Use Once & Destroy

I met The Rock City Angels in South Florida during their "Glam" period. I used to publish a local music paper (Gold Coast Live!) and promote bands. RCA quickly became one of my favorite local bands. I decided to interview them and give them the cover at one point. The band was growing in popularity and seeking a record deal. Bobby Durango (known as "Bobby St. Valentine" at that point) decided he was tired of playing in front of the same basic audience all of the time. Bobby and the band decided to head for LA. Right before they left, they were "discovered" by Ann Boleyn of New Renaissance Records. Rumors were flying that she signed them and their demo would soon become an album.

Shortly after the band left I received a letter from guitarist Jimmy James saying the the band signed with New Renaissance. After that the band just seemed to have disappeared. Jimmy eventually landed back in South Florida and had a new band called Romeo Cowboy. As for the Angels, who knew.

Eventually word got out that RCA signed a deal with Geffen Records. We waited and waited. Finally an an album surfaced in Peaches (the local record store). The album was Young Man's Blues.

After the release of Young Man's Blues the Angels seemed to vanish again. The internet evolved and I eventually made contact with bassist Andy Panik. Andy filled me in on everything that happened since we left off in 1986 (I think it was 1986). Andy told me that the band recorded a new CD called "Use Once & Destroy" and encouraged me to contact Bobby Durango and try to help them get a deal. We launched a Rock City Angels website and did what we could to promote the band.

Bobby sent me a copy of the demo and I thought it was killer. The problem was it wasn't finished. It was raw and Bobby wanted to go back into the studio to "sweeten" it up. He wanted to re-mix, add some horns, and whatever else he heard in his head. A few other people who heard it said it was fine as it it was and started pushing to just release it. I sent it to a few labels hoping to find one who would pay to for the additional studio time and get it out there. Most of them liked it but the bottom line was "send it back after its finished and then we will talk." Time was flying by and it was becoming another "Chinese Democracy."

To make a long story short, I no longer had time to devote to this cause. I let rockcityangels.com expire (as well as a few other websites I ran - nothing personal, just time issues). About two or three months after the site expired Bobby wrote to me telling me it had expired and we needed it back as Use Once & Destroy was finished and soon to be released! Go figure! (and too late as some domain reseller had grabbed the name)!

I finally got around to getting a copy of Use Once & Destroy and listening to it. (I was content with the demo after all). Wow!!! I love this cd. I am so glad that Bobby stuck to his guns and held off on releasing it until it was the recording he meant it to be.

Ok, what does this have to do with photography? Well, when listening to the new cd in my car an analogy popped into my head. My camera (Pentax K10D) is set to underexpose slightly and not to sharpen anything. The original images look a little dull at first. I eventually work on them adjusting levels, curves, contrast, whatever and each image takes on a new life. This is the best way to describe the difference between the Use Once & Destroy demo and CD. The cd is like a photograph that has been tweaked in Photoshop. So when you read all these interviews with Bobby when he mentions that he was being pressured to release the demo as is, you can understand the difference in terms of photography.

A Tribute to Bobby Durango