Random Letters

Last post I wrote about Psycho and mentioned Charlie Infection.  As I was going through a package of my old stuff from my time on the East Coast, I came across a flier for an April 18 (year unknown) all ages Death Fest at the Escape Club on Salisbury Beach.  The flier featured Entombed (only New England appearance), Hexx, Ripping Corpse, Psycho and "3 or 4 more bands too."  Eight bands.  Eight "bux."  Standard flier.  On the back of it was a letter from Charlie Infection, which gave me the idea to start sharing all these letters I had saved up (unless they were truly personal or something).  They won't all be interesting, and they won't all appear on this blog, but here is the first one.

"Hey Doug -- Here's the inter view [sic] w/some pictures + logos + ads + review pack -- Thanx -- Send us a couple copies when it's done -- Later Charlie I."

Very basic letter, and I will be reprinting the interview sometime.  It should be pretty interesting.

Going through these letters, I saw stuff from writer/agent of chaos George Hayduke, artist/musician Doug Evil, and the late great GG Allin.  Keep your eyes posted on my various blogs, as I'll be posting them all at some point.

Psycho

If you read Maximum Rocknroll during the '90s you could not help but come across ads for Ax/ction Records and its premiere band Psycho.  The label and band ads prompted me to check out the music, which quickly made me a fan.

If there is one word to describe the band, it would be "abrasive."  The line-up I was most familiar with was Johnny X, Mike Psycho and Charlie Infection (with whom I corresponded with on a fairly regular basis).  They cam across as badasses with a hint of workhorse thrown in.  It was a good combination, and while I have long since stopped following the band's output, from what I understand it is still going strong (with a different line-up).  (It should be noted I could find no website for the label.  How punk is that?)

Liked by metal and punk fans, Psycho made a point of playing fast, short songs and doing plenty of split 7"s with favorites of mine like Anal Cunt, Meatshits, and Rot.  Ax/ction, which also served as a distro, carried stuff from those bands and others, as well, which meant I was a regular customer.

I don't read MRR these days.  I've got too much other shit going on to even follow up on all that, but I'm still a fan of fast, abrasive bands that seem to put out something new every two weeks.  I'm not sure how Ax/ction stays in production (I imagine either due to Japanese fans or day jobs), but it warmed my heart knowing it was still around.  As for Psycho ... that doesn't really surprise me, either.  There's always going to be an audience for that kind of music.  If New Kids on the Block can come back on television, Psycho can keep plugging away in the underground, as a nice counterbalance to world where nothing makes sense.