A Band Called Death Page #7

And I was like, "What?"

Then I made him a copy and told him

to listen to it.

And he had the same reaction I did.

So I post on various message boards,

punk rock message boards.

And posted a long story about everything

I knew about Death,

put up links to the songs, and just

wanted to share this, 'cause I said,

"Other people need to hear these songs."

That post circulated all over the Internet.

To the point where it got the attention

of Robert Manis, who is a record collector.

I was still freaking out over that record,

you know, I'd listen to it all the time.

And I was just blogging.

I typed in "Hackney Death,"

and this blog came up.

So I dropped everything that I was doing,

and I talked to,

you know, a couple of

the guys at Drag City.

RIAN MURPHY:
Well, we were

talking to Robert Manis,

and so Robert sent over some MP3s

of the Death single.

It's like '70s garage

like you've never heard it before.

Just made us really excited to wanna be

involved with the record, if we could.

So, naturally, the thought turned to,

"Reissuing a single is cool,

"but if there's more material

of a similar nature,

"then you can reissue an album."

And that seemed to be

the next question.

Is there an album out there?

Where are these guys? Do they still exist?

BOBBY:
Let's give thanks.

Lord, we thank you for this food

that we are about to receive

and we thank you for our family

and all that you do for us.

In Jesus' name, we thank you. Amen.

Amen.

All right.

What I do for a living is

I work at St. Michael's College.

I'm on the late-night maintenance crew.

I've been able to give my kids the choice

of going to college, through this job.

I've been able to buy a house.

To me, it's a good job

that I can do while, uh...

While I struggle as a musician.

Getting the call from Drag City

was really exciting,

because every musician lives for that day,

when you get the call

from the record company.

But after the excitement

of that part wore off,

you know, it's just bringing up

a whole Wellspring of emotion.

After starting a new band and after just

creating a whole new life, all of a sudden,

you know, something from your past

just pulls you back.

And says, "Hey, what about this?"

BOBBY:
This is where we store stuff.

For years and years,

most of the Death tapes were right here,

in this little bin here.

This is just the way it was on that day

when Bobby called me up and said,

"Dad, please tell me

you have those master tapes."

And they were sitting up here,

just like this.

I was in such a blur about everything.

"I can't believe that I'm up here

looking for the Death tape."

You know, I mean,

that within itself was so surreal for me.

This right here

is the original finish master tape

that was recorded

at United Sound's production studios.

As you can see,

that's my brother David's

writing right there.

And that was what he wanted to call

the whole... The album, that's what he...

"Death, For The Whole World To See."

Course, he put his signature triangle,

which basically represented

the whole Death concept.

This is the tape

and this tape has been through

quite a bit, you know?

It's kind of, like,

older than any of my children.

(SINGING)

Then, before I knew it,

the album was released.

(LAUGHS)

So this is the album, right here.

Released on Drag City Records,

February 17th, 2009.

After all these years...

Three cats, three young dudes,

who just love rock 'n' roll music.

SPEARS:
Imagine taking 35 years?

(LAUGHS)

It's... It's incredible.

I don't know of a story like that.

I don't know of one.

BOBBY". When the album came out,

I felt emotional, I felt happy.

I was happy for us, that our music

was finally getting recognized.

I was sad, you know,

because David was not here to see it.

You know, he wanted to see something

like that really significant happen.

DANNIS:
It's kind Of hard,

when you talk about this, because you kind of

hear Dave's voice in the back of your head.

You know, he said it.

He said the world's gonna come

looking for this music one day.

I'm still hearing in the back of my voice

all the things Dave said,

and they're coming true

and, you know, it just feels weird.

The album was released,

but since nobody really heard...

Not many people heard

the Death album quite yet,

what we decided to do,

me, Julian and Urian,

was pay tribute to Death

by covering the album and, like,

playing it live.

(PUNK MUSIC PLAYING)

(SINGING)

JULIAN:
The Death songs

needed to have an audience

and that's been too long, you know.

It'd been 34 years

since the songs had been heard by anybody.

BOBBY JR.:
We did a lot of campaigning,

you know?

Like, we were out there spreading the word.

We were almost like musical missionaries

for Death, in a way.

I remember the first show that we played.

It was packed and people

were just really excited and happy.

It was like this rush of spiritual

energy running through our veins.

It was pretty much like speaking

to Uncle Dave again.

It was like saying, "Hey, what's up,

Uncle Dave? How you doing?"

Like, "I haven't seen you in a while."

When we played those songs,

that's what it felt like.

It felt like he was there with us again.

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

This whole set goes out to David Hackney.

He was a beautiful man. We miss him.

URIAN:
We were trying to think of names

and Rough Francis came into play

when Bobby was thinking about the, uh...

That old 7-inch that my Uncle Dave

put out as Rough Francis.

BOBBY JR.:
I was like, "Perfect. Rough Francis.

That's the name of this band."

'Cause it's like this band is

all happening because of Uncle Dave.

Like, we're channeling his music,

his energy, his art.

It has to be called Rough Francis.

So a few songs that you just heard,

they're by a band called Death.

(AUDIENCE CHEERING)

And that band is our family.

Our father, our uncle, and our other uncle.

So we're just carrying the torch.

And we're just very excited to be up here

playing for you right now.

Thank you so much.

(APPLAUSE)

(PUNK MUSIC PLAYING)

(SINGING)

BOBBY JR.:
When we were

playing one of the songs,

I looked over

and I saw my father and my mom,

and they were both hugging and crying.

JULIAN:
They were both just so moved by it,

you know?

And that moved me, seeing them.

TAMMY:
Seeing my three boys on stage

performing their dad's music,

I was just so proud to be their mom,

and it was just a wonderful night,

and I will never forget it.

Thanks a lot. We are Rough Francis.

MIKE RUBIN:
Rough Francis was

really impressive.

They were a real force on stage

in performing

their father's and uncles' music.

I know my piece began with Bobby

sort of beaming back at the bar.

You know, he's got three

of his sons on stage

and his brother Dannie there,

and his wife Tammy's there.

And, I mean, it was like a family reunion.

But the...

You know, and the missing member is...

Was his brother, David,

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