 |
 |
 |
Go back to first interview
DIG IT:The first time I heard a song you were involved in was on a Midnight Rds X-mas comp in '87, Sharky's Machine was the name of the band and the song was called "My Sears Catalogue"... Who was in the band, how long did it last and did you record other songs with that band ?
EDISON: My Sears Catalogue was the very last thing we did! In fact, that was the first time I played guitar on a record. It was just me and Jim, the singer - I had pretty much fired everyone else after four years and four records. In Europe you could probably still find Let's Be Friend’s and the EP “A Little Chin Music” - that's baseball slang for throwing a ball at someone's head. They're both good records, kinda thrashy but with an obvious Stones influence. A little bit art-damaged and weird. We were four misfits who met in college and somehow made some good noise. It was my first real band, the first time I was writing songs. I would take blues riffs and put them on top of a hardcore rhythm. We were equally influenced by Hank Williams and Motorhead. We never made it to France but we did well in Benelux. Before that I mostly played in blues bands at high school beer parties. But after seeing some punk rock bands I knew I wanted to play high-energy music in front of a high energy crowd. I wanted to see people jumping off of the PA system.
When did you discover Rock'n'Roll ? Do you remember the first record you've bought, or stolen, or whatever... ?
EDISON: I'm about as old school as you can get - I grew up listening to a small transistor radio, Top 40, you know, whatever was on: Elton John was really big, Three Dog Night,The Rolling Stones, a lot of one-hit wonders. I really liked Grand Funk Railroad doing the Locomotion. Who knew it was a black R&B hit? I was like 11-years-old. And then I heard Johnny B Good on an oldies record - I still have it! This was around the time American Graffiti came out and the 50s were trendy. That changed everything. On the same record there was The Big Bopper, Fats Domino, Jerry Lee Lewis and The Diamonds doing The Stroll. I loved it all. I played that record all through grade school and my friends thought I was nuts. When I finally heard the Cramps it all made sense. I remember seeing a documentary about soul music on television after school one day - Tina Turner doing Proud Mary and it just killed me, it was like the most exciting thing I had ever seen. So I decided soul music was what I had to get into next. I went to DiscoMat (a big record store) near Madison Square Garden in New York and they had a cheap soul section. I bought Otis Redding's Greatest Hits, Aretha's Gold and the Best of Sam and Dave. It seems like back then it was a real discovery process, you really had to search for stuff, especially if you were a teenager. It was fun, and when you found something like Otis Redding, which I thought was totally obscure, it meant a lot. One day I was in a really sleazy record store in Newark New Jersey. A really scary place - I had a summer job there as a messenger. In fact I got mugged one day at knife point. I think I was 15 years old. Anyway, i went into this store and there were all these budget blues albums I had heard of because I was really into the Rolling Stones and read about music all the time, but had never heard of or seen, Howlin' Wolf, Elmore James, John Lee Hooker. All these weird Kent and United records. Anyway, this guy comes up to me - he was like ten years older and he was wearing a James Brown Sex Machine T shirt and had tatoos - I had never really met anyone who looked like that - you know, what the fuck did he want with a young boy? And he was just like, wow, you like Howlin Wolf? I said I never heard him but the Stones liked him and that was good enough for me. This guy totally knew everything about this stuff and helped me pick out the best records. He said, ‘do you play the drums?’ I mean, what the fuck? I had started playing that week! He said, well, we're looking for a drummer, I thought you might be cool. So he came by my house - and for some reason my mom let me go, I guess she knew it was important to me - and I played with these guys. It was like 1980 and I was into punk, I liked the Sex Pistols and the Ramones and the Dead Kennedy's. But these guys were older and liked the Stooges and the MC5, but also the Stones and Creedence and Motown dance hits. They taught me so much. I guess they thought it was cool having a little kid who was so into music back on the drums. I wasn't really good enough yet, but it was great - I was like the coolest 16 year old kid with these 27 year old friends who used to deal acid at the Filmore East! By that time my friends were all into smoking a lot of pot and listening to Jimi Hendrix and they were very impressed. Anyway, when I got to college I found some people who also were into punk rock AND rock'n'roll and I had the idea to start a hardcore punk band, because those were the crowds I wanted to play for, but really just based on blues and rock n roll. That was Sharky's Machine.
First show you saw ?
EDISON: The first really cool things I saw were the Dead Kennedy’s – which made me want to play to that kind of audience – and John Lee Hooker, which just blew my mind and made me dedicate my life to playing blues music. That was the first time I ever got into a nightclub – we weren’t old enough to drink but in those days they didn’t really check. I got my friends into going to blues clubs – we saw every major act that came through, either at Tramps or the Lone Star Café. Buddy Guy and Junior Wells, Albert King, Otis Rush, Muddy Waters, later on James Brown and Wilson Picket. Big Joe Turner was my favorite. And we also went to big rock concerts: David Bowie, Dylan, the Stones, and even a bunch of crap like Jethro Tull. That’s what you did when you were 16 – you went to big rock concerts and smoked a lot of pot. Everything always seemed so exciting!
