br /><br /></div> <div> </div> <blockquote style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex; font-style: italic;" class="gmail_quote"><div>What recordings were made?</div></blockquote> <div> </div> <div><br />We did that one session at Bay Sound Studios, produced and engineered by Kevin Army. I like that recording because it is all just one take of us playing live going right onto the tape, no overdubs, just Kevin tweaking knobs, dropping instruments in and out right on the fly, which I think made the recording more interesting than if it had just been played straight. We did each song only once. It was practically like having a live show recorded because we only had like one hour or so of studio time. It was like, rush in, set up, plug in, play, then get the hell out of there before the meter flipped over to charge us an extra dollar. I had to use a really cheap crappy pawn shop guitar because my good one had been stolen when I lived upstairs from Big Al's strip club on Broadway. (One of several sad stories I could relate from the time I spent living in The City while trying to make it in the music biz.) Which explains the horrendous feedback and gnarly texture of my guitar sound. Plus I recall being more drunk than I should have been. But that's what it is!</div> <div> </div> <div><br />We also did an early demo at Diablo Valley College in Pleasant Hill where our instruments were plugged directly into the mixing board - no amps. Only the drums were mic'ed. It made for a weird and unrepresentative sound but that resulted in the tape that made its way to Bruce Loose and led to us having our short moment in the spotlight in the SF punk scene circa 1981-82. </div> <div> </div> <div>Besides those two sessions, there were a few shows that got recorded and also a few practices caught on cassette. If those tapes exist, Bruce would be the guy who has them. It's a shame really. I would have loved to have had one more shot at making a studio recording but that's not how the story went down.</div> <br /><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0px 0px 0px 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex; font-style: italic;">2. Most people know the name Church Police from "The Oven is My Friend", which is one of the standouts on the heavily stacked Not So Quiet on the Western Front compilation. How did that come about? What kind of response did you receive from that- I assume it was the most widespread distribution the band received.</blockquote> <div> </div> <div><br />We were asked either by Tim Yohanon or one of his representatives to contribute a song for this double album comp that they had in mind to put out, and we were pretty happy to be a part of it. I think TOIMF is the song that they had in mind but I didn't necessarily think of that song as our "anthem" or "first single" or "best thing we ever did." It's really the most ridiculously simple song in the world to play. I basically hit the two bottom strings on my guitar, sliding my finger up one fret every four strums, until I get to where the neck meets the body, then I freak out and generate noise and feedback for half a minute, then I do this monster stomp thing, one-two-three-four over and over and that's about it on the guitar, but it turned into a pretty decent little slam dance tune I guess. Tim's lyrics were demented... you'll have to ask him about the inspiration for that. But yeah, I think as a "signature tune" goes, I'm good with it. I thought from the first time I heard "Not So Quiet" that our track stood out just because it was different from most everything else on the comp - loose, sloppy, funny without necessarily trying to be. A perfect capture of the mutations taking place at the time out in shopping mall territory.</div><div class="Ih2E3d"> <br /><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0px 0px 0px 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex; font-style: italic;"> Have you heard the Sebadoh cover of the song?</blockquote> <div> </div> </div><div><br />I have. A guy from Israel (I think he was a teenager at the time) tracked me down on the internet several years ago and sent me an mp3 along with a link to some French fanzine that did a photo essay on TOIMF. I've really enjoyed the occasional random connection that I have with Church Police fans from places far away from the SF Bay Area. But I think Sebadoh kind of messed up their version. It struck me as too histrionic - like the guy overdid the screaming part or something. I wouldn't mind getting a piece of that royalty check, now that you mention it.</div><div class="Ih2E3d"> <br /><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0px 0px 0px 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;"><span style="font-style: italic;">3. I noticed you had put a copy of the interview from MRR #1 online. How does it feel to read an interview with yourself from 25 or so years ago?</span> </blockquote> <div> </div> </div><div><br />It's pretty cool. I have a lot of old journals and crap that I wrote from that time so that part of my life is pretty well documented for my own recollections. But it's a different kind of memory trigger when your words are in print in an old magazine.<br /><br />I recently came into contact with Eric Bradner, the guy who interviewed us, through MySpace. Eric and I are both listed as "friends" of Flipper on the band's page. For such a short-lived band, I think it's great that we made issue #1 of Maximum Rock and Roll. And there was a fan letter written about us in issue #2. And of course we were in issue #0, the one that came with the album...</div><div class="Ih2E3d"> <br /><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0px 0px 0px 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;"><span style="font-style: italic;">How did your plans to be a bum work out?</span> </blockquote> <div> </div> </div><div><br />Well I did actually hitchhike from LA to Houston in the aftermath of my failed sailing trip in early 1983, so I can cross that ambition off my list. But after a couple months of that, I settled down and went straight. I'm a father of four, a social worker by profession, married for over 23 years, got a house and two cats and a respectable standing in society. But I still nurture my inner bum when others aren't looking.</div><div class="Ih2E3d"> <br /><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0px 0px 0px 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex; font-style: italic;">Are you surprised that MRR is still published?