L.A’s favorite Death Rock outfit from 1980, with the charmingly named Dinah Cancer on the vocals, and various Germs members helping out.
Great bit of American thrash this record from 1981, not entirely sure what happened to them, sorry. As our U.S. cousins do this stuff so damn well I reckon I may upload the first Christian Death album on Frontier Records soon, although a law suit could possibly follow…Watch this space!
Text below unearthed from the Wiki page.
The band was founded by Paul B. Cutler in Los Angeles, California during the punk rock movement, formed alongside another band with almost the same line up called Vox Pop, which produced two singles. Its original line up consisted of Dinah Cancer (formerly of Castration Squad) on vocals, Cutler (formerly of The Consumers) on guitar, Rob Ritter (also known as Rob Graves, formerly of The Bags and concurrently of The Gun Club) on bass, and Don Bolles (of Germs and Nervous Gender) on drums. The name, according to Bolles, derives from a mysterious button he found at a thrift store that said “WE DIG 45 GRAVE”.
In 1980, 45 Grave recorded their first released song, “Riboflavin Flavored, Non-Carbonated, Poly-Unsaturated Blood”, included on the Los Angeles Free Music Society compilation album, Darker Skratcher. The song was a cover version of novelty song originally performed by Don Hinson and The Rigamorticians on their 1964 album release Monster Dance Party. The 45 Grave recording (as with the original, produced by Gary S. Paxton of Skip & Flip) achieved cult status and became a signature song of the band’s live sets.
Early on, the band began by playing the Consumers songs that Cutler had written, with lyrics changed to fit Cancer’s singing style, before concentrating on composing new material like “Black Cross” (issued as a single in 1981, featuring Pat Smear of Germs on guitar on the B-side “Wax”) and a fast-paced punk song called “Partytime” (which was later slowed down and reworked on their 1983 debut album and sole studio release, ‘Sleep in Safety’. Another signature 45 Grave track, “Evil,” was featured on MTV, and band members appeared as extras in Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner.
Nic
March 6, 2008 at 10:18 am45 Grave featured ex-members of the LA Punk royalty (the aforementioned Germs, but also The Bags, The Screamers, The Consumers, Nervous Gender, and Castration Squad)…
They were originally a ‘side project’ from Don Bolles’ band Vox Pop (1 single, 1 12″) whose members went on to some other interesting bands (including Angry Samoans and Poison Idea)…
The group released 2 singles, 2 EP’s and an album before they split in 1985 (partly due to their long-term ‘issues’ with the Brown). They have since reformed but only with Dinah Cancer from the original members…
Their first recorded output was on a compilation put out by the LAFMS (Los Angeles Free Music Society) who were a collective loosley grouped around the (great) group Smegma who played some wild freakout concerts in England a couple of years ago…
Their cuts on the ‘Hell Comes to your House’ compilation were favourites of mine – ‘Evil’ is a corker (as were the cuts on the LP by Christian Death and 100 Flowers (ex-Urinals), and the great punker by Legal Weapon)…
Pat Smear (who played on ‘Wax’ on this single) was a member of The Germs and went on to play with Nina Hagen, Nirvana and Foo Fighters. He also presented a ‘homestyle’ show on the MTV channel…
Mogwai
April 8, 2008 at 10:30 amYou should upload the first Christian Death album. An absolute masterpiece!!!