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What’s up Sorry Staters?
Sitting down to write for the newsletter again right now feels surreal. I think that devoting any energy toward acknowledging the time that’s elapsed since my last entry, and explaining where I’ve been mentally and emotionally for the last few months… I’m just not sure I can do that right now. And for those of you reading who are in the dark, I’m not even sure you care to read what I have to say about all that. Needless to say, I’ve been having a very difficult time. My most sincere gratitude to everyone who has reached out or given support.
I’ll be honest, for a while, I hadn’t really been actively listening to music at all. I think I’m finally turning a corner around that barricade. But forgive me if I’m foggy on anything new that’s been released over the last couple months. I’ve got some catching up to do, I suppose.
I don’t even know why I decided to talk about this record exactly. I guess just because I’ve been listening to this song constantly within the last few days. Consider this less of a well-constructed “staff pick,” and rather more of a conversational write-up just to get myself back into the swing of things. We must get back on the horse.
For some reason, the song “Wasted” from the 1979 single by LA punk band Silver Chalice has become my recent obsession. I guess it all started with a conversation when a friend and I were texting back and forth about deathrock bands the other day. Upon revisiting the song, I was just like, “goddamn it’s SO good.” It’s like addicting. For those unfamiliar, I think the single remains fairly obscure and original copies are quite a rarity. It was reissued by Munster a little over 10 years ago, but it also appeared on the Bloodstains Across California comp. It’s interesting, because strictly speaking, this song precedes “death rock” being clearly defined by many years. So why is this single often included in the deathrock conversation? Is it the name? “Silver Chalice” does sound pretty spooky. Is it the austere, mysterious-looking cover art? I don’t know!
Silver Chalice seems to be the brainchild guy named Kim Komet, who I don’t know much about. He’s the frontman and songwriter. I’ve seen a few Ed Colver photos of him, but he still seems to be a rather mysterious character. Geza X also played guitar in Silver Chalice and was the producer/engineer. You can totally hear that signature sonic palette Geza X brought to many other early LA punk singles on “Wasted”. For all intents and purposes, “Wasted” is a pretty straight rockin’ tune with great vocal melodies. I’ve also heard this single described as “heavy glitter trash”, so I guess we’ve got that vibe goin’ on as well. As far as drawing a spooky vibe from the record, it does feel sonically veiled with murky production. I also interpret the lyrics to be a sort of a lament, sang with this mournful delivery which gives the song a haunting quality: “All my broken dreams… where are they? I’m wasting away. I’m goooone”. Beautiful, catchy, wailing backing vocals on the word “gone,” it’s awesome. Also, I think that this single remaining relatively obscure, like not being released on Dangerhouse for example, contributes to its feeling like a true outsider record – even for punk. Apparently, in an interview, Komet self-described Silver Chalice as “dead-crude rock”. So perhaps this influence made waves in the LA punk scene before you had the bands on Hell Comes To Your House like Christian Death, 45 Grave and Super Heroines. Is Silver Chalice like The Stooges of their kind? – are they proto-deathrock??
In 1985, Silver Chalice put out their only other release, a 12” EP called Evil Birds. By this time, Rob Graves from The Bags had joined the band, along with Don Bolles, who was probably doing 45 Grave around the same time. On this record, it seems like Kim, Geza and the gang had embraced the deathrock thing completely, both visually and musically. Evil Birds is a cool record, but still nothing quite does it for me like “Wasted”. I really am not a fan of the alternate artwork on the Munster reissue, which I think is a photo Kim holding a passed-out naked woman on stage (yikes). I would love to have a proper first pressing with the original picture sleeve, so if you’ve got one in okay shape for not stupid money, bang my line.
Anyway, that’s all I’ve got this week. Truly the best I could do I think, haha. Hope you at least found it interesting. Check out the song if you haven’t before. Missed you guys, hope you missed me…
‘Til next week,
-Jeff