</blockquote> <div> </div> </div><div><br />To be honest, I haven't read many issues since those few that we were featured in. I respect their perseverance and what they've accomplished. I think the punk community has grown into an institution and the magazine meets the needs and interests of a vibrant community. I think I still retain a fair amount of the punk mindset even though my presentation is a lot more conventional and middle-class.</div><div class="Ih2E3d"> <br /><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0px 0px 0px 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex; font-style: italic;">3. Your sound definitely shows the influence of Flipper, and I know you played with them quite a bit. Was the comparatively slug like pace of both bands warmly received amidst your faster contemporaries?</blockquote> <div> </div> </div><div><br />No, we encountered a lot of hostility and resentment. On the one hand, our musicianship, mine especially, was an obvious and deserving target of criticism. I never took any lessons and really never learned to more than a few proper chords. Sometimes I would even forget the simple sequences I'd worked out. Really anyone as limited as I was musically had little business getting up on stage but that didn't stop me at the time. We challenged what were already becoming the conventionalities of hardcore thrash and skinhead music. I know Eric wanted to do more in that direction but I was never able to pull it off. And I never really felt the need to emulate that sound. The Ramones, Black Flag and Circle Jerks were all doing that hard fast stuff better than I ever would and why bother sounding like a lame imitation of that? </div> <div> </div> <div><br />I honestly think that we should not be seen as being derivative of Flipper's sound - we had our sound before we'd ever seen them perform. In fact, the first night that Bruce Loose came out and danced around and made a big scene at one of our early Sound of Music shows, I didn't even know who he was, but I just noticed some dude in the audience was really getting into our music. It wasn't until after the show that Tim told me who that dude was. I think that Flipper and us had similar influences, and I think they were better at what they did than we were. We both liked Public Image Ltd. and seeing Flipper open for them at some south-of-Market warehouse was my first Flipper show, though I wasn't particularly impressed by them at the time and I think that was even before I was in a band.<br /><br />I liked PiL's percussive style of guitar playing and the heavy bass and drums. I liked the early Gang of Four sound (Entertainment!) Wire's Pink Flag was in that mix of influences too. Don't get me wrong, I loved Flipper once I got more into the S.F. club scene and really enjoyed their shows and the massiveness of their sound, but I don't think it was really a copycat thing on my part at all. At least, I could never approximate what Ted did on the guitar, in my opinion.<br /></div><div class="Ih2E3d"><br /><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0px 0px 0px 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;"><span style="font-style: italic;"> Did you go over better with more a open-minded audience, say at the Throbbing Gristle gig you played?</span> </blockquote> <div> </div> </div><div><br />I don't think the Throbbing Gristle audience got us much better than the standard Mab or On Broadway crowd. It's kind of hard to answer this question - outside of a few friends and the occasional stranger who'd rush up to express his appreciation of our gig, I don't really know what kind of effect we had on the audience. The people who I know liked us enjoyed the defiance and arrogance of our shows, I think. Our concerts were as much about anarchic performance statements - like occupying the stage refusing to get off until they would shut down the power on us, or dragging junk in from the alleys like spring mattresses or dehydrated milk and turning them into stage props. Even in a self-consciously rebellious and unconventional punk scene, I think we broke rules and transgressed expectations in ways that a few enjoyed and a few found truly offensive. But we were never sick or pretentious. No animals were harmed in our performance and we always did our best to have honest fun... because Life Is Fun, you know?<br /><br />I know we pissed off a lot of the weekend warrior, "let's party in the City" trendy types. Which is what I considered most of the crowds to consist of when we played the clubs on Broadway. It's hard to get your girlfriend drunk and in the mood when a bunch of suburban teenage misfits are blasting your eardrums with atonal feedback chaos and sonic explosions from a dislodged reverb coil! The SoM crowds and kids at the other assorted odd gigs we played were just art weirdos like us who probably took the whole thing for granted.</div><div class="Ih2E3d"> <br /><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0px 0px 0px 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;"><span style="font-style: italic;">Were you familiar with the Subterranean Records scene at the time?</span> </blockquote> <div> </div> </div><div><br />No I was never really that close to the record-making business side of things. Wish I was.</div><div class="Ih2E3d"><br /><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0px 0px 0px 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex; font-style: italic;">What other bands did you consider like-minded contemporaries?</blockquote> <div> </div> </div><div><br />Animal Things were the first local Bay Area band that I got to know and love, and they helped connect us to Flipper. Peter Accident and Gaga Din were other Contra Costa bands that we hung out with. Pariah, Ray Lujan's band. They had nice equipment that their parents bought them. There was a guy named Dave Jones who stood by us and helped us a lot. He had a short-lived band called the Wild Boys but I don't think they ever did anything. I wonder whatever happened to him... A band from New York named Arsenal, we got along pretty well with them for awhile. And I have to mention my friends Joe Nitzberg and Julie and Joyce Jackson. They were suburbanite kids who formed a goofy little band called Yawn Moan Sigh. A fun and funny bunch. I'd love to reconnect with them.</div> <div> </div> <div><br />But musically, we were kind of in our own little world. Of course it remains a great pleasure to this day to say that I used to hang out with Flipper back in 81, 82, and had casual run-ins with Biafra and Black Flag here and there, stuff like that. But we were always a bit detached from the social aspects of the scene it seems to me.