At some point you've been an editor of a porno 'zine... Of course we wanna know everything 'bout that!!!
EDISON: I've probably made more money doing pornography than anything! I've worked for all these big Amercian porno mags - Hustler, Penthouse, you name it, writing and editing. I was on the staff at a magazine called Cheri for a few years. In English that sounds really sexy, ha, ha! I used to travel to go go clubs in different cities with a photographer. The first job I had to do was "The Girls of New Orleans". At this point I was 24 years old and was just trying to get into the magazine business. They gave me a credit card and said "go." It was amazing... we'd go to these biker bars and everyone loved us 'cause we were from this big magazine in New York. Sex and drugs. It was wonderful.
How did you hook up with The Raunch Hands?
EDISON: I’ve known the guys in the Raunch Hands since the early 80s – I met Mike Mariconda at New York University. We used to drop acid and listen to Capt. Beefheart records. We were pretty much into the same thing: punk rock and Ray Charles, you know, just really attacking roots music. Same place the Rocket Train is coming from. For years they asked me to join but I was always busy, either with Sharky’s Machine or editing some porn mag. When they asked me to come to Japan with them I quit my job the same afternoon.
The band toured a lot, Europe, Japan. It seems that you had good times then...
EDISON: It was crazy, destructive fun. We drank like insane people, played two-hour sets, we were on a mission.
I remember a time when you collected Bibles from hotel rooms in Europe, how's your collection today ?
EDISON: How do you remember all this shit?
Actually, what I did is I would take a Gideon Bible from one hotel room, and then put it in the next room I stayed in and I’d take the Bible from the new room with me. It was some kind of secret poetry, my own personal performance art, keeping the Bibles moving.
Then the band split, and 3 of you started their Spanish period... How did you see that time and the end of the band from a today's point of view ? Any regret ?
EDISON: The two smartest things I’ve ever done was move to Spain and to leave Spain and come back to New York. I was there for three years and it was fantastic – we saw so much, learned so much. I also got to spend a lot of time in France and the rest of Europe which was awesome. The three Raunch Hands – the three Mikes – were going to start a band but it never really happened. I ended up joining the Pleasure Fuckers.
You took the drum seat behind The Pleasure Fuckers, how was that period ?
EDISON: It was great. We were a great band, with the exception of the singer everyone was a great musician, had a great attitude, we just came out and rocked hard. The message was simple. In terms of lifestyle it was a logical extension of the debauchery that was going on with the Raunch Hands.
Suddenly you left Spain and went back to NYC, what happened ? (that remains one of the most unexplicated enigmas in rock'n'roll history ! According to Kike's reaction (singer Kike Turmix), something happened but he never told us what... If it's too wild or personal don't …
EDISON: I’ve got no secrets. Kike is a fucking thief and I called him on it. The other guys are great, hard working, talented people. But the fat singer, well, he has a bad reputation for a reason. We had just left a gig in Malaga and he was stealing drink tickets from the band – can you imagine? That was the last straw. I had spent the last three years watching him be a pig, stealing records, stealing money and drugs, and I had enough. We were on our way home and he was playing a Beatles tape in the van – I can’t stand that music. I just saw red and yanked the cassette from the player and threw it out on the highway. It was time to leave. I accomplished everything I came to Spain for, I learned the language and the culture and played in a great rock n roll band. I have real respect and admiration for Mike and Norah and Barnaby, the other Pleasure Fuckers. They’re real rock n rollers.
Then we heard that you were working as a "beer taster" for some magazine. What kind of miracle job is that !!! We've been told you were traveling though the world for a while just to drink beer !!! And get paid for it !!!!! Aaargh !!! "Is It True ?" (as Andre Williams would ask!)
EDISON: It is true! I was an editor for an international beer magazine – I would go to Amsterdam or Dublin to check out Heinkeken or Guinness or whatever. It was a pretty serious magazine, but it kept me flying back and forth to Europe for a while! But after that I began working for High Times, the famous American marijuana magazine. Somehow I managed to make a profession out of my lifestyle!
A few years back, The Raunch Hands got back together, played New York and Vegas, recorded a live album and finally did a Spanish tour last year. How was it ?
EDISON: The Raunch Hands never really broke up – we’re still brothers in arms. There was about 6 years when we didn’t play, but we don’t even live in the same city anymore. Then we got an offer to go to Las Vegas and that was a good excuse to put the band back together, as the Blues Brothers would say. The live record – Got Hate If You Want It - was from a Cavestomp event the next year. And last year’s tour or Spain was great, something we had planned for a long time. It hasn’t really changed, in fact I think we sound better now. We’re older and smarter. We play better. We know more. Who knows when or if we’ll play again. I have a feeling we’re not through yet.
