Ludichrist

Ludichrist was an American hardcore punk/speed metal band formed in the 1980s in New York. Their musical style broke from traditional New York hardcore roots by adding aspects of rock, heavy metal and jazz, like extended guitar solos and musical interludes. After their second proper album, lead singer Tommy Christ and guitarist Glen Cummings broke up the band and reformed with a new rhythm section as the more humor-oriented, style-jumping Scatterbrain.

History

Original guitarist Mark Kanabrocki, who had written most of the first album's songs, left the band before it was recorded and appears only on the record release issued from CBGB called Off the Board. On their debut album Immaculate Deception, one track featured guest vocalists from fellow New York bands Agnostic Front, Nuclear Assault, The Crumbsuckers and Leeway. The original drummer and founder of Ludichrist (also the guy who named the band), Al Batross, left after the first album Immaculate Deception was recorded. Incredibly, Immaculate Deception was reviewed in the May 11, 1987 issue of People between Bryan Adams Into the Fire and The Kinks Think Visual! By the time Ludichrist's second album Powertrip was released, the band only retained two original members, vocalist Tommy and guitarist Glen which naturally lead to a drastic change in style and sound. The band became far more metallic in style, while retaining a range of musical influences and being more overtly humorous, they abandoned the early hardcore style and featured musicianship by Paul Neider (guitar) and Dave Miranda (drums) in particular. Many have noted that the track "Green Eggs and Ham" (on Immaculate Deception) was possibly the first example of a hard core or metal band paying homage to rap music, as a break in the middle of this song is a cover of the Run DMC song "Rock Box" (with self-mocking, humorous lyrics added.) This for, example, pre-dates songs by bands like Anthrax which later received heavy rotation on MTV.

Post-Ludichrist

Al Batross formed Big Sniff (with releases on both Mint Tone Records and Do iT! Records in Germany) with future members of The Arsons and Kill Your Idols in the 1990s. He later played with the band MDC (Millions of Dead Cops) from 2001 through 2003. As of 2008, Batross continues to live in NYC and has been the sole American member in three all-Japanese bands to date, curiously enough, also based in NYC called The Plungers, The Spunks and Gelatine. The Spunks released "Yellow Fever Blues" in 2007 on Gearhead Records. Following a few years of consistent touring and local gigs, The Spunks disbanded when members Hajime and Joji decided to move back to Japan after having lived in the US for almost 9 years. Al, properly known as Alan Bazin, is an accomplished film and video editor who has also been working on a book related to New York City architecture. He was recently signed by a literary agent.

Glen Cummings toured with Mucky Pup for a brief time, released two albums with his own band, Stone Deep, while living in Nashville, TN, and eventually left the music world in the 1990s to pursue other things. He attended the Chicago Institute of Art and later obtained the MS in Fine Art from Yale University. As of 2013, he has become a prominent graphic designer in New York City.

Original bassist Chuck Valle later joined Murphy's Law, and had become an audio engineer (see Six and Violence), but was stabbed to death in California following an argument with an unknown man. Recently, Valle's family has been involved with trying to prevent the man who murdered him from being released from prison.

Guy Brogna joined as bassist for Ludichrist during the Powertrip tour in 1987. He did the second half of the US tour and joined the band in time for their European tour. Guy continued on as Ludichrist went through a few more changes and changed to Scatterbrain. Guy now owns a music instrument store on Long Island called All Music Inc. After the 2007 Ludichrist/Scatterbrain reunion shows, Ludichrist stayed together to do shows in 2012 with Agnostic Front and Biohazard and in 2013 with the Cromags.

.

Members

• Glen Cummings (guitar)
• Tommy Christ (vocals)
• Mark Kanabrocki (guitar)
• Alan Bazin aka "Al Batross" (drums)
• Joe Butcher
• Chuck Valle (bass)
• Dave Miranda (drums)
• Tony Scaglione (drums)
• Mike Walter (bass)
• Paul Nieder (guitar)
• Guy Brogna (bass)

Discography

• CBGB presents Off the Board (1985)
• Immaculate Deception (1987)
• Powertrip (1989)

Related bands

• MDC - Al Batross
• Magic Elf - Dave Miranda
• Mucky Pup - Glenn Cummings
• Murphy's Law - Chuck Valle
• Scatterbrain - Glenn Cummings, Tommy Christ, Paul Nieder, Guy Brogna
• Gelatine - Al Batross
• The Spunks - Al Batross
• Big Sniff - Al Batross
• The Plungers - Al Batross
• Sheer Terror - Mike Walter

External links

• Ludichrist on MySpace
• Ludichrist - BandToBand.com