Remembering Maggie Estep 3/20/63 – 2/12/14 and Broome Closet Anti-Folk Sessions 3-tracks

(from Broome Closet Anti-Folk Sessions 89 on 109 Records)

Today I’m going to post a poem by Maggie Estep. She was on Broome Closet Anti-Folk Sessions (109 Records). It was her first time on an LP, but she went on to do big things performing, recording and writing books. She died not too long ago but she will never be forgotten. One of the true great artists of our oft-overrated Lower East Side / East Village Scene. I never put out the Anti-Folk III LIVE LP fully edited and mastered with a SCINTILLATING recording of this and two other of her masterful poems which all made the final cut prior to her rise as an alternative rock poetess and MTV’s Spoken Word Tour with Broome Closet Anti-Folk co-conspirator John S. Hall of King Missile -Dog Fly Religion. Maybe down the road I’ll post it if there’s popular demand or if Anti-Folk archivists request a historic re-accounting of the scene at large for posterity.

At the time I was already in law school and had wrapped up the label, wound down the corporation and dissolved it debt free. There were those who put forth the notion that since I was “ripping off” the artists they should stop me from putting out AF III. I hired entertainment lawyer Judy Tint for $1200 to go and knock on each artist’s door to tell my side of the story. The artists would get any proceeds from sales in equally divided pro rata shares spelled out in the royalty section of the two-page contract she handed to them or left with a personal note. This was a waste of time and money.

The record never came out. It wasn’t necessary. Truth was tons of press never equaled tons of cash. Running an East Village record label was fun and rewarding but the end of the LP era was upon us. Some of the artists were signed by the major labels. Those “majors” ushered in the digital file CD as the one and only replacement for the analog LP. Their profits would soon plummet due to the ripping of digital files off the CDs for free. But just maybe if they would have instituted DRM (Digital Rights Management) software, they might have prevented the now accepted giving away of music for free. Cassettes were for convenience, never intended to replace the importance of the LP. The majors did the format switch impulsively without thinking about the long-term consequences to a) stop indie upstart labels in our tracks; and b) make huge profits.

Bad move.

Fuck Folk! was our alternate title, and Maggie Estep was THE highlight thus elevating the value of releasing the mostly rag-tag live recordings by a very nice and dedicated Swedish documentary filmmaking duo trying to patch together the remaining spirit of a splintering scene. The couple asked me to put AF III out with the movie and promote it together. 109 was the Anti-Folk compilations label by default. The only other comp products were cassettes put out by Lach. Jesse Rifkin in his book This Must Be the Place refers to a beef between Lach and myself as to why he did not appear on Broome Closet. However, Lach willingly recorded “Poor Town”, a fine track opening Side B on White Trash NY Folk Volume 1. The Anti-Folk name is credited to Cindy Lee Berryhill who was inspired by the term Anti-Art. She also has two tracks on Broome Closet. I had a moderately successful local indie label when the scene needed one after the ‘88 riots. 109 got the lead Village Voice article for White Trash NY Folk Vol. 1 and a lot of other press, tons of airplay on college radio, and retail distribution. Lach put out cassettes under The Fort banner, named after his roving club, then stationed at Sidewalk. LPs were still the only game in town to be universally accepted as official releases worthy of media attention. His loss was my gain and opportunity, and the rivalry was born.

Sit back and relax and take a journey down memory lane or even for the first time and view a choice clip from the excellent Anti-Folk Movie with the cast of many: Roger Manning, Paleface, Billy Syndrome, Casey Scott, Lach, Mike Rimbaud, Brenda Kahn, Chad Crumm, Mark Zero, et al. The recording on a 12 Track TASCAM was held at a below street level club now called DROM 85 Avenue A in the East Village. Back then it was shortly called Beowulf aptly named after another epic poem by Anonymous.

Without further ado here’s… Maggie Estep’s epic poem “Fuck Me”, written by our poet laureate of the late 80’s - 90’s East Village days and even longer nights. Rest In Peace!

“Fuck Me” by Maggie Estep

FUCK ME I'm all screwed up so FUCK ME. FUCK ME and take out the garbage, feed the cat and FUCK ME you can do it, I know you can. FUCK ME and theorize about Sado Masochism's relationship to classical philosophy tell me how this stimulates the fabric of most human relationships, I love that kind of pointless intellectualism so do it again and FUCK ME. Stop being logical stop contemplating the origins of evil and the beauty of death this is not a TV movie about Plato sex life, this is FUCK ME so FUCK ME It's the pause that refreshes just add water and FUCK ME. I wrote this so I'd have a good excuse to say "FUCK ME" over and over and over so I could get a lot of attention and look, it worked! So, thank you thank you and fuck ME!

Her first recording release from the Broome Closet Anti-Folk Sessions “Paradise Lost”

Kirk Kelly (SST) “New City” also from Broome Closet Anti-Folk Sessions 1989 on 109

and “Funky Stairway” Billy Syndrome (109 Records) featuring Banjovi and Evil Jim!