LIKE GOLD DOWN A SEWER PART THREE..

WOODY WEATHERMAN OF COC IN DURHAM AT ST. JOSEPH'S CHURCH. 1985. I GUESS IT IS OKAY TO WEAR YOUR OWN BAND'S T-SHIRT IF YOU WERE IN COC AROUND THIS TIME PERIOD.


PART THREE OF THIS THING DEALS WITH THE EARLY LEGACY OF CORROSION OF CONFORMITY. AGAIN, THIS IS HEAVILY BIASED. SO WITH THAT IN MIND....



SAM HICKS: Corrosion Of Conformity was the most influential band to come out of the early Raleigh hardcore scene. Woody Weatherman, Mike Dean & Reed Mullin were the nucleus of the group, and it was their commitment to forming a scene in the first place, that seemed to make the greatest impact on other bands in the state as well as their own career. C.O.C. was one of the first bands of this new breed to travel and play in other cities, where part of their work ethic was to "trade" shows with other hardcore bands they encountered. For example, this might result in them playing Charlotte and some Charlotte bands then being able to play Raleigh. Even though the scene was growing bigger, there were still clashes with the authorities over this "new" attitude and style of music.

MIKE DEAN (COC): We were a hardcore band that was challenging the boundaries of it and challenging the little subculture with bits of unfashionable things like Ted Nugent. We were really inspired by Black Flag, and by Void, a band from D.C, that was really underrated. They were on all the Dischord compilations, and they had a split album with Faith way back in 1983 or so. They were this intense...metal-meets-really-fast-hardcore with real psychotically strange arty twists. Very demented. They influenced us a lot.

ETHAN SMITH: This friend of mine, Matt Matthews, we went to see C.O.C. at the Culture Club, which was a huge wherehouse with absolutely no acoustic properties at all, and this is when Eric was singing. It was always really funny because it always took half a minute for the music to come back from the other side of the room, so when C.O.C. were in that period, it was really loud and because of the room it sounded..y’know. We’d sit around & discuss our theories on C.O.C. J.D. was always like, “these are four guys fighting with each other on stage” or something, and me & Matt Matthews were just laughing hysterically because Matt was like, “Man, it sounds like a fucking airplane just landing in front of us!” That is what they sounded like. Then it stops, Woody’s guitar amplifier goes, EEEEEEEE!!!! And then everything else goes, “RRRRRRRRR!!” and one of the four guys is jumping around looking really mad. It was really funny. Another funny thing Matt said was, “I find it hard to ignore C.O.C. so I just judge the performance by the intensity of Mike Dean’s facial expressions” or something like that, it was really good. (Laughter)

ERROL ENGELBRECHT: I did really like the old COC when Eric was in the band. To me, that was really the only COC. To me, that was their peak but a lot of people really liked their later stuff but I thought they were listening to too much Iron Maiden. With Eric in COC, at first Eric and me didn’t click. He almost knocked the shit out of me once at one of our first meetings but he realized later that I was all right. Me and him were drinking buddies. I kind of preferred hanging out with people from a slightly older crowd then people who were my age or younger.

CORROSION OF CONFORMITY 1984 INTERVIEW AT THE CATHEY DE GRANDE IN LOS ANGELES FOR INK DISEASE MAGAZINE.