</div><div class="Ih2E3d"> <br /><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0px 0px 0px 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex; font-style: italic;">4. I've been to Walnut Creek and some of the surrounding areas, and it certainly feels removed from San Francisco and even Berkeley and Oakland. Do you feel this isolation from the city was essential to the sound and ideas behind Church Police?</blockquote> <div> </div> </div><div><br />Yeah, I think our overt suburbanness made us distinctive from other bands, especially at that time. We never really tried to fit into any of the stylistic templates of the era - no "uniforms" or punk haircuts or anything like that. Our look was kind of a proto-grunge I suppose... flannel shirts and jeans, tennis shoes. Tim would wear khakis more than jeans though. What came through our music and live shows was a fair amount of anger lashing itself out at the world - we liked having crazy fun and breaking the boundaries of what entertainment was supposed to be about at our gigs, but it's hard to deny that we were directing a lot of hostility toward our audience, sometimes toward the other bands on the bill (just about any band who seemed too serious about trying to "make it") and especially the club managers who exploited the bands but were vital to giving us our creative outlet.</div><div class="Ih2E3d"> <br /><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0px 0px 0px 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex; font-style: italic;">5. Lyrically the Church Police material I have heard seems to veer from abstract to the mundane. The MRR #1 interview and your journal bits hint at your (Dave and Tim) literary aspirations (both producing and consuming). Where were you coming from at the time? You seem to have sidestepped blatant political posturing of many hardcore bands from the same era- was this a conscious decision?</blockquote> <div> </div> </div><div><br />I didn't write too many lyrics except for a couple of our later songs which never got recorded. Tim and I were both interested in literary counter-culture - Kerouac, Burroughs, surrealism, Joyce, the Song of Maldoror, Philip K. Dick, Robert Anton Wilson, Timothy Leary, stuff like that. In some ways we were probably too clever for our own good... we bit off more than we could chew in a sense. Eric wrote some pro-anarchy songs and was probably the most sincere about that kind of stuff of any of us. I think we avoided the standard anti-Reagan "don't send me to El Salvador" stuff because it was obviously already being done. And whether its fair criticism or not, bands like The Crass seemed kind of humorless and too self-important to hold my interest at the time. I liked more humor, satire, goofiness I guess. I didn't feel like I had the grand political statement to give or the right to give it in any case.<br /></div><div class="Ih2E3d"><br /><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0px 0px 0px 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex; font-style: italic;">6. Looking back on the band and the do-it-yourself scene that you were a part of, how has it affected where you are in 2008? Are you still playing music or writing at all?</blockquote> <div> </div> </div><div><br />No, I don't do music, mainly due to lack of talent. There are other things I do much better. I keep a blog and maintain an email list that discusses religion, politics and cultural stuff. I get involved in some local political and social activism. I'm part of a group that produces a local public access TV show each month. I work with kids who've been abused and neglected, trying to help them stay out of trouble, work through their problems and get back on track again. That's something I feel good about doing with my life.<br /><br />A few years ago two of my sons had some interest in starting a band but didn't stick much with it. I fiddled around with their guitar, but I don't feel the same fire to want to make music that I did in my teens. Back then it offered a hope and a direction to focus myself... sort of. Now I have plenty of other stuff to do that keeps me busy and I'm OK with that. I wish we could have kept the band together a bit longer, or at least that we would have made better use of the time when we were together. But it's not like I'm gnawing at the emptiness within because I got out of the music game before I could make it really pay off for me. It's a satisfying part of my personal story and history, and with the recent release of some of our old recordings, and prospects of maybe some more on the way in the near future, I don't feel like it's completely done and over with either. I would even be open to reuniting the band for some kind of show or recording or just the experience of it if we could work out the logistics. But it might just be a daydream. I'm okay with it either way.</div>David Blakesleehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12167200509158903679noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1872684801607777279.post-28054653239471082442008-01-04T13:46:00.000-08:002008-01-04T13:48:41.678-08:00Flipper in BillboardI just lifted <a href="http://www.billboard.com/bbcom/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003691838">this link</a> from Flipper's MySpace blog which I figure has more hits than this one does, but I'll do my part to support the cause. Krist Novaselik, the former bass player for Nirvana, has taken Will Shatter's place and they have a new CD coming out in February, as well as re-releases of their old material later in the year.<br /><br />Maybe the Church Police should re-unite so we can open for them on their tour...David Blakesleehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12167200509158903679noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1872684801607777279.post-58829819487156520222007-12-11T18:29:00.000-08:002007-12-11T18:34:07.374-08:00He Had To Break My Twenty.