The Hypertonics

Brian Lord was essentially homeless for a year. Faced with the choice between a comfortable but inert existence in a New York City apartment or a difficult but creatively fruitful stay in a monthly rehearsal space Brian chose the latter. That is to say, he chose the rehearsal space. "I was tired of visiting the world of The Hypertonics, I wanted to live in it," says Brian. "It was a bit of an experiment. It was by choice.

"I was tired of visiting the world of The Hypertonics, I wanted to live in it," says Brian. "It was a bit of an experiment. It was by choice. Purge all the middle class niceties and luxuries and see what was underneath. Felt like you could either have your soul or you could have your possessions but you couldn't have both. Perhaps that's glorifying it but it seemed to be necessary to try it."

Sleeping bag on the floor, bathing at the Parks and Recreation gym. Dodging the other bands sharing the rehearsal space, eating Ben & Jerry's ice cream for dinner. But along with all that came songs like "Asbestos," "The Mousetrap," "The Moments We Don't Allow," Not Your Friend" and others. A strange but fruitful time. The Hypertonics - good for you, bad for the Hypertonics.

"For some reason it felt like it was one or the other," Brian continued. "Partially it was due to living on the crap salary of a Temp, but ultimately it was this quixotic need to shed my layers of nonsense along with a desire to explore the art in a fulltime way. Art is a valid reason to make yourself suffer a little. As good a reason as there is out there."

Mike Rogers is a chased man. Not chaste, but chased. By fire. The major events of his life have been brought on by fire and destruction.

Within six months of his arrival into New York City his apartment was destroyed by fire. Along with it, every possession. Not metaphorically burned away but literally. Everything was turned to smoke and and he had to turn to his friends for help. From this though came a freedom. Free of his possessions, he was also free of his past. He was free of the burden that comes with "stuff." He had nothing and so he could begin again. And he did.

Go along two years, Michael makes the decision to become a firefighter. While doing his research, figuring out when the exams are he finds out that through a combination of bureaucracy, red tape, and red-taped bureaucracy he would be unable to become a firefighter. He was disappointed, frustrated and a bit lost. It was around this time that Brian asked him to travel with him to New Orleans to play shows with the Hypertonics. Unconciously, one closing opened up to a new opening and to a new adventure. After the disappointment of the exam, the need to travel and blow off some steam in the form of music was the perfect tonic.

Brian Lord and Mike Rogers form a strange and accelerating combination. More than balancing each other out, they succeed in making things either gloriously lifting or gloriously disasterous. We'll see which one it ends up being...

foundations & ancestors:
the ramones, the clash, don quixote, public enemy, noam chomsky, ian mackaye, leonard cohen, george carlin, bob dylan, simon bolivar, woody guthrie, tom waits, the talking heads, the dead kennedys, howard roark, vladimir nabokov, morrissey