Today I was awoken to some startling news. One of my favorite guitar players has passed away from what they say was an overdose of Xanax.
Her name was Larissa Strickland and she played with the band the Laughing Hyenas from the mid-80's till the mid-90's.
I'm just sick. Lemme tell you why....
It's cuz she was awesome. This totally ethereal guitar player that would weave these silly, sensuous, evil, angry, spaced out patterns over this horrendous barrage of painfully rhythmic noise like I never heard before (o.k. they were SIMILAR to the Birthday Party but they like, had their own thing.).
The Laughing Hyenas were the first band I ever booked. Seriously, I was 15 years old and I went to see them in Cleveland at Peabody's Down Under with Sonic Youth and Die Kreuzen. The show was genuinely scary. Not in a GG Allin sort of way, but in an intensity levels raised past the roof sort of way. Probably akin to seeing early Sabbath at a bar and I'm not kidding. They were like nothing I had ever seen or heard before and I was immediately hooked. Like hooked. I still fucking love that band.
I wrote the singer, John Brannon, formerly of Negative Approach, now of Easy Action, a letter to see about doing an interview for a fanzine we were working on and he wrote back with his phone number. I had just been to an all ages local show and talked to the owner of the venue about bringing touring bands. The letter came and I was like, man we need to book the Laughing Hyenas in Erie. I nervously called the dude and it was on.
Anyway man, I saw them like 15 times in those days. Erie, Cleveland, Buffalo, Pittsburgh, Houston, Austin, shit I would drive to see them anywhere.
And when I would show up Larissa would always be like MAAAAATTTTTTYYYYY and act like my mom and shit like "Come over here and sit with me Matty." Then she'd talk my ear off about how many girls the dudes would be fucking on tour and how pissed she was at them and she'd be nodding on that shit (horse) and was completely insanely fucked out of her head. Then she'd get on stage and turn me the fuck out with them jams.
But I loved her man, I was always kicking it with those cats at their shows as a youth. I saw Easy Action in Chicago a while back and was like "Yo John, I'm Matt Sonzala, I doubt you remember me but I booked you in Erie..." And he stopped me and was like "DUDE HOLY SHIT YOU WERE LIKE TOTALLY A LITTLE KID MAN HELL YEAH I REMEMBER YOU DAMN MAN YOU GREW UP!" And he was playing Larissa's guitar, the same one she always played since I first saw them in 1987 (autographed by Kim Gordon to "Guitar Goddess Larissa.")
I asked him about Larissa and why he had "her" guitar and he was like "Man, that's MY guitar. Always has been. She lives in Florida I don't know what she's doing."
Then I heard she was driving a cab and in and out of "that shit."
She supposedly died from a Xanax overdose.
And I need to check myself as well.
But look, for real, Larissa Strickland is one of the main reasons I never tried heroin. I was with them cats when they were just fuckin' plummetting in the early 90's a few times and it was ugly man. I didn't even totally understand it, just knew.
Larissa Strickland Rest in Peace. And the rest of y'all, learn a fuckin' lesson. Stay off that horse.
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In better news...
Trae and Jokaman just RIPPED New York City Saturday night at the Knitting Factory. Peace to Paolo and the whole crew over there for having Texas in the building to open for the Clipse.
This wasn't the biggest show I ever promoted - I mean shit, it was sold out. Painfully, exhaustingly over packed in fact - but it really meant a lot to me. See, I like Trae a lot. I see him as being one of the realest voices in rap today. His voice represents the streets beyond the cocaine addled corners and his whole vibe is just genuine. While you could look at most rappers in the game today and at least question their realness, you can't really say shit to Trae. He's on a strong independent label, Rap-A-Lot Records, but he's not going to get the same push as say a Game or a Camron would, but he's on that level and it's a shame.
The goal here was to get him and Jokaman, two folks from my city who are really repping it, out in front of the New York crowd and the international media who is just starting to really get up on the south. And um, I think we succeeded. I wanna help Trae, I want to seriously do whatever I can to help this mans voice be heard because "Real Talk," his album Restless, may be the only reason I'm still listening to rap music in any capacity. It helped me to not throw my hands up and say "Fuck everybody" earlier this year. It's a testament to the fact that hip-hop is not dead. That real, street music is not dead. It's a fucking record free of the flash and glitz and fake horseshit currently streaming through our landscape, and well it saved me from saying fuck all this.