<span style="font-style: italic;">I'm going to post some old journal entries, song lyrics and stuff like that on this blog. The Church Police, or at least Tim and I, aspired to be a literary phenomenon as much as a musical thing. We didn't do much in that area either but here goes. These entries don't have much of a point but they give a glimpse into our life and times. This is from a little 2.5" X 5" spiral notepad that has a bunch of random, undated stuff scrawled into it. It starts in the middle of some kind of narrative - I can't recall the details so it just is what it is... You can date it sometime in the spring or summer of 1981. - DB<br /><br /></span>He had to break my twenty. Then Tim decided to get one and gave him a twenty but he had to go in back to get it so I gave him two dollars instead because I was getting sick of waiting because he had sat on the phone for 15 minutes while I was waiting to buy my record. Time said "now we'll have to break up my twenty somewhere else! I said "oh well , I just wanna get out of here." So we went to Valco and Tim bought some gum and got change. So then we walked back to my house. Marcy (my dad's housekeeper) was playing the Mexican radio station loud. Tim went upstairs and was checking out <u>Stephen Hero</u>. I made a bologna sandwich (I just saw a truckload of cows!) I swiped a little bit of weed from the Green Jar, enough for two J's while we listened to the Minutemen. I couldn't find the rolling machine so I had to twist 'em by hand. It took longer and it soon became apparent that we weren't going to make his next class so we went down in the basement and smoked a doobie. We talked about Marquis de Sade and other stuff. I wanted to wander around S.F. so I said we should leave soon. Tim seemed reluctant to go so early but he did anyway. So we walked down to BART. Tim curled up and got into the subliminal vibes. I stared out the window and thought about me and Tim, two young artists - took lots of thoughts down, would wander off, get distracted and the start from the phrase, "me and Tim the young artists."<br /><br />We got off at Embarcadero and walked (I thought) north of Market but it was really south - Tim told me so. I was talking like let's go to North Beach and just walk all over town (my plans) and Tim was not clear on what I was saying. He kept repeating something to me. Fuck! I can't remember but I got pissed, he kept saying it but I guess it's no big deal.<br /><br />Then we went to Fun Terminal where we met Eric S. He gave us a ride to where he works. I've already told what he did. So he walked over to this grassy patch, some strange lawn elevated with trees in front of a big building and sat for awhile. I started writing this, Tim sat and watched.<br /><br />After some time we walked up 6th Street to Market digging all the goony looking faces. Then we got up to Powell Street and that area. William was playing bass at Hallidie Plaza. We walked past Woolworth's and saw George from Grr and some other guy playing guitars. We listened for a bit and Tim suggested that we should have got him for our band. Right! So I said let's walk through Stockton Street Tunnel. Tim didn't want to (?) but said he would because it would be great for me cuz I used to do it everyday. Right!<br /><br />So we walked up thru Chinatown and I remembered Old Master Q - I walked over to the newsstand (Chinese) and they had two fat books and I skim one. I bought a fat book for a dollar. It was pretty funny, better than the last few I bought. Then we walked up to Coit Liquors to buy wine. I saw Brian had grown a beard, Juan was still working there, Mike too. Eleanor had a puffier younger looking hairdo. Mario looked the same, saw me but didn't say anything. Tony saw me and said my name. I said "how ya doing," full volley of greetings blah blah. I forgot, we saw Kurt from the Renegades and the Egyptian Theater, he talked about bands (mainly his) and girls a bit and how scummy S.F. is and that junk. We also saw Charly from Arsenal in this bookstore on Powell or thereabouts. He has a skinhead, talked about tonight's party, their Halloween party (sorry!), reggae, the Minutemen, friendly junk. I discovered another new author, B. Traven - I saw a book called <u>Death Ship</u> by him which looks like it might be alright. Caution: just don't get too eclectic!<br /><br />So after that we went to Rough Trade. First thing I checked for was <u>Jealous Again</u>. They still had it - then new LPs, nothing interesting, clothbound Joy Division 2-LP set (smirk). then I looked under B singles, saw new Black Flag, couldn't find <u>Nervous Breakdown</u>. Found new Adolescents single, Tim said "Wow, Ray'll freak out!" I ripped off issue of <u>Search and Destroy</u> with Burroughs.<br /><br />We walked down to City Lights, not much there, I read the <span style="text-decoration: underline;">Symposium on Finnegan's Wake.</span> I shuddered to think of the task before me. Tim came down reading <u>A Chicken Essay</u>. We sat around for awhile, I checked out various racks of books. We went to Clown Alley before City Lights so Tim could piss, then back again afterwards to eat. We sat outside for a little while. Drunk some wine. I had to take a crap, after I did I found out the toilet was jammed. I found it out cuz I flushed the toilet while I was sitting on it. The water came up and chilled my ass. Whoo! What a surprise. All this water started dumping on the floor and a big turd floated in the middle. I didn't stuff it up though! I walked out of the room, my ass was still a bit damp, the water ran down the back of my legs. We fired up our other joint. We were talking about stuff. I told Tim about Stephen Hero, he told me what he thought of Joyce and other mind-molding things. So then we went to eat and back to City Lights and more stuff.David Blakesleehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12167200509158903679noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1872684801607777279.post-55388155744086910152007-12-11T03:28:00.000-08:002007-12-11T03:32:02.042-08:00A Comment From TimTim (the singer) emailed me with some additional information that he wanted to leave as a comment but I don't allow anonymous entries and he didn't want to identify himself, or register with Google, or something. I think the comment is worthy of being a new post so here it is:<br /><blockquote>Hi Dave,<br /><br />Very poor memory on your part.<br /><br />Flipper got lost for the DVC show -- I will always remember Ted's sheepish face when they showed up as we were packing away the equipment. They made it but the show was all over because they were driving all over the Bay Area freeways til they founbd it.<br /><br />And I played in the Maroons last show with Bruce on drums.<br /><br />To jove moix dude -- I saw your blog a while ago and no puedo entender quelle languaje it was escribo in-- some sort of castellian spanish? Great to see, thanks.<br /><br />And Dave, great stuff, keep it up -- Bruce and I put the top poster together.