In today's music world, it is common for rappers to cause outrage by swearing or talking about domestic violence, but almost anything addressed in the often debauched world of modern thuggery comes in totally G-rated when compared to the antics and infamy of punk rocker G.G. Allin and The Murder Junkies. There was not one taboo which the band did not only sing about but almost seem to embrace and/or encourage. The Murder Junkies are one of the few projects to openly shock rock radio Dj Eddie Trunk who has seen and heard virtually everything, and this happened as recently as this year.
Many of the things that they said and did cannot even be written about easily, though it was all covered in the famous documentary, "Hated: GG Allin & the Murder Junkies."
Commentator and Esoterica Films founder, Steve Cain, wrote of G.G. Allin: "I've had a begrudging respect for gg for years. He was the last truly dangerous, unpredictable and unstable man in rock. He was Iggy Pop supersized x's a million. I never went to see the Junkies when gg fronted the band for fear of getting hit by one of his flying turds or being pummeled by him. There's a fascinating biopic of gg, with Merle prominently featured."
Sadly, though with little shock to anyone, G.G. Allin died June 28, 1993. He had planned to commit suicide on stage but, instead, died of a heroin overdose before he could attempt it.
While the man did have some acoustic music released and while the band was able to write music with some structure when they wished to, Allin was as famous for fighting or throwing bodily waste at the crowd as for his singing. Cops and arrests were common at every performance.
Yet through it, in 2019, the band that he founded continues to play for audiences far and wide.
Setting the stage for madness
At Buzzbin in Canton, Ohio, a three-day music fest was the backdrop for the return of The Murder Junkies. The first band observed for this article was local favorites, Stillborn Prodigy. Some members of this band have played with the punk rock puppet show known as Green Jelly when they tour the area, yet Stillborn Prodigy is far heavier and musically brutal than the puppets.
They even debuted a new song with some fancy fretboard tapping from guitarist Mark Miller that showed everyone in the mosh that interesting things were to come from this band in the near future.
Next up was a band that traveled all the way from Jacksonville, Florida, whilst not on tour, just to play with The Murder Junkies at this gig. The band was Snore, and their singer announced, "We came just to see you, Canton. We drove up yesterday and we drive back tomorrow." That, to say the least, is quite a lot of deadheading and dedication.
Then again, fans were milling around encouraging all of the festival attendees to not miss Snore. One female fan, in particular, said proudly that she had found the band back on Myspace and that they "have a wall of sound." She then informed everyone that they were a two-piece.
Wait...a "wall of sound" from a two-piece? As strange as it sounds, that is the truth of the matter. "Orion," the drummer, "is not a 'four on the floor' kind of player," said Snore founder, Anthony Cain.
When asked about his band, it was learned that they had "begun in 2007," according to Cain. They, too, have played with Green Jello and Cain added, "if you remember Filter, we had a time with them, even sharing members. The same with Red Jumpsuit Apparatus," he added in a very soft-spoken and polite manner. Cain and Orion both enjoy, very much, talking to everyone around them and it showed in their kindness.
"I am the common denominator that keeps Snore on life-support," Cain joked.
"I have been in the band since 2014," said Orion.
When asked if he ever gets Metallica references for his name, Orion laughed and said, "No, they always say Oreo. Like a cookie, really?"
During the interview, the author of this story said, "From a god as tall as the ocean to a cookie?," to which Orion added, "I know. I like it better your way."
As for that wall of sound, there is no other way to put it. Songs like "Geronimo" were delivered with the force of bands with far more members. The tendency that this band has for changing up the time signatures, playing in 3/4 variations, and enhancing the vocal intricacies were quite refreshing.
"Adding the reverb to the vocals really adds a lot of depth to the sound, especially when it gets aggressive and louder," Cain said, before adding unexpectedly, "The guitar sounds I use because I am so insecure as a guitarist." Perhaps he was being humble or simply honest as he sees life, but his performance consisted of music that was anything but simple or sloppy.
Cain was even called a musical genius and given endless praise from the stage by the following band.
Next up were Detroit rockers, Busby Death Chair. In Canton, Ohio, it is a common local quirk that "Canton Low Life" t-shirts and logos are seen all over the area, a playful reference to the working-class environment. "In Detroit," announced singer Iro Galea, "we have the Detroit Scumbags. That is the name of the next song, and we will see if we can work the lyrics 'Canton Low Life' into the chorus. It means the same thing. It means that we are out here doing this and that is what makes it all work."
The music of Busby Death Chair has a tint of Clutch meets Black Sabbath or Ac/Dc, but with a much heavier delivery that shares a lot with modern metal nuances.
Fans that like heavy music that is also melodic and riff-memorable will want to look into this band.
The anarchy of The Murder Junkies
Prior to the show, Merle Allin as asked how the tour was going. After all, he is now 65-years-old and still as hardcore as ever. His bright red beard was dyed to contrast his dyed blonde(ish) mop of hair and he was, surprisingly because of the band's legend, a very nice man to talk to. "Oh, it is going great. I am still here, it is going well," Allin said.
There at his merchandise table, featuring everything from intricately made masks to CD's, to skateboards with band's logo was the bassist for The Murder Junkies, talking to everyone who wanted to shake his hand or get an autograph.
When asked if G.G. Allin would have ever imagined that his band and his music would be so popular still, 26 years after his death, Allin laughed and declared, "He would not have cared. He just did what he did. I think it is wonderful."
To start the show, drummer Donald Sachs stood center stage, dropped his pants, his red, white, and blue underwear, and stood unclothes to announce the band. He then, as is tradition, played the show with no clothes on except for his footwear.
Live, it is not a stretch to say that almost everyone expected a sloppy performance, but despite what certainly is a wild reputation, The Murder Junkies are a pretty crisp sounding punk band. Duane Rollick and PP Duvay on bass and guitar were solid and, if anything, the clarity on the guitar parts was quite a surprise.
Both of those members joined Busty Death Chair on stage, as a matter of fact, and those songs, too, benefited from the additions.
Dino is now also in his mid-60's and is the only other member from the G.G.Allin days. He was on point and clearly enjoying what he was doing. Yes, as unsettling as it sounds, at the end of the night, following his famous drum solo, a female fan was invited on stage to do a few things you would not expect on a live show. Yes, it really happened on stage after the band had walked away from their closing song. He then proclaimed his sincere love for everyone (not in jest), gave hugs, made out with ladies well under half his age, and signed various body parts.
As he walked off the stage, he was asked, "Do you still enjoy this as much as ever?" Dino replied, "Oh, certainly without a doubt." When a fan asked if he wanted to smoke pot in the parking lot, the drummer answered, "I can't smoke, I had a stroke."
As irony would have it, while G.G.
was a man who just wasn't comfortable with life or living, his drummer almost 30 years later seems indestructible. Punk rock isn't exactly slow music which is easy to play drum parts to after the trauma of a stroke, but then again, isn't that - at the core of it all - what the whole underground scene is about? It is about doing one's own things on one's own terms and doing it until there is no way to continue doing so. There is no backing down and no compromise in the world of The Murder Junkies, and thankfully, there seems to be a great number of years of chaos ahead.
