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From The Desk Of OFF!’s Dimitri Coats: My Favorite Interview Subject

Hardcore will never die, at least while Keith Morris is still alive and kicking. The 55-year-old Morris co-founded the legendary Black Flag with Greg Ginn before leaving the band three years later to start the equally seminal Circle Jerks with future Bad Religion guitarist Greg Hetson. That band lasted a decade, though since 1994, the Circle Jerks have continued to tour sporadically but haven’t released a new album since 1995. That was going to change when the band convened last year with producer Dimitri Coats (Burning Brides) to work on new material. The result, however, was Morris quitting the CJs and forming OFF!, a new hardcore supergroup with Coats on guitar, Steven McDonald (Redd Kross) on bass and Mario Rubalcaba (Rocket From The Crypt, Hot Snakes) on drums. OFF! recorded four EPs that will be released as a vinyl boxed set, First Four EPs (Vice), on December 14. The band will also be guest editing magnetmagazine.com all week. Read our Q&A with Morris.

Dimitri: I was asked to interview William Reid for Goldmine magazine in 2007. The greatest challenge was not the interview itself but the extremely difficult task of transcribing the mumblings of a severely inebriated Scottish rock star. Reid has written many incredible songs, and the Jesus And Mary Chain, of course, has reached legendary status. One time he leaned over to my wife and told her he was depressed because he had grey pubes. That pretty much sums it up. Reid is an incredibly talented and mischievous child trapped inside a 50-year-old body. I took a photo of him that the magazine didn’t use. Here’s that, along with the link to the interview.