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Vice Blog

RETTSOUNDS - CHRONIC SICK

Anyone who had the misfortune of growing up in New Jersey will tell you it's nothing to be proud of, no matter what point in history their adolescence happened. But there are still some bizarre hiccups in the history of the place that make even the most jaded Jersey-raised a-hole sit up and wonder what the fuck was going on. Such is the case with Chronic Sick, the Mutha Records label, and the Jersey "Shorecore" scene that existed in the early 80s. While the rest of the country's punkers were obsessed with playing the fastest song possible with lyrics about nuclear war, Reagan, or Reagan starting a nuclear war, the bands on the Jersey Shore scene seemed to live in their own little world, singing melodic ditties about prison rape, white flight, public suicides, and other such socially acceptable topics. The records these bands released on their home-based Mutha label were generally ignored and ridiculed in their time. These days, the bulk of what was released on that label goes for top dollar among the punk record-collecting scum of the world. For someone who once smashed a copy of the Partners in Crime 12" released on this label with a hammer when I was in ninth grade, it's all very confusing. Chronic Sick are the band that perfectly encapsulates the vibe of that scene with their catchy tunes, disturbing lyrics, and ridiculous fashion sense (house dresses and swastikas!). That's why the two records they released back then go for thousands of dollars and the mere mention of their name makes most nerd punks pop boners. It's also the reason the esteemed No Way label just re-issued both of them for the non–collector masses. As expected, the band has reunited to bask in the glory, push the re-issues, and give the nerds what they want. I recently spoke with Chronic Sick vocalist Greg "Gorey" Macolino about the whole weird thing from here to now and he was all too gracious to give up the goods.

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Vice: I guess we should start with how you got into Punk Rock down at the Jersey Shore. Greg Macolino:

I had a sister who was twelve years older than I am and she moved out to California in the mid-seventies and did some acting. When she was there, she became friends with these burgeoning punk bands from out there. She moved backed here and told me about the Germs and some English punk stuff, and I was floored. I couldn't believe they were cursing, you know? Hey, what can I say? I was a young kid.

So did Chronic Sick form as soon as you heard the cursing?

I was in a band called the Sodomies and the rest of the guys who would be in Chronic Sick were in a band called The Pact, and both bands became friends for the simple reason we were the only punk bands on the shore. The singer for The Pact was a problematic guy. He was always breaking into people's homes and was in trouble with the law, so they got rid of him and got me to sing for them. There used to be this old abandoned hospital up the street from my house. For some ungodly reason, they never turned off the electricity, so we used to break in there and play around in the elevators and all that. There was a huge sign still on it that said "Hospital for the Chronic Sick," so that's where we got the idea to change the name of the band. This was all in early '81.

It makes sense to hear you heard the LA punk stuff before you heard the hardcore stuff from D.C. or New York. You guys always sounded more California to me.

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I agree. I always thought there was a definite distinction between hardcore and punk, and we were always more punk. I was never into the surliness and the lack of humor that came along with the hardcore thing.

Again, that makes sense since my earliest memories of your band was reading reviews in hardcore fanzines where you were chastised for wearing swastikas and having supposed racist lyrics. I guess you guys were sort of screwed in being a punk band at the apex of hardcore on the east coast.

You're right. You see, the chief songwriter in the band is Bobby the guitarist, and he's the funniest motherfucker you'll ever meet. When we started, we didn't know the rest of this New Jersey hardcore scene was going to be known for being goofy and really tongue-in-cheek. It's not like we were trying to fit in. I think New Jersey just lends itself to that from the environment; it's just one big suburban sprawl. We didn't grow up "hard" like kids in New York, who I thought were way too fucking serious. I wasn't into how every band from New Jersey was goofy, but I really didn't like the surliness of the bands from New York. So we were stuck in the middle. The fact that someone would read the lyrics to something like "There Goes the Neighborhood" and say "They're racist!" is just retarded. It was total satire and if you didn't get that, then I don't know what to tell you.

So after awhile, was it a conscious effort to push the buttons of the people in the scene who didn't get the joke?

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Maybe. All the shit Bobby was writing about was going on and we were just making a satire of it in the same way as something like "All in the Family," but some people didn't see it that way.

How were you received live? Did people already know you as these racist goofballs?

I think most people liked us live because you couldn't understand the lyrics. We were also very tight and our songs were more catchy than most bands we were playing with. Sometimes the other bands wouldn't like us. I don't want to say they were jealous, but it was almost like when a hot girl walks into a room and all the other girls instantly hate her even though they know nothing about her… like that. Wow! That's a stupid analogy! Basically what I'm trying to say is we blew away most of the bands we played with.

As far as the other bands from the shore area that made up the roster of the Mutha label, were you friendly with them? Was there some sort of community?

