There is something strange about Henry...Rollins.
4/2/11
David Cacasmeller ( not real name)
This is an unorganized pile of info pertaining to the strange connections between the supposed DIY punk/straight edge scene started in the 1980's Washington D.C. and the Military Industrial Complex. Check it out and please feel free to add to it or critique it. Thanks.
In the star studded hills of Nichols Canyon or more commonly know as Hollywood Hills, is the home of Henry Garfield. The name rings of prestige and wealth doesn't it? He is quite famous , but not for what you may think.
Born Henry Lawrence Garfield in Washington, D.C., he was raised in the elite Glover Park neighborhood of the city. His parents divorced when he was two years old, and was raised by his mother. His father was a military man who disciplined Henry with his fists, and his mother was considered a bit unhinged. Henry has even told Rolling Stone in 1992 that he was sexually molested many times as a child. As a child, Henry suffered from depression and low self-esteem and was put on Ritalin.[1] He was raised primarily by his mother, Iris, who taught him how to read before he was enrolled in kindergarten;[2] however, due to "bad grades, bad attitude, poor conduct," he was soon enrolled at The Bullis School. The Bullis School is an independent, non-denominational, co-educational college preparatory day school for grades 3-12. The school enrolls 640 students and located in Potomac, Maryland in the suburbs of Washington,
DC. It primarily caters to the wealthy and affluent families in Washington DC area and is known for attendance by current and past billionaires children.
Bullis was founded in 1930 by Commander William "Joey" F. Bullis, as a preparatory school for the United States Naval Academy. The school moved in 1934 to suburban Silver Spring, Maryland and began its four-year college preparatory program. In the 1960s, the school moved to its current location in Potomac, Maryland and in 1980 became co-educational.
According to Henry, the Bullis School helped him to develop a sense of discipline and a strong work ethic.[1] It was at Bullis that he began writing; his early literary efforts were mainly short stories about "blowing up my school and murdering all the teachers."[2] Despite the relative affluence of Glover Park, for Henry "it was a very rough upbringing in a lot of other ways. I accumulated a lot of rage by the time I was seventeen or eighteen." We now know Henry as Henry Rollins.
Henry soon got interested in music. He started a punk band named State of Alert. His friend and S.O.A. drummer,Apart from growing up to marry a U.N official, Ivor Hanson would host the band practices at his house. Since Hanson's father was a top ranking navy admiral his house happened to be at the Naval Observatory, The offical residence of the Vice President and top Naval Brass. Everytime the young punks wanted to get in they had to escorted by armed Secret Service.
Henry had many friends in the neighborhood, who were also from wealthy families involved in military and government. They too also were in punk bands. One friend was and still is, Ian Mackaye.
Ian MacKaye was born in Washington D.C. on April 16, 1962, and grew up in the affluent Glover Park neighborhood of Washington D.C. His father was a writer for the Washington Post, first as a White House reporter, then as a religion specialist; the senior MacKaye remains active with the socially progressive St. Stephen's Episcopal Church. According to MacKaye's longtime friend,Henry, MacKaye's parents "raised their kids in a tolerant, super intellectual, open-minded atmosphere." Mackaye's Father moved the family to Palo Alto for one year when he received a fellowship at Stanford.
Ian Mackaye is most famous for starting Dischord Records and for fronting the bands Minor Threat and Fugazi. These are bands that had anti establishment messages associated with their lyrics as you can guess. Henry on the other hand decided one day with Ian to go to New York and see his favorite band Black Flag. The members of the band liked Henry so much they asked him to join the band. Sounds normal right? Considering they had a singer but he was apparently not really into to singing. Anyways luckly for Henry the rest is history he moved to California, became a well know singer/songwriter/ frontman, poet ,actor and all around success. Probably the biggest success to come from a supposedly anti establishment scene and image.
Minor Threat is most known for inventing the straight edge movement. This idea is a militant philosophy of not smoking drinking or having pre marital sex. Like every movement of a sort there are offshoots and it is now a prominant phrase in the vernacular used to describe what was once a prude or from back in your day, anal retentive. Of course not too long after starting this trend like most who do start movements or trends Ian Mackaye denounced the idea andhas distanced himself from it ever since.
Lyle Preslar is an American musician best known for being a guitar player and song writer for the hardcore punk band Minor Threat. Before that, he was the vocalist for The Extorts. Lyle Lived in Glover Park and attended the elite Georgetown Day School.
