In The Red
* PREORDER * CHRIS D. / POISON FANG SOCIETY - Courtroom Wedding LP
* PREORDER * expected to arrive late March / early April
CD also available.
The feral new album by singer-songwriter-punk rock legend Chris D.’s new unit Poison Fang Society, succeeds In the Red Records’ release of two expansive albums by the bandleader’s Divine Horsemen, Hot Rise of an Ice Cream Phoenix (2021) and Bitter End to a Sweet Night (2022).
The taut, economical 8-song set grew out of several songs penned in the immediate wake of the COVID lockdown and originally envisioned as material for a third Divine Horsemen record. But logistical problems involving the band’s co-lead singer Julie Christensen’s ability to record in LA led to the formulation of a new solo configuration rooted in the past.
PFS guitarist Larry Schemel, most recently of Death Valley Girls, and Tucson-bred drummer Johnny Ray are both veterans of the eight-piece lineup heard on the Flesh Eaters’ 1999 album Ashes of Time. They are joined by bassist-keyboardist-guitarist Sharif Dumani.
The songs Chris brought to the studio reflect a shift in style: “On the last couple of albums, the Divine Horsemen albums, there was a lot more cut-up stuff. I still did some cut-up in the lyrics with this record, but not as much. The lyrics to ‘Cellars to Weep’ were very influenced by songs like Dylan’s ‘Subterranean Homesick Blues’ or ‘Highway 61 Revisited.”
With tracks inspired by subjects as diverse at the gun-toting MAGA couple who pointed their weapons at Black Lives Matter protesters (“Goddamn Thieving Shame”) to the sleazy come-on cover lines of ‘50s pulp paperbacks (“Sex Kitten”), Courtroom Wedding flexes a lean, potent sound that recalls the knife-edge attack of the Don Kirk-era Flesh Eaters and the heavyweight vibe of Chris’ second solo album (as Stone by Stone), 1989’s I Pass for Human. Like this punk grand master’s finest work, it displays an electric, tormented immediacy.
“Courtroom Wedding sounds more live than the Divine Horsemen records,” Chris says, “and I think that’s a good thing.”
