Coulter's Snatch

Ten reasons I love "string-punishing punk minstrel" Ed Hamell (aka Hamell on Trial):

Songs for Parents Who Enjoy Drugs, his latest album, about which Ed says "I've seen a lot of resentful parents who put aside their passions" more here

The track Coulter's Snatch, which, according to Ed, must stink

"I love Iggy and the Stooges, Lou Reed, the MC5" [so much so that he named his son Detroit]. "Folk singers bore me. Insincerity incites me."

"I'm trying to make the point that us left-wingers have to breed. There's too much breeding going on with the right."

"Eventually, Bush will be eating a child's heart on TV, and the Democrats will say, "Well, at least he won't eat two." So, I really don't have to care about the facts. I'm just enraged at this point."

Hamell says [the song Inquiring Minds] was inspired by the question that tortures every parent: How much about your youthful indiscretions should you share with your children, when they inevitably ask? "That was the conversation my wife and I had," Hamell says. "She said, 'I'm going to tell the truth. I made mistakes. This was not a good thing to do.' And I thought, 'I'm just going to lie.'"

The song "John Lennon", about a 1971 encounter with his hero ("Fuck off!" Lennon snapped). I can't help wonder what John would think of Ed at 51...

"I realized that the sonic structure of the acoustic guitar was broader than that of the electric guitar, so I could fill in where the bass and drums would be, all by myself." And then some...

When I saw Hamell on Trial for the first time live at the Joe Strummer tribute show at Irving Plaza in 2003, only he and Eugene Hutz approached the intensity worthy of Joe. Ed has not disappointed the two times I've seen him since. I can't believe I just missed him on the west coast...

Ed's one-man show is put together around a theme common in his songs. "The message," Hamell said, "is 'Love, and don't be a fucking dick."

Listen to Songs for Parents Who Enjoy Drugs (including Coulter's Snatch) in its entirety