After Minor Threat dissolved, he played guitar in The Misfits, The Meatmen and the first incarnation of Samhain fronted by Henry's proclaimed best friend Glen Danzig.
After retiring from performing, he ran Caroline Records, signing Ben Folds, Chemical Brothers, and Fat Boy Slim; he was later a marketing executive for Elektra Records and Sire Records.[4][3] In 2007, he graduated from Rutgers School of Law-Newark.[4] He is admitted to practice law in the state of New York. Pretty good for just a random street punk.
He is married to Sandy Alouete, an executive at VH1 and they have a child named Romy.[4]
Preslar also won the Grammy Law Initiative Writing Prize in 2007 with an article about the RIAA vs. XM Satellite Radio.
Jeff Nelson is best known as the drummer for the hardcore punk rock band Minor Threat. He and friend Ian MacKaye formed their first band, The Slinkees, in 1979. Their next band was The Teen Idles. Nelson and MacKaye founded Dischord Records in 1980, whose first record was the Teen Idles. They continue to run Dischord together. The duo also comprised the bands Egg Hunt and Skewbald/Grand Union; both bands recorded only one single. Nelson has also played in the bands Feedbag, Three, Wonderama, Senator Flux, High-Back Chairs, and is currently in the band Fast Piece of Furniture. He also founded Adult Swim Records in 1989. An aficionado and collector of Jeep Wagoneers and Victorian architecture, Jeff currently lives in the historic "Old West End" of Toledo, OH. Waht is left out of Jeff's internet bio is the only piece of history about Jeff Nelson that is some what interesting. In "Our Band Could Be your Life" By Michael Azzerad, Jeff is described as a "State
Dept. Brat". I am guessing this is implying that one or more of Jeff's parental figures was employed by the State dept. at the time he was the drummer of an outwardly anti establishment band. He too resided in Glover Park.
Marginal Man was a punk band that emerged in the Washington, D.C. hardcore scene in 1983. Some members of Marginal Man—Steve Polcari, Pete Murray, and Mike Manos—played earlier in Artificial Peace,[1] a band which appears on Dischord Records' important Flex Your Head compilation, an essential document of the 1980s D.C. punk scene.[citation needed] The other two members, Andre Lee and Kenny Inouye, had previously been in the band Toasterhead.[1] Members of the band included
Steve Polcari - Vocals
Pete Murray - Guitar, Vocals
Kenny Inouye - Guitar
Andre Lee - Bass
Mike Manos - Drums
They released one EP, Identity (Dischord 13), and two LPs, Double Image (Gasatanka/Enigma) and Marginal Man (Giant) and appeared on the compilations, State of the Union and 20 Years of Dischord (Dischord 125).
Marginal Man played for five years before a final performance at the 9:30 Club on March 24, 1988. They reunited for a show at the 9:30 Club on August 29, 1991, and another on December 30, 1995 for the second to last show at the 9:30 Club's original location.
Guitarist Kenny Inouye is the son of Medal of Honor recipient and President pro tempore of the United States Senate, Hon. Daniel Inouye, D-Hawaii.....
What? The same Daniel Inouye who covered up Iran/ Contra? Who barred Jack Brooks from asking Ollie North about Rex 84? His son was in a punk band?
I guess that is not very surprising.
Glenn Danzig
Born Glenn Allen Anzalone in Lodi, New Jersey, the third of four sons[6] born to a Protestant family of Italian, German, and Scottish heritage. His father was a television repairman and a former United States Marine Corps veteran of World War II and the Korean War.[7] Danzig and his family also spent some time living in Revere, Massachusetts.[8] Danzig began listening to heavy music at an early age, and has described Black Sabbath, Blue Cheer and The Doors as being among his early musical influences.[5]
At age 11, Danzig began to experiment with drugs and alcohol, leading him into frequent fights and trouble with the law.[9] He stopped using drugs other than alcohol at age 15.[9]
Danzig became an avid collector of occult books, horror related articles, B movie posters, Japanese animation videos, rare Japanese toys, and animal skulls. Danzig also collected comic books, and in his frustration with American comics, he began producing his own "crazy, violent, erotic comics."[10]
Danzig graduated from Lodi High School in June 1973, aspiring to become a comic book creator,[11] and professional photographer. He attended the Tisch School of the Arts and later the New York Institute of Photography.[12] Danzig eventually formed an adult-oriented comic book company called Verotik in the mid-1990s.[13]
Glenn Danzig's introduction to performing music began when he took piano and clarinet lessons as a child.[14] He later taught himself how to play the guitar.[14] Danzig started in the music business at the age of 11, first as a drum roadie[13] and then playing in local garage bands.[11] He had never taken vocal lessons, but his vocal prowess gained him attention in the local scene. Throughout his teenage years he sang for several local bands, such as Talus and Whodat And Boojang, most of which played half original songs and half Black Sabbath songs.
