Biography
Chris Desjardins, performing under the name Chris D., emerged as one of the more singular and provocative presences in the first wave of the Los Angeles punk community. An aspiring filmmaker and underground poet who earned his living as an English instructor, he encountered John Doe and Exene Cervenka during a 1976 poetry workshop in Venice, California. Already acquainted with the city’s developing punk circles through their eventual band X, the pair introduced Desjardins to an expressive channel for the biting poetry and abrasive singing he had first developed in a short-lived high-school garage group.
By 1977 he was contributing articles to the influential local punk zine Slash and had formed the earliest incarnation of the Flesh Eaters, whose jagged, fragmented sound was matched to his neo-gothic, end-of-the-world lyrics. The band’s debut album, No Questions Asked, appeared in 1980 on Desjardins’s own Upsetter imprint, which had earlier released the important Los Angeles punk collection Tooth and Nail. A far greater impact followed with the 1981 release A Minute to Pray, A Second to Die on Ruby Records, an affiliate of Slash that granted Desjardins wide latitude as a producer; the album benefited from a fleeting lineup that included John Doe and D.J. Bonebrake of X, Dave Alvin and Bill Bateman of the Blasters, and Steve Berlin, later of Los Lobos. Among the projects he oversaw for Ruby were the Gun Club’s Fire of Love, the Dream Syndicate’s The Days of Wine and Roses, and Green on Red’s Gravity Talks; he also assisted with the mixing of the Misfits’ first full-length album, Walk Among Us.
Although the Flesh Eaters stayed active on the local scene, frequent personnel changes proved disruptive, and after issuing A Hard Road to Follow in 1983 Desjardins disbanded the group. The following year he began recording a largely acoustic collection of country-tinged material under the name Divine Horseman, employing a shifting cast of supporting players for the album Time Stands Still. He maintained that moniker for subsequent releases even as his approach grew more forceful, until 1989, when he issued I Pass for Human with the band Stone by Stone. That record’s raw, confrontational tone prompted Desjardins to resurrect the Flesh Eaters name for the 1991 project Dragstrip Riot.
Outside Los Angeles the band’s visibility declined through the 1990s, yet Desjardins and successive lineups continued to perform and record, with SST issuing three albums during the decade and Upsetter returning for the 1999 release Ashes of Time. His first proper solo album, Love Cannot Die, came out on Sympathy for the Record Industry in 1995. Beyond music, Desjardins has written screenplays, appeared in independent films, contributed to several film journals with a focus on Japanese crime cinema, and served as a programmer for the Los Angeles revival cinema The American Cinemateque.
By 1977 he was contributing articles to the influential local punk zine Slash and had formed the earliest incarnation of the Flesh Eaters, whose jagged, fragmented sound was matched to his neo-gothic, end-of-the-world lyrics. The band’s debut album, No Questions Asked, appeared in 1980 on Desjardins’s own Upsetter imprint, which had earlier released the important Los Angeles punk collection Tooth and Nail. A far greater impact followed with the 1981 release A Minute to Pray, A Second to Die on Ruby Records, an affiliate of Slash that granted Desjardins wide latitude as a producer; the album benefited from a fleeting lineup that included John Doe and D.J. Bonebrake of X, Dave Alvin and Bill Bateman of the Blasters, and Steve Berlin, later of Los Lobos. Among the projects he oversaw for Ruby were the Gun Club’s Fire of Love, the Dream Syndicate’s The Days of Wine and Roses, and Green on Red’s Gravity Talks; he also assisted with the mixing of the Misfits’ first full-length album, Walk Among Us.
Although the Flesh Eaters stayed active on the local scene, frequent personnel changes proved disruptive, and after issuing A Hard Road to Follow in 1983 Desjardins disbanded the group. The following year he began recording a largely acoustic collection of country-tinged material under the name Divine Horseman, employing a shifting cast of supporting players for the album Time Stands Still. He maintained that moniker for subsequent releases even as his approach grew more forceful, until 1989, when he issued I Pass for Human with the band Stone by Stone. That record’s raw, confrontational tone prompted Desjardins to resurrect the Flesh Eaters name for the 1991 project Dragstrip Riot.
Outside Los Angeles the band’s visibility declined through the 1990s, yet Desjardins and successive lineups continued to perform and record, with SST issuing three albums during the decade and Upsetter returning for the 1999 release Ashes of Time. His first proper solo album, Love Cannot Die, came out on Sympathy for the Record Industry in 1995. Beyond music, Desjardins has written screenplays, appeared in independent films, contributed to several film journals with a focus on Japanese crime cinema, and served as a programmer for the Los Angeles revival cinema The American Cinemateque.
Albums
Singles
