Whatever happened to the Happy Flowers?

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Evoking the nightmare world of childhood trauma with insight, humor and surprising heart, the duo of ex-Landlords members Mr. Anus (guitarist Charlie Kramer) and Mr. Horribly-Charred Infant (vocalist John Beers) teamed as the Happy Flowers in their native Charlottesville, Virginia in 1983. They debuted the following summer with a pair of EPs, Songs for Children and Now We Are Six (later collected as 1987's Making the Bunny Pay), establishing their singular aesthetic -- brutal, improvisational noise laced with wailing, infant-like vocals -- over the course of tracks like "Mom and Dad Like the Baby More Than Me," "I Wet the Bed Again," "Mom, I Gave the Cat Some Acid" and "All the Toys Hate Me."

Reading the AMG profile has just made me all desperate to hear them again but all I have is a couple of tracks taped off John Peel in a box somewhere in Oxfordshire.

A genius concept for a band, and some of the best song titles ever (as I said on another thread, I think "If This Gun Were Real (I Could Shoot You and Sleep in the Big Bed With Mommy)" is my favourite.

― N. (nickdastoor), Friday, 11 July 2003 18:01 (twenty-two years ago)

Sheer. Unfettered. Unhomogenized. Genius!

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Friday, 11 July 2003 18:03 (twenty-two years ago)

yikes!

― N. (nickdastoor), Friday, 11 July 2003 18:15 (twenty-two years ago)

i was just thinking about them the other day....reunion pleez!!!

― ddb, Friday, 11 July 2003 18:15 (twenty-two years ago)

"Why Can't We Eat the Baby (Like the Gerbils Did)" was almost a weekly staple of my first radio show...

― Kingfish (Kingfish), Friday, 11 July 2003 18:22 (twenty-two years ago)

"I said: I wanna watch cartoons!"

― J0hn Darn1elle (J0hn Darn1elle), Friday, 11 July 2003 18:24 (twenty-two years ago)

And let's not forget their cover of "Bring On the Dancing Horses." Which was about thirty seconds long and consisted most of noise and screams.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Friday, 11 July 2003 18:57 (twenty-two years ago)

Whoa - sometime in the last 10 minutes, AMG implemented a new design, where you can scroll through the band bios now. (And added a charity ad rail.) Neat.

― Sam J. (samjeff), Friday, 11 July 2003 18:58 (twenty-two years ago)

They did? Hm...*checks*...nice! Next step is to do that for the huge list of albums some people have released...

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Friday, 11 July 2003 19:07 (twenty-two years ago)

Last I heard, John Beers (Mr. HCI) was in Atlanta and working for webMD, but then again, that was in '99 or '00, when one could realistically work for a dotcom like webMD.

Mega-props for those first 2 7"s, though...good god I could not play "The Vacuum Ate Timmy" enough on my college radio show.

Also worth checking out was Beers' "rock band" the Landlords, who released an album on his Catch Trout label.

― Baked Bean Teeth (Baked Bean Teeth), Friday, 11 July 2003 19:11 (twenty-two years ago)

Ha, I was thinking of the Hothouse Flowers, and I was reading that description like "What the fuck?"

― NA. (Nick A.), Friday, 11 July 2003 19:16 (twenty-two years ago)

The Vacuum Ate Timmy is one of the tracks I had taped. What a chilling performance.

― N. (nickdastoor), Friday, 11 July 2003 19:16 (twenty-two years ago)

Also worth checking out was Beers' "rock band" the Landlords, who released an album on his Catch Trout label.

I've got it, too, and I liked it. I haven't heard it in fifteen years, so I can't remember why I liked it, but I liked it.

― Christine 'Green Leafy Dragon' Indigo (cindigo), Saturday, 12 July 2003 01:31 (twenty-two years ago)

i saw them play in the spring of 2000, in charlottesville. they were opening for yo la tengo, who they blew away. i had never heard of them before that night, so it was a very memorable introduction to the works of mr. anus and mr. horribly charred infant. i don't know if they were on any sort of tour or what; don't think i've heard of them playing anywhere else since.

― brains (cerybut), Saturday, 12 July 2003 18:53 (twenty-two years ago)

I guessed this was a Dastoor thread. The fact that I was right makes me very happy, though not in the smug sense.

― Michael Jones (MichaelJ), Saturday, 12 July 2003 19:06 (twenty-two years ago)

I also saw them on that tour in 2000, but in Maryland. They covered "Thirteen" and forgot the words which made it even more beautiful. To say they were unprepared is an understatement, but I was in no way dissatisifed with the performance either (and I drove from Boston to catch it!).

They do have a web page though it doesn't look like it's been updated in awhile.

