BOOK REVIEWS
Reviews by Jaime Pina
Road Kill Blues/Haus Blues - NN Von Cruz
★
J.R. Hartley and THP Publishing
Music nerds and fans of Action Rock know The Hip Priests. Formed in 2006 the band has gone through some line-up changes but hit the jackpot when bringing Des/drums, Ben/guitar and Nathan/singer aboard for the definitive line-up. If you have not checked them out, after giving yourself a huge kick in the arse, go give them a listen. They broke up last year.
Since the THP and Electric Frankenstein were like brother bands I was able to hang out with THP overseas when EF asked me to fill in on guitar for that tour and not only were they a great band but great fellas as well. Being on the road with them was a fun experience. They had rabid fans known as the “Spasm Gang”, they were nice blokes with great senses of humor and they liked to drink… a lot. I felt an immediate kinship with them and they were more than supportive to me and the EF’s. Being on the road is fun but it can also be a rough deal. When you are touring with another band sometimes everything hinges on how well you get along and we got along famously with THP.
THP singer Nathan Von Cruz has written a book chronicling some of the band’s road hours as they were getting ready to turn the corner on bringing the band to an end. Keeping a journal of the dates Nathan relates stories that many fellow musicians will experience déjà vu upon reading. And while Nathan admits that when you are in close quarters with people in a van for hours on end you sometimes may get aggravated at your bandmates, thankfully the stories here are fun and it is obvious there was a lot of love and respect between the band members. It appears there still is as bass player Lee Love has contributed to the book by creating the cover art. But the thing that sets this book apart from other road books is that this one is a flipper. When turned to the Road Kill Blues cover you can read about being on the road with THP and when you flip it over it is a book dealing with the effects of coming home to family and job after a Rock N’ Roll tour. It is not an easy transition and makes you sometimes question the validity of who you are. While some people lose their minds from the Jekyll and Hyde aspect of this lifestyle, Nathan Von Cruz has put together a book, actually two books.
“The motivation to do two books in one was down to it all being part of the story and part of the reality. The Road Journal and the Home Journal. It’s two sides of the same coin,” says Nathan. “One has to co-exist with the other, both are a significant component that impacts on the other. Also, part of the reason and motivation to tell both stories is that I don’t think it’s been written about before.”
If you have ever viewed the brilliant film The Wrestler with Mickey Roarke then you have witnessed this dichotomy. As Tina Turner said, “One minute you’re cock of the walk, the next minute a feather duster.” Nathan’s very personal style of writing conveys this beautifully.
“I mean you don’t read ‘on the tour with the Rolling Stones’ and get a sense of them having families, doing laundry or getting the car washed. It’s all cocaine, groupies, and jet planes,” Nathan laughs. “But yet there is a whole other side to being in a band that tours. Also, I
wanted to get across the point that when you are ‘here’ you are thinking about ‘there’ and when you are ‘there’ you are thinking about ‘here’, if you get what I mean. At times, you are physically present but not ‘present’. Sometimes you can’t totally enjoy one thing – without worrying or thinking about the other. Again I don’t think that this has been written about and the only way to get the point across properly, is to go as just as deep on the home journal as I did with the tour journal.”
Reading these two journals will allow you to get in Nathan’s head and get a little look at what makes him tick on two different levels. But also you get a sense of the fun and camaraderie with THP. Nathan mentions that co-lead guitarist Ben Healy suggested he create this tome. Had Nathan tried his hand at being an author before? “No, I’ve never written anything like this before. I’ve only written lyrics or academic papers when studying. But never any journals, pieces for articles, or prose. So, it was a first time out of the traps.” This first one is a fun read and a novel idea.
The Hip Priests 2006-2024 Rest In Power
Punk And Other 4 Letter Words - Linda Aronow
★
Cabin 1 Books
If you were part of the Hollywood punk or goth scenes back in the 80s and 90’s then you know from Linda Aronow. You either saw her at gigs snapping photos while braving the furious slam pits at hardcore shows by night or managing a toy store on Melrose Avenue daily. Dressed in her signature all-black outfits, you might also see her at any number of concerts besides punk shows.
Part of the beauty of the early days of the Los Angeles punk music scene was that punk wasn’t yet clearly defined like it was in the UK and like it would later become in the US. You might go out to see the grinding hardcore of Brit punks GBH one night and then go to the Whisky au Go Go the next night to catch old school Rock N’ Roll Wildman Screamin’ Jay Hawkins and see many of the same people in the crowd. It wasn’t about a certain sound; it was about the attitude.
Going through the fantastic images Linda has captured you can see what it was like to be part of that scene at the time. Her lens knows no limits when it comes to musical genres and so many great bands just playing music are featured here. Flipping through the pages you see tattooed toughies Agnostic Front next to female activist Alice Bag. There is mild-mannered Black Flag dressed in second-hand clothes representing the Southern California everyman and GBH from the UK sporting the leather and spikes and looking like what most people think a proper punk band should look like. Hard-working, working-class no-nonsense Canadians DOA are pictured along with what looks like a big budget, widescreen GWAR performance. Bands like Minor Threat and MDC wearing lived-in looking jeans and tee-shirts are there along with the more glamorous looking bands like Christian Death, Lords Of The New Church, and Specimen.
Linda always uses black and white film and it gives the photos a certain look. Kind of like punk-noir. “Black and white has a different intensity to me. I’ve always preferred it,” says Linda. “I rarely shoot in color, and I love how raw and gritty black and white is especially for live music.”
Some her photos, like the pic of a defiant Gwar Woman, are iconic. She has a clear talent and an eye for a great shot. Was she interested in photography at an early age or did her interest in music spark a desire to learn how to capture these moments? “Yes, photography came before music,” she says. “I think I started taking photos in junior high and always loved it, especially the whole process of printing in the darkroom.” From her background and her photography, Linda has also become a friend and confidant to many bands she has shot. “When I first started shooting bands I was friends with some of the local bands before I shot them. Some bands I became friends with afterwards like Kommunity FK. Patrik worked down the street at Poseur on Melrose as well as Edward from Nervous Gender,” she explains. “Then years later I connected with a lot of musicians through Instagram. It was the first time many of the bands saw my photos and then we connected in person.”
Linda’s photos are collected in a hard-cover coffee table book with writings from many of her subjects.