[edit] Misfits and Samhain (1977-1987)In the mid-1970s, Danzig started the Misfits, releasing the band's records through his own label, (originally known as Blank, then later as Plan 9).[15] Danzig had attempted to get the Misfits signed to several record labels, only to be told that he would never have a career in music.[16] The impetus for the band's name comes from Marilyn Monroe's last film, combined with Danzig considering himself to be a "social misfit."[1] The Misfits combined Danzig's harmonic vocals with camp-horror imagery and lyrics. The Misfits sound was a faster, heavier derivation of Ramones style punk with rockabilly influences. Glenn Danzig's Misfits songs dealt almost exclusively with themes derived from B-grade horror and science fiction movies (e.g. "Night of the Living Dead") as well as comic books (e.g. "Wasp Women", "I Turned Into A Martian").[1] Unlike the later incarnation of the Misfits, Danzig also dealt with Atomic Era scandals
in songs like "Bullet" (about the Kennedy assassination), "Who Killed Marilyn" (which alluded to alternate theories about Marilyn Monroe's suicide), and Hollywood Babylon (inspired by the Kenneth Anger book on scandals associated with the early, formative years of Hollywood). In 1983, after releasing several singles and three albums, and gaining a small underground following ( I might add here that they were prominant in the washington D.C. punk scene and he met Henry where they had a secret code called 138 and even sang a song about it where henry sings a long. The lyric are simply "we are 138" repeated over and over. here are someinteresting opions on what that means
ive heard several stories from a robot #138 in an old sci-fi flick to a battallion that fought to the last man standing in wwII. bottom line, does it matter? misfits are a way of life. and f*** the haters after glenn bytched out. ( and learn to spell it right) Jerry Only has kept the band goin strong. you dont like it, theres always culture club for you. STFU
- monster, who cares, WA
you guys are all f--king idiots! glenn danzig himself is quoted as saying not even his own band members know the meaning of 138 is. The TRUE ORIGIN OF "WE ARE 138" is quite simple, straight from Glenn Danzig's mouth; '138' was just something he and his friends thought up as kids. It was a code or something, meaning the ability to kill without thinking twice about it.
- Joe, San Diego, CA
Nobody except for the great Glenn Danzig knows what the song is about....sorry fellow fiends. There have been several roumrs. Mr Danzig if you read this crap please write a comment about it so can all know the true meaning, but if its part of your mysique and you dont feel we are ready to understand its whatever man.
- GodHater666, Sioux City, IA
I really wonder, why you Guys talk about the THX 1138, when the song is named as "we are 138". It is in my eyes a bit retarded to discuss about this song, when you have not the slightest clue about. Herny Rollins told once, that the "we are 138" is an other meaning for beeing retarted.
- Stefan, Landshut, Germany
Back in the 80s when I was a teen, you could get a big, cheap home gym called a "Weider 138" at any discount store. It was a free weight set with a bench and attachments. When I heard Henry Rollins and Glen Danzig doing this song together, I figured it was a combination of fantasizing about making yourself hard steel, wanting to break out of the robotic mindset of the 80s, and loving your first weight bench enough sing to it.
, Danzig disbanded the Misfits due to increasing animosity among the band members and his dissatisfaction with their musical abilities.[1]
Let me interject here. If you consider lyrics like " I hack the heads off little girls and put them on my wall", or " When nude creatures rape your face hybrids open up the door" or "20 eyes in my head they're all the same, when you're seening 20 things at a time you can't work things out", CAMP HORROR then I guess we live in troubled times my friend...anyways back to the fake history.
After the Misfits, he began work on a new band project: Samhain. The origins of Samhain began when Glenn Danzig started rehearsing with Eerie Von, formerly of Rosemary's Babies.[17] Danzig took the name of the band from the ancient Celtic New Year, which influenced the evolution of the modern Halloween. Initially Samhain was conceived as a punk rock "super group". The band briefly featured members of Minor Threat and Reagan Youth, who contributed to Samhain's 1984 debut, Initium. The band then settled with a lineup consisting of Eerie Von on bass, Damien on guitar, and Steve Zing on drums (later replaced by London May). In 1985 the Unholy Passion EP was released, followed by November-Coming-Fire in 1986. Samhain's musical and lyrical style was much darker in tone than Misfits material,[1] fusing an experimental combination of horror punk, gothic–deathrock, and heavy metal.