― zaxxon25 (zaxxon25), Saturday, 12 July 2003 21:17 (twenty-two years ago)

The non-potato headed one John was briefly in HP Zinker a long time ago, right? If it's any consolation, there is an AC reunion happening.

― Ian Christe (Ian Christe), Saturday, 12 July 2003 21:29 (twenty-two years ago)

Wow, from the cobwebs of my mind, I just remembered (after reading brains' post above) that James McNew was actually a member of the Happy Flowers in their latter incarnation (after Homestead signed them and they stopped being so funny), before he became YLT's bassist. Or am I totally mis-recalling this?

― Baked Bean Teeth (Baked Bean Teeth), Monday, 14 July 2003 03:18 (twenty-two years ago)

i've got I CRUSH BOZO lp on red vinyl, which showcases their different styles of disturbing, from the headbanging: mrs butcher, to the sager-like piano on toenail fear. but i agree with bbt, the pre-homestead stuff was more entertaining.

― dbini, Monday, 14 July 2003 08:00 (twenty-two years ago)

one year passes...

i love this band with all my heart and soul! my first ever punk band!

― doomie x, Wednesday, 15 June 2005 13:20 (twenty years ago)

You would.

― Dr. C (Dr. C), Wednesday, 15 June 2005 13:30 (twenty years ago)

brilliant songs. i'm listening to my cassette of them right now.

― doomie x, Wednesday, 15 June 2005 13:37 (twenty years ago)

I have "My skin covers my body" on vinyl and a few other things on mp3, love it all!

My wife is less keen...

"There's a soft spot on the baby's head" was on one of my minidisc comps recently.

Best noise rock band ever*.

* possible exaggeration

― Colonel Poo (Colonel Poo), Wednesday, 15 June 2005 13:43 (twenty years ago)

hey has this stuff been reissued -- the late eighties it was all about bummed by the mondays, happy flowers, butthole surfers hairway to steven, sonic youth daydream nation and big black songs about fucking...

― doomie x, Wednesday, 15 June 2005 13:45 (twenty years ago)

I'm not sure if it's been reissued, I don't think it has, but I don't think the records are that hard to get hold of. I found "My skin covers my body" in Camden Record & Video Exchange for about a fiver I think.

― Colonel Poo (Colonel Poo), Wednesday, 15 June 2005 14:00 (twenty years ago)

cool. i just got my reissue of butthole surfers hairway to steven and pulled out my happy flowers tapes and am having a late eighties revival!

― doomie x, Wednesday, 15 June 2005 14:02 (twenty years ago)

I also seem to be having an 80s revival although not deliberately, I've been listening to Venom, UK Subs and Ripcord this afternoon!

I need to get Hairway to Steven. And the 1st EP reissue.

― Colonel Poo (Colonel Poo), Wednesday, 15 June 2005 14:09 (twenty years ago)

I believe they had one last track on some boxed 7" set about ten years ago. And yes, Mr. McNew was briefly their bass player.

― Douglas (Douglas), Wednesday, 15 June 2005 14:12 (twenty years ago)

This is begging for an annotated, authoritative reissue from Ryko. Please, Yahweh, please.

Unhappy Meal is my favorite HF jam. Those chaps were really disturbed. My friend originally bought his first HF record for the cover art and red vinyl (I think), but then we found there was so much more to love.

― BlastsOfStatic (BlastsofStatic), Wednesday, 15 June 2005 14:13 (twenty years ago)

Someone just sent me a link to this thread!

So, a few answers:

James McNew was Mr. Surrogate Roadie (meaning he had a car and we didn't) but was not a member of the band. He did play drums with us a few times, though, before he joined Christmas for their final album and, subsequently, Yo La Tengo ever since.

Nothing has been reissued. Homestead owns the rights and they are no longer in business, AFAIK. This doesn't mean nothing will be reissued, of course, just that rights would have be bought from them and I have no idea what all that entails or how much they'd want.

Our most recent recording was actually from just a few years ago. It's an instrumental track on a compilation called "Two Turds and a Golf Ball" on Hollow Bunny Records out of North Carolina.

I was never a member of H.P. Zinker though I was (and still am) a big fan and was thanked on their second album, "Hovering."

We were *both* members of The Landlords. I was the singer and Mr. Anus was the guitarist. We released one album plus a 7" EP of covers.

Venom rules!

--Mr. HCI

― Mr. Horribly Charred Infant, Wednesday, 15 June 2005 14:57 (twenty years ago)

Hurrah! Stick around, good sir, we'll start the 'raise money to buy back the Homestead stuff' fund here.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Wednesday, 15 June 2005 14:59 (twenty years ago)

wow! its mr horribly charred infant! you were my teenage hero!

i'm in the pleading process with a friend who owns a reissue label to reissue the happy flowers!