</blockquote><br />Of course, he's wrong on all the points where he contradicts me but you know who to trust already don't you?David Blakesleehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12167200509158903679noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1872684801607777279.post-62617719868929194052007-12-09T07:09:00.000-08:002008-12-11T03:05:31.851-08:00Church Police PostersI've recently been in touch with people (on-line) who are fans either of the Church Police, or Flipper, or both, and that has inspired me to get more active in fulfilling the potential of this blog to serve as a repository of information on the Church Police and my recollections of the early-80s SF musical underground scene that I played a bit part in. I have bunches of old journals and other artifacts that deserve some kind of public airing. Not much in the way of photos though - the Church Police are woefully under-preserved in the audio and visual realms, but that only adds to the allure and mystery doesn't it...<br /><br />Here are some scans I made a few years ago of posters from our shows. They may still be on-line somewhere, if Comcast chose to preserve the pages I posted when the domain was attbi.com but here's a fresh look at them. <br /><br />This isn't the full collection though. I gotta save a few things for the <br />deluxe edition box set that I hope to release some day.<br /><br /><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiayUNtsfUFX_8gRY-oOwsxNoCm6T0BWO9typuotLY8-LAeabF2wXZ8ebmQa53N039WGbbegIobHjGOjGixawG5XHldCpDCX0VeDeX4W6t0Vv0_dbXHrf8dRaLa8z6wO7s7bFp6fSt0E5s/s320/Old+Pictures+001.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5141993450289685506" /><br />Bruce made this one. These scans are such high quality that you can see the text from the other side of the newspaper bleeding through.<br /><br /><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-OHQDi-eOtURcLUeUzBA_MGZPn-uUZJLFf009KcClLxUgQYvC7OgmG1tc_UQv94dB3FCusjPBlzkRNuh0hNTw8xqkAidfLNRnuij7i7Zg-N3tEURhyTGWre9wTFDBhILhcQNt24KB35o/s320/Old+Pictures+003.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5141992939188577266" /><br />This one was made by Tim. He was the biggest sports fan in our band, but I follow major league baseball and the NFL pretty closely these days.<br /><br /><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjc3UnWwXPskhYMHYluq8NlFkHVI9V8LYVtIUCPIY10clcQqChSk_hpo2pXJl8NF1X7KH-vSgeGSsMxQTWV6_D0P795XopxFvzDPmpzGiIQqp8wZNvd6Xp64C5bPCmGV-Cxtdigfe9_Sxo/s320/Old+Pictures+011.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5141994137484452882" /><br /><br />I made this one. It's based on the popular Hong Kong comic book<br />series Old Master Q. You have to read it starting in the upper <br />right, then go down, then upper left, then go down. <br /><br />I used to work at Coit Liquors in North Beach, right there on Washington Square, across from the big Catholic Church and right around the corner from Chinatown. I would stroll around the neighborhood on my lunch hours and picked up a few issues of these comics. None of them were in English but many of the strips had no dialog so the jokes were easy to understand. I actually combined two different strips to make this poster so it is a truly original work of art.<br /><br /><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxJvnNMEEoMuylT9OvG57U7TL47YwWvyfu9T5zYt4Jkp3ZILPNgQgJH1jAYZKmdQV4yxTj5PvRLbi-tMSsN6FgwoIMV0xS2PAPAEMun1ukqDneVIotafO-uJT7uC_b9DBwLMuOn1eeeis/s320/Old+Pictures+009.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5141995576298497058" /><br /><br />I made this poster for a show we put on in Pleasant Hill. Maybe Contra Costa was our response to a compilation album called No New York and it's follow-up rebuttal comp Yes L.A. Too bad we never released the album. As it turned out, Flipper canceled on us. I think they were scared to go through the Caldecott Tunnel or something (wimps.)<br /><br />This is the show where our exceedingly rare single "Killing Myself To Live" (OOP on Stomach Ache Records, released in 1996) was recorded. We played the song two times in a row (even though I didn't realize it until we were about halfway into the performance which is why my guitar playing is even more screwed up and dischordant than usual but it's better that way.) It's the second take that made it to the single, though I think they work better listened to back-to-back. But I had nothing to do with putting that single out anyway so what does it matter...<br /><br /><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQWCpqDsVTxFKFOm7MJ6VQO3aSp3ZCq1t48fS-yHlf5WpCTkTYhmtn_gKIZ0x5OP_PcIa8qm84b5VRhjsAF1TyaOOSyW9-xC1Oj0fKJsQI3lgyoRjgEAsXE-jd7MMATF0yO0cS4GG7uaA/s320/Old+Pictures+021.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5141997363004892210" /><br /><br />You've seen this image already, of course. It's the basis for the cover of the Gilligan's Wings single. This historic document notes the first public performance of the Church Police and the last performance by the Maroons, the band that Bruce, Tim and I were in before forming the Church Police, though Tim had already quit by the time of this show. <br /><br />He and Eric sat in the mostly empty bar harrassing Bruce and me and Ba, our bass player, though she was nice and a good musician and had some difficult personal issues due to the death of both her parents in a tragic car accident several years earlier so no one was ever really that mean to her.<br /><br />Then, after the Maroons sunk into oblivion after that set, I put my guitar back on after watching Gaga Din and played a bunch of different songs and the Church Police began their too-brief and ill-managed career.David Blakesleehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12167200509158903679noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1872684801607777279.post-77747959577472147732007-09-23T07:39:00.000-07:002007-09-23T07:40:50.684-07:00Art for Spastics Review<a href="http://artforspastics.blogspot.com/2007/08/art-for-spastics-v-145.html">Scroll down to see the original:</a><br /><br />Speaking of bands that tried to out-Flipper Flipper, the first to make a serious attempt might've been the <b>Church Police</b>, who rose briefly in the early 1980s from perhaps the most reviled of Bay Area edge cities, Concord, California. Most of the few people who know the band are only familiar with their contribution to the definitive Bay Area hardcore document, the <i>Not So Quiet on the Western Front</i> compilation. "The Oven Is My Friend" (later covered by <b>Sebadoh</b> on their <b>Siltbreeze</b> 7") was one of the two great weird songs to grace that LP (the other was Flipper's "Sacrifice"). Even fewer people noticed in the mid 1990s that the enigmatic <b>Stomach Ache Records</b> released a 7" (cooperatively with <b>RRRecords</b>) of rambling freer-form songs by the Church Police with minimal sleeve info. I stupidly sold that record away about six years ago, but "Robots" was a song so memorable that I can replay it in my mind whenever I think about it, and "Killing Myself to Live" might be the best song title ever.