The Flesh Eaters

History

Chris Desjardins, a punk poet with a taste for grim lyrics, launched the Flesh Eaters as an experimental side project in late 1977. The band never had a fixed lineup, instead pulling in temporary players from other notable Los Angeles acts. Over time, that rotating cast included members of the Flyboys, the Plugz, Wall of Voodoo, X, the Blasters, and Los Lobos. Their sound mashed up punk, heavy metal, rock and roll, and country.

Desjardins once described it as loud and metallic, but not strictly thrash or slam—just rock and roll with heavy metal edges and country melodies mixed in. They played their first show on December 21, 1977, at the Masque in LA. Their debut release came in 1978: a 7-inch EP called Flesh Eaters (also known as Disintegration Nation), produced by Randy Stodola and Desjardins on Upsetter Records. Three Flyboys helped write and perform on it.

The first full-length album, No Questions Asked, arrived in 1980 on the same label. Before that, the band contributed three songs to the 1979 Upsetter compilation Tooth and Nail, sharing space with the Germs, U.X.A., the Controllers, Negative Trend, and Middle Class. All that early material, plus the EP and three unreleased demos, was collected as bonus tracks on a 2004 remastered CD of No Questions Asked on Atavistic Records. The follow-up, A Minute to Pray, a Second to Die, is often considered their best.

It featured Desjardins on vocals, Dave Alvin on guitar, John Doe on bass, Steve Berlin on sax, and D.J. Bonebrake and Bill Bateman splitting drum duties.