Ink Disease: Would you guys say that you are the biggest band from Raleigh?
Woody: Yeah, we have just been around the longest.
Mike: We won by default. Everyone else broke up.
Ink Disease: When are your shows? When an out of town band comes through?
Mike: No, we can get about 150 to 200 people to show up.
Woody: You see, there are three cities that form a triangle-Raleigh, Chapel Hill and Durham. They are all about thirty minutes away from each other.
Ink Disease: What bands have influenced you?
Woody: Black Sabbath.
Mike: Bad Brains.
Woody: Yeah, Bad Brains. Definitely.
Ink Disease: You guys are pretty metal.
Woody: Some metal, not all..
Mike: Some metal sucks pretty heavily.
Al Flipside: How about Black Flag?
All: Yeah! Totally!
Mike: Z.Z. Top!
Ink Disease: How long have you been playing your
instruments?
Woody: I have been on guitar for three years.
Mike: Five years for me.
Reed: I have been playing drums for two years.
Ink Disease: (to Eric) How long have you been singing?
Woody: He hasn’t started yet. (Laughter)
Ink Disease: Did you ever take lessons or did you teach yourselves?
All: Just ourselves.
Woody: We can’t read music. I wouldn’t mind being able to.
Mike: I understand chord structure.
Ink Disease: Do you have any goals for the band? To get on MTV or something?
Reed: We want to get out of this legal trouble.
Mike: We played at this big battle of the bands type of thing, and we got into our second song and the place went wild. The security people claimed that we were ripping equipment and stuff. Things went wild.
Woody: The reason we played was to play to some people that would never come to see us. Our friends came to see us and they were the ones that were slam dancing. The sound people kind of freaked out and decided to remove them from the stage. Not by asking them to leave but by picking them up by the hair and kicking them in the face. Eric got into a scuffle with the soundman and the soundman just kind of fell off the stage and was trampled by the crowd.
Eric: A broken arm and a couple of broken ribs.
Woody: He was kind of sore about that. The police were kind of sore about that. So even though they were holding poor old Eric by the hair and there were four or five of them on him they charged him with three counts of assault on a law enforcement officer, which is kind of ironic since they had a billy club against his neck.
Reed: and now supposedly the promoter is suing us for ten thousand dollars.
Mike: But I think that is a lot of hot air.
Woody: My mother got charged for assault.
Mike: For slapping the stagehand.
Woody: And she was found guilty.
Mike: We had to go to court.
Woody: She slapped him a couple of times. She got in a few good hits.
Mike: Now that she has already been convicted and not appealing. She slapped the fuck out of that hippie, man.
Woody: All she wound up with was a thirty dollar fine so I think it was worth it.
Eric: Gee, if I could get out with a thirty dollar fine..
Woody: She has been talking about it ever since.
Eric: Gee, if I could get out with a thirty dollar fine..
Woody: She has been talking about it ever since.
Mike: She is our hero. I was being chicken shit, I was afraid to rampage because of the financial ruin that the police can inflict on you. But she was fucking rioting, man. I tell you man.
Ink Disease: How are you guys going to get out of this situation? Why did they even let you leave town?
Eric: Because I am paying my lawyer so much. Motherfucking better do something with all of the money I’m paying him.
Reed: He (Eric) is the only one that is in trouble.
Woody: He’ll end up probably having to do community service work. We tried to hold a benefit show for him but we didn’t make any money because we had to pay all of the bands.
Ink Disease: Do you have anything else to say? What do you think of Void?
Reed: Ooohhh.
Mike: Void used to be one of the most severe bands I had ever seen, but they have kind of lost it.
Woody: I saw them and they were kind of drunk.
Mike: I thought that they were more idealistic then that.
Reed: They all want to join the marines.
Ink Disease: Any last comments?
Reed: You shouldn’t fear Satan.
Ink Disease: Well, that was your last chance. What do you say, Woody?
Woody: (he is banging his head against the wall) Okay, that’s it.
Mike: Let there be peace on earth, and let it begin with you.
The rest of the band: Ooooooohhh!

