Aaaaand I'm back! Sorry for the prolonged hiatus. No real reason other'n bein' super busy, but that's no excuse either is it?!?! (Aren't we always gettin' some slack in over on the interwebz...) Future blog posts may not have a 100% identifiable California connection... So much much for that disclaimer, cuz this one mos def duz...!
Wasting time the other night, I stumbled upon the trailer for a documentary on the mighty
Thelonious Monster and their mercurial frontman, Mr. Bob Forrest. The Monster and Bob were a part of the early '80's music scene in Los Angeles that spawned The Red Hot Chili Peppers, Fishbone, Firehose, Jane's Addiction et all. Those bands shared the same bill (and members) countless times. I can't even remember how many times I saw them together. The Chili Peppers even recorded "Good Time Boys", which name checked Thelonius Monster, Firehose, Fishbone and X.
That music scene and era were notoriously drugged out. The Peppers lost Hillel Slovak to heroin and the whole scene seemed to be swimming in it. I remember going to a benefit/commemorative concert for 45 Graves' bassist Rob Graves, who died of an overdose in 1990. (Graves played bass on Thelonious Monster's third LP, 'Stormy Weather'.) Thelonius played along with 45 Grave and
Trulio Disgracias, which was a Pepper/Fishbone mix at the time.
Dug up the stub. RIP Rob Graves
Anybody who saw any of those bands or Thelonious Monster knows they played as hard as they partied. Bob Forrest seemed to be outdoing them all in terms of hard drug use. Usually Forrest pulled it together on stage and blew away the crowd, but as the band ground on, the drug use began to take its toll and eventually the band imploded.
I don't think that anyone who saw one of Forrest's public meltdowns would have expected the massively talented, but self-destructing demon, to turn into some sort of Rock n' Roll angel.... But flash forward 20 plus years and that is exactly what happened. Forrest has been a drug counselor for years now, helping countless folks to get clean and sober. He appears regularly on Celebrity Rehab and Sober House. Both were sort of a guilty pleasure of mine for a minute, but honestly I sometimes watched in awe just waiting for a glimpse of of Bob... BOB?! WTF?!?!
Here is the trailer:
The documentary looks intelligent, sympathetic, deep, funny, sad, silly, scary... Well, just like Bob's solo stuff and the music he made with Thelonius Monster. Going back and listening to the Monster, the dude had serious lyrical chops and a beast of a band to back him up. There are just so many cuts to choose from... Well, the debut T. Monster album is posted on youtube in its entirety, so we will start there:
THE MONSTER!
Nobody mixed melancholy and sardonic wit quite so well. He odes to day to day drudgery sound like Bukowski fronting a band. (Gotta' include this one as I now live in Chicago. No one knew at the time how big Mike would be...)
And of course, his love of Mr. Sammy Hagar:
Or a heartbreaker. Could easily be about the drug problems that plagued him.
This song just hit between the eyes back in the day.
And sometimes they just rocked the f*ck out (while bearing their souls...)
Before the implosion, they dropped a final record, which included a (fitting) duet with Tom Waits!
Oh, and the album was called "Beautiful Mess". 'Nuff said.
I admit I lost track of Bob for a while, but then he came back up on my radar with a new band called, The Bicycle Thief, song writing chops fully in tact. World weary, but the same Bob, dropping cultural references and emotional bombs.
Listen to the whole album:
Looking forward to seeing the full documentary and hearing more new music from Bob Forrest. Currently digging into some of his more recent solo work. Maybe another Thelonious Monster disc will drop at some point?
Hats off to an unlikely hero and damn talented man. (And of course the 'Rest of the Band'...!)
Oh, and buy the music, too! Support real music and musicians!
