RIP - Ryan Noel

don't blame the messenger.

I saw Army of Ghosts once, they were fantastic. Too bad.

I know that for many of us, the allure of heroin is almost completely irresistable. We have to know what it feels like. Fine, fine. I'm cool with that. But can we please remember to differentiate between having to find out what the fuss is all about and fucking dying from it?

Your friend,

John
P.S. Ryan Noel, if yours was an intentional overdose i.e. suicide then I am sorry for being an insensitive bastard.

I was confused by that post as well, it seems Ryan played with them at some point, also played in Gerald Cosley's group Air Traffic Controllers.

a.r.e weapons made good singles.

Actually, I believe Frank Kogan (who is neither rich nor famous, though he deserves to be both) voted for both the Celine Dion and ARE Weapons CDs on his Pazz and Jop ballot last year. But I don't understand what anything in the quote above has to do with their music. Which was actually really good, at least on their album. Live shows were horrible, but I don't think Ryan Noel was very responsible for either. It's sad, though, if he did indeed overdose.

How very original of him.

Celine's music is *way* more important than her image. (In fact, Celine doesn't even *have* an image, I don't think!) So is ARE Weapons's.

I didn't know making an anti-heroin stance would be so controversial.

Whatever, you're sad, I can understand, but I don't know what you mean by "my bullshit," because if you think I was trying to make fun of him... somehow (???), I wasn't.

And I fucking liked ARE Weapons, for the record.

It's such a shame to see young people die like this.

Hstencil is right - some of you are being real dicks about this. I can't imagine why anyone would feel the need to talk shit in a discussion like this. It's just not the place.

Ok, that was sarcastic and mean and unnecessary. Sorry. But I'm putting that in anyway to suggest that some of you need to get off your high horses- we all see/read/hear about all kinds of people dying every day and don't even stop to think about it for a moment.

We've got all sorts of SERIOUS global problems going on right now, and you people are going to get offended because someone says "so fucking what?" about a bit-player in a cliche band dying of....a cliche?!

Sorry, but it's this kind of ridiculous celebrity worship that pisses me off....

er, no it isn't. what a dumb thing to say.

i can understand why someone who lives in abject poverty with no hope of escape might start taking smack. but when intelligent creative people feel the need to get into it i am left bewildered as to why. i mean, they know what they are getting themselves into.

all the jazz legends who got into smack seemed to do so because it was the 'hip' thing to do. if you didn't shoot up, you weren't in the 'inner circle'. that same 'hipness' has festered in rock music for far too long. sure many of my favourite musicians were junkies but that doesn't mean i don't think they were stupid fucks and i can't imagine getting upset if any of them died from an od. tragic yes, but when they shot that first spike into their vein, they knew what the possible outcome might be.

weirdly enough responding to myself here, but i heard they have more members live these days, and as i don't tend to go see them, maybe he was back, i don't know...

Yes, but they took the plunge for a reason that goes way out further and deeper than a presumed hipness quotient. If you've never felt the urge to escape into that world in the first place, you don't fully understand the trapping allure of the drug. For so many junkies I know, heroin seems to initially act as a substitute for the love (NOT lust) that's never been reciprocated, and that is so lacking in their own empty lives. It helps to fill that emotinal void momentarily. When you have nothing else going for you and have been psychologically damaged to the point where you TRULY believe you are nothing but a loser, heroin might seem like a slow, more pleasurable way to commit suicide.

i understand it perfectly. it crossed my mind many time during my 20's. i had a mostly horrendous decade and giving up seemed like the easiest option on numerous occasions. my whole life felt like a vast cavernous void and i was looking for something to fill it. but, i have a very addictive personality so knew what would happen if i went down that path and frankly, i was too scared.

one of my best friends from this era was possibly thee most talented / best dj i have ever heard in my life. if he hadn't destroyed himself i have no doubt that he would today be globally renowned. he ended up selling almost his entire collection to fund his habit. i ended up buying loads of the records he sold and put them in storage hoping one day he would come through it and return to his art. it isn't going to happen. if i see him now, i just want to burst into tears at the sheer waste of it all.

perhaps my 'facist' attitude to heroin is a 'there but for the grace of god go i' reaction?

I do not want to disrespect Ryan Noel, and I have no idea whether he was the type of user that Dan describes or the type that Fr4ncis describes. There's an issue that was brought up earlier in the thread, though--someone describing heroin use, addiction, and O.D.-ing as a cliche.