Hopefully the UGK disc will do the same in December. I need it.
Anyhoo...
The man Catchdubs and my brother DJ Chill worked them ones and two's all night. Chill worked th emic a lot of the night keeping the crowd crunked up (especially when they had to wait over 30 minutes between Trae and Clipse).
Catchdubs and DJ Chill
Jay CLassick and J. Fresh of the Triad Entertainment Empire accompanied Jokaman to the event.
As did a few more of his potnas. WORD TO DIRTY DAVE!
Jokaman really is a fresh voice in this Houston shit. Don't let all the hype fool you. I hear a lot about dude, but what really stands out is the music and his drive.
Dude performed for a sold out crowd of journalists and Clipse fans and had fools rockin' a lot fo the time.
It was a great thing to see.
Then after Jokaman came on, Kidz in the Hall from Chicago did a set and ripped it, however I didn't get any photos cuz I was in the back attempting to get to the bar to get some drinks for Trae and crew's set. Orange Juice as a matter of fact. Shit was so packed getting a drink in less than 15 minutes was impossible.
I was also sweating and freezing at the same time. I hate cold weather and I hate wearing coats inside. How people live any further north than Texas, I have no idea.
Anyway, once Trae hit the stage I actually started feeling better. Dude ripped it. He's a pretty mellow fellow on stage. He's not running aorund all animated and crazy like Busta Rhymes or some shit, he just gets out there and speaks to the people. Gives them something real, which always blows up the spot. People can feel that shit.
It was a beautiful thing.
SoReal
Only complaint anyone had was that he didn't do the song "Real Talk," cuz that one's a killer.
I think he's performing in Austin this Thursday night. If that's the case, meet me there.
I also didn't get any photos of Clipse because like I say, they took a lil while to get there and I had to clear my folks from the dressing room and lead them thru a crowd so thick, it was almost painful. Took forever. But suffice it to say, they also ripped it.
I did however get a lot of photos from Sabbath in the Park. The first annual gathering of real heads for real thangs in a real world was a tremendous success, until the cops came and we all got summonses, but even that is kind of decent. It went down.
Sabbath in the Park started Friday at 4 p.m. (precisely) and ended about 8:00 p.m. when the cops finally let us go. In this picture you see some of the early comers including my boy Scavone who was brought in as official Sabbath in the Park Security, Ian, Dirty South Joe, DJ Ayres and Gina Gold.
Funny story. Me and Scavone went to the Fader Party to meet Dirty South Joe who was coming in from Philly on the Chinatown bus for Sabbath in the Park. As we were rounding the corner on Delancey in Manhattan looking for someplace to post up, I see Joe walking across the street and he jumps in the car with us. The event was held in Fort Green Park, on the Myrtle Ave side. Recognize.
Even funnier, we met Gina outside the Fader party and convinced her to come with us to the big event. She had no idea what Sabbath in the Park was going to be, and well neither did we really, but somehow we got her in the car and all night she talked about being hoodwinked and hornswaggled into coming to this "silly" event. But not too long later, like 15 Bud ponies and 12 swigs of Jack later, she was all about it. More on that later.
Your organizers, myself and the one them call Cosmo Baker
DJ Ayres
Cosmo really went all out for this one. He brought 2 cases of Bud ponies, a case of Miller High Life, tons of Ice, and stuck it all in this flowered barrel. Mad Beer was in full effect, but I don't think Nuff Weed ever made it, which is not a bad thing. Considering the impending police presence.
Maggie and Dirty South Joe were two of the only people to NOT get summonses, and two of the main people mouthing off to the cops, or at least in the cops presence. More on that later, maybe, but DSJ pissed on a tree like 15 feet away from the cops. Serious. And HE did not catch one?
(By the way these photos are not in any semblence of order, and I really don't remember quite a few things about this here evening event. But it was my greatest event ever. That's all I remember.)
Ian went on a bike to get a pizza.
Me and Gina Gold aka the complainer who finally saw the light that is Sabbath in the Park.
Maggie however did not complain even for one second.
And Cosmo kept it fuckin' trill
Cosmo and Ian
Ian was also an integral part of this event, seen here drinking Jack.
Danomyte also came in as Online Video Promotions Coordinator right on time. Seen here sporting the illuminated LED Sabbath in the Park belt buckle.