<br /><br /><img src="http://i106.photobucket.com/albums/m276/radmcawesome/2261.jpg" /><br /><br />I doubted that any other Church Police songs existed, so I was so pleased when Ry of <b>Snake Apartment</b>--who runs the very tasteful <b>Skulltones</b> imprint--delivered a copy of <i>Gilligan's Wings</i> in person to KDVS. These recordings from 1982 are of plenty good quality, and the songs are much more coherent than the rather rambly mysterious 7". Rumor has it that this is an appetizer for another label's full-course retrospective release.David Blakesleehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12167200509158903679noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1872684801607777279.post-22581776361906077582007-09-23T07:32:00.000-07:002007-09-23T07:34:20.018-07:00A Negative ReviewThis is from the blog <a href="http://fuckyoucounselor.blogspot.com/2007/08/church-police-gilligans-wings-7.html">Fuck You, Counselor</a>:<br /><br />Call me a cynical Northerner (read: a Northerner), but Skulltones is pretty over--and I don't mean that in a carny/pro-wrestling way--right?. I mean, they're finished, washed-up & 86'ed. I generally mount up on anything Tom Lax gets his mitts on, but I guess I missed the Der TPK debutante ball. I had the directions straight, but apparently my feet thought better.<br />So here we are. Another Jewelled Antler-sponsored drunk-in-the-studio one-off to be consumed by 8 people who all know each other. To the credit of the whole JA crew, they's got a sense of humor their peers oughta envy. I'd much rather give 16-minutes to something that at the very least sounds like a blast to make than something that sounds like it's supposed to have been "a really intense trip, man. We totally got out there. Really stretching and reaching through some doors." That is, if it's going to suck about 5 different ways regardless. Which this mostly does. "Life is Fun" is the best delirious wastoid rumble never to be on a Footprints of God 7"--for whatever it's worth. Kind of like the Bunnybrains doing German Oak. Yeah. There's my press release quote, Skulltones. Dine and be merry, for tomorrow you're boots. For rill.<br /><br />AND WITH A HEARTY MEHDavid Blakesleehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12167200509158903679noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1872684801607777279.post-60152217188558312572007-09-23T07:30:00.000-07:002007-09-23T07:35:13.758-07:00FUSETRON ReviewHere's what the <a href="http://www.fusetronsound.com/label.php?whomart=CHURCHPOLICE">Fusetron</a> website has to say about the Gilligan's Wings single:<br /><br />"A fantastic collection of unreleased recordings from northern California, 1982. You may recall their contribution "The Oven Is My Friend" as on of the most memorable tracks on the Not So Quiet On The Western Front compilation. This single picks up where that left off-thick downer punk with stumbling drums and a thick plodding bass wall march the songs forward in slow motion. Layered on top, the guitar lines add a sort of meandering melody, bending and detuning in wild synchronicity with the psychedelic deadpan vocals. The material holds its own against Flipper (whom CP played with), Negative Trend, and foreshadowed the mid-to-late-80s SST sound. Limited to 300 copies." - Skulltones. Highly recommended!!David Blakesleehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12167200509158903679noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1872684801607777279.post-27985212949686153112007-09-23T07:14:00.000-07:002007-09-23T07:16:27.210-07:00Last.FMThis morning I noticed that the Church Police have a biography on the Last.FM website. It was not sufficiently informative in my opinion so I wrote this one to replace it. I'm posting it here so that if the website admins deny it or edit it for length, I won't lose the text.<br /><br />Church Police were an highly experiential (not experimental, since they never applied any theories or hypotheses to their music) punk band from Concord, California. They had a track on the "Not So Quiet On The Western Front" compiliation, which was released on Alternative Tentacles in 1982. This track was pulled from the band's one and only professional studio recording session. Other tracks from that same session have surfaced on the internet over the years. Two limited edition 7" EPs were released decades after the recordings were first produced. In 1996, Stomach Ache Records released the tracks "Killing Myself To Live," "Jarhead," "Bag Of Lumps," "Robots" and "The Red Glow." In 2007, Skulltones released "Gilligans Wings," b/w "Gourmet Cooking" and "Life Is Fun."<br /><br />The Church Police were formed in 1980 when singer Tim Gallaher and drummer Eric Lundmark wrote a bunch of lyrics one afternoon. Afterward, either that same day or within a day or two, they showed the lyrics to guitarist Dave Blakeslee. The three of them got together and bashed out the rudimentary tunes and rhythms that would constitute most of the Church Police repertoire over the next two years of the band's existence. The band derived its name from a Monty Python skit. Eventually, bassist Bruce Gauld joined the group because he had a good amp and the most actual musical talent of anyone interested in joining the group.<br /><br />The Church Police were one of the earliest underground punk bands to emerge from suburbia. The band performed their first live gig at the Sound of Music, a cheap, sleazy and accessible club in San Francisco's Tenderloin district, in the fall of 1980. An amateur studio recording was made around that same time at Diablo Valley College, in which the band's guitars were plugged directly into the sound board because live electrical performances would have been too loud and disruptive to the nearby classes. Only the drums were mic'ed. A cassette recording of this session began circulating through the San Francisco scene, gaining particular favor with two bands who had identified themselves as "pet rock" bands: Animal Things and Flipper. The Church Police, mainly through Bruce's persistence, were able to land weeknight gigs at the Sound of Music with some regularity. One particularly memorable show occurred when Bruce Loose, lead singer of Flipper, made his enthusiastic appreciation of the band highly visible by dancing wildly in front of the stage as they performed. This convinced many trendies in the audience to consider the Church Police "cool." Even though their musical abilities were lacking, they had a unique stage presence and represented something fresh and unpredictable within the local punk community.