Mixing trash-rock, punk, blues, and psychobilly with lyrics full of feverish sex and rampant horror (not to mention greasy automobiles, post-apocalyptic ennui, and serial slaughter), NYC legends Chop Shop made swampy, sordid "music that shot for the gut and aimed for the crotch"...
From September 1984 through late 1985, this kill-city quartet was led by ghoulish singer Joe Truck and his bass sidekick Andrew "Andy Trash" Cushen (the latter formerly of Redex ), both of whom had played together previously in goth legends Scarecrow (1983-84) and the 1983 projects Tea for None and Twelfthnight .
Chop Shop festered in clubs like CBGB, Subway, and The Dive, clubbing audiences over the head with fearsome, fuzz-infested stomps that shred the smiles off listeners' shocked faces.
An initial December 1984 demo tape consisting of "Punish the Flesh," "Roadkill," "Uncle Head," "This Town," and "Steel Hit Collision" documented the band's earliest lineup, with founders Truck and Trash augmented by guitarist Rebecca Korbet (late of Even Worse) and drummer Steve DiBenedetto. By February 1985, Korbet and DiBenedetto had departed, replaced by guitarist Eddie Stern and drummer Matt Lipper.
Chop Shop reached its ferocious apex when the lost classic EP Badlands was recorded in October 1985, featuring such tunes as garishly grimy post-apocalyptic road anthem "Cruisin' the Wasteland" and morbid thrashabilly romp "Smashing Into Heaven"; criminally, it remains unreleased. The band split up almost immediately after its recording.
The entire Badlands EP and original demo, plus unrecorded live Chop Shop tracks, can all be downloaded from their SoundClick page.
In 1986, Joe Truck briefly played drums in Burning Rome before forming the Misfits-inspired Brain Eaters , who released 1986 EP Crimson Nights (Brainiac Records) and placed "Ballad of Arcane" on the 1987 Sorority Sampler compilation album. They later morphed into glamsters Rocket Angel .
In 1995, Truck (who had by then achieved his greatest notoriety as a tattoo artist; he currently inks at All Souls Tattoo in San Pedro, CA) formed trash-rockers Snake Charmers , whose discography included 7-inches "The Gorgon" (1996, Shrunken Head) and "Nuthin for You" (1999, Shrunken Head), and full-length discs Rock N Roll Deathwish (1999, Sonic Tone) and Drop Dead Blues (2000, 20 Stone Blatt Records).
In 2007, Truck returned to rocking with a vengeance as bassist for the newly formed trash-glam-metallists Confederacy of Horsepower , whose Vagabond Cabaret debut album was released in 2008.
Bassist Andrew Cushen, who had previously played drums in underrated post-punk outfit Redex (1981-82), fell under the spell of Delta blues, and went on to play bass, electric guitar, slide guitar, and lap steel in a plethora of New York blues-punk bands such as Hi-Sheriffs of Blue, Love in Vein, Workdogs (he appears on 1988's Roberta), and Hellhounds, before careers in videogaming and computer programming.
Truck and Trash together produced the 1985 recordings of The Naked and the Dead .
Eddie Stern's further interests lay in the world of yoga.
Rebecca Korbet later played in numerous Lower East Side noise-rock bands, including Missing Foundation , Pussy Galore , Big Stick , and Sloth. She drummed on King Missile 's debut Fluting on the Hump, and on several tracks on They (1988, Shimmy Disc), and played guitar on The Wharton Tiers Ensemble 's Brighter Than Life (1996, Atavistic) and The Twilight of the Computer Age (1999, Atavistic). The now-married Korbet-Wootton currently resides in the UK, where she is writing novels and screenplays, doing graphics/web design, and still playing guitar and bass. In 2002, Korbet-Wootton took part in a reunion of her classic early '80s NYC punk band Even Worse , playing two nights at CBGB for the New York Thrash 20th Anniversary, coinciding with the release of Even Worse's CD You've Ruined Everything (Grand Theft Audio) recorded in 1981-82.
Steve DiBenedetto later drummed for Spineless Yesmen and The Voluptuous Horror of Karen Black , and played on several Jad Fair albums. He is currently a reknowned NYC artist whose surrealist paintings and drawings are exhibited in galleries worldwide. DiBenedetto's artwork has been lauded in The New York Times, The Village Voice, etc.
Three Chop Shop alumni---Truck (on bass and vocals), Korbet (guitar), and Lipper (drums)---reunited in 1993-94 as a trio called Hellvis , releasing a 7-inch EP The Frog (1993, Fat Bastard Records) produced by Wharton Tiers that included a cover of Chop Shop's "Smashing Into Heaven." The band recorded a full-length album in 1994 with Tiers that remains unissued, though several songs from it can be heard on their MySpace page.
GIGOGRAPHY
12-27-1984 - The Dive, New York, NY
12-30-1984 - S.N.A.F.U., New York, NY
01-08-1985 - CBGB, New York, NY
02-13-1985 - The Dive, New York, NY
03-15-1985 - The Dive, New York, NY
04-19-1985 - The Dive, New York, NY
04-24-1985 - CBGB, New York, NY
05-11-1985 - Subway, Rego Park, NY
06-13-1985 - CBGB, New York, NY
06-14-1985 - Subway, Rego Park, NY
08-15-1985 - 9:30 Club, Washington, DC
09-12-1985 - CBGB, New York, NY
10-??-1985 - Neither/Nor, New York, NY
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