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Chris D.

 
Artist: Chris D.
 
Chris D.

Performed Songs By:

John Napier, Chris Haskett

Formal Connection With:

  • Active: '90s
  • Genres: Rock
  • Instrument: Vocals Representative Album: "Love Cannot Die"

Biography

One of the more distinctive and challenging figures on the early Los Angeles punk scene, Chris D. -- real name Chris Desjardins -- was an aspiring filmmaker and underground poet who was supporting himself as an English teacher when he met John Doe and Exene Cervenka at a poetry workshop in Venice, California in 1976. Doe and Cervenka, who would form the band X, were familiar with the nascent Los Angeles punk underground, and though them Chris discovered an outlet for his acerbic verse and corrosive vocal style, which he first honed in high school as a member of a fledgling garage band. In 1977, Desjardins began writing for the pioneering L.A. punk fanzine Slash, and assembled the first version of his best-known band, The Flesh Eaters, which melded sharp, disjointed music with Desjardins's neo-gothic apocalyptic verbal assault. The Flesheaters released their first album, No Questions Asked, in 1980 on Desjardins's Upsetter label, which had previously issued the seminal L.A. punk compilation Tooth and Nail. The group's second album, 1981's A Minute To Pray, A Second To Die, made a much bigger splash, thanks to the participation of a short-lived Flesheaters line-up featuring John Doe and D.J. Bonebrake of X, Dave Alvin and Bill Bateman of The Blasters, and Steve Berlin, who would later join Los Lobos. The album was released by Ruby Records, an offshoot of the Slash label where Desjardins was given free reign to produce bands he liked; among the bands he albums he produced for the label were The Gun Club's Fire of Love, The Dream Syndicate's The Days of Wine and Roses, and Green on Red's Gravity Talks. (Desjardins also helped mix The Misfits' first full-length album, Walk Among Us, which was issued by Ruby). While The Flesheaters remained a presence on the L.A. punk scene, the band was unable to maintain a steady lineup, and after 1983's A Hard Road To Follow, Desjardins split up the group. In 1984, Desjardins began work on a semi-acoustic set of country-influenced songs; the album, Time Stands Still, was recorded with a revolving group of musicians credited as Divine Horseman. While be began pursuing a somewhat more aggressive style, Desjardins continued using the Divine Horseman name for his recorded output until 1989, when he released the album I Pass For Human with his new band, Stone By Stone. The style of I Pass For Human recalled the brittle, confrontational spirit of The Flesheaters' music - so much so that for the group's next project, 1991's Dragstrip Riot, Desjardins opted to pull the name The Flesheaters out of mothballs and apply it to the band. While the group's profile dropped considerably outside of Los Angeles during the 1990's, Desjardins and his various Flesheaters lineups continued to record and gig regularly, with SST Records releasing three albums by the band during the decade, while Desjardins revived the Upsetter label for 1999's Ashes of Time. A Chris D. solo set (his first as such), Love Cannot Die, was issued by Sympathy For The Record Industry in 1995. When not occupied with his musical career, Desjardins writes screenplays, acts in independent motion pictures, writes for several film publications (his specialty is Japanese crime films), and is a programmer for the Los Angeles repertory cinema The American Cinemateque. ~ Mark Deming, All Music Guide
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Wikipedia: Chris D.
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Chris D. (Desjardins) - (born 1950) - punk poet, rock critic, singer, writer, filmmaker. Chris D. is best known as the lead singer and founder of the early Los Angeles punk/death rock band The Flesh Eaters.

While a featured writer at Slash magazine in the late 1970s, Chris D. formed a band with several friends from the Los Angeles punk scene: John Doe, DJ Bonebrake (X), Dave Alvin (The Blasters), Bill Bateman (The Blasters) and Steve Berlin (The Blasters, Los Lobos). The result was The Flesh Eaters.

Contents

Producer

Chris D. worked as an A&R and in-house producer for Slash and Ruby Records from 1980 through the Spring of 1984. As well as acting as producer on all The Flesh Eaters albums, he also co-produced the debut album of The Gun Club, Fire of Love, with Tito Larriva in 1982. He produced debut albums of The Dream Syndicate (Days of Wine and Roses), Green On Red (Gravity Talks) and The Lazy Cowgirls. He remixed The Misfits' LP Walk Among Us with Glenn Danzig.

Musician

In between his various stints with The Flesh Eaters, Desjardins has been the leader of The Divine Horsemen. In early 2006 it was announced he would be appearing for several dates in California and one date in London with John Doe, DJ Bonebrake, Dave Alvin, Bill Bateman, and Steve Berlin as The Flesh Eaters. This lineup had not performed together publicly since 1981.[1]

Desjardins also issued a solo semi-acoustic LP on the French New Rose label, Divine Horseman later released in Australia by Dog Meat Records of Melbourne. It features many old friends as guest musicians, including Jeffrey Lee Pierce, Linda "Tex" Jones and Dave Alvin.

Desjardins issued a second, rockier solo effort entitled I Pass For Human as Stone By Stone - basically a paean of loss[dubious ] following the breakup with his wife and partner in The Divine Horsemen, Julie Christensen. It is a harrowing[who?] piece of work, reflecting on his life, his loves, and his ongoing battles with heroin addiction.[citation needed]

Writer

2.13.61 published Double Snake Bourbon, a collection of Desjardins' poetry, lyrics and prose.

Desjardins has written for the magazines Slash and Forced Exposure. He has spent most of the past decade researching and compiling an encyclopedia of Japanese gangster (yakuza) films. Titled Yakuza Eiga: An Encyclopedia of Japanese Gangster Films 1956-1980, the book was partly funded by the Japan Foundation Artist Fellowship. He has also provided liner notes and audio commentary tracks for DVDs of a variety of classic Japanese yakuza films.

In 2005, Desjardins' tribute to fringe directors of Japanese cult, action and exploitation cinema of 50s through 70s, was published by I.B. Tauris. Titled Outlaw Masters of Japanese Film it has been embraced by Japanese film enthusiasts[who?] as a unique and detailed insight into the cinematic intentions of directors recognized only recently by Western audiences.

Chris D. is a founding contributor to the web salon New Texture.[2]

Quotes

“Live, Chris D. would shriek like he was conducting the last performance before Satan’s bloody rapture, and as if he just might be taking the audience down with him.” (from Heavy Punk Thunder from the Lake of Burning Fire by Jay Hinman) [1]

Notes

  1. ^ atpfestival.com
  2. ^ At newtexture.com.

External links


 
 

 

Copyrights:

Artist. Copyright © 2009 All Media Guide, LLC. Content provided by All Music Guide ®, a trademark of All Media Guide, LLC. All rights reserved.  Read more
Wikipedia. This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Chris D." Read more

 

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