<br /><br />A series of musical and personal adventures followed. The band performed at many clubs that have become part of San Franscico's musical lore and legend, including the Mabuhay Gardens (where they were eventually blacklisted for "disruptive performances"), the On Broadway, the Club Foot, Barrington Hall, and elsewhere. The Church Police became known as young proteges of Flipper for awhile, though the two bands only played a handful of shows on the same bill. They opened for the Dead Kennedys, Black Flag and (unofficially) Throbbing Gristle.<br /><br />The band broke up on at least two occasions due to conflicts between band members and complications arising from drug abuse, financial hardships and disorganization when it came to actually being a band. The final dissolution took place in early 1983 when Dave left the San Francisco area and eventually moved back to his home town of Grand Rapids, MI. The four members went on to live stable and productive lives and contribute in various ways to the on-going betterment of society.David Blakesleehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12167200509158903679noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1872684801607777279.post-3859799050806589002007-07-11T18:47:00.001-07:002007-07-11T18:47:39.542-07:00New ReviewsTim keeps googling "Gilligans Wings" and finding stuff! Here are two review blog-sites that gave our new record a spin and apparently liked it... at least that's how I'm interpreting their comments.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.dustedmagazine.com/features/626">Still Single/Dusted Magazine</a><br /><br /><a href="http://satanrulez.blogspot.com/2007/06/forked-tongue.html">Forked Tongue/Apples and Heroin</a>David Blakesleehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12167200509158903679noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1872684801607777279.post-47763558015867037732007-06-30T05:54:00.000-07:002007-06-30T05:56:48.446-07:00Soaring One Note Guitar Solo Leads the Way<a href="http://marblestature.blogspot.com/2007/06/226.html">Here's a review</a> of the new Church Police 7" single, Gilligan's Wings. Not likely to be available at a store near you, but maybe I can hook you up with a copy once I get my shipment in...David Blakesleehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12167200509158903679noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1872684801607777279.post-1670546463757291502007-06-01T05:47:00.001-07:002008-12-11T03:05:32.198-08:00Record Cover (Preview)<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiS8KFk53AiHXTGILwV8X_-tzhEyhumzXJpOAI5A0-ESz1MeWODwG7DI8bOlRkaqFQGDUiIrLx0PLK_koA_T7D73kBX085lKgS4f-TUmiHWynzfbHfzz7WVtAVHwdTLxbu9BWuk88GTtW8/s1600-h/skt-004_cover_scan.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 203px; height: 203px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiS8KFk53AiHXTGILwV8X_-tzhEyhumzXJpOAI5A0-ESz1MeWODwG7DI8bOlRkaqFQGDUiIrLx0PLK_koA_T7D73kBX085lKgS4f-TUmiHWynzfbHfzz7WVtAVHwdTLxbu9BWuk88GTtW8/s320/skt-004_cover_scan.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5071076329964383970" border="0" /></a>I just got this via email this morning. The "new" (recorded in 1982) Church Police single, "Gilligan's Wings" will be released fairly soon, and here's what the cover will look like.<br /><br />The graphic images, those medieval woodcuts of freaks and monstrosities, are the same as what I used to make the poster for the very first Church Police live performance back in September 1980. Though we just used plain white paper, not that vivid pumpkin orange that was selected for this release.David Blakesleehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12167200509158903679noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1872684801607777279.post-76550002361366774912007-02-01T06:02:00.000-08:002007-02-01T06:07:59.998-08:00Fan LetterFrom Maximum Rock'n'Roll Magazine Issue #2 (1982):<br /><br />Humans:<br /><br />... Thanks for the Church Police interview. They're a great band (even if they've never sent me the tape I sent away for.) A strange thing happened at the show in Walnut Creek. Tim said, "You know, Circle Jerks, AC/DC, they're all the same." After that, he was unhip and people spat, threw stuff, and flipped him off in his face. If we aren't open-minded as a group, people oughta call us short-haired hippies.Tim could've gotten up there and said, "AC/DC sucks, Circle Jerks rule" and the people would've loved him though he was using George Thoroughgood appeal... He has guts...<br /><br />Grux<br />Napa, CADavid Blakesleehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12167200509158903679noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1872684801607777279.post-57143996073187811152007-01-30T20:43:00.000-08:002008-12-11T03:05:32.304-08:00Maximum Rock'n'Roll, Issue #1 article<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLswb3bSpIbl6lHwaSGVpZAj6qzg9FW1gcSJeA37XsZEvmX-T5SvEDC_KsY9-hVB7A-rfQdHwfZeX_vEmiPA-VE1ddqefXSlOhCoIY6BuAMlmH3ILlRbsGagEWQUrtUHv0QW5hwF2NxhM/s1600-h/mrr1.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLswb3bSpIbl6lHwaSGVpZAj6qzg9FW1gcSJeA37XsZEvmX-T5SvEDC_KsY9-hVB7A-rfQdHwfZeX_vEmiPA-VE1ddqefXSlOhCoIY6BuAMlmH3ILlRbsGagEWQUrtUHv0QW5hwF2NxhM/s320/mrr1.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5026014434665066338" border="0" /></a>Here's the full text of an article that appeared in the first regular issue of <a href="http://www.maximumrocknroll.com/mainpage/index.html">Maximum Rock'n'Roll</a> magazine. (Issue #0 was an insert in the double-album compilation <a href="http://www.alternativetentacles.com/product.php?product=198">Not So Quiet On The Western Front</a>.)<br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Written by Eric Bradner.</span><br /><br />The Church Police are Walnut Creek, a suburban paradise of spacious malls and Taco Bells. The vacancy of their environment is suitable yeast for the mold of their songs. In the beginning, Eric said he wanted the Church Police to be the most depressing band ever. In the eyes of many, they've succeeded.<br /><br />Bruce: It rules. I don't understand all these San Francisco people who are afraid to go beyond the Caldecott Tunnel. The East Bay is really where it's at if you want calm craziness.<br />Tim: Well, it's not that great. It's kind of boring.<br />Bruce: It's boring but it rules.<br /><br />A cold night in San Francisco, and Tim [singer] is telling his version of the creation myth of the Church Police.<br /><br />Tim: One day at this show in Concord I said "I'm gonna start a band called the Church Police. Who wants to be in it?" Eric was standing around and...