Free The Kill Riff by David J. Schow Page A

the Marketts," said Lucas, trapped in a detour on Nostalgia Lane. "The song was called 'Outer Limits' until the TV show threatened suit."
        "Yeah. Hey, you're pretty good at this yourself."
        "And I'm not a sixties relic, either. I just need to catch up on the last couple of years."
        "Seventies sucked, didn't they?"
        "Beyond prog-rock, Roxy Music and Talking Heads and King Crimson, I'd agree with you."
        "Hah." Garris grinned. It was a very huge grin. "You're my man. You want the most representative Whip Hand album, I'd say get Overkill. Aptly named. It was overkill for Jackson Knox to have six strings on his guitar for the type of crud Whip Hand churned out. Amazingly, he's become a respectable solo act, now."
        "I want to back-trace the history of the group to their breakup. Delineate where each group member ended up. If you've got any videos, particularly concert stuff, I'm interested in that, too. Knox has gone solo?"
        Garris had already slipped a copy of Overkill from the maze of bins. "Yep. Two albums. The first one, High Dive , you can have for two ninety-nine, since nobody wanted it for list." It had been remaindered but had not yet made it to On the Brink's top floor. It had been stocked together with the newer album in hopes of some crossover sales. " Panic Stop is new. But you can get it for six ninety-nine if you buy any other nonspecial list-priced album. Which you just did, with Overkill."
        "Tell me about the breakup."
        "Whip Hand disbanded… um, December of 1984. Knox became a solo act. He's touring right now. Brion Hardin took his keyboards through a couple of groups, all losers, before moving in with a band called Electroshock. I think he might've been with Uriah Heep for one album-everybody else was-then Limey Iron, then maybe backed up Johnny Scepter on a tour. That stuff is pedestrian. You a completist?"
        "Not that much of one. Give me what's current."
        "The battle cry of most of my customers. If it's older than six months, they're not interested. Here's Electroshock: Two albums so far. Force Me and The Crash of '86. They'll vanish after their next album, mark my words."
        "Another three-song band?"
        "Only if they're lucky. Now." Garris struck a sort of rockologist's pose. "The rhythm section of Whip Hand was transplanted intact into a more hardcore band called 'Gasm. Your classic black-leather nonsense. 'Gasm started out as a glitter band in seventy-eight, did three albums everybody forgot, and reemerged in 1982 as a sort of biker act-motorcycle chains, bondage gear, special effects, flame pots, hot poses, the works. Chording right out of Learn to Play Electric Bass with the Ventures. Dry-ice smoke, strobe lights, gimmicks out the wazoo. They're so regressive I think they're the only live act that still destroys their instruments. I dunno. Is Ritchie Blackmore dead yet?"
        Lucas laughed as Garris wound his way to the appropriate bins.
        "Right here in the 'has bin,' " he cracked. "Here ya go-meet 'Gasm. Hold your nose." He handed Lucas two albums. Pain Threshold and Primal Scream , the latter a two-record live set.
        "I don't know how to thank you," said Lucas, shaking his head with comic bewilderment.
        "This music will scare the tread right off a snow tire. The fundamentalists were burning Pain Threshold last year; it was supposed to have Satanist propaganda backward-masked into the grooves. This was when Judas Priest canceled their Palladium show and Ozzy Osbourne got sued for allegedly prompting some kid's suicide. Sales went through the ceiling. The bible thumpers are the best thing to happen to the record business since Paul McCartney's phony death. Or John Lennon's real one, come to think of it. Double Fantasy would've died if poor John hadn't."
        Lucas pored over the discs and nodded sagely. "Dangerous stuff, huh?"
        "You betcha. When the Mad Mommies started