First off, what was the first record you bought
“Ziggy Stardust” by David Bowie in 1972 was the first album I bought, though my parents bought me “Head” by the Monkees earlier.
and how did you get into punk rock?
I was a skateboarder .Some hippy skater friends of mine got a hold of the "Sex Pistols" Never mind the bollocks" and the anger and disgust I had for everything suddenly had a meaning. It was like other people in my generation were pissed off too!. The delight of getting beyond the Grateful Dead mentality. I hacked off my really long hair diy into a patchy sort of mohawk and dyed it fire engine red. In 1977 that was radical. People wanted to beat me up and called me a freak. Back then you got your ass kicked if you looked like a freak.
I grew up in New Jersey and would jump on the train to NYC and go to Max’s Kansas city. The first punk show I went to was The Dead Boys. Stiv Bators was awesome! There was a huge garbage strike going on in NY. Nobody wanted to live in NYC in 1977! The rents were cheap. The scene was off the hook!
What did you think about it when first listening to punk?
How much I hated the system. I decided I would live on my own terms and have. I wanted my generation to rise up. Take the power from the dinosaur generation. I was really into Crass. I became a vegetarian and an anti-war activist. I became an anarchist and still am.
How did No Thanks start?
In Spring of 1982,I answered an ad in the Village
Voice, a band called NO THANKS were looking for a singer.
Rob of NO THANKS gave me a chance to try out. I nailed the audition.
Rob, Jimi and Seth asked me that night to be their singer.
What was the hardcore/punk scene like then in New York/US. as a whole?
Small! Bands supported each other by coming out to the shows. I would sell my bands record by word of mouth. Dub cassettes and render the art on each insert card individually. We would hang out on the corner of Saint Marks Place and Ave A. in the east village of Manhattan. drinking beer and sharing food, we had a community. The first few years were great before the skinhead infiltration.
Did you have a lot of contact with other bands?
yes, we were actively playing out every week in NYC. We shared stages with MDC, False Prophets, Husker Du, Dead Kennedys, Bad Posture, Savage Circle, Heart attack, , Code of Honor, Necros, Adrenalin OD, Urban Waste and many others. We never toured or played outside of NYC.
What we're some of the bands that made most impact on you?
Dead Kennedys, Circle Jerks, Crass ,Stranglers, Damned, PIL, Buzzcocks, Jefferson Airplane. Code of Honor, Social Unrest, Christian Death
You've pointed out that hardcore was not as male oriented as for instance the book american hardcore portrays it to be. How was it to be a woman and into punk rock/hardcore in the early 80's in New York?
I had to work a lot harder to get the respect easily gotten by my male contemporaries.
Was there a lot of unity between different kinds of punks?
There was a definite distinction between New Wave and hardcore punk. Hardcore was the shit!In your face, fierce!. People were afraid of us. There was really nothing NICE or POPPY about it! We used to refer to bands as either hard or soft. It wasn’t what people call punk today. Mainstream punk today is the equivalent to pop. I always hated pop. True hardcore will never be accepted by the media. Any real or true art form will never be popular with the masses.
American Hardcore book also gives the picture that hardcore was little too cliquish and chaotic to be about politics in a revolutionary way, how do you feel about this?
American Hardcore is Orwellian spin. I discount anything that book has to say as fictional. I am underwhelmed with American Hardcore.
You didn't put out so many records, still Are You Ready To Die is an excellent vinyl. Did you have plans for other releases?
we had so little $$ and Deadspace ripped us off on Are you ready to die? Which is our only 7”. I released everything below on hand rendered cassettes!
My label Mr Modoreefer Records...has released everything on cd except one demo that NO THANKS recorded.
NO THANKS
CATALOG
Demo 1982 EP~cdr previ0usly only on cassette 2nd edition
Are you ready to die? 7"
No Thanks Live @ CBGB 1983 cdr ~ previously a cassette
Raw live recording!! A7 NYC 1983
I am doing the reissues diy. I have released my punk, thrash, metal project of the late 80's. A LP called "Zargon" by Navigator which is me, Jaime (No Thanks,) RB Korbet(King Missile, Hellvis, Even Worse) and Keifer Modoreefer on drums.
I also have plans to release my psy trance project on Mr Modoreefer Records.
Do you think the band would have had more to give?
No, that was it. In 1985 when NO THANKS broke up we were ready to move on. We were tired of the scene.
A lot of violence and bullshit!
After No Thanks you formed Bad Tuna Experience. As i'm unfamiliar with the band, I've only read that GG Allin recorded some of your songs without permission?
I went off to play drums in a punk band called Bad Tuna Experience in the summer of1985. Jimi went on to play guitar for Virus. Jaime joined
Missing Foundation. Seth hooked back up with Rob and formed The Money Dogs. At that point I didn’t want to be a front person anymore, and I did not want to participate in NYHC. I wanted to be in the background. It was time for a break. Carolyn of XKI sang, Adam of Sacrilige played bass and Carol Kenderski played guitar. The name Bad Tuna Experience came from a tuna
blimpee Carolyn had for lunch that day. The sandwich had big crunchy, strange objects in it (roaches??). I had a similar experience at Leshco’s an all night Polish American restaurant on the corner of A and 7th Street. Hence, the name was born! Carolyn and I wrote some great songs. GG Allin stole 2 ofthem. He recorded He’s a Slut and Beer Picnic without our permission.
No one took him seriously back then. In fact, most people would leave if he showed
up. I am amazed that he is some sort of icon now. I left B.T.E., late Fall, 1985 to travel.
