Saturday, May 2, 2009

It Seems I'm Seldom Winning

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Here's a split between two Oi!/street punk bands, one from Connecticut (Chelloveck 4) and one from Brooklyn but with ties back to Connecticut (The Deacons). You'd think this would be a pretty decent collectible, being that it's ten years old and on (sab) grey vinyl and everything, but I did a check on the internet and you can still find new copies all over the place, so I guess it's not that big of a deal.

I saw Chelloveck 4 only once, in '99 with the Spoilers and the Ducky Boys at a biker bar that was across from a cemetery in Meriden (Chas' Place, maybe?). Chelloveck 4 were pretty good that night, and the Spoilers ruled like they always did of course; meanwhile the Ducky Boys are probably the worst band that I've ever had to see twice (I saw them again at The Tune Inn about a year later-- apparently some things are unavoidable).

As for The Deacons, Rich Stremme is literally the first kid from the Ct. HC scene that I ever knew, back when he was living in Southbury. We both started our HC 'zines at around the same time in 1985 (Rich's zine was called Socially Unaccepted), and then Rich went on to be in some other bands like Brutally Familiar and so forth. Al Pist also played bass in The Deacons for a while, too.

A-hup, two, three, four...


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The Deacons -

"What Gives?"

Chelloveck 4 -

"Closing Time"

(these files are now listen-only)


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7 comments:

Jere said...

Al Pist is still in The Deacons.

Brushback said...

Such as it is - I wasn't sure if they were still fully active?

Al Pist said...

You can't kill the Deacons!!! We're playing in Pittsburgh on Memorial Day Weekend at a car show or something like that. It should be pretty interesting.

I was also in Malicious Intent with Rich. You interviewed us back in the day! Run it!

Brushback said...

Oh, wait, I almost remember that... jeez, I think that must've been the poster-sized issue that had Life Sentence in it. I haven't seen a copy of that one in ages.

Necrobot said...

"I saw Chelloveck 4 only once ... at a biker bar that was across from a cemetery in Meriden"
There's only one place that fits that description, and that would be the infamous Hanover House. My brother's 1st band played a show there Oct 2000. The lead singer decided to hang a pinata full of candy and allow fans to take turns swinging at it. Good idea, except for mostly filling it with loose candy corn. I took me 2 days to remove all traces of the sticky substance from the bottom of my boots. And there were still pieces ground into the carpet at a show there 3 weeks later! That was way more destructive than Toby of Chelloveck 4 pissing on the Tune Inn floor at the 76% Uncertain reunion (Jeff Roberts Benefit) show. :D

Brushback said...

Hanover House must be it; I know now that it wasn't Chas' Place, because I drove past there recently and didn't recognize it.

I was at that 76% Uncertain reunion/Jeff R. show.... I don't even remember every band that played. I think I saw Killer Kowalski, Seizure, a couple of other local Ct. bands (probably Ugly Truth, and perhaps even a Grand Passion/Farmertan-type band), and I forget who else.

Anonymous said...

It was the Hanover House. Interesting to note that Gene from the Max's Kansas City-era band The Boyfriends was playing bass in The Spoilers at that time...this was before Kenny (Punkture/Stifs/East Coast Panic/Chelloveck 4/Three Finger Demon/Broken/Hymen Holocaust) and I joined the band. Shhh on the the pissing on the Tune Inn stage thing.