SAM HICKS: Harassment aside, Corrosion Of Conformity were fast on their way to becoming state legends and the unofficial leaders of North Carolina Hard Core (NCxHC) when their Eye For An Eye (TXLP-04) LP was finally released on their own No Core Records in 1984. This granted them with the honor of becoming the first hardcore band to record an LP for an out-of-state label. Eye For An Eye is the most readily available of their early work, and showcases their Black Flag influenced sound of that time. C.O.C. soon developed a sound all their own that would spearhead another movement known as crossover. Crossover was a combination of hard core/punk and heavy metal that few other bands were also experimenting with, and C.O.C. soon found themselves riding on the crest of the newest "wave" in music. Their second LP Animosity (Death-002/Enigma-72037-1) features this new sound and came out on Death Records, a subdivision of Metal Blade Records in 1985. C.O.C. have continued to record numerous albums and are, hands-down, the longest-lived band of the N.C. Hardcore era. It's difficult to imagine that some of the scenes which followed might even have developed without the existence of this band.

ETHAN SMITH: My roommate during the “Eye For An Eye/Animosity” period was Wayne. I gave him a bunch of tapes that had stuff like Wire, New Order, Joy Division, and some Kate Bush, all for the idea to really drive everybody in the van into a complete rage. Which happened in Texas. Wayne was like, “Man, I just got to hear something other then heavy metal, it’s all I hear from those guys, just give me something I can play while those guys are asleep and I’m driving”. So I gave them these tapes and then in Texas Eric got mad because Wayne had put on Kate Bush, and Eric threw all of the tapes out the window onto the highway. And Wayne, from what I understood, turned the van around in the middle of the highway and went back and picked them all up. And afterwards everyone in the van was really quiet and didn’t say too much. (Laughter)

JON WURSTER: Yeah, those guys were certainly the ambassadors for NC punk. I met COC right-hand man Wayne Taylor (then known as Wayne Kerr) through his then-girlfriend Sara Romweber back in 1984.  I was a big fan of southern pop (Let's Active -the band she drummed for) as well as hardcore.  I first met Wayne and first saw COC at a frat house in Philly in the summer of 1984. This was with Eric on vocals. They played with Tales of Terror, Rysteyett (sp) and Raw Power.  My main memory of that show is seeing Reed brushing his teeth on the sidewalk.  Funny what sticks with you.  Next time I saw 'em was at the same frat house in '85.  This time they were a three piece.  That was my favorite line-up. I remember standing next to Wayne outside of the show and a longhaired kid from New Jersey coming up and saying he was in a band called Natas Evil.  I thought that was super-lame.  The kid got up onstage and sang "Prayer" with them.

ERROL ENGELBRECHT: I drew that (the COC skull) for them. They came out later on and said that I had ripped that off from another band, that they had the same similar type of look but that I had just revised it. Who knows? Maybe I saw something and it stuck in my head until I drew it later but I don’t remember, you know? I liked drawing skulls with spikes and stuff like that, that was part of what I was into. The whole thing was I drew it up, they used it, I noticed that they were starting to make a lot of money on it, they made t-shirts, stickers and what not. I was going to get it copyrighted, I had what they call a poor man’s copyright and they were like, “Well fine…do that and we’ll just come up with a different logo”. I think I was dealing mostly with Reed. He offered to give me I think it was two or four hundred dollars but I certainly remember just getting two. It might have been a little more but it certainly wasn’t four hundred dollars, and that was it. It kind of..they all came from well to do families and they all had money and I couldn’t see where it would have hurt to pay me what was fair. And that was it, I think I got thanked on one of their records in the liner notes. They gave me the credit for it, but that was about it. People have talked about me in the old days, things that I did, that I ripped off a kid’s skateboard and that it was mean to do that. I gave it back to him but the you know the whole thing about punk rock was to look out for each other and all of those politics and it just seemed to me that they were contradicting everything that they were saying that they believed in. They were talking about situations like people and corporations ripping off other people and here we go doing it to other people. That is all in the past, I don’t really give a shit. There is no point in crying over spilt milk.

