This 7 inch came out in 1989/90 on New Age Records. Doug had recorded his vocals and then shortly after left the band because he was personally getting away from the straight edge lifestyle. He was replaced by Ben Smith and Ben went into the studio and re-did all of the vocals for the 7 inch. Mike Hartsfield at New Age Records accidentally sent the DAT with Doug's vocal tracks to the pressing plant and the versions with Ben never saw the light of day...





This is the cover of the demo tape that Pressure Release recorded at Music Box Studios, NYC on 12/19/87 - 12/20/87

Douglas A. Byrnes
Dec 9th, 1971- July 9th, 1999


Photo by Joe Snow

Doug died due to an asthma attack...

Here are a few pics that were emailed to me anonymously

Doug's gravestone, Greenwich, CT


Doug's terrain park at stratton mountain, VT


Doug's mass card

Jonathan Jason "Stroe" Wilson 12/1/72 - 5/10/2004 Jon was a regular at the old Anthrax in Norwalk, CT. He always hung around with the kids in Face Up and could always be seen singing along at shows. He sang in a few bands including Soul Tribe and was a very passionate lyricist and singer. As with many, when we grow older we start to lose touch with most of the people that we hung around with when we were younger. I would run into Jon from time to time and he remained passionate about music and singing throughout the years. From what I understand Jon was happily married with a daughter Arianna and succumb to a brain tumor in May of 2004. A memorial site has been set up in Jon's honor. www.stroe.net

This compilation is a tribute to the late Raybeez from Warzone. It features 28 bands doing a Warzone cover in their own style! Some of the bands you'll hear are Krutch teaming up with Strength For A Reason to cover the infamous "As One", Cold As Life, Breakdown, Mushmouth, Pitboss 2000, EGH, The Hoods, Powerhouse, and even Warzone themselves doing a live track for the last song on the CD.

RayBeez (Ray Barbieri)
11/27/61 - 9/11/97

Punk Singer Wendy O. Williams Dies
The Associated Press (API)
STORRS, Conn. (AP) - Wendy O. Williams, whose stage theatrics as lead singer of the punk band The Plasmatics included blowing up equipment and chain-sawing guitars, has committed suicide. She was 48.
Williams' former manager and longtime companion Rod Swenson said he discovered her body Monday in a wooded area near their home. The state medical examiner said Williams died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
Swenson said Williams had been despondent for some time.
Williams, dubbed the "queen of shock rock" sported a trademark Mohawk haircut and was nominated in 1985 for a Grammy in the best Female Rock Vocal category during the height of the band's popularity.
A native of Webster, N.Y., Williams with her on-stage antics quickly attracted a following for the Plasmatics, who debuted in New York City clubs in 1978.
Police in Milwaukee arrested Williams and Swenson in 1981 after she allegedly simulated a sex act in concert at a nightclub. Charges of battery to an officer and obscene conduct against Williams were later dropped and a jury cleared Swenson of obstructing an officer.
She was acquitted in April 1981 of an obscenity charge in Cleveland filed for performing covered only with shaving cream and simulating sexual activity.
In November of that year, she was sentenced to one year supervision and fined $35 by an Illinois judge for beating a free-lance photographer who tried to take her picture while she was jogging along the Chicago lakefront.
The band made several international tours, was once banned in London, and appeared on Tom Snyder's "Tomorrow" show, where they blew up a car in the studio.
Swenson said he and Williams moved to Storrs in 1991, three years after the group's last tour. She had not performed for several years and had worked most recently as an animal rehabilitator, he said.
She is survived by her mother and two sisters.
May 28, 1949 - April 6, 1998

More Obituaries

WENDY ORLEAN WILLIAMS
May 28, 1949 - April 6, 1998



The Plasmatics made their first public appearance at New York's legendary CBGB's on July 26,1978. The Plasmatics rose to fame from sensational beginnings at CBGB's where Wendy and the band were known for fast aggressive music and on stage theatrics which included Wendy's regular chain-sawing of guitars and the detonation of speaker cabinets.

Stuart Adamson
April 11th 1958 ~ December 15th 2001


Rock musician. Although born in Manchester, Adamson grew up in Crossgates (near Dunfermline). Initially a member of the punk-rock group The Skids in the late 1970s, Adamson went on to form the band Big Country (1981) with whom he made his most noted contribution through his distinctive style of guitar playing. Their albums include The Crossing (1983), Steeltown (1984), The Seer (1986), Peace In Our Time (1988), No Place like Home (1991), The Buffalo Skinners (1993), Why the Long Face (1995) and Driving to Damascus (1999).
Having suffered from alcohol-related depression, Adamson disappeared from his home in Nashville (USA), to be found dead some weeks later in a hotel in Hawaii.

