About Me
ME! Chris Haskett. Washington D.C.. The Enzymes. Leeds UK. Surfin Dave. New York. Rollins Band. So many guitars...so little time...
Born in Washington D.C. during Kennedy's term. Happened to be in England in 1976 and 1977 and happened to hear the Sex Pistols. Transformed from uncomfortable misfit in high school to a very comfortable misfit outside high school. Was fortunate enough to get drafted into my first band (The Enzymes) at a Fred Frith gig and that was it. Teenage madness and energy coupled with a quick immersion in Sun Ra, The Damned, Art Ensemble of Chicago, The Clash, Mikey Dread, Miles, Mahavishnu, Contortions, World Saxophone Quartet, LOTS of P-FUNK, Mission of Burma, Wire, Pere Ubu, Beefheart... it just was all so FRESH then...anyway, off we went. Recorded a little, played a bit, released nothing. Got to grow up watching the Bad Brains, The Teen Idles, The Slickee Boys, The Urban Verbs (to say nothing of The Nighthawks, George Thorogood, Danny Gatton and Roy Buchanan) Went to college in Poughkeepsie. Left for Leeds (as in "The Who Live at...") in 1982. Somehow acquired a philosophy degree and a trashy surf band called Surfin Dave and the Absent Legends (or sometimes, Surfin Dave and the Beany T's). Got to tour Europe a few times and discovered that it's much more pleasant in the summer. Reconnected with old DC friend Henry Rollins when Black Flag stayed at my house in 1984. Surfin Dave and Black Flag broke up right around the same time so, after a few years of tape swapping Henry and I decided to finally do a project together. The result (with Surfin Dave drummer extraordinaire Mick Green and DC bass wizard friend Bernie Wandel) was the Hot Animal Machine album. Henry found that the amazing rhythm section of Andrew Weiss and Simeon Cain (from numerous bands including Scornflakes, Regressive Aid and Gone) were available and that four piece became the ROLLINS BAND in 1987. Many, many dates and tours followed. Also the CDs: Lifetime, Turned On, Hard Volume and The End of Silence. I did two CDs: the rather strange, mostly acoustic Language (which also featured ex-Birthday Party guitarist Rowland S. Howard) and the electric, more conventional but still strange Nonfiction (featuring DC gogo drummer virtuoso Brandon Finley). Andrew Weiss left and we were very fortunate to have Melvin Gibbs (man...where to start?...Defunkt, Decoding Society, Sonny Sharrock, Eye and I...it just goes ON!) join us. More dates and tours and the CDs Weight and Come in and Burn. The band disbanded in 1997. A few years in the wilderness. Toured with Cassandra Complex, Pigface and Foetus. Produced Who Is God, Car 44 and Blisster. Did ambient and acoustic shows around New York with Reeves Gabrels. Through him got hired by David Bowie for a tour that never happened but got to play on his "Hours" album. Put out another electric record:Not Part of the Solution as well as two forays into hiphop electronica under the moniker DJ Linux. The CDs are: The Return of the Geary Act (very psychedelic vocal-less hiphop) and a Pigface industrial album remixed as dub with the title Dubhead. Both these last two are available through Invisible Underground. DJ'ed around New York playing scratchy dub 7's from the 70s. Rollins Band reformed for a tour with X in summer 2006. Played great and the fans dug it but the future for that is uncertain. Moved to Canberra (Australia for those of you without an atlas) for a while and getting ready to do an electric record, and acoustic record and a Linux record. Looking for fun sideman gigs and interesting production jobs. Stay tuned.
