RIP Thee Hippy Slayer

Sad news, Portland drummer Steve Hanford, aka Thee Hippy Slayer, has died. Best known for playing with iconic Portland punk band Poison Idea. I'm not a follower, but I have a lot of fondness for them; my friends and I, in our Iron Maiden shirts, saw them play in a basement in Eugene in 1983. We were not the coolest kids there. That was my first serious rock & roll experience.

In the late 90s Hanford produced a demo by my rock band The Raging Woodies— originally a very aggressive acoustic guitar-led project, it took a Black Sabatthian turn under Hanford's direction. He was having substantial drug problems then, but he was a skilled rock producer, and a fun, hilarious guy to be around. At about that time we saw him play a great show at The Satyricon with a short-lived band called Pink (formerly Slowface). He was a great rock drummer, and played with a lot of power.

Here's a groove o' the day from 2015, from Poison Idea's Marked For Life.

Here he is playing with Poison Idea in 1988:

Groove o' the day: Poison Idea — Marked For Life

Here's one for my student, Max: from an early demo by northwest punk legends Poison Idea. With our Iron Maiden shirts and long hair, my friends and I went to see them play in somebody's basement in Eugene at about this time— we were surprised that we were not made to feel unwelcome. The drummer is Dean Johnson. Thee Slayer Hippy wasn't with the group until later— he was a character in his own right. He produced a demo by my band, and had a lot of wonderful stories like about the time either Jerry or Pig tricked him into smoking PCP. I think he's recently been released from prison for a series of Drugstore Cowboy-style pharmacy robberies. Anyway, here's Dean's basic beat:

For much of the song he hits some crashes, and plays these fills:

BONUS PUNK SET-UP. Several times at the show Johnson played this little lead-in when he would come in with the drum beat— to me it's a quintessential punk set-up:

The track: