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Toxic,
mystical, and deranged. The dark bleeding edge of LA, with screaming
nightmare vocals. Songs include "Radio dies screaming",
"Disintegration nation", and "Police gun jitters".
Chris D. is backed up by John Doe, Exene, and DJ Bonebrake from
X. 24 blood curdling tracks not for the squeamish.
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BACK
TO PUNK ALBUM COVERS
The
Flesh Eaters were one of LA's earliest punk
bands, and the image at left appeared as the cover
art for the band's first single, released in 1978.
Chris D., founder and lead singer of the band,
also put together the photomontage artwork. The punk
aesthetic abhorred apathy, and a constant target of
punk rage was society's smothering indifference. Chris
D. nicely sums this up in his artwork by portraying
happy diners in a restaurant enjoying their meal,
while outside... desperate soldiers fight a bloody
battle with fixed bayonets.
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The very name Flesh Eaters, sends
a shiver up one's spine. It conjures up images of outer
space monsters, ghouls, or cannibals... yet most people
never stop to think of their own daily consumption
of meat in those terms. That is the brilliance of the name
Flesh Eaters... it instantaneously repulses yet defines
who we are. Like the diners in the artwork, we are not innocent
bystanders. The songs on the 45 further exposed an unhappy
reality... Disintegration Nation and Radio dies
screaming spoke of a coming apocalypse.
I met Chris D. while working briefly at
SLASH Magazine, and found him to be a kindred spirit.
He adored the genre of horror and science fiction writing,
and it was through him that I was introduced to the works
of Philip K. Dick, the man who wrote Do Androids
Dream of Electric Sheep (later adapted to the screen
as Bladerunner). Chris D. now works for the American
Cinematheque in Hollywood and is writing a book on Japanese
yakuza/gangster films.
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