Nihilism For Fun & Profit

Psyched To Die/Deep Sleep at Asbury Lanes, Asbury Park NJ - 3/4/09
As Yogi Berra once noted, nostalgia ain’t what it used to be. Which leads to a lot of things, not the least of which is a new band like Psyched To Die (filled with guys from old bands we used to love) who play music that’s defiantly retro; in this case, proudly and unabashedly recreating the hard riffs and hellbent tempos of late 70’s/early 80’s hardcore.

For the record, Psyched To Die is Mikey Erg on guitar and vocals, Mike Hunchback on bass and vocals, Brian G. from For Science on drums, and ubiquitous scene photographer Frump on lead guitar. The band celebrated the release of its debut EP as well as the kickoff of its first national tour on Friday night at Asbury Lanes, in front of a crowd of old-school punk-rockers and Jersey teens (bedecked in so many flannel shirts and toques that the Lanes looked like a scene from DeGrassi High.)

Psyched To Die – as the name implies – has a gimmick; all the songs trumpet tongue-in-cheek nihilism, extolling the virtues of suicide, nuclear holocaust, pandemic, anomie, and hopelessness. They nailed the message home by covering X’s “We’re Desperate (Get Used To It;” they could have called the EP “Songs For The New Depression.” Instead, it’s called “Sterile Walls,” the title of a song that turns Suicidal Tendencies’ “Institutionalized” on its head; the protagonist in Psyched To Die’s version wants to be locked behind rubber walls and force-fed emotion-killing drugs all day. Similarly cheery ditties on the record (a 7-inch EP with 7 songs) include “5 Year Plan,” an Angry Samoans pastiche about a college dropout working for minimum wage; “Staged Reality,” which suggests that real life has become its own reality show, since nothing is really “real” anymore (follow that?), and “OCD Life,” a frantic stop-and-go rocker that recalls early Minor Threat.



It’s fun watching the two Mikes strike rock star poses and scream into the mic; Frump rips off screaming solos and Brian provides non-stop pummeling percussion. They do an almost unrecognizable Descendents cover too, and I bet a Black Flag cover is coming. It’s as if the Ergs’ career-long obsession with the SST Records catalog has been pumped up on steroids and injected with Poison Idea’s anarchic disposition to hate everything. And in case you haven’t figured this out yet, of course it’s all in fun.

The band embarks on its first real tour this weekend, then returns to Asbury Lanes on Sunday, March 22 at a benefit for Miranda Taylor’s new dance company. Miranda played drums in Hunchback (and before that, Planet Janet) and is starting her own dance troupe (“like Alvin Ailey,” she explained, “only much much much much smaller.”) The benefit show will be an afternoon matinee and also feature Full of Fancy, the Break Evens (formerly Mazeffect,) Modern Hut, and a solo/acoustic performance by Jeff Schroeck (nee’ Jeff Erg.) Check Jersey Beat’s upcoming shows page for more information.



Let’s give some love here for Asbury Lanes. It’s not just the coolest looking venue anywhere – you can bowl for a couple of bucks on unrefurbished 60’s lanes where you still keep your own score – but with Christopher “Gobo” Pierce at the board, it actually sounds really good in there too. That’s amazing given that the bands play on a makeshift stage that straddles the middle lanes of a bowling alley, with echoey walls that stretch out across a warehouse-sized room. I’ll have more to say about the other bands when I write about Saturday’s show at ABC No Rio.

See more photos here.