I never formally met Stuart, but one day Big Country played a free show on a boat at the Cambridge Side Galleria in Boston, MA. I was there and after the show when the boat docked, I had the opportunity to meet the entire band and say hi. I was just one face in a crowd of many, but all four members shook my hand and we spoke small talk until the next person muscled their way into the conversation.

Back in 1983 I was too cool to like Big Country and I actually on occasion made fun of them and the two kids at my high school that loved them. Seven years later that all changed when a good friend made me a tape of the band's first two albums. I fell in love with them and wanted more. So he taped me the third and fourth albums and even that was not enough. I started searching the world for b-sides, videos, Skids records, you name it, I wanted it.

To this day, his passion, his lyrics, his amazingly unique guitar style and writing technique has been one of the biggest influences to me as a song writer. I just wish that more people felt the same way, maybe he'd still be with us today...

I don't care who you are, punk, hardcore, metal, goth, new wave, hip hop, or dance. I don't care how tough you are or how wimpy you are. I don't care what the color of your skin is. If you say that you did not like Johnny Cash, you would be lying!

My dad introduced me to Johnny Cash when I was a kid. Not in the traditional way of playing me a Johnny cash album or me finding a Johhny Cash album lying around and me playing it. My parents got divorced when I was 5 and I lived with my mother. On weekend visits with my father he would sometimes say that modern music sucked and that the only true music was traditional country from the 1950's through the 1970's. Roy Clark and Johnny Cash were two of the names that would come up when he would say things like "you wanna hear some real music, listen to Roy Clark or Johnny Cash". This stuck with me and by the time I got into hardcore/punk back in the mid 1980's I noticed a profound admiration for Johnny Cash by many of the bands. When I was old enough to realize that hardcore and punk weren't the only two styles of music that was heartfelt and carried a sincere message and that my dad may have been right about something music related, I bought myself a Johnny Cash album and have been a huge fan ever since!

Johnny Cash
2/26/32-9/12/03


Photo © Lost Highway


Married country singers Johnny Cash and June Carter Cash perform a duet in 1975 on stage.
Photo by Getty Images

This is a 20 track anthology of great hardcore/street-punk rock from the late '80s, early 90's, by this legendary San Francisco band. Led by now-deceased fetish model/dominatrix MARIAN ANDERSON on vocals, and DANIEL DELEON (CALAVERA, the DEEP EYNDE) on guitar, the INSAINTS pushed the punk rock envelope further than any other artist before or since. MARIAN'S sexual stage antics has become the stuff of legends, but the INSAINTS were also a great band, and this album proves it. The CD features their complete 1993 studio session, as well as demos and live material from 1990 and 1992. Also included are the six tracks originally released on the MAXIMUM ROCKNROLL label (a double seven-inch split with DIESEL QUEENS, and their only official release), plus a lavish 16 page booklet packed with great photos, remembrance and liner notes.

Info courtesy of Disaster Records

Marian Anderson
1968 - 2001


Photo courtesy of geocities.com/nnoxious/

Check out the site for some cool photos, a guest book and a great bio on Marian!!

Milo Miles on the death of D. Boon - Boston Phoenix - January 14, 1986

d boon's obituary from spin magazine - march 1986

"The Call of the MINUTEMEN" by Robert O'Brian - RockBill - August 1985

Tons of Minutemen and Mike Watt links

Previously unpublished photos of D. Boon from brother Awest

Raw Power were one of the first non-English European bands to make their mark by touring the USA incessantly during the '80s and '90s and as recently as 2001. They were also one of the first "crossover" bands (along with D.R.I., C.O.C.) combining the best elements of punk and metal together for the first time. They broke down doors and destroyed borders for many others to follow in their footsteps. Songs such as "Fuck Authority," "State Oppression," and "Burning the Factory," defined an attitude that many could identify with in spite of their citizenship.

 