<br />Eric [drums]: We had a bass. Bruce had a bass amp and we didn't.<br />Max R-R: Is that the only reason you used him?<br />Eric: Basically.<br />Tim: I wanted to be the frontman. That was the real reason behind the group, because at the time I was drumming for the Maroons. Bruce and Dave formed that band when we were all going to [Diablo Valley] College. I first saw Dave walking down the steps of the administration building wearing these red pants. I said "this guy looks like a jerk." Then later on we went to Bruce's writing class once and you did that thing called "The Chair."<br />Dave [me, guitar]: Oh Jesus.<br />Bruce [bass]: We're going to embarrass Dave.<br />Tim: This was written before anybody knew anybody.<br />Dave: I left my stepmom's chair out in the rain and she got pissed and I wrote a poem about it.<br />Tim: I happened to go into this writing class...<br />Dave: I had problems.<br />Tim: And there was this guy doing this thing called "The Chair." We all thought it was real stupid. We did.<br /><br />The Church Police recently reunited after an overly long period of non-activity, which caused much speculation as to the reality of their existence. But they never really broke up because they never officially got together. For awhile, Dave and Tim didn't play - they felt they had "better things to do." That's all over now. Tim and Dave are back from Mexico and ready to play.<br /><br />Tim: We went to the Gulf of Mexico, the Yucatan and the Mayan ruins. It was a literary journey, 'cause I read lots of books. Do you know why it was inspiring? Down in Mexico we kept saying, Fuck, what're we doing here? We should be in San Francisco, practicin' and playin' shows.<br />Dave: The center of the universe, San Francisco man.<br />Tim: Whe we were driving through Texas, Arizona, Mexico, we kept saying "All these people here are morons. They don't know anything." These restaurants in Arizona had these pamphlets that are kind like religion but kinda like Burroughs control systems. The control system is something that you're sucked into as you get older, go to College and GET A JOB which pays like 20-30 thousand a year increasing by 3 thou a year.<br />Eric: Hey Tim, wouldn't you rather be making 20 thousand a year than fuckin' 3 dollars and 50 cents or whatever?<br />Tim: But Eric, what would you say if they tell you if you do this you gotta quit the band, and you gotta quit writin'. If you get a telephone operator job, or like a PG&E job, they want you to go home and not even do nothing.<br />(Bruce comes back from the bathroom.)<br />Bruce: What are you talking about? I work as a receiving clerk for this company that makes buttons and trim and I also deliver stuff.<br />Eric: I work at Accumation, this tax place, putting taxes together. Like, I could fuck people up, but I don't know who I'm fucking up. I can't take no money.<br />Dave: I'm unemployed and proud of it.<br />Tim: I'm unemployed right now too.<br />Eric: No way! You work at that shitty little place.<br />Tim: I went in there the other day and said, "I'm back" and they said...<br />All: Who cares?<br />Dave: That's OK, we both read Henry Miller, we both want to be bums.<br />Tim: Yeah, literary bums.<br />Dave: No, just bums.<br /><br />Tim: Remember when we played that <a href="http://www.brainwashed.com/axis/tg/live/kezar.htm">Throbbing Gristle</a> show? Will, from Flipper, said to come early and play. They said, "Use our equipment. It's cool." We went there and Ian said, "You guys can't play, get the fuck outta here."<br />Dave: Ted's guitar hung down to my knees.<br />Tim: Then later those big bouncers they had with the long hair and beards were trying to beat Dave up.<br />Dave: They stomped me pretty good.<br />Eric: When?<br />Dave: At Throbbing Gristle.<br />Eric: No way.<br />Tim: You wanna bet? You just sat upstairs and smoked pot, but when Flipper was playing we were running across the stage.<br />Dave: Some fat guy stomped on my foot.<br />Tim: And later Ward goes, "Hey, let's rip out their sink." So we did. We went back in about 20 minutes and the whole bathroom was in, like, 3 inches of water.<br /><br />It's March 6, 1982, and the Church Police are scheduled to play with the Dead Kennedys in, of all places, Walnut Creek. It's the great take-it-to-the-suburbs tour, with the local boys finally playing on home turf. The crowd is groundbreakingly stupid, and go to outrageous extremes to show how "punk" they are. Hey, there's no convenient war, so let's pretend, kids! It's mainly composed of made-up suburban kids posing in an obnoxious manner which they suppose qualifies them for some kind of rebel status.<br /><br />Unfortunately, along with their lack of humor comes a lack of originality, which negates taking any of their copycat antics seriously. The Church Police play and everyone stares woodenly. What is this shit, man? We thought this was gonna be a punk rock show. To put it lightly, the Church Police are not your garden variety thrash band. Not knowing what to do with this strange emanation, the crowd takes the easy way out and snarls its hate. They spit, yell, make gestures, throw things, hit - you know, your typical Type A look-in-your-punk-textbook-do-I-look-mean-enough bullshit. The band reacts in an exemplary manner and just goes about their business. After all, they were asked to play, no one asked the crowd to come and make trouble. And 'twas surely a loutish crew. I mean, ready to kill. They really loved the band (even if they wouldn't see it that way) simply because they hated them so much. Finally the Church Police were pulled off stage, which was wise. I would like to see them play again. Their steadfast behavior at this show again proves the motto: Church Police is God. Church Police is Disco.<br /><br />Max R-R: Are the Church Police a fun band?<br />Bruce: Always never fun.<br />Dave: I think at our shows you have to take notes to really appreciate them.<br />Bruce: PARTY!David Blakesleehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12167200509158903679noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1872684801607777279.post-11015873517344306392007-01-30T17:39:00.000-08:002007-01-30T17:41:34.386-08:00New blog, old band.The Church Police were a band that I was a member of from 1980 until 1982. This blog is dedicated to preserving their memory, using the scant artifacts that are in my personal files. As time goes on, perhaps the recollections of others will find their way into this repository.David Blakesleehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12167200509158903679noreply@blogger.com1