From a local newspaper in The Hague, Holland:



Dead Moon drummer 'clean' again
"If I was still hooked, I could never keep doing this"


THE HAGUE - The American band Dead Moon will play at Het Paard, the Hague, on October 2nd. Drummer Andrew Loomis, in his thirties, is surprised about Holland's tolerance towards drug addicts. Last week it became clear that the government will supply free heroin to a group of fifty addicts in one of the bigger cities.

by Lilian Japing


Loomis has been Dead Moon's drummer for years now. Apart from the drummer, the band consists of a husband and wife in their late forties who are already granddad and grandma, although on stage they're going wild like a couple of young dogs. Andrew knows what it's like to be hooked on drugs. "I've been heavily addicted, used everything I could lay my hands on. The most awful shit. It wasn't so funny at all." How he started it? "Ah, you know, the first time you use it it's for free. I'm the kind of guy that goes all the way, go to the bottom of everything. It was my own fault that I got hooked, and of course I had some no-good friends."Andrew spent his last dime on drugs, thus ending up on the streets. "I only had a bag with clothes, a kind of survival kit. I tried to get some place to live for free, at the places of friends and other people I knew. But in the end nobody wanted to see me any longer. Neither my old friends nor my family wanted to keep in touch with me." His two band members became fed up with Loomis' way of living. "They told me to choose: kick off the drugs or leave Dead Moon. Then I had to make the right decision. The band was the only income I had left." He voluntarily went to a free detox center. "I left that place at some point, it didn't work out. Then I got an apartment, but I couldn't work it out there either.


Dead Moon drummer Andrew Loomis, here at Waterpop with his roadie Charly. "My mother had rather seen that I'd gotten a job in a restaurant or something."
(Photo Lilian Japing)




Finally I went home to my parents. There, I made it; I could make it happen. The band also helped; I had an income from the royalties of the records we had brought out."The contact with his family was restored. "We get along better now. I'm part of them again. They now invite me, too, for Christmas and family parties." Maybe they're proud that he plays in a well-known band? "My mother had rather seen that I'd gotten a job in a restaurant or something. She thinks it's not a decent carreer, a living as a rock musician." Loomis is proud of having kicked his drug habit all by himself. "I could never keep drumming with so much intensity if I were still hooked", he says assured.

("Haags Nieuwsblad" Sept. 30, 1997)


Okay, here's some nice quotes we found on the net:


From "The Empty Bottle" internet page:
"... Dead Moon's bare bones rock and roll (no effects, please!) is a perfect backdrop to Fred Cole's wavering voice and its attendant creepy lyrics. With a pint of moonshine in their guts and a stack of mildewing Neil Young records waiting for a new needle on the turntable, Dead Moon reduces rock to a plaintive coyote yowl, a primal and animalistic force to be reckoned with. This is their first time in touring the Midwest, which is remarkable for a band that sells out shows on every other continent on God's green Earth."

From "Rock Preview" page, by John Graham:
"…Going back even further in time at Satyricon, Dead Moon and Napalm Beach are about as old-school as you're gonna find. These acts have been burning up local stages for as long as anyone can remember, and they both put the "Rrrrr!" in "Rip City." Hard rock, garage and Lower East Side punk collide in a sweaty, swirling cacophony that'll make anyone think they're gutter-bound. (Drunken dress...Girls or guys: motorcycle jacket, beer-soaked hair, black nail polish, silver rings, an empty bottle of Jack Daniels [chugged on the way to the club].)"

From the Oblivians' page that tells about their '97 tour:
"…the next night we watch dead moon perform their rocknroll voodoo ritual. fred cole is cult leader and they know their shit."

From SEE Magazine page (by Gabino):
"After two days in Portland, I missed Missoula. In Missoula, there's two great record stores. In Portland, there's probably 10, and the music scene is so huge. But the racks and racks of local music has no meaning. In Missoula, they all love Portland's Dead Moon. In Portland, no one has heard of Dead Moon (even though they're playing New Year's Eve at Berbati's Pan)."

SnackCake!-online 'zine review by Johnny Savage:
"… Except for Neil Young, there aren't many who've been doing it for as long as Fred Cole has. As Dead Moon's frontman, Cole leads this strictly amp-distorted, no effects pedals, garage-punk DIY trio from Oregon. The man embodies the history of the ever-struggling underground musician, be it sixties garage or psychedelia, seventies hard rock or punk, or eighties country-punk. Hard Wired In Ljubljana is an honest, undubbed live album (Dead Moon's second) taken from their first-ever European tour. The guitars aren't always in tune and the audience isn't always attentive. They run relentlessly through a selection of twenty tunes, which include plenty of crowd banter. Their style might not be everyone's cup of tea these days, but songs like "Going South" and "Killing Me" are pretty damn good, regardless. Cole's wife and bassist, Toady (!), chips in with a few numbers as well. She sounds like Patti Smith, (which is a compliment) and sums up their philosophy neatly: "it should sound raw to be rock and roll." Words to live by!"


Our comments: we weren't aware of any dress code... and Hard Wired was recorded during Dead Moon's 1.893rd European tour (or maybe not, but it certainly wasn't their first!)


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