Down in Flames for One Last Time:

A Conversation with Cheetah Chrome on the Return of Rocket from the Tombs

Situated in a nondescript, dying shopping mall off Hollywood Boulevard lies the West Coast arm of New York's Knitting Factory. It's a balmy weeknight in November and a crowd of aging hipsters mill about the perimeter of the mall, smoking and chatting, perhaps unaware of the historical nature of the gig they're about to witness. Inside the club, a group of middle-aged men will soon hit the stage, reeling off a set of 30-year-old songs that will leave much of the crowd speechless when it's over.

If the name Rocket from the Tombs means nothing to you, you're not alone. Formed in Cleveland in 1974 by local rock critic David Thomas (at that time known to his readers as Crocus Behemoth), the early RFTT was intended as a goof. Never a conventional vocalist to begin with, Thomas/Behemoth must have startled his early audiences, considering his penchant for covering his not inconsiderable frame in aluminum foil while singing in his own inimitable yowl of a voice.

Perhaps sensing the limitations inherent in the original band, Thomas soon recruited local singer/songwriter Peter Laughner (the late CREEM scribe and lost genius of the '70s U.S. punk scene), a move that would almost single-handedly launch the region's alternative music scene. Bonding over the music of the Stooges, Alice Cooper and MC5, the pair also shared a disgust of the blasé culture that middle-America shoved down their throats, and didn't have much use for the hippie alternative to it either.

This alienation from the world they lived in soon led to songs with titles like "Life Stinks," "Frustration" and "Never Gonna Kill Myself Again," set to music the likes of which hadn't been heard anywhere outside of say, Raw Power. Clearly, these guys had no time for the dying embers of the '60s and were more than ready for an art-riot of their own.

With the addition of guitarist Gene O'Connor, bassist Craig Bell, and drummer Johnny "Madman" Madansky, the classic line-up was in place. Unfortunately for RFTT, band tensions soon tore the group asunder, with Thomas and Laughner forming Pere Ubu, and O'Connor and Madansky (now known as Cheetah Chrome and Johnny Blitz, respectively) throwing their lot in with a local weirdo by the name of Stiv Bators, giving birth to the Dead Boys.

Not surprisingly, the bulk of the Rockets' material was just too good not to be integrated into the spin-off bands' repertoires. Thus, Ubu retained "30 Seconds Over Tokyo," "Final Solution" and "Life Stinks," while Chrome and company took possession of "Ain't It Fun," "Down in Flames" and, most importantly, "Sonic Reducer," one of the most enduring classics of early U.S. punk rock. Though the Dead Boys were history before the decade ended, Ubu continue to this day, with Thomas assembling musicians every few years for albums or tours. And despite the fact that Rocket songs have been covered by mainstream acts like Pearl Jam and Guns N' Roses, the band remained a well-kept secret, if not downright unknown by all but the most discerning music lovers.

But in early 2002, a new chapter for the band was written when Nevada's Smog Veil label issued an archival CD of rehearsal and live recordings titled The Day the Earth Met the Rocket from the Tombs, and interest in the band was suddenly reignited in the rock press, both here and in the UK. A year later, Thomas reformed the band with Television axeman Richard Lloyd taking Laughner's place for a one-off performance at the Disastrodome! arts festival in Los Angeles. Something must have clicked, because by the start of summer 2003, the band found itself on stage once again for a short series of dates.

"In June, we did a week out. Columbus, Chicago, Cleveland, New York and Philly. We were kind of testing the waters to see how things worked." On the phone with CREEM is Cheetah Chrome, a day after the band's Hollywood show. Calling from a sound-check for that night's San Francisco show, Chrome is a friendly fellow, who talks in a ragged voice that perfectly fits his 30-years of service in the rock 'n' roll army. He continues: "Basically, we were doing the liner notes for The Day the Earth Met... and that got everybody back in contact for the first time in years. Seeing each other again and patchin' things up. We all were interested in getting back together."

"Besides," he adds, "they sure as hell ain't producing any real rock ‘n' roll bands now, so I guess all us old guys gotta get back together to show ‘em how it's done!"

An important element of showing the kids how it's done will be the late-February Smog Veil release of Rocket Redux, featuring all new recordings of every RFTT classic. Chrome himself calls it "the album we should have done in 1975. We figured we owed that much to ourselves." And he's right: a comparison of the earlier release with Redux shows a band currently at the height of their powers. Thomas has rarely sounded better and Chrome's take on Laughner's classic "Amphetamine" displays an impressive emotive voice (not unlike a punk Springsteen, in fact) not evident during his Dead Boys days, and the new versions of "Sonic Reducer" and "30 Seconds Over Tokyo" are nothing less than jaw-dropping. In fact, the intensity of the latter track makes a good argument that Ubu were indeed the fathers of post-punk, even as they were inventing it right in the middle of the punk rock explosion itself.

Working with Richard Lloyd in his New York studio presented the band with an ideal opportunity to get their real power preserved on tape once and for all. Cheetah: "He's a great producer and engineer to work with and it went fast. He's very artist-friendly and has got a great set of ears. It didn't sound that different from what we had in the beginning. We wanted to keep the atmosphere within 1975."

And what of the future, if any, of the revived Rocket from the Tombs? "I think everybody is having a good time, but it's just a case of finding time ‘cos we're all spread out like a fart in a hurricane. One guy in England, one guy in Nashville, Indiana, NY and Cleveland, so logistics are a real problem. But I've always loved this band."

And like that jaded Knitting Factory audience, a listen or two to Rocket Redux just might make you love them too.