Been reading Ben Hamper's Rivethead: Tales From The Assembly Line for the thousandth time this week, and stumbled across this vintage 1986 interview on the Today Show. "Let repetition be its own reward. Reject change, reject variety." Right on. The man's a genius, or was during the Reagan Years anyhow ... if he's still kickin' out there and you know where he is, buy him a Budweiser for me.

Lots more Flintoid rebellion can be found here at the Take No Prisoners Archive, which takes its name from the weekly public radio show Hamper hosted throughout the 1980s. This is where I first heard the Dictators, Sweet, Circle Jerks, Television, Dicks, Cramps and dozens more, making me, for better or for worse, the man I am today. Thanks Ben.

Also included in that TNP archive you can find links to the demos of various Flint-area hardcore bands like Dissonance, Guilty Bystanders and Ultraviolence, including to my surprise, El Smasho's debut cassette, which we released in an edition of twenty or thirty before actually pressing some of these songs on our first two 7" records ("Wristrocket" is the lost cut here). We were from East Lansing, but usually got a great reception in Flint, so I'm proud to be remembered. Dig also our ELHC brothers/foils Down while you're at it, and Holy Christ, they've even posted a vintage 1986 Take No Prisoners episode featuring my very first "band" Head Cleaner ... check out "Sell It In Africa" and then imagine me at age 18 wetting my pants when Ben Hamper not only plays us on the air, but ENDORSES our cassette Cleans Both Heads, encouraging one and all to blow three bucks on it at Wyatt Earp's Records. Wow. This is final proof that the internet has run out of obscure bands to dig up and distribute.

Throughout the years I got to meet and hang with Hamper on a handful of occasions, and while I always would lay copies of my latest band's nonsense on him, it was Head Cleaner that he remembered -- nothing else ever made any impression on him. This either calls my hero's taste into question or suggests that my songwriting peaked before hitting legal drinking age with anti-classics like "Beach Blanket Death" and "Blitzkreig Attack." Both notions are harrowing.

***Further investigation proves that Ben Hamper is retired, living in Northern Michgan and doing a radio show called "Soul Possession" on WNMC, spinning obscure funk and soul tunes. There's also this lengthy interview with Hamper and his fellow shoprat/rockfan Jerry Humphrey (another very cool cat I'd like to say hello to -- he set up many Flint shows for El Smasho in the early 90s) where they wax nostalgic about the righteous music scene Michigan enjoyed during the flower power days and the first wave hardcore era.

And for the hell of it, here's El Smasho in 1993 playing live on the Take No Prisoners cable access TV show ... possibly the best document of the band at the tail end of our brief prime. Man, we sure were funny.