Having never lived closer than seven hours from
Boston, I never had the privilege of seeing the charmingly named Flaming
Dragons of Middle Earth live. Fronted by Danny “Monster” Cruz, FDOME was a band
for the people – Cruz would invite the audience to grab instruments and play with
him, and he’d teach them quick stuff and they’d make songs out of it. Sounds
like an absolute blast.
Danny had Duchenne, a form of muscular dystrophy,
and he died of a Duchenne-related heart attack in 2017 at the age of
twenty-five. On Vanishing DMC (the “DMC”
standing for Danny “Monster” Cruz), recorded in 2016, Cruz felt mortality
encroaching. And yet, with Bob Fay (Sebadoh, Deluxx) and Matt Robidoux
(Sunburned Hand of the Man, Speedy Ortiz, Curse Purse) in tow, Cruz cranked out
weird new outsider fuzz rock like his spirit was flying as hard and as fast as
possible. Tapped fully into his creativity, there was no stopping the DMC
energy. And we are the lucky ones still living with Cruz’s output, still
benefitting from his astounding life. We oughta whisper our thanks to that dude
for flying the freak flag and keeping it absolutely real, all the time. Some
good tunes too.
So while I probably never would’ve seen an FDOME
show or caught Vanishing DMC in the act anyway, since I moved even farther away
from Boston, I can at least partake from afar and in the future, reveling in
Cruz’s invigorating songwriting on psych-fun tunes like “Dark Castle,” “Doggin’
a Pizza,” “Watch U Fuck” … haha. This craziness just puts a smile on my face.
Put one on yours as well, and remember to treat everyone well and help those in
need. That’s what I get from this.
https://podunklabel.bandcamp.com/
--Ryan
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