The Flesh Eaters - A Minute to Pray, a Second to Die
#37
January 1981
The Flesh Eaters
A Minute to Pray, A Second to Die
Genre: Slash Magazine
4 out of 5
Highlights:
See You In the Boneyard
“What about Minutemen, Flesh Eaters, D.O.A., Big Boy and the Black Flag?” Exene sang on “I Must Not Think Bad Thoughts” at the end of Side One of More Fun in the New World.
I loved X. Adored Wild Gift. Was reluctant to give it to another reviewer except, well, that’s the rules, man.
She also sang “Glitter disco synthesizer, night school
All the noble savage drum drum drum
Astronauts go back in time to hang out with the cave people
It's about time, it's about space
It's about some people in the strangest places
Woody Guthrie sang about B-E-A-T-S, not B-E-A-T-S” which I took as a direct attack on Adam and the Ants and Bow Wow Wow and I still think I’m right. Good lyrics but also an indictment on an underground sound that became popular when Punk just…didn’t.
It’s a good song but it’s not a successful one because at the time and until this project I didn’t dive deep into any of those bands she name checked.
And once I did…well, it turns out I hated just about everything Black Flag put out until Ginn started Gone and Chris D.’s Flesh Eaters didn’t do anything for me, either.
And here we are, listening to their most acclaimed album and I understand why X wrote that song. This is a punk “supergroup” of sorts. Chris D. Wrote everything but he’s backed by John Doe and DJ Bonebrake of X and Dave Alvin of The Blasters (among others from that band) and it’s ugly. And it’s supposed to be. It’s as if punk tried it’s hand at Beat Poetry but wanted to stay “punk” at the same time.
But you know what’s kind of interesting to do?
Listen to the early version of Doe’s “Cyrano de Berger’s Back” that is done here and then go to See How We Are to hear that version, which isn’t terrific, but it’s fine and then jet to 2020 and hear the definitive remake by X on their excellent return record, Alphabetland.
They were right, though. “What about Flesh Eaters?’ If only they hadn’t followed it with “Will the last American band to get played on the radio, please bring the flag?” nationalism.
All the Decline movies are available to stream on Amazon Prime. I had never seen the first one, especially. It’s an interesting little document. I mean, Courtney Love is there. She’s an audience member. She’s still a nobody. And, to me, that’s the most interesting thing about the entire affair in retrospect. The fact that it was directed by Penelope Spheeris is of note because, although she went on to great success, I read that she had some kind of relationship with the people at Slash Magazine and, if that’s true, then that means she had great access through them but also makes the movie not much more than an advert for Slash and the bands it was supporting.
Which pushes back on the whole Punk aesthetic of “screw the man” anti-capitalism. No?
https://music.apple.com/us/album/a-minute-to-pray-a-second-to-die/213730222
