RIP Tony Sly

I don’t get too worked up over celebrity deaths, but there’s a few that get me. Crocodile Hunter, strangely, really broke me up. Jack LaLanne, because I thought for sure he’d make it to 110 at least. Judy Rodgers last year. And now Tony Sly, leader of the South Bay punk band No Use For A Name aka NUFAN.

Why do we like a band? What is it about music and songs that make us says I like this or I don’t like this? And more than that, what makes us say I’m a fan, a fanatic, an irrational follower of this group who likes even their B-sides, even their one-offs, even the worst song on their sell-out album?

Simply put, NUFAN spoke to me. Speaks to me. Wherever Tony Sly came from? Same place I’m from. Same quiet, confused place I count myself lucky to escape from. Lucky to drain the poison from my blood. How else could Tony write about this stuff - how could I? - if we hadn’t been there, tasted that.

I’m writing this at Printers Cafe in Palo Alto. Funny that the one time I saw NUFAN was at the Edge, the club that stood not a football field from where I’m sitting this morning. They tore it down, you know - tore down The Edge. The sight of most of my minor triumphs, aged 16 - 20. The first concert I went to (Dramarama). The first dance club (all ages) I went to. The first dance club I got thrown out of (my friend Jimmy let his underage girlfriend have a sip of his drink). The first time I danced with a girl I didn’t know. The first time I got a girl’s digits. The first time I moshed, the first time I stage dived, the first time I stage dived and didn’t get caught and had to sit in high school class for weeks with a bruised tailbone and a wry grin. The time I danced with a friend’s sister and was in love with her for, oh gosh I don’t know, twenty whole minutes. NIN, KMFDM, Skankin Pickle. And the time - the only time - I saw NUFAN.

Tony Sly was way too young to die. That’s that. Everyone is way too young to die, but come on, Tony Sly was only 41. Yeah I know he partied. Yeah I know he didn’t take care of his body. Still. Tony was way too young to die.

The thing about NUFAN - and I’m not sure I even realized this when I was listening to them a lot - is how un-narcisstic the songs are. Most of my favorite No Use songs read like recovery. Maybe that’s why I was the only one of my friends who really liked them. It’s off-putting shit, at least to a lot of people. To me it was manna. 

Get self-help from punk rock songs? Why not. When I was 19, 21, 23, I was a screwhead. I was a screwhead on his way to long-term screwheadedness. There were a lot of people who helped me get out of that mess of me. Some who knew me personally - those are the real heroes of my personal story, but I digress - and some I knew through their art. Tony Sly was one of the latter. 

Songs like Fatal Flu, Exit, and Invincible resonated with me on a deep level. I recognized those characters. They were me, they were close friends, they were people I knew who I needed to get far away from.

Soulmate was their claim to fame, their one hit wonder, NUFAN’s five minutes in the radio airplay sun. When I saw them at the Edge, they segued into the song with the opening lick from the Beverly Hills 90210 theme. I thought it was such a cook thing to do, and I still do. Radio stars. Oh yeah. Yeah right. 

And it’s still going. I don’t listen to much NUFAN (or any punk) any more. But one afternoon not long ago I found myself listening to Live In A Dive and suddenly realized what an ass I was being in a situation I was in. Just hearing a few lines of Chasing Rainbows and I thought “Holy fuck that’s me in the song, I’m acting weak right now and that’s how I’m releasing my anger”. 

All I want to do is make sure you stop chasing rainbows

Letting everybody crawl inside your heart and mind

Kicking you is easy when you're down that's where the weak go

To release their anger on someone who will not try

To stand up, and give them a fight

Thank you Tony. RIP. Hope to shake your hand someday on the other side of that rainbow, man…