"Fever turns to ice in a river as cold as life."
The L.A. hardcore scene of the late seventies and early eighties was so much more than the "three chord thrash" stereotype that Punk is often reduced to. Due to bands such as X, The Blasters, and The Flesh Eaters, a perhaps unlikely, but quite combustible mixture of stripped-down Punk aggression, Rockabilly, Blues, Country, and even Jazz was concocted, which pushed far beyond the boundaries of what it was assumed hardcore Punk could do musically. The Flesh Eaters were formed in the late seventies by poet (and, at the time, English teacher) Chris Desjardins (better known as Chris D.) after having met John Doe and Exene Cervenka at a poetry reading. Over the years, the band would feature a revolving cast of characters due to Chris D.'s notoriously "difficult" tendencies, but the music itself, especially the band's early eighties output, is consistently brilliant. A Minute to Pray, a Second to Die was The Flesh Eaters' second album and stands as a noirish, campy, Blues-Punk classic- the kind of thing that could have only emanated from L.A. at the time. Featuring a lineup of no less than Dave Alvin, John Doe, D.J. Bonebreak, Bill Bateman and Steve Berlin, songs such as "Digging My Grave," "River of Fever," and "Divine Horseman" consistently play with listener expectations to great affect. Where else are you going to hear a tenor sax on a Punk album? While admittedly, Chris D.'s vocals are an acquired taste, it's hard to deny that he was one of the most powerful vocalists on the L.A. hardcore scene. This is dark, trashy, and thoroughly essential stuff.