Joe Strummer
1952-2002

David Rubinstein a/k/a "Dave Insurgent" 1964 - 1998

Biography of Reagan Youth and Dave Insurgent taken from the New Red Archives web site: David Rubinstein was born in 1964. He formed "Reagan Youth" with guitarist Paul Bakija when both were in high school in Rego Park, Queens. While they were still in high school, the band played the punk clubs of Manhattan. In fact, David's science teacher became a roadie for the band (That high school teacher was so into the punk scene that he shaved his head and as a result almost go fired by the school administration). As the members graduated from high school, Reagan Youth was performing regularly at C.B.G.B.'s and an established band on the country's budding punk rock scene. They recorded a single, then an album. They toured cross-country many times, performing with all of the great hard-core punk bands of that era. At the "Rock Against Racism" shows in the early 1980s, Reagan Youth shared the bill with the Dead Kennedys, the Bad Brains, and others. Reagan Youth recorded its first album and signed a simple contract, hand-written on the back of a poster for a gig. That album sold over forty thousand (40,000) copies. The band also appeared on several compilations albums, including Live at C.B.G.B.'s. They were a mainstay at C.B.G.B.'s Sunday afternoon hard-core matinee concerts. Reagan Youth's music was ironic and political. They preached the gospel of "peace punk." David was known as "Dave Insurgent." The name "Reagan Youth" was ironic, given David's family background as holocaust survivors. The cover of their 2nd LP featured a photo of Hitler shaking hands with an emissary of the Pope. Their song titles included "Jesus Was A Communist" and "New Aryans." By the late 1980s, the members of Reagan Youth were frustrated and worn out from years of touring and drug abuse. They had never made any money in the music industry. When Ronald Reagan left the White House, they officially disbanded. David and several other band members continued to play music together, although their new group never achieved the same success or momentum as Reagan Youth. By this time as well, David had developed a serious heroin addition. He was also dealing drugs, although he was not very shrewd at it. David had the bad habit of consuming the drugs he was supposed to be selling. He was a loudmouth. When a supplier would ask him for money that was owed, David would sometimes reply, "You'll get you money when I say you get it." In a drug deal gone bad, another drug dealer violently beat up David with a baseball bat. He was hospitalized for weeks. When he got out, he returned to his parents' home. There, he continued to use drugs, smoking pot in his bedroom as his parents tried to help him recover. Eventually David left his parents' home and moved back to the lower East Side. By now, between the violent assault and his continued drug use, he was no longer an energetic anarchist. He had become a bit disheveled, and many of his friends from the punk scene no longer associated with him. David began dating Tiffany B., a prostitute who worked on Houston Street. David had told his parents that she was a dancer. Tiffany supported the couple and their drug habit by turning tricks. David would often hang out on the street with Tiffany, waiting while she serviced a customer, and then going with her to score drugs. Around this time, David's mother died in a freak car accident. One night, David and Tiffany were waiting on Houston Street when a familiar customer pulled up in a pick-up truck. Tiffany got in, telling David that she would return in twenty minutes. She never came back. David called the police with a description of the truck and went to all the hospital emergency rooms in the city searching for Tiffany. A few days later, on Long Island, the police pulled over a truck and found Tiffany's body in the bank. They arrested the driver, Joel Rifkin, Long Island's most famous serial killer, who was later linked to killing numerous prostitutes . Depressed and alone, after the unexpected losses of his girlfriend and his mother, David headed into a downward spiral. One month later, David Rubenstein a/k/a "Dave Insurgent" committed suicide.

FRANK 'SKIP' CANDELORI
Wednesday June 19th, 2002

Stabbed after an argument in Los Angeles, CA

Chuck Valle (Charles G. Valle)
7/10/65 - 7/17/94



Bassist for Murphy's Law, Ludichrist...

On Tuesday, July 6th 1993, Zapata rehearsed at Pancreas Production Studio, behind the Pike Street and 11th Avenue Winston Apartments. At 8:30 p.m., she joined friends at the Comet Tavern, a block away at Pike and 10th Avenue. Zapata had been drinking all day, and continued drinking at the Comet, even venturing a few blocks to Piecora's Pizza for hard alcohol. She returned to the tavern, and kept drinking until midnight.
At midnight, she left the Comet to look for her boyfriend at the studio. He wasn't there, so she went upstairs to a friend's apartment. At 2:00 a.m., Zapata left, saying she'd catch a cab to her Rainier Valley apartment.
At 3:20 a.m., a prostitute found Zapata's body where the dead-end 24th Avenue met Yesler Way, near an empty field. The prostitute said Zapata's body was in the street, next to the curb, positioned with her arms outstretched. Zapata had been raped and strangled with the drawstring of her black Gits sweatshirt.


Her rape and murder remained unsolved for nine years despite a case file that detectives described as "voluminous" and an investigation they deemed exhaustive.
Seattle's grunge rock community raised $70,000 to hire a private investigator. Friends kept her memory alive and in the news by writing songs and founding a nonprofit organization that teaches self-defense. "America's Most Wanted" aired a segment on her murder.
Yet none of the leads generated by all this attention led to the arrest of Jesus Mezquia on January 11th, 2003. Mezquia, a 48-year-old Florida fisherman with a history of sexual assaults, who police say sexually assaulted and strangled Zapata then left her dead on a deserted Seattle street in the early morning of July 7, 1993.
Instead, investigators found their suspect thanks to well-preserved swabs of saliva taken fromMia's body, a knowledgeable Florida parole officer and a DNA match.
Created in October 1998 to help give local and state laboratories a way to electronically compare and share DNA data, NDIS now works with 47 participating states, as well as Puerto Rico and the District of Columbia. It has made approximately 6,000 matches in its four-year history, an average of more than four hits a week.
In the month following Mezquia's DNA match, Seattle investigators researched his background to understand how his DNA came to rest on Mia Zapata. According to court papers, Mezquia was convicted of aggravated battery of a woman who was seven months pregnant in 1997, second-degree assault in 1986, battery of a spouse in 1989, and assault to commit rape in 1990.
And thanks to a speeding ticket and an indecent exposure complaint that was traced to a car Mezquia owned, Seattle police can link him to the neighborhood where Zapata's body was found around the time the crime was committed. Police have also interviewed three women who say they lived with Mezquia during his 1.5 years in Seattle, and they seized evidence from his home in Marathon, Fla.

