Sea Hags Revisited

Do you remember the metal band, the Sea Hags? (A million years ago, Kim and I won a trip to San Francisco to see them play.)

ANYWAY,

Their 1989 self-titled album, Sea Hags, has been remastered and is now available on Amazon. Even though I don't generally like metal music, I like this Sea Hags album. It just sounds like good, grimy rock and roll. (This may be due to the fact that it was produced by Guns 'N Roses sound engineer, Mike Clink.) Try it, you may like it!

Even if you're not a Sea Hags fan, you may enjoy this article from the online magazine, Sleaze Roxx. It gives a bit of the band's history and includes an interview with surviving band member, Ron Yocum. I never knew before that Guitar god, Kirk Hammett of Metallica, was one of the band's early mentors. Hammett, who is number 11 on Rolling Stone Magazine's list of 100 Greatest Guitar Players of All Time, produced and played on the demo which landed the Sea Hags a contract with Chrysalis Records.

If by chance you are a metal fan, you may want to check out Chuck Klosterman's book, Fargo Rock City. He gives the Sea Hags a short mention. (Come to think of it, even if you're not a metal fan, you'll probably like Fargo Rock City. Klosterman is a really funny writer.)

Although, the Sea Hags career came to a tragic end, front man, Ron Yocum, is still making good music. And more importantly, he is in good health.

Sea Hags

Back in the eighties when I was working at Cutler's Records in New Haven, I entered (and won!) a coloring contest for grown-ups. I read about the competition in a national magazine for music retailers. The purpose of the contest was to promote the rock band, the Sea Hags. The ad was accompanied by a blank, coloring book-style of the cover of the Sea Hags album. (The actual album cover artwork, pictured below, was done by Rick Griffin and Dave Heffernan.) The winner of the coloring contest would get to "hang with the Hags" in San Francisco.

For some reason, I took this competition very seriously. Every day after work I would go straight home to work on my coloring project. First, I took a bunch of porous watercolor paper and splattered each sheet with a different color of paint, making sure that the brush strokes were visible. Then I cut the colored pages into tiny mosaics and glued them into place on the coloring sheet. I added some gold leaf flecks, waited for it to dry, and shipped it off to Chrysalis Records. A couple of weeks later, I got a call from a Chrysalis rep saying that I had won.

The prize was a 3 day, all expenses paid trip to San Francisco to see the Hags play at the Fillmore. I brought along my good friend, Kim, who also was with me when I met Bono a few years earlier.

Kim and I had a great time in San Francisco. We rode the cable cars, explored Chinatown, and met lots of really nice, friendly people. On our last night, we went to the Fillmore to see the Sea Hags. After the show, the Chrysalis rep brought us backstage to meet the band. The boys were very sweet, and they even told us that we were pretty. We didn't end up "hanging with the Hags," though; we were too scared.