Jerzees light cotton pocket T
Limited edition of 100 printed by Rich Samis
Made for
Roddy Bottum's Birthday Explosion
July 1, 2023
Bowery Ballroom
with Macy Rodman, Man on Man, Christeene, J Mascis, and Imperial Teen
Background story:
2010 gave me a deep heartbreak summer. I was sad and my shadow was coming
out in awkward ways. All this energy was coming up in me that needed to integrate
(it did).
Mark, Brian, Maggie (new friends at the time) and I traveled south to Richmond to sit in front row seats to see Merle Haggard. A lot of crazy shit happened when we were there, but that’s a story for another time.Mark, Brian and I ended up in jail. We were arrested by 23 yr old red neck cops who were not that intelligent. We’d been drinking, so there was that certain inertia to our emotions. We were super mean to the cops as they arrested us. Like, they were hearing my darkest side. The judge was a goateed guy on a video screen and we were really mean to him. This method never works cuz the cops always win. Mark and I were in neighboring cells and talked to each other as we passed out from being drunk.
When I woke up I thought, fuck , I’m in fucking jail with all these redneck overlords and I don’t like this at In the morning a nice lady came in to check on us in our cells. I noticed the other prisoners had blankets in their cells, whereas I wasn’t given one. I calmly asked the jail lady why I wasn’t given a blanket. “Were you Nasty when they brought you in?”, she asked.Yes was my answer.
I told Caroline this story recently. Then I said, oh yeah, that’s why I wanted to call it Nasty Band. It got changed to Nastie Band bc I had a falling out with the original keyboard player. Felt like it was a different band after that so we altered the name.
Then we played a show in a church and I became totally possessed. I was dressing in all black, becoming a complete embodiment of my shadow on the altar. It’s crazy for me to watch now, cause that was some deep Kali vibes I was unknowingly invoking. Sometimes I’d take bad combinations of drugs before going on stage, and I was actually in black out mode for some of our performances.
After that show my old friend Roddy joined the band and it took a new direction. Roddy brought a new synthetic energy to the band. We became a group of friends and there were a lot of laughs.We ended up playing again at that church, and that was the last time we got to play together. I was no longer in all black. Leather and chains yes, but I had a bowl cut.
We were supposed to go on tour with Napalm Death, but then Covid happened.
Roddy is turning 60 this Saturday. He is doing a generous thing by getting many of his bands together again. A rather heroic feat for him. A lot of our other friends are playing that show too. It’s going to be an epic night. I might even find Chris Kachulis again.
This darkness is still a part of me, but I know how to manage it now. Because I learned it is an essential part of me and my life’s work. Boundaries and the motto Love is the Guiding Force is how I get through this : alive and not hurting others.
The manifestation of such energy doesn’t serve me or us. It’s dangerous and many have not survived it’s current. But it’s powerful to manifest on a stage. Cathartic. I hope you can share it with us.
My nephew Israel Bencivenga is arriving that night. He is moving to NYC and he is my family. If the airlines quit fucking up he will be at the show and I’d like you to meet him. He is gonna do great things here.We also made a t shirt to commemorate us being back together. If you’ve read this far, the design of the shirt might make more sense. We also released an 8 minute video for our song Shapeshift shot by Jonathan. You can see the twins in all their glory. Roddy walks the NYC streets in his leather. Sandy appears in his larval stage. Pat and Elsner walk the night.