Thursday, December 23, 2010

Chris D. anthology published!

...apparently it's been out for quite awhile, but I missed it: Chris D., of LA punk band the Flesheaters and Divine Horsemen, has an anthology of lyrics, short stories, dream journal entries and so forth out now (it may or may not be related to a project that was supposed to appear on 2-13-61 press, and maybe briefly did, but if that book ever got published, I've never seen it, and it's long OOP now). Chris D. is my favourite punk vocalist and has a great knack for stealing titles from gritty, sleazy, violent, or otherwise memorable movies and building highly memorable songs around them (cf. "Tomorrow Never Comes," "A Minute To Pray, a Second to Die," "Eyes Without a Face," God knows how many more). The one time I almost got to see the Flesheaters - touring their underrated Dragstrip Riot album, and scheduled to appear at the Granville location of the Cruel Elephant back in the early 1990's, I guess - the show was cancelled so that Chris, who is somewhat of an expert on Japanese exploitation cinema and has written a book on that topic - could travel to Japan and research Yakuza movies. I was bummed, but I still remain a fan...

...now I wonder if this new book will include Chris' old movie review columns from Forced Exposure...? Oh, by the way, his movie about heroin addicts as vampires is also worth a look...

1 comment:

Wyatt Doyle said...

Hi Allan,

This is Wyatt Doyle, I was Chris' editor on the MINUTE TO PRAY anthology. Thanks for helping spread the word! Probably the older collection you're thinking of is DOUBLE SNAKE BOURBON, from Illiterati Press (circa 1989). MINUTE reprints all the DSB material plus a whole lot more.

Chris continues to contribute to NewTexture.com, and we're planning to publish more of his work in the very near future - keep an eye on the NT site for updates.

Full details on MINUTE from Wikipedia:

"In December 2009, A Minute to Pray, A Second to Die, a 500-page anthology of Chris D.'s written work, was published by New Texture Books. Initially planned as a reprinting of the earlier Double Snake Bourbon collection, the project grew to include all of Desjardins' lyrics, much of his poetry, short stories and excerpts from several unpublished novels. The collection features explicitly autobiographical prefaces, providing personal and professional context for many of the works contained in the collection. The book also includes a complete discography and an extensive appendix of recommended film viewing, a preface by Byron Coley, a foreword by John Doe, and a afterword in prose poetry by Lydia Lunch."