Chris D.

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Chris D. (Desjardins) - (born 1953) - punk poet, rock critic, singer, writer, actor, 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 1977, Chris D. formed a band with several friends from the Los Angeles punk scene, including Tito Larriva. The second album, "A Minute to Pray, A Second to Die", recorded and released in 1981, featured: John Doe, DJ Bonebrake (X), Dave Alvin (The Blasters), Bill Bateman (The Blasters) and Steve Berlin (The Blasters, Los Lobos). There were two more albums "Forever Came Today" (1982) and "A Hard Road to Follow" (1983) with another line-up (Don Kirk on guitar, Robyn Jameson on bass and Chris Wahl on drums as well Chris D. on vocals and occasionally Jill Jordan on backing vocals).

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 and The Germs' "What We Do is Secret" with Pat Smear.

Musician

In between his stints with The Flesh Eaters in the 1980s, Desjardins was the co-leader (with then-spouse Julie Christensen) of The Divine Horsemen (1984-1988).

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 America's Enigma Records and the French New Rose label, "Time Stands Still" by Chris D./Divine Horseman in 1984, later released in Australia by Dog Meat Records of Melbourne. It features many old friends as guest musicians, including John Doe, 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 – discuss]} 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 at-that-time ongoing battle with heroin addiction.^{[citation needed]} He released yet another one-off solo album "Love Cannot Die" through the Sympathy for the Record Industry label in 1995.

Between 1989 - 1993 and 1997 - 2000, Desjardins performed live with varying line-ups of The Flesh Eaters. Two Flesh Eaters albums have been released since 1999: "Ashes of Time" (1999) and "Miss Muerte" (2004) (the latter -- and so far, most recent -- effort was not supported by live gigs and was totally gestated and created in the studio).

Writer

Illiterati Press, which had issued Henry Rollins' first books (before he started his own small press) as well as volumes by Dave Alvin, Mark Mothersbaugh and others, published Double Snake Bourbon, a collection of Desjardins' poetry, lyrics and prose. Originallly running 139 pages, an updated version of the book (coming in at 500 pages and including all lyrics and poetry written since, as well short stories, excerpts from unpublished novels) "A Minute to Pray, A Second to Die" is due out by the beginning of November, 2009 from New Texture Books.

Desjardins has written for the magazines Slash, Forced Exposure, Asian Cult Cinema (when it was known in the early 1990s as Asian Trash Cinema) and Cult Movies magazine. He has spent most of the past 2 decades researching and compiling an encyclopedia of Japanese gangster (yakuza) films. Titled Gun and Sword: An Encyclopedia of Japanese Gangster Films 1955-1980, research for 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 genre films as well as Italian cult and arthouse films.

In 2002, Desjardins wrote and directed his (to date) only feature film as director, I PASS FOR HUMAN (which was produced and edited by then-mate, Lynne Margulies}. It was released on DVD in October, 2006.

In 2005, Desjardins' tribute to fringe directors of Japanese cult, action and exploitation cinema of the 1950s through 1970s, 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.

He became one of the prime movers in the programming department of the American Cinematheque in Los Angeles starting in 1999, and was one of the two main programmers there from January, 2006 until August 1, 2009.

Chris D. is a founding contributor to Wyatt Doyle's literary 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

• Flesh Eaters page at Trouser Press
• Chris D. entry in Allmusic
• Chris D. at the Internet Movie Database