mp3: Stiv Bators - Sonic Reducer
website: www.stivbators.com, stiv at bomp (great photos)

Stiv Bators was a Dead Boy. In Cincinnati, 1975 Stiv and his friends sent out a call for fellow musicians to participate in an Iggy Pop cover band. They called themselves ‘Frankenstein’ and started their infamous live career (by which they would forever be defined) on Halloween. They released a three song EP under this name, and “Sonic Reducer” - a classic, thrash-punk staple - was included. Very soon after that, the band changed its name to ‘The Dead Boys’ and walked into punk rock legend forever. Their live shows enticed the kind of melee that today’s little bands only dream about. They fit into the late 1970’s punk scene like a puzzle piece. They toured with the Damned, and were embraced by the legendary Johnny Thunders of New York Dolls fame. A staple of CBGB’s (the legendary NY club), they came on loud, strong and fast, living under the motto “Fuck art, let’s rock!” - introducing American kids to a sight and sound that had not yet crossed the pond. In 1979, after only two albums (’77’s “Young Loud and Snotty” and ’78’s “We Have Come for Your Children”), several lineups and extensive touring, The Dead Boys broke up.

Stiv would continue to search for an outlet to perform. He recorded a single for Bomp records (that differed completely from his work with the Dead Boys), and in 1980 released Disconnected - his only completed solo effort. In 1981, Sire released the infamous third Dead Boys Album (posthumously entitled Night of the Living Dead Boys), which the band was pressured to record, but was deemed unreleasable due to Bator’s purposely sabotaged lyrics. He rerecorded them and Bomp set the LP loose later that year.

Over the next decade he would record and perform with a myriad of legendary punk and underground musicians, performers and producers, even making an appearance in John Water’s film Polyester. He would form several projects and bands including the Wanderers and the Lords of the New Church. The Wanderers - though having a great sound, and great promise - would never see their sound take off. However, it was the Lords of the New Church that would bring Stiv back to the forefront. Composed of former members of the Barracudas, the Dead Boys, Sham 69 and the Damned, they released three albums, were produced by Miles Copeland and later signed to IRS records - harbingers of the Police and REM. With LOTNC, Bators once again picked up his onstage debauch and violence, even nearly hanging himself to death with his mic cord in 1983.

After the breakup of LOTNC in 1989, Stiv began working on a new solo effort. Unfortunately that project would never come to fruition, as he was killed by a car while standing on a Paris sidewalk. Even his death would become legendary, as he died later in the day due to internal injuries he didn’t feel. It turns out he had a diminished capacity to feel pain. This sort of explains all the weird onstage stuff that often went too far, requiring emergency medical attention and the like.

Included here is a live MP3 of Stiv’s Dead Boys classic “Sonic Reducer”. It’s dedicated to Jackson Publick, Doc Hammer and the Monarch.
Hope you like it.

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