I want to know the extent to which people perceive drug use as an anachronism. Personally, I don't think my perspective on drugs today is just due to the fact that I'm older. I keep expecting drug use--at least amongst the types of users Dan describes--to fade away. It seems very anachronistic.

And while the idea of heroin chic seems anachronistic, didn't it seem anachronistic when that term first started being used 10 years ago or whenever that was?

This is a huge stretch to be sure, but considering there is an actual physical as well as psychological dependency on drugs.

Like my use of technical terms?

stirmonster: I wasn't referring to you AT ALL (I actually related to some of the concerns you expressed), but if you feel that indictable...nah, I only tease. However, I do relate far too closely with yr story; therefore, I sympathize.

C/D - writing posts then not submitting them because you decide it's just not worth it? I do it all the time on all sorts of threads. Even now I wonder if I'll post this.

and yes, yes I did post that.

"When we started using it, it was such a cliche. Kind of like the New York thing to do, you know, coming up to New York...I mean, drugs are lame, but to me, that was like the attraction in a way...That was our attitude. It was like the postmodern scene, man. It was my attitude to go through all this stuff. I was in a punk rock band, the baddest-ass band in New York." - Neil Hagerty, interviewed in Your Flesh, 1993.

Anyway, RIP Ryan. You callous, courderoy-wearing, Moby-looking fucking nerds.

Anyway, good to know that Spencer cat is still alive. I still remember the time Actress opened for my band - I've been trying to get Chris Freeman to send me a tape of some of their stuff for years...fucking awesome.

RIP RYAN!!!!!!!

Ryan Noel died of an H overdose.
a) Oh no, he was a cool guy, died too young/ I knew / liked him
b) Never heared of him, yeah sad but whatever.
c) Good. Another H head gone hooray.
d) other.

So, today you have a reason to fly off the handle. Good to know.

Again: fuckin', why? A young man dies senselessly owing to addictive behavior, people talk heatedly about addiction and the complicated feelings that arise when people die because of foolish choices they've made: how is this bad? I'll take it over a thread with people saying "well, heaven's got one more saxophone player now I guess...R.I.P." and so forth (admittedly ilx0r has not to my knowledge ever descended to the "Heaven's great rock 'n' roll jam session" trope...yet). This thread is bad because it's been insensitive? If anything, this thread provides a model for building discourse from a pointless death. Said building is often awkward and uncomfortable and sometimes ugly, but awkward & uncomfortable & ugly is how good things are built. Stence I don't know if I'm one of the guys under indictment here, but I've buried enough junkie friends to feel like airing out yr feelings, whatever they are, is preferable to pouring beer out on the curb.

Exactly. I wouldn't say even most junkies condone what they do.

only to pine for Clikatat Ikatowi... which ryan had played bass with. (also besides are weapons... aylers angels...)

sigh,
m.

they were good.

so it goes...
m.

Anyways, from today's NY Post Page Six gossip column (with an accompanying photo of Paul Sevigny, which is sort of sad I think, for a number of reasons)

Also: BB King's? What's the story with that? It's been a while since I lived in NY, but surely there are other venues?

Anyways, R.I.P...

On to the article:

June 28, 2004 -- RYAN Noel, the guitarist and bass player for buzzed-about electroclash band A.R.E. Weapons, has died of a heroin overdose. He was 29. Noel's body was found in the band's SoHo studio earlier this month, said bandmate Paul Sevigny. "The real tragedy is as far as anyone knew, he wasn't using," Sevigny said. "His life was going really well. He was really happy. It blindsided all of us." Noel was a semi-pro skateboarder who also played in the cult band Clikatat Ikatowi. Sevigny and bandmates Brain McPeck, Matt McAuley and Erik Rappin issued this statement: "Ryan is [bleeping] awesome." The band will pay tribute to their fallen comrade during their show at B.B. King's Blues Club on July 13.

THE VOLUPTUOUS HORROR OF KAREN BLACK
Featuring:
Special Guests
ANGELBLOOD * BATTLETORN * ANTONY
A.R.E. WEAPONS * JULIE ATLAS MUSE

Angelblood being Gang Gang Dance/Rita Ackerman related and Battletorn being famous heavy metal fan Omid's metal band, and I assume they mean Julie Atlas Muz. I remember thinking how odd a show that was considering the location, but looking at the schedule, they have a pretty diverse line-up of acts planned. Marthsall Tucker Band and Napalm Death, for instance.