14 Comments
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Alex J's avatar

Great piece… I loved the 2025 AD for some reason. Like an old stone tablet left to be found amongst the dust of civilisation.

B Stings's avatar

The Gun Club- great fucking band. great post too

Jason O'Toole's avatar

I've been a fan since '81. I wasn't even in high school yet. Wearing a Gun Club tshirt I got off Terry, the original drummer, for the price of a large pizza around here. https://www.terrywearclothing.com/

B Stings's avatar

Very cool! I'm going to peruse the shirts. Thanks for the link

Jason O'Toole's avatar

Terry will sign stuff too if you ask. He sometimes has records and books. He also runs sales and let's go of shirts cheap- and he uses high quality shirts and hoodies and the screen printing is first rate. I get onto people about buying bootleg shirts from my band, so I'm a big fan of buying from the actual bands and band members when possible.

B Stings's avatar

Right on. Shall definitely try to buy something. What's your band? On Spotify or the Tube?

Jason O'Toole's avatar

The band that has merch for sale still is the 1st serious band I was in. I'll eventually do something with Alec K. Redfearn and his DUME project. We do have one track together that's one of my poems over his mod synth.

I was in a Death in June side project during the pandemic. Just one ep and never made it to Europe to perform any of it. I sang on an ep with members of Siege and AC. I can't remember what they were called but it's on vinyl from some grindcore label. I'm a poor personal archivist.

Maybe I should do a discography post one day with all the links to the music, but most is vinyl from the 80s and 90s. Discogs has a lot of it on their site, but not all.

Life's Blood will have "new" releases soon (from 1987) and our remastered discography turned out great.

https://prank.bandcamp.com/album/lifes-blood-hardcore-a-d-1988

B Stings's avatar

Sounds good. Heavy shit. Furious and fun

B Stings's avatar

Yeah, man. Write a discography post. That'd be cool.

Themes and Deviations's avatar

My two favorite were the No Tell Motel and the Stickett Inn. Both in upstate New York.

Jason O'Toole's avatar

I grew up in Albany. The Governors Motor Inn on Western Ave had heart shaped tubs perfect for rendezvous. Legend was they also had spy cameras and were snooping on the guests.

Oliver Sheppard's avatar

Great post. Here in Dallas there are a few infamous motels like that. Some have become so ironically appreciated that they've swung back around to being almost like hipster landmarks. The actual motels and trailer parks where dirt-ass poor folks are living day-to-day int he here and now are generally ignored by the folks who ironically "like" the older 50s-era motels still in operation.

Jason O'Toole's avatar

Ferns was razed to the ground years ago. I visit these type of motels to see my clients often. One of the most infamous, The Minuteman Inn in Acton houses a number of sex offenders as it's not too close to any children. Used to have a huge rebel flag. Now it's got a solar farm.

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Mar 23, 2025
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Jason O'Toole's avatar

Last time I went out, I was drinking in some of the nicest hotels in Atlanta and Chattanooga with women who had PhDs and bestsellers, so it seemed high class. The results were the same. I ended up living out of my car again until some cowboy - playing a guitar while driving (I swear to God) backed into me where I was parked all by myself in a Walgreen's lot in Covington, GA. I had a trunk full of whiskey and loaded guns. It seemed normal at the time. I don't consider myself a "confessional poet" and detest war stories, but maybe this admission will help someone out there. In the rooms, these stories are commonplace, even boring, so it's not something I care to revisit often or mine for "art."