Underlining the Words 'Rest in Peace'

THE MARTYRS DIED
10 YEARS AGO
by the drummer

will the martyrs reunite for the slightly anticipated 20th anniversary? will the original 4 ever be in the same room again? no. that ship has sailed. we shant play together again. and who really cares?

i love the martrys. i still listen to them several times a year. listening, i'm struck by what a good live band we were. especially for a band that never practiced and never played live. NEVER, despite what others may say about the laura d.'s bullshit. that wasn't the martyrs. ok, it was. and that was the night the martyrs died.
or maybe we died when i sold my drum set.
or maybe it was when we went 4-track. or maybe it was when the last note of "charming mutt" drifted off.
or maybe it was when mike went buddhist.
or maybe it was when paul moved to japan.
or maybe it was when i strangled all those kittens.
or maybe it was when chris began his sound gizmo obsession.
who knows?

my top 5 martyr moments:
1. recording "smother me", the pauley v. version.
2. sitting in the backyard when the other three recorded "mr. silly pants".
3. recording "moving day". 1st time i really produced a song.
4. her smile, the stone, a train
5. the laura d.'s show.

that's it. i love the martyrs. thanks to mike and chris. without them i would have never written a song. thanks to paul, who i owe more than a small debt for my vocal style. it was fun.

- the drummer

November in the Fall

My Earliest Memories
by Chris

Meeting Jimmy on that Friday in ‘November in the Fall’; It’s crystal clear as he was the first kid I was introduced to and hung out with. Paul was at my bus stop at the corner of Pearl drive and Ruby Lane. I don’t remember having any meaningful conversations with him, but after all he WAS 2 whole years older and I was only a 4th grader. I don’t remember meeting Michael for the first time (strange as it seems). It must have been one of the times I went over the house to play with Jim. My first memory of Mike is playing Yellow Submarine on the St. Pius stage, on his saxophone, before I really even knew who the Beatles were.

I always think of our Martyr “history” in three phases

1) Audio/Tapes: Jim and I (in the footsteps of Paul and Mike) made lots of funny little audio tapes: Interviewing famous people and using snippets from popular songs to answer the questions. We also created original works like “Flemhead Macabee” and “Reed Tardo, The Lizard Eating Mongoloid”.

2) Video: Mike or Paul bought a video camera, I had one too and we made our humorous little videos about life, the universe, everything and our childhood contemporaries. This is where I always felt started to gel as a foursome and developed our individual humoristic styles that allowed the Martyrs to co-exist without killing each other (although there were some near death experiences). One video where we pretended to be a band... This may have been the match that ignited the Martyr flame, but the gas that was ignited came from Gold Frankinsence and Myrrh...

3) Audio/Music: I remember very clearly around Christmas (1985) screwing around in the basement with Jim on drums, Mike on the 2 string guitar from Sears and I took Vocals. We sang some Christmas songs and named ourselves Gold, Frankincense, and Myrrh. We got together for at least one more session (I don’t remember when, but I’m sure I wrote it on the tape) and recorded some other songs. I asked Mike “Why don’t you learn to actually play the guitar” and he retorted “Why don’t you?” As fate would have it I did: Thanksgiving 1986 I learned G, C, and D from my Uncle and learned the rest from a chord book. Christmas 1986 I received my first Guitar a Fender 6 string.

And then in 1987 the Martyrs were born...

Another Bedtime Story

The following is a brief synopsis of the Martyrs from an old website for original cassette label (semi-fictional, pseudo-legendary Big Casserole Records) started after the initial Martyrs diaspora, and now evolved into MushyApple Records:

"And now, the world-renowned Martyrs. The band that started it all. Formed in 1987 by four young lads (not to be confused with the Beatles, despite both groups’ propensity for bad haircuts), The Martyrs quickly became legends (just ask them!). Good God, it's a long fascinating story and I'm not sure I'm the one to tell it. Stay tuned.

THE BOOK OF THE MARTYRS, Chap.1, verse 1

"The earlier Martyrs recordings (the music with the truest Martyrs mood) were never collected until recently (1996 - Ed.) They were scattered on cassettes in any number of bedrooms and basements (let's say three) throughout Long Island (let's say within 5 square miles). Haphazard collections of what were then current songs by the band surfaced periodically in two, three, sometimes four of the band members' tape recorders or "boom boxes." However, in 1996, Martyr Chris put together a definitive anthology, despite the absence of dozens of songs owing to the limited capacity of two 90 minute tapes, called The Martyrs Anthology, culled from the extensive archives of this prolific and powerful, uh, powerhouse of rock and rollers. The Martyrs Anthologies I and II stand, or recline, but often flail about, as a testament to the talent of these basement boys. This was their high school. Sure, it was a "special class" of a high school, this high school we all call rock-and-roll, but were not, are not, these fellas in a special class? A special class we like to call "genius?" Sure they were! And sure they are!"

That's all. I think I wrote that sometime between '98 and '01. It's all true. Sorry -- "true." Big Casserole Records was touted as releasing "the new sounds of suburbia." That's "true" too. Again, I did the touting.

The Way The Music Used To Be...

Cripes! It was nearly twenty years ago. Today! Well, more like eighteen, officially. I think we started recording as The Martyrs in 1987. Jimmy and I'd been rockin' out for a year or more earlier in our basement and up at Paulie V's. We didn't know any chords yet. So it was just a lot of noise. Little did we know Sonic Youth were knowingly doing the same thing out in the city. Who were Sonic Youth? We were still big into Billy Joel. Anyway, it wasn't until Chris and Paul showed interest that we decided to be a band...

- Mike