Samhain eventually began to attract the interest of major labels including Epic and Elektra.[18] Rick Rubin,(Laurel Canyon resident who owns a "haunted" house, I know you know which one, that all the big stars record in and report that paranormal activity is well.. normal) music producer and head of the Def American label, would see the band perform at the 1986 New Music Seminar, on the advice of then-Metallica bassist Cliff Burton.[18
Although Danzig is frequently portrayed as a Satanist by the mainstream media, he has denied this in several interviews,[12][54] elaborating “I embrace both my light and dark side.”[12] Danzig has explained further “I definitely believe in a yin and yang, good and evil. My religion is a patchwork of whatever is real to me. If I can draw the strength to get through the day from something, that's religion.”[6] However, Danzig has voiced his approval of certain Satanic ideologies including the quests for knowledge and individual freedom.[54][55] Danzig has revealed that religion does not play a role in how he perceives other bands.[56]
Danzig's creepy looking house is right off of Hillhurst and Los Feliz not too far from Henry's house.
The band Fugazi was headed by Ian Mackaye and sigle handedly changed hardcore punk music forever and in my opinion really created the modern sound we refer to as alternative or alter-native. it is interesting to note that the singer Guy Piciotto attended Georgetown Day School and Georgetown University during this time period of grassroots rebellion. Joe Lally the bass player had a career day job at NASA that he gave up to be in the band full time.
One of the handful of Misfits drummers and who also was in Black Flag was a guy named Robo A Colombian, born Roberto Valverde, had to quit the Misfits recently due to problems with his passport. There is an old rumor from way back that he was somehow involved with the FARC guerillas before coming to America.
I would also add that the singer of the SST punk band The Minutemen D. Boon was the son of a quote from one source "Navy Chief" whatever that is and from another source a Navy officer. Mike Watt the Bass player for the Minutemen later of Firehose and Mike Watt band is the son of a Navy officer that is where he and D. Boon met on the Navy base in San Pedro.
The Minutemen continued until December 23, 1985, when Boon was killed in a van accident in the Arizona desert near the Californian border on route I-10. Because he had been sick with fever, Boon was lying down in the rear of the van without a seatbelt when the van ran off the road. Boon was thrown out the back door of the van and died instantly from a broken neck. He was 27 years old. The band immediately dissolved, though Watt and Hurley would form the band fIREHOSE soon after. The live album Ballot Result was released in 1987, two years after Boon's death. Kira Roessler was D. Boon's girlfriend and in the van when he died , she also was the bass player for Black Flag and as a lot of hippies and punks seem to do, atteded a prestigious college this one being UCLA.
Kira Roessler (born June 12, 1962) is an American bass guitarist, singer and Emmy award-winning dialogue editor. She is best known for her membership in the punk rock group Black Flag.
[edit] BiographyWhile sitting in with L.A. punk group DC3, members of Black Flag heard her playing, which led to her being asked to join Black Flag to replace founding member Chuck Dukowski. Roessler was majoring in applied engineering at UCLA, and Black Flag's subsequent tours were worked around her school schedule, which was a condition for her to join the band. Her bass playing was featured on five of Black Flag's studio albums. She remained in the band until completing touring behind their album In My Head in the autumn of 1985, then graduated UCLA in 1986.
After Black Flag, she formed the two-bass duo Dos with Mike Watt (to whom she was married between 1987 and 1994), who are still performing today. She wrote or co-wrote songs for what would be the Minutemen's final album, 3-Way Tie (For Last), and to Watt's post-Minutemen band fIREHOSE. She later contributed some artwork to Watt's first solo album, Ball-Hog or Tugboat?.
Of course I draw no conclusions from this but all of this seems strange. I was a young child in 1987 when I first heard Black Flag Minor Threat and the Misfits, I had the image in my head that they were all like me, poor skateboarders with nothing else going for them but their music and rebellion. We know now from articles like the ones written by Dave Mcgowan that this is all image and nothing else, projected out into the mind of the listener. It provides a visual for mindset of a person who is looking for salvation through music or entertainment. We now for a long time, get our values from films, TV, literature and music. Whatever conclusions we can draw from this, we can atleast say that nothing in this life can be trusted and must be researched by the individual for their own overstanding.
