It's the Law

Murphy's Law from 1996! That's my friend Dean Rispler on bass and -- if I'm not mistaken -- the interior shots of the stairwell were shot in his East 9th Street walk-up at the time. Not only is "What Will the Neighbors Think?" a great, rollicking slice of Murphy's Law (a good decade after their bulldozing, eponymous debut album), but the song/video unwittingly captures what's happening to the band's old East Village stomping (and I do mean stomping) grounds to this day. Also features some nice exterior shots of the stately townhouses on the northern side of East 2nd Street just east of the New York City Marble Cemetery (where I'm pretty certain Murphy's Law vocalist Jimmy Gestapo has never resided).

Fifteen years later, Jimmy Gestapo is still on the Lower East Side, operating the New York Hardcore Tattoos on Stanton Street and, I believe, still performing with varying incarnations of Murphy's Law. Guitarist Todd Youth went onto play with everyone from Danzig and DGeneration through Cheap Trick and Glenn "Rhinestone Cowboy" Campbell. Dean continues to play in bands and produces and promotes artists for Drug Front Records. The East Village, meanwhile, continues to gentrify.

 

 

And speaking of Murphy's Law, get your fingers limbered up to order up yourself a copy of the newly re-publisehed "Making a Scene: New York Hardcore 1985 -1988," by Bri Hurley, featuring some amazing photographs of the mid-80's CBGB scene (also featuring a lovely shot of Jimmy Gestapo and my fleeting co-worker Natalie on the cover). It's a must have.

Comments

[Dean Rispler]

Alex - awesome post (as per usual). Thanks for the props. That video was not at my old place. It was some other LES apartment that I honestly can't remember. Todd is currently playing with Ace Frehley and Jesse Malin. He does a ton of studio work as well. Eric "Goat" Arce went on to play with Merauder for a bit and now has a full-time gig with The Misfits. Jimmy is still doing Murphy's Law and currently proving that aging has not stopped him from being the best frontman in NYHC.

[קעקועים]

The features some awesome external injections of the stately town homes on the south side of Eastern 2nd Road just china of the New You are able to Town Stone Graveyard.