When I was growing up...
Brian Orr was david lee roth
Dan Russell was jimi hendrix
Mintline was bonham
Andy Turpin was bon scott
Bub was...of course, sid vidious
John Vamossy was paul mccartney
Ivan After 5 was alice cooper
Gary Meuller was john lennon
Dave Grave was Dave Grave
The Guy From The Need was steven tyler
John Meuller was jimmy plant
Scott Carlson was ozzy
Paul Wood was lance armstrong
Joel Rash was stacey peralta & ghandi
Hines was uncomparable. bunny?
Olivo was malmstein
Hamper was kerouac
Humphries was brian johnson
Lee Williams was vince neil
Bruce Stedron was...i dunno...a devo guy? and good.
Mike Absher was bad but he's really good. r.e.m. vid kid standing with his skateboard...then cuttin' loose.

I liked bad brains, minor threat, misfits, etc. growin' up...but I was really into the local shit thanks to Gary Mueller’s little cousin, who stole a bunch of local demos & gave 'em to me (I've since offered to return the originals to Gary but he refused). I loved it every bit as much if not more than the NY/Cali shit. I can't name the drummer for A.O.D. or Black Flag, but Ii knew the names Phil Hines & Dave Grave. 10 years before I started playing, Phil Hines was the drummer I wanted to sound like. Incredibly fast with those inhuman rolls & fills. That's the real deal, honest to god truth.

And I loved Dissonance but never got to see 'em play live & never really knew 'em. Just did everything I ever could to obtain their recordings. I know Andy fairly well these days (haven't seen him or heard from him in quite some time, though-miss him).

I never wanted to mention how much I liked Phil as a drummer when he passed away, because to so many people he was so much more than that. A friend, family-member and so forth. I hated that so many people were so sad, though.

The coolest thing that I've experienced yet as a drummer ("musician", right? no) was at Earpfest, one year after Phil's death, to play "No More Room"(a Dissonance song) and even attempt to fill those shoes. I am just happy to play that song...it's my favorite in the set...wasn't thinking about the importance to some. Tanya told me I did it justice...man I knew modesty aside it wasn't even CLOSE to Phil's version...she was crying. Even though I still don't know her to well, it was more fulfilling than anything I thought I would ever deserve just beating on shit to try to keep these musicians from ever giving up.

To be completely honest- I didn't mean to pay tribute to Phil Hines. I'm guessing he would've thought I were ridiculous if I did, anyway. I wanted to be there if a band I didn't want to go away needed a drummer. Cause flint has had some badass bands (if only I know it...no prob...these guys are all doing me a personal favor when they ask me to play drums, whether they know it or not. If I have to play in the S.S. show in order to see one, so be it). I just want to be appreciated for my appreciation. To touch somebody that way is something I never ever thought was part of the deal (it's, in a way, why I'm just a drummer). But it was most amazing.

Part I of why it's ok to be from Flint: people have more heart. More heart than anywhere. Live up to that, ok? Thanks. xoxo ROOKIE

Shawn Wharton

 

I grew up about a mile from Prospect Hall (which later became a Nation of Islam Mosque!?!) on Stevenson St. As a 7th grader at Longfellow I began to tune in to Take No Prisoners. It took me a while to get used to the split schedule with Barry Alick's Alternatives show, but I was soon recording Hamper and MacDonald over copies of my brother's Styx and Asia cassettes. Hearing my first REAL punk rock song, Flipper's "The Light, The Sound" twisted me but good.

Anyhow, I heard about a show (Army of God and Political Silence?) on TNP and mentioned it to a few sketchy punk rock types from school. Some of these guys were already quite adept at sneaking out of the house, getting drunk, and spending the entire night at hall shows. I, being an extremely nervous lad, could only muster enough courage to ride my bike around the small parking lot. There I saw a really scary pack of malcontents dressed in denim and leather(including Wiz, R.I.P.)hanging out, obviously up to no good. I was fucking intrigued. While it would be over a year later before I actually attended my first hall show, that scene left an impression that is still with me today.

A few bands, dozens of zines, hundreds of radio shows, and thousands of records later I'm still just a midwest HC Punk kid. I guess I owe it all to guys and gals like Doug Earp, Dan Russel, Wiz, Tanya Narhi, Mueller Brothers, Hamper, Phil Hines, Chuck Groulx, Leslie Birmingham, Vamossy Brothers, etc etc ad infinitum who laid the ground work and created something extraordinary for younger scumbags like myself to be a part of.

To this day I never hesitate to break out old fliers, zines, and demo cassettes for pals who are FUCKING blown away by the quality of the underground shit that spewed forth from Flint's seedy underbelly. In this day and age of reissues, reunions, and rehashing the Flint punk archives are a real treasure trove. Having said, er, typed that I think I'll crack open an ice cold can of Altes and blast some Generic Society.

Brett_X._Herron

 

It was a time that changed all of our lives. None of us were the same after it. It was a very intense few months that seems more like years in retrospect. It definately laid the foundation for the Flint Music scene. It is the reason the Flint scene is so eclectic. We did it with virtually no money. None of us were rich kids-although some people thought I was rich 'cos I made a vinyl EP. Hell, I got the money for it painting fences mowing lawns and helping my Dad clean a Bonaza resturant at nights.

My parents would bring us food and Robitussin DM. They wondered why we always requested that and why we always had the flu. At one point, people were calling it the Oatmeal house 'cos we were living off of oatmeal most of the time. I think we locked the door about 10 times during my stay there. People would come and go as they pleased. Dave (skateboard Dave) Campbell didn't pay any rent but often slept under the dining room table, which was my request and reaction to everyone else getting cats; Dave was my cat.

