URGENT FURY
from Artcore #6, 1988
This bands needs and/or deserves the attention it's lacking. To bad that they don't play too much. They've become very selective, for it would mean playing with another band "that wouldn't compromise your beliefs and it was always impossible". These are Abraham's words, one real individual aware and genuinely sincere. The band is still alive and has plans to keep on going, so don't forget the band!
Why did Urgent Fury materialize, what were the intentions or interests?
Urgent Fury materialized haphazardly. It sort of just happened. I had been trying to start a band since 1980, none of the bands I started even got out of the studio except for this one. The idea was to find an outlest, a kind of catharsis to make loud, powerful, compassionate musicwith some kind of conviction. I wanted to have a serious band, not a rock band or a hardcore band that wears all the cool clothes and hairstyles and goes through all the motions without the real feelings behind it. I was sick of all these rich white kids in torn clothing saying "I'm angry, I'm upset, fuck you, fuck you, fuck you" all this at a hundred miles, but why? Why are you angry? Everybody around me was saying how important The Scene was, but all I saw was a clique and a mob and a set of goons and tons of clothes and pretense - no reality in it. So Urgent Fury reacted against that too, and and criticized all the punks who reacted against society while reproducing it's injustices and microcosm.
Have Urgent Fury accomplished anything else besides making music? Did your music affect anyone at a certain degree?
I don't know exactly what you mean by this question. My drummer Harry worked nine hours everyday and Zev and I were full time students. There wasn't time to show up at every hipster activists event and stand around and look cool. No time to sit around and get seen at clubs, just work and band. I'm pleased to know that my music has affected people. I get all strange when I get letters about the effect my music has on others, and it's an incredible feeling... but I can't say I hope to change this world. One would hope that the calamities of the 60's would push such illusions from people's heads concerning the powers of music. Music can challenge but it's reach is very limited, especially nowadays when rock music is so compartmentalized. You can't force people to care about starving kids in Ethiopia, or Brooklyn for that matter, so it's better to try challenging them. Everyone, punks, leftists, rightists, inbetweenists, because no one is free of dogma and sloganism. People are too used to speak in phrases. The real words somehow never come, people just want to "belong". To the party, to the cause, to the movement, to be a punk, there must be some way to get beyond the pretense and find the reality, the objective good.
What do you think it's the important thing to do to help the scene, what are you doing in this case?
I don't believe in the scene, all I believe is in music. I haven't seen eye to eye with the scene in this city and I still don't. To me, this scene is a putrid boil that needs to be lanced, it should be killed. A new thing should rise up and dance on it's grave, that's what I want to work for. We have refused to play shows with bands we felt would make us look like hypocrites, bands who didn't think about things like racism, sexism, violence. We want nothing to do with that shit, we're not a scene, we're Urgent Fury and we want people to come see us without getting their heads kicked in by goons.
What drives you to write the songs, can you explain why you wrote "58,000 dead", "Body count", "TET", what other topics would you like to sings about?
The songs just happen, it's not part of a political philosophy (to me politics is like a machine that sometimes eat people). It's just rage, sometime I relate to veterans from 'Nam, some of which lived on my street like beggars, they went thrgh heavy shit and this is the thanks they get! So I scribbled "58,000 dead" one day after hours with my guitar: the guitar too enrages me, because it never wants to dowhat I want to do, we fight. The rage flows into the song. I relate to the underdog, I love to get to the heart without getting didactic or preachy, like writing a short story.
How do you like the way the scene is going (or do you), do you think that all kids will finally do something other than going to shows and enjoying themselves, any modest proposals?
Theres no problems with kids going to showsand enjoying themselves. But why then, if that's all there is to it, do punks pontificte and rant about all those Madonna fans who do exactly the same thing? Punk no longer differs, to me it has all blended together, the idea is to get kids to think more, that's all, not program them to a certain way, just think. My songs are hardly ever answers, just questions. I'm disgusted that most kids are more unto being punk than being people, people who care about life, and animals and cruelty. There's more to life than getting a Mohawk. I did the leather jacket/combat boots thing too, it meant a lot to me once, but as soon as I saw I was just another in a long line, the novelty wore off. I discovered I had to carve my own identity on my own without my jacket's help. I had to leave it behind, me a bit, I feel more together now, I don't think about clothes, I dress anyway I want. Because I believe the whole punk thing is simple individuality. Unfortunate that many individuals find themselves battling with the punk trend now.
Could you introduce the band to our readers, can you give a discography, where could you be contacted?
Urgent Fury used to be Zev Rogoff; bass, Harry Viderci (ex Sic Fuc); drums, and Abraham Rodriguez; guitars and vocals. As of June, Zev left because he got married and had lost interest. Harry is still around, though very busy. I'm playing with some new people, a new tape is in the works, and there's the record, which will be out hopefully by December. Weve had a 10 song demo cassette out for two years, which is still quite popular, it sells for $4 ppd and comes with lyrics and a badge and lots of rambling. There's also a rag I put out called "State Of Fury" which is a harangue sheet and is free, just expression and a challenge or two, I welcome all mail. Urgent Fury is still around and will be for along time, we stand to be inspected. I stand behind every word.
Any last coments to provoke us back to reality, any insights?
Always ask questions, always suspect someone and put that person to the test. No one is untouchable, nothing is inviolate, always question. The good 'ole dialectic never fails to expose a phony. Thanks, Abraham.
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