About Chris D.
Founding member and lead vocalist of punk group The Flesh Eaters, formed in Los Angeles in 1977. Through numerous personnel changes The Flesh Eaters are still active and in fine form on 2004's release, "Miss Muerte". Chris D. also produced The Gun Club's debut record, "Fire Of Love" in 1981.::Udo
Chris D. (Chris Desjardins) was born in Riverside, California in 1953. He received a Masters degree in communication arts (filmmaking and screenwriting) from Loyala Marymount University in 1977. Distressed at the insulated, hard-to-break-into Hollywood movie industry, he opted for the independent music//punk rock scene then taking shape. Rock music was his second love after film and he carved out a turbulent career in the alternative/punk music sector between 1978 and the late 1990s. Chris D.has been a singer/songwriter/producer on at least 20 albums for his own bands The Flesh Eaters, Divine Horsemen, Stone-By-Stone (as well as solo efforts) between 1978-2003. His latest Flesh Eaters CD, Miss Muerte was released in 2003 by Atavistic Records. Chris has also produced and/or mixed albums by many other bands (such as The Dream Syndicate, The Gun Club, The Misfits and The Germs). He worked as A&R/in-house producer at Slash Records 1980-1984.Chris has published two volumes of poetry: Bongo Chalice (a poetry anthology that included Patti Smith, amongst other writers, in 1977) and Double Snake Bourbon, a collection of his own poetry, song lyrics and dream stories from 1975-1989 (published by Illiterati Press, 1989). As of summer 2008, he is revising and revamping Double Snake Bourbon into a much larger collection of writing, including all song lyrics and poetry written since 1989, as well as short stories and excerpts from as-yet-unpublished novels. The volume, to be retitled A Minute To Pray, A Second To Die will see publication sometime in 2009.Chris D. has also written off and on for various American fringe film buff/alternative music/media publications such as Phobos, Slash Magazine, Forced Exposure, Asian Cult Cinema (when previously known as Asian Trash Cinema), and Cult Movies since the early 1970s.He has recently (September 2005) seen publication of his book Outlaw Masters Of Japanese Film, which features essays/filmographies/interviews with such Japanese genre film directors from the sixties/seventies as Kinji Fukasaku, Seijun Suzuki, Teruo Ishii, Kihacho Okamoto, Koji Wakamatsu, as well as such nineties directors as Takashi Miike and Kiyoshi Kurosawa. He has recently finished work on a voluminous, completist study of Japanese yakuza (gangster) films called Gun And Sword - An Encyclopedia of Japanese Gangster Films 1955-1980 (which will be published sometime in 2009-2010)Chris' knowledge of classic mainstream and 'arthouse' as well as offbeat genre and cult films, both domestic and foreign, led to his job as one of the programmers at The American Cinematheque in Los Angeles in 1999. He has co-programmed or programmed series on Film Noir, Mods and Rockers (American & British music/youth/psychedelic films from 1960's - early '70's), The New Hollywood (breakthrough Hollywood films from mid-1960's - early 1970's), Angry Young Cinema - The Original British New Wave, Fantasy/Horror/Science Fiction (annual series since 1999 featuring old and new films from U.S., Europe and Asia, etc.,), The Golden Age of British Horror 1955-1975, the continuing Japanese Outlaw Masters series, Screwball Comedies 1935-1960, a French Crime series; retrospectives ...