Feelin' Cro-Mag

Remember when your young pititul life and style were defined by a musical group, a band if you will?
In 1986 I was young and foolish, still relatively undamaged by years of mediocrity. all was rather fun and humorous. That year marked the release of Age of Quarrel, the LP version of the Cro-Mags previously released demo. Not only did they symbolise the machismo and uber-urban reality of the still-tough NYC streets, thank you Mayor Koch, but their handle, in the mind of the impressionaly sponge-like minds of me and pal Morgan, opened up a whole new vocabulary. A nonsensical compendium of cro-mag phrases ensued to crack us up for a couple of years and spawned our first joke band, Clan of Wurpies. Masters of improvised 5 second songs, we found brilliance in our stupidity. But life goes on and for at least one of us an identity needs redefinement. So why am I listening to the Cro-Mags again? Well they sound really good. Nice trotting mid-tempo thrash beats from Mackie and garbled protestations alternating with the signature low falsettos of John "Bloodclot" Joseph. The guitars are typical 80s. Seeing the photo I remember how Parris Mayhew stood out, with his 80s hair, BC Rich Bich and lack of stage presence. Kudos it seems to Harley Flanagan for keeping the web site going with lots of pictures and that you can download Age of Quarrel for free. But it seems that the post-Quarrel Cro Mags were his struggle for years, and keeping his rep intact. It's better to be on top once than never at all. Good luck, HF. Now if I can only find out whatever happened to Straight Ahead/ NYC Mayhem and to Tommy and Craig Setari, one of my only good friends from high school.
I mutter and muddle on in this interim, can I get a job, people? Xmas is coming up and I don't want to be a CRO MAG no more!