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I Used To Be Pretty on LP

One of Los Angeles punk rock’s most widely admired yet little-heard bands makes a striking return to records on Jan. 18, 2019, as Yep Roc Records issues an all-new collection by The Flesh Eaters, I Used to Be Pretty.

On the release, founding vocalist and songwriter Chris Desjardins — better known as Chris D. — is backed by the legendary “all-star” edition of the band, originally heard on the 1981 set A Minute to Pray, A Second to Die: Dave Alvin (guitar) and Bill Bateman (drums) of the Blasters; John Doe (bass) and D.J. Bonebrake (marimba and percussion) of X; and Steve Berlin (saxophones) of the Plugz (and later the Blasters and Los Lobos). The album was produced collectively by the band members.

On five of the album’s 11 tracks, this superpowered unit is joined by Julie Christensen, Desjardins’ vocal partner in both The Flesh Eaters’ successor band Divine Horsemen and latter-day editions of the original group. The singers were married during the ’80s.

I Used to Be Pretty is bookended by a pair of dramatic new songs. Desjardins says of “Black Temptation,” the ferocious leadoff track, “I wanted to do that song for the Miss Muerte album in 2004, but we didn’t have time to work the music up. I actually published the lyrics in my book A Minute to Pray, A Second to Die in 2009, and I never thought I was going to get to record it.”

“Ghost Cave Lament,” the sprawling 13-minute song that closes the album, was developed by Desjardins and Alvin before the recording sessions. This incantatory epic’s musical setting was inspired by “Moritas Moras,” an extended piece by flamenco guitarist Manitas de Plata.

Desjardins says the finished track reminds him of work by another notable L.A. band: “After we listened to it a few times when it was done, it struck me really forcefully like ‘The End’ or ‘When the Music’s Over’ by the Doors. It had that kind of feel that those longer Doors songs had. That had not been our intention at all, but those latent influences came out.”

Six tracks on I Used to Be Pretty offer forceful reinterpretations of previously released Flesh Eaters songs. “Pony Dress” was first heard on the compilation Tooth and Nail (1979), released on Chris D.’s Upsetter Records; “My Life to Live” and “The Wedding Dice” appeared on Forever Came Today (1982); “Youngest Profession” originated on Dragstrip Riot (1991); “House Amid the Thickets” debuted on Ashes of Time (1999); and “Miss Muerte” was the title track of the most recent Flesh Eaters album. (History repeats itself in a couple of instances: Doe and Bonebrake played on the original “Pony Dress,” while Berlin appeared on the earlier “The Wedding Dice.”)

“The album certainly is a summation,” Desjardins says. “It incorporates some older material that this lineup never played on.”

That philosophy extended to the three covers on I Used to Be Pretty. “The Green Manalishi,” the most recent addition to The Flesh Eaters’ live set, was a demonic 1969 single by the blues-rock edition of Fleetwood Mac led by guitarist Peter Green. Desjardins says, “That was the number that really convinced me – ‘I’ve gotta get these guys in the studio and preserve this.’ We were just kicking it on that song.”