1984 was a big year for the band. Besides suddenly coming into their own as a monumental force, they also seemed to attract a lot of negative attention in the forms of police (and other forms of) harassment. The band participated in a ridiculous local “battle of the bands” showcase entitled (I am not making this up) “Battle Rock 1984”. The bands set resulted in a brouhaha that resulted in Eric being arrested for three counts of assaulting a police officer, and one count of assault and disorderly conduct. What had more or less happened was the stage manager freaked out on one of the bands fans in the audience (onstage at the time) and had assaulted said fan. Some other members of the audience grabbed the guy and gave him a taste of his own medicine. He got back onstage and turned off Mike Dean’s amp, so Eric grabbed him and threw him off the stage again, which resulted in some injuries. This is when the local police intervened and gently arrested Eric. He resulted in a mess of legal trouble-but was still allowed to leave the state and go on the bands upcoming U.S. tour that summer.

JOHN AUSTIN (as reported in Southern Lifestyle issue seven): Recently, flyers at Broughton high school created quite a stir. The fliers contained satanical references which offended school officials and parents. The police and the courts tried to prohibit the show, which was to be held at the Brewery. Owner Kenny Hobby was unable to contact the bands for cancellation until hours before show time. He eventually allowed the show to take place as scheduled.
Alcohol Law Enforcement officers stormed the all ages matinee looking for underage drinkers. Mysteriously the Brewery closed the next day. “We needed to make a few repairs,” Hobby stated. COC were able to explain the fliers, their music and the police dilemma at a press conference held in the parking lot of Sadlack’s Heroes on Hillsborough Street. In a public statement read before local newspaper, radio and television reporters, they cited the press for negative coverage, denied any affiliation with the Satanic culture, and questioned the freedom of expression guaranteed by the First Amendment.

It is humorous to think that there was a time when stuff like this really did happen. Remember, parents and officials thought this kind of music and look was dangerous and upsetting. . You can take for granted that nothing like this would ever happen in this day and age. And you would probably be right. But happen it did.

JOHN AUSTIN (as reported in Southern Lifestyle issue seven): Are the police and courts malicious in their attitudes about punks? Only time will tell.

Towards the end of the year, band tensions in COC arrived. The U.S. tour saw that the band was generating a buzz in the punk rock community. However, there were problems that some of the band members had with their choice of Eric as singer. Although a riveting frontman` for the band, the rest of the band soon decided to become a trio. This all went down at the very end of 1984.


ETHAN SMITH: Eric and Reed didn’t like each other anymore. I went up and saw them in Philadelphia after their first nationwide tour was over. It was with Ristetyt and Raw Power and someone else. I went up and it was like, “this is weird. Eric and Reed didn’t like each other anymore.” And it seemed Mike and Woody were stressed out about the tension. They got on the stage and before they played Eric had punched Reed and Reed just kept going “I want you to pick up my glasses, man. Just pick up my glasses, okay?” and Eric was like “Fuck you, man! Fuck you!”. So they were obviously not liking each other anymore and Eric left or got kicked out after a little while. Eric was a cool singer, he seemed a very Henry Rollins influenced type singer, you know? Not “intense” Henry, more like old “football player” type Henry.. but with Mike singing, it sounded cool to hear discordant unintelligible vocalizing coming from him. (laughter)

OLD INTERVIEW I DID WITH WAYNE AND ETHAN WHEN THEY PLAYED TOGETHER IN NINETIES RALEIGH BAND ORIFICE:

Ethan: I think they had asked me to sing for No Labels before they asked Wayne. They asked me to sing for C.O.C., too.
Brian: (to Wayne) They asked you to sing for them, too.
Wayne: Yeah. I totally declined that offer, man.
Brian: Well, you were the roadie for a long time.
Wayne: Well, that is not singing for them, though.
Brian: You were sort of the Ethan: I think they had asked me to sing for No Labels before they asked Wayne. They asked me to sing for C.O.C., too.
Brian: (to Wayne) They asked you to sing for them, too.
Wayne: Yeah. I totally declined that offer, man.
Brian: Well, you were the roadie for a long time.
Wayne: Well, that is not singing for them, though.
Brian: You were sort of the fourth member. That is how I saw it.
Wayne: Oh yeah, I was..definitely. I loved that, I thought it was great. I mean, at the time, I really enjoyed it. It was great going everywhere and meeting all of the people, and man..”Animosity”, that tour, where it was the three piece, which I fucking told them when Benji left, I said, “Man, you just need to be a trio. Mike can sing, Reed can sing, Woody can sing”…that was awesome, it was so good. I mean, everyone liked it..(To Ethan) don’t you agree?
Ethan: Oh yeah.
Wayne: They were fucking awesome, man! And um..I was glad to be a part of that. But I really don’t think about it.

