***When NYC hit its punk stride in the mid 1970s, the one-of-a-kind ‘Neon’ Leon Matthews was already in the thick of it. Getting his start in music in the late 60s and having incredible luck in his friendships along the way, Neon Leon’s life story could easily be made into a really amazing film. Along with being roommates with Rolling Stones’ guitarist Mick Taylor (and dating his wife!) while living in the UK in the early 70s, he was recording acetates as far back as the mid 1970s with the original members of Pure Hell around Philadelphia, and ended up moving into the Chelsea Hotel in ’73 soon after, upon the insistence of his pal Johnny Thunders. Making fast friends with Elda and the Stillettos, the New York Dolls, and David Peel and Harold Black & the Teenage Lust crew, he soon fell into the maddening world of the Lower East Side zeitgeist right when everything was exploding. He was gigging at Max’s on the regular, seeing the incredible NY punk scene blossom before his eyes, and he even got to appear briefly in the exploitation film classic, Punk Rock (1977) with Elda and the gang. Leon put together his band with girlfriend/stripper Honi O’Rourke and hit the scene around Max’s, CBGB and the like, and upon entering the studio, caught lightning in a bottle with the recording of the Rock’n Roll Is Alive 7” EP in 1979. The title track is simply irresistible, laying down the filthy scuzz guitar...
LP $17.75
07/21/2023