Poison Idea

Bow to them

There is no escaping the fact that Poison Idea were big. Not in commercial terms, obviously, but in life, death, music and influence they were truly massive. Formed in Portland, Oregon in 1980 by frontman Jerry A the band seemed to get progessively more dangerous as they went along, almost deliberately pushing a lifestyle to its ultimate limits just to see what would break it. In a game of 'let's see who's the more punk' Jerry A once pointed a loaded gun at Dwarves singer Blag Dahlia and when guitarist Pig Champion died aged 47 this year it was a great loss of talent, but no great suprise.
But while Jerry A frequently breathed fire or sliced his head open onstage with broken glass, he also wrote lyrics that could rival Charles Buckowski in their beautiful ugliness, stark realism and savage honesty. And despite their seeming indolence and over-the-top drink/drug consumption Poison Idea were phenomenal musicians, capable of playing faster and tighter than any of their peers even when they couldn't stand up.
Their fans include Nirvana, Amen, Pearl Jam, Pantera, Machine Head, Turbonegro...and you if you've got any sense.

*This was an article in Kerrang! magazine a few years ago.

And now back to me. I first heard Poison Idea with the 'We Must Burn' and was intantly blown away. Their music is beautiful like a hot woman wearing nothing but hot pants and heels punching you in the face. Such a shame that a lot of our younger Metalheads have never even heard of this band, I think its criminal. Way way waaaay underrated. The albums 'Feel The Darkness' and 'Blank Blackout Vacant' are the most talked about but I love all their stuff. Its how (I believe) the Sex Pistols should have been.Punk might have been born in Britain, but the Americans did some fine tweakings to the genre and Poison Idea were at the front.

Check 'em out here.





Rest In Peace Pig!

Samhain

It was thanks to Metallica that I got into The Misfits and later Samhain. The 'Tallica guys were always wearing Misfits tee shirts and covering their songs and thus it was inevitable I (and many other metalheads no doubt) would check the horror punk band out. No easy task either because like ive mentioned before, YOU try tracking down an album by a relatively unknown American punk band in a small town in Wales in the 1980s, pre internet and MTV. Luckily Swansea had a cool music shop called Musiquarium which specialised in rare vinyl imports, and the first Samhain record I bought was 1986s November Coming Fire, released on Glenn Danzig's Plan 9 record label. You can listen to it in its entirety below! Make sure you do too because its brilliant, dripping with moody melodies and almost creepy bass.




Track listing ~
1.Diabolos '88
2.In My Grip
3.Mother of Mercy
4.Birthright
5.To Walk The Night
6.Let The Day Begin
7.Halloween II
8.November's Fire
9.Kiss Of Steel
10.Unbridled
11.Human Pony Girl