Have you met GG in person and how was he like?
Repugnant, a real room clearer.
Later on you got more into poetry. What we're poetry related projects like compared to being in No Thanks?
Jaime and I had a project called shit house. He would bang on his bass and I screamed at the audience. A memorable gig was the opening of Billy Syndromes "The Film" featuring R.B. Korbet at ABC NO RIO in 1987.
This is the poem:
Scum puddle
bulldoze my mind today
bar it up with spikes
kill my imagination and leave me for machinery
kill me in the mind
make it hard for me to think
leave my body in the gutter
for the worms to eat
Capitalist scum deathseeker
eat mcdonalds ghetto blaster fool
knife thrower, death seeker
how does your garden grow
slave away so you can have a peice of the scumpuddle
sell your soul so you can be an acceptable peice of the rotten pie!
GO DIE!!!!
The only difference between NO THANKS and SHITHOUSE was the audience. Now we had yuppies coming to shows not punks. Most of them left with confused looks on their faces which was the best part for me.
You've also been active within the rave scene. How is that compared to punk/hardcore scene-wise? Did it have a lot of the same elements? What made you attracted to it?
I am more on the periphery in this scene. I refer to myself as a peripheral Graver. Everyone participates at a rave. I only go to outdoor psytrance parties in beautiful places. This scene is really underground, very spiritual, and peaceful. The opposite of hardcore punk. I am not angry anymore. I am blissful!
Did you have any contact with punk rock through these years?
I remained into the early punk and hardcore bands. Recently, I have hooked back up with a lot of friends I used to play out with when I was in NO THanks. At least, the remaining survivors, so many great musicians from the scene have died. I moved on through Thrash, death metal, acid jazz
goatrance, psytrance, drum and bass.
You've been also painting a lot. Tell us more about your art, what techniques do you use and what inspires your art?
I am an impressionist. I mainly paint alien landscapes. I have stopped using toxic paint(oil and acrylic) and now use watercolor. In the last few years I prefer creating digital art. I am an environmentalist and flushing chemicals down the drain for my personal expression is selfish . WE must begin to conserve our resources. Mother Earth is in trouble.
I also design and construct a line of psychedelic jewelry called “Zargon’s Magic Beads’.
Do you have any certain message you want to portray with your art?
Political awareness, environmental awareness and cosmic consciousness,
With No Thanks you played in the era of Reagan. Now as George W. Bush is ruling your homeland, how do you look at the Reagan era compared to what is going on now?
Ruling the homeland, you got it. Reagan was a PICNIC compared to Bush and the son of the Bush. There was a coup in America when the election was stolen from Al Gore. A full out world wide class war is in progress. Scary things are going down! The stench of fascism is thick. The war on Iraq is sickening. I hope to ascend the hell out of here.
What do you think about the current situation in the middle-east and how your country handles it?
I was appalled of the bombing of Lebanon. US $$$ at work bombing a foreign country!! Israel could not have the military it has without funding from the US.
I am against all war. I am for evolution of the human race.
Vegetarianism is an issue I like to always talk about in my zine. What do you think about it?
I have been a vegetarian most my life. I love animals. I believe animals should have rights. We are animals!
Vegetarianism promotes compassion for the earth and it’s inhabitants. The people of the earth most change their eating habits and respect all life.
Zen Buddhism is also an important thing in your life?
Zen Nihilism is really what I into. It’s something my friend Jack and I made up.
I try to remain centered in the nothingness!
How did you get into it?
I backpacked by myself in a remote mountain area in California. I was stoned out of my mind on psychedelic mushrooms . I had some wheat grass juice, apples and peanut butter sandwiches. I carried one book with me The Zen Teachings of Huang-Po, the words spoke to me. I stayed up there for a week and came out of the forest a different person.
What are some of related books you'd like to recommend?
P.D. Ouspensky, In Search of the Miraculous
Paul Brunton, The Secret Path
Zen Teachings of Huang-po
The Teaching of Buddha by Bukkyo Dendo Kyokai
You have also lived few years ago in a community studying organic gardening, painting and zen buddhism. What kind of community was it and how do you think it differed from what your life is like now?
The years I dropped out In 2001 I moved off the grid and lived in an autonomous
community in the mountains on the central coast of California. I
studied Zen
Buddhism and organic gardening. I spent most of that time living without electricity and modern conveniences. I came off the ridge and back to
civilization 3 years later.
My life now is spent partly off the grid and partly in the city.
How does your ordinary day look like?
I have my own schedule and do things when they need to be done.
I am a self employed artist and I have a lot of varied projects.
I am a graphic artist, jewelry designer and painter. I also am an organic gardener. Depends on the time of year, Most of the summer months I live in the mountains on the central coast of cali, off the grid, where I garden and make Jewelry . In the winter months I live in the San Francisco Bay Area and I focus more on design projects. I am also trying to reform NO THANKS so we can tour in 2007. I also have a punk psy trance project that I have been working on for years. I’d like to get that band out and playing the Cali Coast.
Have you practiced yet the songs and how does it feel to sing songs you sang already in '82?
Yes, it was a total rush and I remembered every word without refreshment.
As most of people move out from punk at young age, what are the things that kept your interest in it?
my roots are punk. Someone called me a hippy and I said "I ain't No damned hippy,I am a punk!
I have explored many art forms. I always move to the next. Evolution!
You're also planning on a solo record, what kind of stuff can we expect?
Punk Psytrance, Psychedelic beats mixed with zen nihilist chants.
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