― doomie x, Wednesday, 15 June 2005 15:11 (twenty years ago)

HOLY SHIT. Somebody make this happen.

― BlastsOfStatic (BlastsofStatic), Wednesday, 15 June 2005 16:05 (twenty years ago)

Holy smokes, is this THE HF's actually posting, or some cruel prankster?

If it's the real deal, allow me to bow down! I absolutely cherish my battered copy of Now We Are Six.

You are GODS!

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Wednesday, 15 June 2005 16:09 (twenty years ago)

...and Venom DOES rule!

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Wednesday, 15 June 2005 16:10 (twenty years ago)

It's really Mr. HCI. He's a regular on the Matador board and I alerted him to the fanfest taking place over here today.

― Johnny Fever (johnny fever), Wednesday, 15 June 2005 16:27 (twenty years ago)

My hat is off to you Mr. HCI...you were a formative influence on my adolescent ears. I think I played "I Wish I Was Adopted" on every radio show I did at college, whether my Co-DJ's wanted me to or not.

If life is fair, reissues will occur, and I will buy them.

― John Justen (johnjusten), Wednesday, 15 June 2005 19:14 (twenty years ago)

Also worth noting that the Happy Flowers played a reunion show in Charlottesville in February 2004. Again, they destroyed "Thirteen" and read the lyrics off a piece of paper, it was beautiful. They also did "What Goes On" by the VU. John, I remember seeing the Landlords in the summer of '85 at a house party also... you yelled at the hardcore kids and said "Slamming means dancing, not fighting" after some over-enthusiastic kid gave me a bloody nose. Thanks.

Also saw them open for Sonic Youth around Xmas '88, they had a big clock on stage that counted down the ROCK TIME, as in "Oh no! We better do the encore! We're almost out of ROCK TIME!!!"

― sleeve (sleeve), Wednesday, 15 June 2005 19:21 (twenty years ago)

five months pass...

MORE MITTENS I NEED MORE MITTENS

― HF, Thursday, 8 December 2005 15:17 (nineteen years ago)

http://members.aol.com/_ht_a/MrHCIHF/photos/misc/ZZStop.JPG

― HF, Thursday, 8 December 2005 15:17 (nineteen years ago)

maybe they got left behind

― koogs (koogs), Thursday, 8 December 2005 17:41 (nineteen years ago)

The amazing thing about the HF's catalog is once you get past the obvious hits and start digging into the albums a little, you find songs of equal or better quality. Stuff like "Get Paul's Head" and "Toastfire."

― zaxxon25 (zaxxon25), Thursday, 8 December 2005 17:48 (nineteen years ago)

I was a huge, huge fan of "Unhappy Meal," personally.

― Myke Weiskopf (Myke Weiskopf), Friday, 9 December 2005 03:32 (nineteen years ago)

is that a 250 on ramp?

― cffg, Friday, 9 December 2005 04:16 (nineteen years ago)

Probably that one where it intersects 29.

― sleeve (sleeve), Friday, 9 December 2005 04:31 (nineteen years ago)

two weeks pass...

That was an off-ramp somewhere between NYC and Boston, IIRC. We pulled off the highway to go to the bathroom, saw that sign and made James take our picture.

I've lived near 29 most of my life, it seems. My parents house is less than a mile from 29 in Northern Virginia. 29 ran right through the middle of Charlottesville, VA where I went to college, and our house in Georgia is a mile or so off 29.

Paul was my best friend when I was six. He did not get his head knocked off, though; he moved to Houston.

BTW, there's another reunion show coming up in mid-March. I'll update our site at http://members.aol.com/MrHCIHF when I have more info.

― Mr.HCI, Monday, 26 December 2005 15:25 (nineteen years ago)

listening to Happy Flowers while on tour in Holland circa '96 saved me from the gaping jaw of despair, seriously - to this day, "I want an angry meal" is something I say to cheer myself up when I'm pissed off

Thank you Mr Horribly Charred Infant!

― Mr Straight Toxic (ghostface), Monday, 26 December 2005 16:21 (nineteen years ago)

one month passes...

this thread makes me so happy.

― Special Agent Gene Krupa (orion), Sunday, 19 February 2006 07:42 (nineteen years ago)

http://www.lyricsforall.com/images/albums/8120/flipper_generic.jpg

― Rickey Wright (Rrrickey), Sunday, 19 February 2006 09:23 (nineteen years ago)

ten months pass...

http://blog.wfmu.org/freeform/2007/01/on_using_happy_.html#more

― My Koogy Weighs A Ton (koogs), Thursday, 11 January 2007 10:02 (eighteen years ago)

sorry, i should've posted a quote rather than just a blind link like that.