I saw Fear on Saturday Night Live on Halloween night and we found out they were playing at the Peppermint Lounge the next night, so me and my four buddies go and we meet people from where we live in Long Branch as well as people from Red Bank and Asbury Park. They were all starting bands and then there was this gravitation to the Brighton Bar, which is like the CBGB's of the Jersey Shore. All of a sudden, Mark "The Mutha" Chesley from Long Branch starts Mutha Records and he puts out a record by Fatal Rage, with a singer named Jacko. Then things start happening with Public Disturbance, Send Help, The Worst, and we're all on this label and we're playing the Brighton Bar on the weekends and then there's another club in Asbury Park called The Fastlanes that had people like the Circle Jerks and Black Flag play there early on. Chelsea played there and we opened up. It just seemed all of a sudden we had our own little scene with Jacko being the father figure and Mark being the "Mutha" figure.

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I think the one thing that makes those Chronic Sick records stick out from the other Mutha releases was that they sound really clean. Where did you go to record that?

Mutha always used the same studio up in North Jersey called Twain Recording. The engineer was this middle aged woman who was kinda dikey looking. We saw her and just figured we were screwed but I think we totally got lucky because the rest of the stuff she recorded for Mutha didn't sound too good.

So what brought about the end of Chronic Sick?

I'm embarrassed to say it had to do with a chick--one of the stupidest reasons of all. I was totally devoted to being in the band, but it had to do with Bobby and a girl and me and we now know it's a stupid reason.

When did you find out that the Chronic Sick records were going for top dollar on the collectors' market?

It was somewhere in the mid 90s. I went into a brand new record store in Red Bank and bought a record and I look up behind the counter and see the Chronic Sick 45 up there and they have a $50 price tag on it! I said "Fifty bucks for that record? I think you're overpricing that," and the guy behind the counter is like "No! Their 12" goes for $250!" All of a sudden, my sister is selling hers on the computer for $750. My neighbor who couldn't make his mortgage payment sold his for $1200, and the last I saw was $2000. To this day, I still do not know why.

Since I grew up in New Jersey around that time, the allure of those records on younger collectors confused me as well. When I think of Mutha, the first thing I think of is that Partners in Crime record they put out and how…

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Cheesy it looked!

Yeah! Maybe it's what they call "period charm." Like when people bought ugly 70s clothing in the early 90s.

Yeah, right! It's amazing to me how things from the past blow up and get a buzz about them. It's hard to figure it all out.

I think it's best to try not to. So did the high prices on the records make you guys want to get back together?

Well, Bobby and I started talking again, but by this time he had moved out to California to do film music and Arnie, our bass player, moved down to Atlanta, Georgia to work for Ted Turner. So every once in a while they'd both be in town to visit their families. One time when they were here, we were like "Let's go down to the Brighton and see if they'll let us play!" but it was a Monday night and they were closed. But we still kept the idea in the back of our heads. Around 2005, Bobby ended up moving back to Long Branch and then we thought "Let's record all the stuff we never did the first time around." Arnie said we could come down to Ted Turner Studios in Atlanta for free and record the record there. We did that and I think it's really good, but I guess a tape of it got passed around and kids who loved the first two records were saying "This is just too well recorded!" It's funny that back then no one liked our first records and now the people who actually like those records don't like this one.

You can't win. Will those sessions ever be released to the public?

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I've been saying this for a few years now, but I would like to start a record label and release it myself. I really like it and would like to see it get out there.

So when did you start playing live again?

We still wanted to play, so we played at the Brighton with Kraut and sold out the place, which was a real good feeling. In 2009 we did a small tour of D.C. Pittsburgh, Boston, and other places and there were kids in bootleg Chronic Sick shirts… real weird.

So how did the re-issues come about on No Way?

Smaller labels were getting in touch for a while asking to re-issue the records, one of them was No Way. A guy named Ron Martinez who does a thing called Crawlspace Booking said good things about the kid who runs No Way and he seemed real enthusiastic about it, so we said "fuck it" and gave him the go-ahead.

I have to ask the question that is on everybody's lips… will you be wearing a swastika in the middle of your forehead for the shows coming up?

No! I'm a school teacher here in Long Branch. Some of my students are actually into Chronic Sick and they're like "What the fuck? What were you thinking?" I try to tell them it was satire, but they don't even know what that means. TONY RETTMAN

The re-issues of the Chronic Sick records can be got here. Chronic Sick will be playing February 19th at the Brighton Bar in Long Branch, New Jersey. The Brighton is located at 121 Brighton Avenue. The next day they'll be playing in Kearny, New Jersey at The Irish with Night Birds, Deep Sleep, and Government Warning. The Irish is located at 95 Kearny Avenue.