Portland School of Rock kids cover Poison Idea!

This is all kinds of awesome. Portland's School of Rock kids cover Poison Idea's "Plastic Bomb"...

Poison Idea's Slayer Hippie arrested for armed robbery!

The Crime Stoppers police report:

The Portland Police Bureau, in cooperation with Crime Stoppers, is asking for your help in finding an armed robbery suspect. On Wednesday, August 20, 2008, at 3:24 a.m. a lone male armed with a knife, entered the Walgreen's pharmacy, located at 940 SE 39th Avenue, demanding opiate drugs. After receiving several hundred Oxycontin pills, the suspect walked out the door onto SE Belmont Street. On Monday, September 8, 2008, at 9:32 p.m. the same suspect entered the Walgreen's located at 3909 SE Holgate Boulevard, armed with a knife and a demand note. The suspect approached an employee and was told that their pharmacy had already closed. The suspect left the store. At approximately, 9:50 p.m., the suspect walked into the Walgreen's at 940 SE 39th Avenue, approached the pharmacy counter, armed with a knife, and demanded prescription drugs. The suspect is described as a white male, late 30's, 6'0" tall, 200 pounds, with gray hair and brown eyes. The suspect walks "hunched" over and appears to be wearing a wig with a long ponytail.

Somehow this slipped below my Poison Idea radar when it happened last month. The suspect in this crime was later caught on a tip and it turned out to be Steve Hanford, AKA Thee Slayer Hippie, ex-drummer for Poison Idea and Final Warning. Hanford was responsible for a string of pharmacy robberies in the Portland area over the past Summer. Oh how the mighty have fallen... maybe the downfall to drugs and crime are karma for the Ian Mackaye EP Posion Idea put out. Ha ha ha! I think I've gotta go listen to PI's "War All The Time" album now.

Poison Idea

I've talked about Portland punk band Poison Idea before and surely will again, they are one of my favorite bands and one I saw a lot live during the '80s and '90s. This is a picture of singer Jerry A from a show in the mid-'90s... he was looking surprisingly normal with a goatee, tan and baseball hat, instead of crazy singer with blood dripping down his forehead. Or the time he performed with a cast on his leg from stage diving and it was the Northwest "Out of the Hospital Tour." For the last couple of years since guitarist Pig Champion died (and even the couple years before) there was a revolving door in band members, but Jerry A still has kept the ship afloat and piloted it onwards. And their last album, "Latest Will and Testament" from 2006 wasn't half bad... and last year they released a split single on TKO with Kill Your Idols.

Poison Idea are playing Musicfest Northwest down in Portland September 3-6, along with Murder City Devils, Seaweed, TV on the Radio, Vampire Weekend, Deerhunter, Steel Pole Bath Tub (!), Trans Am, Nebula, Fucked Up, These Arms Are Snakes, Monotonix, Bobby Bare Jr., Supernova, Pierced Arrows, U.S.E., Akimbo and many more, check out musicfestnw.com for more details.