Mia Zapata
1966-7/7/93



Mia Zapata, drummer Steve Moriarty, guitarist Joe Spleen and bassist Matt Dresdner formed THE GITS in 1986 in Ohio before relocating to Seattle, where they released their debut album, Frenching the Bully, in 1992 on C/Z Records. Zapata died before the band could finish its follow-up, Enter: The Conquering Chicken, which was posthumously released in March 1994.




The Gits debut album Frenching The Bully is available once again. Broken Rekids Records in July 2003 released a re-mastered cd with an additional studio track "Spear and Magic Helmet", plus 9 tracks recorded live at X-Ray Cafe, Portland, Oregon June 1993




The Gits remixed and remastered their second album "Enter... the Conquering Chicken" which was released in October, 2003, also on Broken Rekids Records.

Matt Dresdner of the Gits talks about the murder of his friend and bandmate Mia Zapata.


Musicians and artists from Seattle, especially, but also those elsewhere, rallied immediately following Zapata's death. Acts such as Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, Nirvana, the Posies and Bratmobile staged benefit concerts that raised money to hire a private investigator to find Zapata's killer. Collectively, they raised approximately $70,000, which paid the PI for three years. Eventually the bills became insurmountable. Now that Mezquia has been arrested, the remaining small sum will be given to women's groups.
Among those also spearheading the activism, Joan Jett and Bikini Kill frontwoman Kathleen Hanna wrote the track "Go Home," a song about a late-night stalker, with Zapata in mind. The song was recorded with the surviving members of the Gits, and a video "dedicated to the memory of Mia Zapata" was shot in England by director Julian Temple, with Jett playing a woman being stalked who turns the tables on her predator.
The song prompted a benefit concert by Jett and the surviving Gits, who called themselves Evil Stig ("Live Gits" backward). Then-heads of Warner Bros. Records, Mo Ostin and Lenny Waronker, funded the recording of the concert and released the album in 1995.
Home Alive released a benefit double album in 1996, Home Alive: The Art of Self Defense, featuring "Go Home" and contributions from Pearl Jam, Nirvana, Soundgarden, the Fastbacks, Dead Kennedys singer Jello Biafra, and X's Exene Cervenka, among its 44 tracks.
Flying Side Kick, Home Alive's second album, featuring cuts from socially conscious West Coast punks such as the Need, Black Halos and Zen Guerrillas, among others, was released in 2001.


In 2005 Court TV aired The Investigators "Death of a Rising Star"
Seattle punk rock legend Mia Zapata is found dead on the street at 3:00 am. Detectives begin retracing her steps that night and assemble a timeline of events. If they can determine who she was with from 1:00 am – 3:00 am, they will have found her killer. The theories surrounding her death are eclectic; she was killed by a rival band, she was stalked by a rabid fan, a Satanic Cult was involved, or perhaps it’s the work of a still at large Seattle serial killer. It would take investigators 10 years and a DNA breakthrough to figure out just what had happened. TV-14


Here is a great article that Court TV posted about the case...


11 years later, Jesus Mezquia is sentenced to 36 years in prison for the rape and murder of Mia Zapata!

Cool web site to check out:
Facts Of Joey Ramone

Joey Ramone (Jeffrey Hyman)
The King Of Punk
5/19/51 - 4/15/01

Joey Ramone Memorial

Dee Dee Shrine

Dee Dee Ramone
(Douglas Glenn Colvin)
9/18/52 - 6/5/02

Johnny Ramone
(John Cummings)
10/8/48 - 9/13/04



The Johnny Ramone Signature Guitar
www.edromanguitars.com/guitar/mosrite/ramones_mos.htm

LOS ANGELES, California (AP) -- Johnny Ramone, guitarist and co-founder of the seminal punk band The Ramones that influenced a generation of rockers, has died. He was 55.
Johnny Ramone, who had been fighting a five-year battle with prostate cancer, died in his sleep Wednesday afternoon at his Los Angeles home surrounded by friends and family, said the band's longtime artistic director Arturo Vega.

Choked to death while sleeping

Sean Patrick McCabe
1972 - 8/27/00



Singer for Ink & Dagger