WORD MADE FLESH was the Squirrelbait of the Lehigh Valley. And by that i mean that to me at least, they were total emocore (mostly because of Larry’s lyrics, but also because of their thick meaty and dense guitars).(you know i’m right.) They were the band that morphed out of YOUTH QUAKE in 1987. To me, they were the absolute peak band of the whole Catasauqua influenced LVHC scene. And in true Catty fashion, they were influenced by The RUTS.
Legendary teen punk hero- figure Larry Deiter on vocals and words, Tracey Pain on guitar, Roy Mayorga on drums and his brother Dan on second guitar.
Originally they didn’t have a bass player. On these songs its Tracey playing a tuned down guitar, which always floored me.
Later on, Bobby Almazan RIP from serious heavy OG Catty bands THE LIARS & ENDANGERED SPECIES joined as bassist.
They only lasted from the summer of 1987 to the fall of 1988 unfortunately, but at least you can hear their demo. It was recorded 2 tracks to a hifi VCR in Roy’s bedroom. But you can hear everything, especially Larry’s vox. In a more perfect world wherein the LV gets its cultural due, this demo would have come out on vinyl in 1987 or 88 on Homestead Records or something. It was perfect for that time period, just as Dinosaur, Squirrelbait & Ignition were.
(all the above bands would’ve made the perfect bill for a show at West Catty in ‘88 if the punks were still able to have shows there.)
Here’s what Roy Mayorga had to say when bugged about all this stuff:
“Looking back on it I always felt it was like another version of The RUTS. Which was my favorite band at that time. I wish we could’ve continued as a band and maybe we would’ve put out a record eventually. But the demo definitely captures the time perfectly. We recorded this demo before even playing a show. I remember we came up with all of these songs within that week at rehearsal and then we went to my bedroom and recorded it.”
“I think Word Made Flesh transitioned from Youth Quake in the summer of 87. This started when Tracey suggested doing a cover of “you’re just a” by THE RUTS. Why youthquake stopped? I’m not sure. If I remember correctly our bass player at the time Roy Grube (ex Youthful Aggression & Last Cry) might have quit so that was probably why we wanted to start something new. So after jamming that RUTS song it sparked another idea for a song & then we found that we had something new and different for us. Then we had the idea of getting a second guitar player to fill out the sound, that’s when my brother Dan came into the picture. We played a couple of shows (Dead Milkmen and The Exploited) (the infamous Exploited show in the LV where Wattie got maced by the crowd. and just kept singing like nothing happened) as a four piece until we found a bass player. That being Bob Almazan. He was the final piece of the puzzle. But unfortunately the band lasted only until the fall of 88.
Larry had the simplest lyrics and the point was really made damn clear what was going on in his life at that time and you can hear it in his performance.”
Roy and Dan moved to NYC so Roy could join NAUSEA, and Dan restarted WMF with Jae from A.P.P.L.E. but that didn’t really last and without Larry it couldn’t really be the same….
-Eric de Jesus EASY / Raw Pogo On The Scaffold
01 – I Was Not Myself
02 – Laugh on the Outside
03 – Don’t Put Me Down
04 – You’re Your Only Enemy
05 – Life Worth Living
06 – Questioning Heaven (boombox)
07 – Some Kind of Escape (boombox)
08 – Your Only Enemy (boombox)
09 – Don’t Put Me Down (boombox)
Word Made Flesh in a warehouse 1987
Full document of the Lehigh Valley’s WORD MADE FLESH in 1987 rehearsing in the warehouse they shared with Bethlehem’s ORIGINAL SINS, in downtown Allentown, PA.
From easysubculture YouTube page
photos by Marcie McHugh, taken in their practice space, which they split with the very early Original Sins.
