The great Suicidal Tendencies album cover mystery
a book giveaway, big stage propaganda and the Gulf of Idiocracy
Are we having fun yet? Never mind. Don’t answer that.
As I mentioned on my Notes page, I tried to come up with something “clever” to say about the “big game” but came up empty.
It’s not my fault. What, with all of the daily insanity going on lately, it’s kinda hard to stay focused on any single thing and not just feel numb.
But, umm, yeah.
For all the think pieces about the half-time show all I could come up with was this:
A protest during one of the largest corpo propaganda events in the world is still just part of the show.
Take from that what you will.
I read a story this morning about how the white man’s house is banning the Associated Press from covering things because they refuse to change their style guidelines to accommodate captain stupid’s ridiculous and racist change to the Gulf of Mexico.
The AP basically told him to fuck off and so now, like a child, he’s banning them from covering things. Normally, I’d argue this is a clear case of violating the first amendment but at this point who’s even keeping score?
I titled my second collection of poetry/prose AmeriKKKan Stories. I had great difficulty advertising it because of this. I did it in homage to Ice Cube’s album AmeriKKKa’s Most Wanted.
Alas, I learned the hard way that I am not, in fact, Ice Cube and that gangster rap sells ridiculously better than underground poetry, 3 Ks or not.
Anyway, I took it upon myself to fix the map to the correct and true spelling as seen below. You’re welcome.
In other news, because I’m a weirdo and obsess over things that normal people wouldn’t even dream of, I thought I’d share this in case one of you can help. If you can and can prove it, I’ll send you a copy of my book, This Is Fine.
It’s no secret that one of my favorite bands of all-time is Suicidal Tendencies. I’ve been a fan since I was a little kid trading cassettes with friends and trying to find myself.
For a young and awkward Chicano kid who struggled to carve out an identity in white suburbia and who came from the wrong side of the tracks, and enjoyed heavy metal/thrash and skating, finding ST was a godsend. Their album How Will I Laugh Tomorrow When I Can’t Even Smile Today? changed my life, literally.
I have been suicidal 4 life ever since.
Fast forward all these years later, what with the ability to look anyone and anything up, coupled with having a massive record collection that I catalog on Discogs, and you start to look at your favorite albums with a little more scrutiny and obsession. Or maybe that’s just me.
For whatever reason, I started to obsess over the cover for How Will I Laugh and in particular, where the photos for the album were taken. Why, exactly, did I start obsessing over this..? No clue.
I started off on Discogs and was able to converse with a few other fans about the location of the cover photos. The front and back cover look similar so it seems logical that they would have been taken in the same location.
After digging it was clear that the back cover photo was taken at the Saint Sophia Greek Orthodox Cathedral, which is in L.A. in-between Pico Blvd and Venice Blvd.
I verified this by looking up the church on Google Maps and comparing photos and even using the 3D feature, as well as looking at photos people have taken of the church. You can clearly see where the back cover photo was taken. Mystery solved…sort of.
Oddly enough, a Suicidal fan on TikTok posted a video about visiting the church and that also reinforced the find.
Despite figuring out where the back cover photo was taken, nothing that I could find online about the church matched the front cover photo!
As far as I can tell, there is nowhere on the St. Sophia campus that matches the front cover…despite the architecture style looking similar. Unless the church had a different building in the 80s that no longer exists, the front cover photo was taken at a different location. But where?? Venice?
This led me back to Discogs and someone there said that they think the front cover photo was taken at the Angelus-Rosedale Cemetery, which, oddly enough is just a couple of blocks from the church on Venice Blvd.
The only problem is that I cannot verify anywhere that the front cover photo was actually taken there. I tried looking at map photos and pics of the cemetery online, which has some interesting grave sites, but I can’t find that same structure the band posed in front of on the cover.
Goddamnit.
It would make sense if they were doing a photoshoot to stay in the same area so I’m inclined to think that the front cover was taken at the cemetery, I just can’t prove it yet.
So, I went back to my journalist roots and tracked down the photographer. He’s listed on the album cover and in Wikipedia and his name is Mark Weiss. Weiss is a well-known and respected photographer who made his bones photographing bands and rock stars and it just so happens that he shot the cover for How Will I Laugh.
I used my Google-Fu and tracked him down and emailed him.
To my surprise he responded.
However, instead of just telling me where the front photo was shot he gave me two resources to check out. One was a Facebook page dedicated to finding and researching famous band cover photos. Disappointingly, the album in question was not found there.
The other resource was an Instagram page dedicated to finding the location of band cover photos. The album was indeed there! But! Hilariously, the person running the page ran into the same wall I did; he found the back cover location but was stumped on the front cover.
Dead end.
I wrote the photographer back and thanked him for his time and added that neither resource he provided panned out and that no one knows where that photo was taken. I asked him again if he remembered where he took it.
He never responded.
I’m inclined to think that he simply doesn’t remember.
I also contacted an artist for the band, responsible for some of their most iconic band flyers back in the day. He responded that he had no clue.
Fuck!
The building looks like it might be a mausoleum or crypt. It’s adorned by palms and has a crucifix on top and a door frame with flower pendants around it and a green wrought iron fence with ornate decoration.
But where the fuck is it?!
So, I am now asking you, loyal reader, if you know or know someone who would know, where this photo was taken.
If you can identify it and verify the location, I’ll send you a signed copy of my book, This Is Fine, along with a couple of goodies.
I figure someone out there has to recognize this building...it’s driving me nuts.
I’m scheduled to see Suicidal Tendencies in concert later this year, so if no one can help and you by chance see a news blip about a crazy old man trying desperately to get backstage and screaming about an album cover photo, that will be me.
Until then.
S/C
Have you sent a message to Mike? He’s usually pretty responsive, I’m thinking it’s a cemetery pic, the corners of the building must be in an area where there is not too much road traffic, so looking into a rectory plaza or cemetery is that sort of architecture, but most of the buildings around Venice that had religious significance back then were white plaster on the outside, the stonework siding is another reason I’m thinking it’s gotta be a cemetery & I’m sure it’s most likely the one that was closest to the stairs of the church where the back photo was taken…seems like Weiss woulda shot in an area where he took a couple of rolls of shots & they were looking for that gothic cemetery kinda vibe…