Category Archives: News

One blazingly hot Sunday afternoon in 1980-something I went to the Tompkins Square Park bandshell for “Rock Against Redevelopment,” a 12-hour anti-gentrification rally-cum-concert to save the neighborhood.  ”Give us our land, peace, and bread,” pleaded the posters, “Instead of leaving us stranded, fleeced and bled.”  False Prophets -my favorite hardcore band, although they weren’t hardcore per se- were scheduled to lead off, followed by a succession of acts every hour.  At least that was the plan.  Well past the advertised 2pm start nothing had begun and there were no spectators save for some bewildered Ukranian babushkas pushing strollers and a few supine winos jarred awake by the Prophets tuning up.  False Prophets were fronted by the brilliant but oft-misunderstood Stephan Ielpi, who cut quite a figure in his asymmetrical haircut with single sideburn, toothbrush moustache, and black mandarin-length fingernails.  His usual getup consisted of a military officer’s cap worn at a cocked angle, a monk’s cowl, knee-high engineer boots, and a shepherd’s staff topped by a taxidermied wolf’s head.  Stephan engaged in strident harangues between songs, and liked to get in people’s faces, sometimes literally.  One night at a benefit for Thwack magazine at CBs, just days after the San Ysidro massacre, Stephan jumped down from the stage and head- and chest-bumped audience members while warp-speed singing “Ideserveabreaktoday, Iwannahaveitmyway…”

Read more »