My homey Bidness Casual provided the videography seen below.
John aka Chiasm
Alexis turned into a ghost whilst drinking from the official bottle of Jack at Sabbath in the Park
Gina lightened up after a while, as you can see. This Detroit girl drinks her Budweiser with a straw. I feel that.
This is the Boom Box that played the Sabbath Mega Evil Wicked Mixes made by Cosmo Baker. Peace to Catchdubs for the loan, but you really should have made more of an effort to broadcast your EVR show live from SABBATH IN THE PARK. We have to keep the progression of this movement in mind.
Rob brought his dog Mazie aka Metal who can be seen in the group shot below.
Montana AND Canada sent representatives to Sabbath in the Park (as did Texas, Pennsylvania, and some other places as well)
Scavone = Official Sabbath in the Park Security
The Ladies of Sabbath in the Park deserve their own TV show. Serious. Fuck Sex in the City and Desperate Housewives. Can we get some real women on the tube who know how to party?
The group
Scavone and Cosmo
George Hrubarb provided the official Jack bottle. Seen here with Cosmo Baker.
Cosmo did NOT get arrested for this.
I think this dog might have tipped off the cops.
Rob, Dirty South Joe, Cosmo Baker
I think it was Ian, but I could be wrong, who had the camera with the timer and set it on the bench and well, you can see, took a group shop. If that is not the happiest, most evil dog you have ever seen, well I just don't know...
Anyway good times were had by all. I'm not sure why but after leaving we all felt like we really bonded at this event. Some of us knew each other, many of us didn't but by the time we all escaped the grip of the NYPD we all felt as though we made like 30 new friends. ANyway below check out a few videos. The first is of the offical toast we made a lil after 7:00 pm as we contemplayed wrapping it up.
Then these next 2 are of when the cops showed up and shut down the jam party. They rolled up 6 deep in 2 paddy wagons and a cop car. In honesty they were pretty nice folks. There were four black guys, one white guy and one white lady. Two of the black cops were quite staunch and didn't say much, they just walked thru the crowd and gave us looks like "You retards are going down." Then the other two black dudes were all like "Look, we feel really silly 'busting' you guys for this, in fact we like Black Sabbath, but fact is you are across the street from the projects and just last week a cop shot a guy over there. Tensions are high and we can't have anyone in the park after dark."
Fine, do the crime, we will surely do the time. The summonses were not for drinking or anything,just for being in the park after dark BUT we can't just pay the fucking $25 fine we HAVE to show up in court on January 24th - 20 deep! - to hopefully have the charges dismissed. Oh well, the Sabbath in the Court After Party is gonna be raging.
The white guy cop and the white lady cop didn't say shit either just sort of milled aorund and then sat in the car helping to write the 20 or some summonses.
And here is the summons. Whatever. The after court party is goin' down and next year we are thinking this annual event will be Sabbath on a Boat.
They can't stop us on a boat, we'll go to international waters.
I left out so much. There might be an edit to this in the coming, somethings.
And SHIT well I guess I didn't go totally backwards on this one, cuz the photos below are from after the Sabbath in the Park event (and after an extremely painful indie hip hop event at South Paw. Scavone and Doujah Raze did a set, which was cool, but I didnt take photos, I videotaped it. As soon as Scavone got off stage I grabbed him by the arm and pushed his ass out the door.)
Anyway it was like 2 a.m. and we hit up Kingsize for Queen Majesty's birthday party. Smooth reggae vibes filled the air, and well, me and Scavone almost fell asleep at the bar, so well, we didn't really you know, kick up much dust and made tracks fairly early by the standards of most New Yorkers. Bud Ponies from 4 p.m. just don't sit the same way at 4 a.m. But happy birthday Queensta.
Alyssa in a daze. She once had DJ Chill stay at her house for a WEEK!
Alyssa less haze.
BiJules and Birthday Majesty
This sign means nothing to me.
And it just goes on and on. I know what the people want to see.
Anyway yo, it was another monster weekend in New York City. Next event is either gonna be Zepplin on a Train or Scorpions in the Subway. A Pre-Cursor to Sabbath in the Court.
Laughing Hyenas in a Lift - A Tribute to Larissa Strickland might be in order as well. Until next time, don't forget to vote tomorrow and get the republican devils out of office. Let's get the democrat devils back in for a while.
Delirious again.
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