Firebase Rip Chord
“Of our hurts we make monuments of survival. If we survive.”―Joyce Carol Oates
True artists are able to beautifully project a vision of the world that is unique, inspiring…hidden, often surprising. We, as fans, take in this art…are changed by it…open ourselves up to the wondrous possibilities, even when the art takes us out of a comfort zone or dispels former life Truths. The art helps us evolve as humans, spark change for our culture, for our world with a capacity to do so faster than the political machine or anything else for that matter: art is power.
That being said, the life of an artist can be a difficult one, constantly being judged by a fickle public sentiment, often walking the tightrope between genius and crazed freak, between spectacular and out-of-favor. The new record is not as good as the earlier record; the newest novel no longer defines a generation of thought; the film is a lackluster remake of past innovation.
With luck, an artist discarded can persevere until a wave of public acceptance comes back around (some, like Jelly Roll Morton, don’t make it that far), but there is always the trenchant reality of living life in between the worlds of brilliance and insanity. To live on the edge. To see the world differently than anyone else, to walk a path that does not fit with the “norm.” Syd Barrett. Roky Erikson. Sylvia Plath. Vincent Van Gough. For some—not all, but some—the path of genius is paved by mental illness…for some the path is directed by it; some of the greatest artists have had demons that have helped frame their art to the detriment of their mental health.
Neil Michael Hagerty was arrested a few months ago for assaulting police officers, stabbing at least one with the sharp part of a police officer badge he ripped off of his uniform. The cops had come to Neil’s house to do a welfare check on him, which went very badly (dissertations can be written on how to properly respond to someone having a problematic mental health moment). Hagerty has been fighting mental illness for a long time (during and after a long period of well documented drug addiction) which seems to have been exacerbated by Covid.
Neil Hagerty is one of those artists who has constantly pushed the boundaries of Rock ‘n’ Roll. From his early days with noised-out art-damaged garage rockers Pussy Galore, to his co-founding of glam-trash Royal Trux with his phenom foil Jennifer Herrema, to his sometimes electronic/sometimes Stonesy alien solo records which evolved into The Howling Hex: Hagerty’s music has never stayed the same from band to band, from record to record, making his career one that has always been exciting to follow. He is a subtle rock star, an arm’s length away from swagger, forgoing clichéd theatrics for sheer, raw talent—a master songwriter, a spit-ball guitar wizard, a sonic lab rat whose studio recordings inspire and beguile.
Over the years I have had the opportunity to meet Neil, seen him even more, the last time being when my friends Anne Cook and Jeremy Solterbeck of Pressure Drop TV recorded his trio in an outdoor beer garden in the outskirts of Davis, Ca. I brought my kids to the filming…we were the only audience. I was supposed to interview him when the band finished but after a set where he once again displayed his eased guitar mastery and signature dry vocal approach (excellently captured by the Pressure Droppers), he seemed stand-offish. Interestingly, it was my daughter Kaya who carried on a conversation with him (not on camera)…I turned around and caught her speaking to Neil about his daughter, who was around her age, and their mutual love of soccer. He was really sweet with her.
Neil is currently in custody awaiting a trial and he faces three pretty heavy charges. He was not in the courtroom for his first scheduled appearance because he was not yet in the proper state of mind to do so. Yet even with his mental health a driving factor in his story, violent crimes such as the one he is charged with are hard to get around. His Royal Trux family has set up a crowd-funding page to help Neil with his health issues and legal fees. He has a long, uncertain road in front of him. I have been thinking a lot about Neil Michael Hagerty.
Updates of his situation will be posted here in The Signal as they come. Until then, here are just a few of my favorite Neil Hagerty recordings….
Firebase Rip Chord (from the album Neil Michael Hagerty & The Howling Hex): This is Neil at his Stonsy best, with a great duet between a sax and his tight, sharp picking; what a perfect opening track to a record filled with great rock ‘n’ roll (if you are feeling like lead guitar action, hit up Rockslide).
The Flag (from The Royal Trux LP Cats and Dogs): Neil and partner Jennifer Herrema were the heroin-chic version of Ike and Tina Turner (sans the abuse). I loved Cats and Dogs when I first heard it back in 1993 and saw a bunch of Royal Trux shows during the tours around the album cycle. As heard in The Flag, it always seemed that they were on the verge of musically falling apart…which is part of what made their sound so engrossing….
