Last Friday evening former bass player and founding member of hardcore band Cro-Mags stabbed and bit two members of the current lineup before they were due to perform at Webster Hall as part of the CBGB's festival.
It all comes down to what plagues numerous bands, original members leave due to creative or personal differences and then get all bitter and twisted when said band replaces original member and continues to play under the same name with a new lineup, thus "diluting" the original intent and legacy of said band. The musican and ex - Cro-Mags member at the centre of last Fridays attack is Harley Flanagan. Given that he was an original and founding member of the band you can understand his frustration. What is hard to believe is that it would lead to the stabbing of two current members of the band with a hunting knife.
According to http://www.cro-mags.com/ Parris Mayhew and Harley Flanagan formed Cro-Mags in 1980 as teenagers. Flanagan is well known for being a problem child, according to the site "Harley the teenage tattooed terror created notoriety everywhere he went, fighting, fucking and consuming mass quantities of drugs and alcohol along the way and he was still only 15 years old. In San Francisco, Harley lived in an
abandoned brewery called the "Vats," home of many San Francisco punks. Then he hitchhiked back East and North to Canada. He ran with skinheads there, basically reeking havoc everywhere he went, building on his already formidable reputation."
Cro-Mags are perhaps best known for the 1986 album that some credit as being the definitive hard-core album of all time, the aptly named " The Age of Quarrel", since that time band members have come and gone (around 19 of them). The original players on the album Harley Flanagan, Parris Mayhew, John Joseph McGowan and Mackie Jayson ended up loathing each other. John and Mackie are playing in the current lineup of Cro-Mags. Having said that, at various times during the 1990s and 2000s, Harley Flanagan and John McGowan simultaneously led separate versions of the Cro-Mags with completely different lineups.
Considering the fallout between band members, subsequent "versions" of the band and Flanagans colourful past, current Cro-Mags members William Berario, who was slashed above the eye and had his cheek bitten and Michael Couls who was stabbed in the arm and stomach must be thanking their lucky stars that the injuries they sustained weren't fatal. Could this be the final chapter in "The Age of Quarrel" ? Let's hope so for the sake of everyone involved.