Kenny Roberts, Phil Hines,Blair Jones and his girlfriend Rebecca, had just moved into the house. I was attending DeWaters Art Center at Mott. I would talk to anyone who looked like they were into New Music. One day, Phil came along at Mott on his Skateboard and I starting talking to him. I was living in Lapeer at the time with my parents and where I went to high school (I was born in Flint but my parents moved to Lapeer when I was 10 and to Lum when I was 5). Anyway, I would carry around all this Punk/New Music literature, IE, Fanzines Catalogs, etc. in my backpack. I showed Phil all of this stuff. It was something that he later explained to some people at the Woodbridge House, had changed his outlook on what was possible. I told Phil I was looking for a place to live in Flint and he invited me to move in to the Avon House.

At first it was sort of tame but then everyone started with alot of Acid and such. Our first few parties were rather boring but I started inviting everyone I saw that looked the least bit cool over and soon people started knowing house as the place to go to 'cos there were no places for us to go. The odd hall party and Merlin's retreat. That was about it-maybe the copa (but that was before they had a "punk night" so as a result of this the scene starting growing). Our first party had about 10 people at it. Later, it got to be insane as more and more people showed up.

The first time I met Brad Morely, he had brought like 15 people with him to one of the Avon Parties and Sue Baker dared me to be really rude to him. So I was like " What the hell are you doing here?" and Brad was like "we can leave if you want us to"-typical Morely fashion. Later on, Morely and I became great friends and laughed about it.

As far as the music went, I had quite a few just strange records. Kenny had his stuff and Phil his stuff which became the basis for the early Anarchy radio Shows and a traceable foundation for the Flint Music Scene even today. Tina from Merlin's moved into the house and Sport Mike Hood her boyfriend and now husband was around alot. When Kenny quit Anarchy Sport took over and Sport had the very best record collection-extremely eclectic. Where as Phil's dedication to hardcore and punk fueled the influx of all the kids coming up, it was Kenny, Sport, and my dedication to all the experimental music that shaped the uniqueness of the Flint music scene.

Had we not had this mix of the 4 of us plus people like Blair, the two Brads from Godspeed, the Carmen Anisworth crowd, Bruce, Tim, etc. and Dan McGraw's Flushing crowd, things would not be like they are now in the Flint scene. They just would not be.Had it just been Phil and Blair with the Hardcore and Speed Metal stuff well it would have just taken that direction and fell into the mediocrity of other scenes. Had it just me Kenny, Sport, and I with the experimental stuff well we would not have gotten the crowds. Had Flint be a bigger city, everything would have been more segregated like say in Detroit, New York, LA, SF, etc. etc.. Had we all had money, things would have been a lot different. What we all did we did with virtually no cash to start with. It was scraping to do it all.

After Avon house and a failed attempt to move to LA, I spent a year living in what is now Buckham Alley Theater(or was). I slept on a door with a bunch of sleeping bags to be near the scene cos my parents lived in Lapeer and it was very hard to get work in the 80s in Michigan. Actually, we tried to form a club in the basement of that building as well called The Reality Crisis Center. We had one show and were shut down. It was so cold that night before Christmas Eve that the next morning my parents came to pick me up for Christmas I could not lock the door myself-my hands were frozen and had to have my dad lock it. We had a lot of bands the night before-Godspeed Dissonance, Generic Society and the very first appearance of Bloody Coup with Andy singing. You know the future of all of that, I am sure.

Seriously, when I look at scenes like Seattle for instance and look the sameness of it all as compared to the wealth of talent and originally of the Flint scene it sickens me. All the even one-off projects and bands that have been in Flint so much great music unnoticed by the rest of the world. Only reason Seattle made a ripple was because of the geography and perceived beauty of the Pacific Northwest and all the richy rich people who moved there and could fund it all. Had Flint had the same type of thing going on, we would have made waves instead of ripples. It's purely a matter of geography and the ecomonics created by geography or what people precieve as asthetically pleasing geography. But then again the lack of finacing and such was also pry a factor in the amount of originality that comes out of Flint-hardship and all playing a factor in creativity,etc.

Mark Brown

 

I had been in High School bands, a cover band, and I worked two years in a theatrical orchestra, but at the beginning of 1981 Crüx Änsàta was my first real rock band to write original music. We called it Progressive Punk. Joel and I were into King Crimson and Yes, while Brad and Phil liked Black Flag and The Circle Jerks, so we combined the different styles.
Though not pictured, Bill Dillenbeck was heavily involved for a while. Bruce Stedron and Russ Williams also had short stints.

In September 1981, I transferred from UM-Flint to that other university in Lansing. Brad and Rose and Blair were also moving to Lansing, and they asked me play in a hardcore punk band. I said okay if I could play drums. I don't know how they found guitarist Mike Thomas, but Free Cheese was born. Brad was more of a pianist that a bass player, so we got the idea he would do the bass lines on keys (not the norm for hardcore, but it worked).
Unfortunately I don't have any photos (Anyone have any? Please contact me.) We played and toured all over the Mid-West, to growing fans.
I lived in the basement of the home of Gus Varner (guitarist for The Crucif*cks), and he and Doc Dart helped us get gigs, and a phone call from Jello Biafra of The Dead Kennedy's. We played mostly in Ohio and Kentucky. (We gigged with Faith No More)
Gus had an old 4-track reel-to-reel that he let us borrow and we spent some time learning to record. 11 months after we started I transferred back to UofM-Flint, and Michael went off to Europe.
Back in Flint, Brad and I got into some money-making band. Montana was a country band, Blackhawk a classic rock band. Later we got into a funk band called Thrust.
Bill Dillenbeck came back to join us in Avant Garden, doing obscure covers and originals. Also invloved were my twin brother Lin, girlfriend Dee Wilbur, Debbie Wilcox and Diane Russell. We all played multiple instruments and switched a lot.

Keith Fleetwood