"In a post last year, I related how a WFMU listener serving in Iraq had requested some MP3s of the band Happy Flowers so that he could use them as audio aids for his interrogations of Iraqi prisoners.

Well, the listener in question is home now between his second and third tours of duty in Iraq, and he stumbled across that blog post. He sent me an e-mail discussing his use of the tunes, and he indicated it would be OK to print them here as long as I didn't reveal his name..."

― My Koogy Weighs A Ton (koogs), Thursday, 11 January 2007 10:05 (eighteen years ago)

omg

― am0n (am0n), Thursday, 11 January 2007 14:16 (eighteen years ago)

yeah dan bbrain posted that on the presidential address thread over on ile and it is...wow

― ZR (teenagequiet), Thursday, 11 January 2007 14:23 (eighteen years ago)

Mr HCI posts on the Southern Lord board. A very knowledgeable man he is too.

― Brigadier Lethbridge-Pfunkboy (Kerr), Thursday, 11 January 2007 14:38 (eighteen years ago)

He posts there too? He's on the Matador board every day as well.

― Johnny Fever (johnny fever), Thursday, 11 January 2007 15:05 (eighteen years ago)

Um...the topic of this thread revival is um...it's sickening. But I don't want to turn this into a political discussion. I was feeling nauseous just a little while ago and that didn't help.

Anyway, there's a John Peel radio show posted here from 1990 with a Happy Flowers Peel Session on it:

http://www.jonhorne.co.uk/jptapes/jptapes.html

― Good Warlock of the West (Bimble...), Thursday, 11 January 2007 16:33 (eighteen years ago)

intensely, intensely depressing.

― hstencil (hstencil), Thursday, 11 January 2007 17:12 (eighteen years ago)

i lol'd

― am0n (am0n), Thursday, 11 January 2007 20:44 (eighteen years ago)

me too

― The Android Cat (Dan Perry), Thursday, 11 January 2007 20:46 (eighteen years ago)

Me three!

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Thursday, 11 January 2007 20:47 (eighteen years ago)

one year passes...

These guys kinda invented Pissed Jeans, huh?

― M@tt He1ges0n, Tuesday, 24 June 2008 21:39 (seventeen years ago)

but they are funnier. (or they are funnier more often)

― M@tt He1ges0n, Tuesday, 24 June 2008 21:40 (seventeen years ago)

Also better.

― Raw Patrick, Tuesday, 24 June 2008 22:17 (seventeen years ago)

nine months pass...

Mr. Horribly Charred Infant, where art thou?

― Earl of Gothington Manor (Bimble), Monday, 6 April 2009 10:35 (sixteen years ago)

He is one of the few sufferable posters on foreverdoomed.com if you really want to know

― Climate Of Basshunter (DJ Mencap), Monday, 6 April 2009 10:48 (sixteen years ago)

(formerly the Southern Lord board as mentioned by Kerr up there a bit)

― Climate Of Basshunter (DJ Mencap), Monday, 6 April 2009 10:48 (sixteen years ago)

aye

― pfunkboy (Herman G. Neuname), Monday, 6 April 2009 11:24 (sixteen years ago)

dj do you post there?

― pfunkboy (Herman G. Neuname), Monday, 6 April 2009 11:24 (sixteen years ago)

Nah, I read it on the regular cos people are unquestionably knowledgeable as hell but there's too many eliter-than-thou tools and tedious social Darwinists to feel like getting involved. I dunno how you put up with it tbh

― Climate Of Basshunter (DJ Mencap), Monday, 6 April 2009 13:07 (sixteen years ago)

its no different to ilx

― pfunkboy (Herman G. Neuname), Monday, 6 April 2009 13:11 (sixteen years ago)

It's considerably more right wing

― Climate Of Basshunter (DJ Mencap), Monday, 6 April 2009 13:18 (sixteen years ago)

Yeah I got to know HCI via the stonerrock.com forums. He came to see my band play in Atlanta once. Very nice guy.

― Nate Carson, Monday, 6 April 2009 22:51 (sixteen years ago)

five months pass...

I like Happy Flowers. They sing about their feelings and how feelings get hurt.

― MCCCXI (u s steel), Friday, 18 September 2009 14:28 (sixteen years ago)

seven years pass...

bit late responding to dj mencap but i never found the goatshed right wing (apart maybe from bobby) most of the complaints there was that we were too liberal :D anyway mr hci quit sr.com for the goatshed because it was far more welcoming.

john is a top guy.

― Odysseus, Tuesday, 30 May 2017 23:14 (eight years ago)

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