celebrating Last Exit

As Bill Laswell struggles with financial problems and ill health, Phil Freeman sings the praises of Last Exit.

IRON PATH is such a great album. I wish they'd gotten to make another one in the studio.

Iron Path is one of those album that rewrote my brain. I think I've told this story before, but here it is again.

I used to subscribe to Musician magazine, and I'd read it cover to cover, even if I hadn't heard of the artists featured. There was a lengthy piece in one issue about Last Exit, talking about the members' bonafides, etc. (I'd never heard of any of them at the time.) I'd added jazz to my regular rotation list by that time (a topic for another time), and the idea of a jazz band who played only metal and punk clubs was extremely intriguing. Not long after, maybe even the same week, I ventured up from my small Texas town to Houston to a store called Infinity Records. (R.I.P.) It was one of those stores where it was laid out, shall we say, haphazardly, but I found some cool stuff. Pretty sure I picked up the first True Believers album that day. Anyway, at the front counter there was a small basket of promo cassettes - I don't know if customers traded them in or they were sent to the store for in-store play or what. After I finished paying for my stuff, I noticed that Iron Path was one of the tapes. I plucked it out immediately and apologized, asking if I could add it to my purchase. Or I'd just pay for it separately. The cashier looked at it, and said, "Nah, just take it."

Hearing that record scrubbed out my synapses and changed the way I thought about music. I didn't realize music could be that violent and still be beautiful. It opened up my musical world in a big way. I silently thank that cashier every time I listen to it.

I became a diehard fanatic for Sonny Sharrock and Ronald Shannon Jackson in particular, but at least kept up with what the others were up to. Laswell is the last man standing from that group, and still making interesting music. I hope his health improves.

Wow, a life-changing discovery, given to you as an after-thought ... that's amazing. I don't recall hearing that story before, Michael.

Did you get a subscription to Musician as a "consolation prize" when TP shut its doors? That's how I "discovered" that magazine.

I just realized I never answered your question, Delvin.

Sadly, I never saw, nor have to this day ever seen, an issue of Trouser Press. (I mean, I've read some of the digital versions Ira so kindly made available, but I've never seen one in the wild.) I subscribed to Musician because I worked at a bookstore and always read it on my lunch breaks, and figured I might as well make it official. It's still probably my favorite music magazine. I got turned on to so many artists from all walks of musical life (Last Exit, the Silos, Steve Tibbetts, to name three disparate artists) in its pages. I was sorry to see it go.

It ceased publishing before my subscription ran out. I can't remember now what they replaced it with to fill out the term.

Delvin, my TP subscription was picked up by RECORD magazine. I won’t bash it or praise it…. Let’s just say it wasn’t the same.

I read Musician now and then in the early to mid 80s. Still have some issues stashed somewhere in the attic.