Mercury (from the Royal Trux single of the same name): I am not sure there are many other recordings as viscerally grimy, crawling yet melodic as this one.
A Royal Trux Promotional Film: When the Trux signed to Virgin, they used their PR budget to create this surreal escapade of an infomercial.
The Storm Song (From the album NMH Plays That Good Old Rock And Roll): An alien blues, perfect for Sunday church in a black hole.
Apache Energy Plan (from The Howling Hex record You Can’t Beat Tomorrow): The record that features this track became a soundtrack for a trip I took alone through England and Israel. This song, for me, was the hit. I love the follow up track, SC Coward a hell of a lot as well.
Creature Catcher: From his first solo record, a record where Neil is half man, half machine, feeding his melodies through processors..electronics…surfing atop with his singing, with his affected guitars—always journeying through. There is a lot a Krautrock on this record (I Found A Stranger!), bent to Hagerty’s unique vision.
There is so much more….
Dick Cavett Interviews Edward Gorey, Nov. 30, 1977
I cannot believe I have never seen this. Gorey interviewed by Cavett—just as odd and mysterious as I would have expected. There is so much here.
Anita Cornwell, groundbreaking Black lesbian feminist writer, has died at 99
A great memorial to an amazing voice and activist—a trailblazer. This article does a fine job digging deep into her life…and if you are left wanting more, Out History conducted a great interview with her that is still online.
Dave Davies on 60 Years of The Kinks, Star Trek, and Spirituality
“What’s really helped The Kinks, I think, is the humor. Humor holds things together when they could easily fall apart… It’s such a great way to express how we really feel without hurting anyone. We don’t have to hurt each other — but I don’t know, sometimes we need a little bit of pain to see truth, if there is truth, which I believe there is.”
Climate Activists Smear Red Paint on Monet Painting at National Museum in Sweden
My friend Clifford Slater was once found as a child drawing vigorously with a crayon onto an Andrew Taverelli masterwork. I am always reminded of this when I read about the latest climate activist to target a painting under glass. I agree with the motivation and the need to combat climate crisis…but in this case, with this Monet painting, from a distance…the splattering kinda looks nice! See the real painting below…it is a beauty. But as these activities become more commonplace and sink deeper into the last pages of the news, it seems that there needs to be a better way to get the word out.
This is a fascinating look at the complete body of work produced by Auden, the effect of a religious upbringing had on him and his poetry as well as his reactions to (and sometimes prophetic moments towards) world history. Adam Kirsch does a phenomenal job with this piece of journalism, which also includes an abundance of pieces of Auden’s poetry as well as a jab at the article’s end.
Musee des Beaux Arts
By: W. H. Auden
About suffering they were never wrong,
The old Masters: how well they understood
Its human position: how it takes place
While someone else is eating or opening a window or just walking dully along;
How, when the aged are reverently, passionately waiting
For the miraculous birth, there always must be
Children who did not specially want it to happen, skating
On a pond at the edge of the wood:
They never forgot
That even the dreadful martyrdom must run its course
Anyhow in a corner, some untidy spot
Where the dogs go on with their doggy life and the torturer's horse
Scratches its innocent behind on a tree.
In Breughel's Icarus, for instance: how everything turns away
Quite leisurely from the disaster; the ploughman may
Have heard the splash, the forsaken cry,
But for him it was not an important failure; the sun shone
As it had to on the white legs disappearing into the green
Water, and the expensive delicate ship that must have seen
Something amazing, a boy falling out of the sky,
Had somewhere to get to and sailed calmly on.
“The strangeness of Time. Not in its passing, which can seem infinite, like a tunnel whose end you can't see, whose beginning you've forgotten, but in the sudden realization that something finite, has passed, and is irretrievable.”
― Joyce Carol Oates
Several years ago I heard a NY politician say the following on the radio: sacrifice ignites passion. I don't think what the environmental activists are doing is sacrifice. Until they do some real sacrifice the world is going to laugh and turn away.