JON WURSTER: COC played later that year in Allentown, PA with DRI at some kind of rec center.  They were in the middle of one of the trickier songs off of Animosity and Mike broke his bass.  The way I remember it, the neck actually snapped.  They stopped playing and everybody seemed very shocked that the bass had broken. There was a weird long silence as Mike changed instruments. Without a word the band launched back into the song; not at the beginning but at the exact place they had stopped.  I remember thinking how strange it was because nothing was ever said between the three of them as to where they would begin the song.


STEVE AKIN: COC used to rule everyone in the mid eighties. Except the Bad Brains. All these big time California bands or english bands or whatever would come and COC would blow them away


During this period, C.O.C. reached a saturation point. The “Animosity” record broke down the doors for the band, & their hard working touring ethic & onstage ferocity put Raleigh on the map nationally & internationally speaking; it seemed like during this period the band played virtually everywhere in the country. In the middle of 1986, inevitable band tensions & burnout seemed inevitable. The band almost called it a day but instead decided to re-group & look for a new vocalist, as Mike Dean was growing tired of the role as lead singer. After trying out a few candidates such as Randy from Atlanta’s Neon Christ, the band turned to longtime friend & soon to be ex-Ugly Americans vocalist, Simon Bob Sinister. The idea looked good on paper. After a few initial local shows, the band decided to record the tracks that would make up the “Technocracy” e.p. The funny story behind this was that the band, as a three piece, had already recorded another version of the same material in Los Angeles in early 1986. The band recorded once again with Bill Metoyer at Track studios, & the results were stunning. Although the general public wouldn’t hear this recording for several years, the intensity of the band on this recording marked the high water peak of the band. Simply put, on tracks the “Crawling”, “Happily Ever After” & especially the ferocious title track, C.O.C. played as if their lives were staked on it. Mind numbingly tight & vicious, perfecting the blend of Black Flag, Black Sabbath & Bad Brains that C.O.C. based their career on. Make no mistake, this was the shit.
But since by the time Simon Bob joined, it made sense to re-record the “Technocracy” material. The band re-recorded all of the tracks in Raleigh with the assistance of Dick Hodgin. The results just weren’t as strong as the first version in every way. The singing of Simon Bob, although not bad, was much more suited for the Ugly Americans then C.O.C., & although the extensive packaging & liner notes of the record were also impressive, it was still a bit of a letdown.
Around the same time, the band spent a lot of time being able to finally work on new material. This was something the band virtually had no real chance of doing before since they always seemed to be touring. Almost all of this new material was very strong. They ended up with virtually a whole new set that, if properly recorded, would have been one monster record. There was Woody’s “Leaders”, which was a catchy little number with a great middle part. Then there were numerous Mike Dean songs, like “History Lesson” & “Beautiful Hills”, both being some of his best songs yet. They recorded a little four track of all of these long forgotten songs that I really wish I had. It was amazing. Great music was to come, and the band seemed to be on the right track in the very near future.

WOODY WEATHERMEN (COC): Yeah, we tried it (Simon Bob) but he didn’t really fit our sha-bang at the time...he’s a cool dude but he didn’t really fit. The whole deal with that was we were looking for a singer and he was a good buddy of ours so we started jamming...we had a good time but Technocracy was a...weird album.