Mike Edison
I Have Fun Everywhere I Go
Faber and Faber, Inc.

Mike Edison and the Rocket Train Delta Science Arkestra
I Have Fun Everywhere I Go
Spoken word CD
Interstellar Roadhouse

My goodness did he ever! Mike Edison is a rock’n’roller, pornographer, wrestling journalist, hedonist, confidante of GG Allin, Beatles-hater, fierce First Amendment protector and self-proclaimed media whore. And a damn funny storyteller, too. Like the great pro wrestlers of old, Edison admits to being prone to hyperbole but his stories are so insane they have to be true. I bought this book because I knew of Edison as the drummer for my all-time favorite band, the Raunch Hands. People who know me know it doesn’t take much for me to bring up the Raunch Hands and this time is no different. I had heard Edison served as publisher for High Times but I knew little else about his life.

In a nutshell, New Jersey native Edison is a two-time Ivy League dropout who spent some time in the mid-1980s writing for the pro wrestling mag Main Event and writing paperback porno books. He played drums for GG Allin and did stand-up comedy as part of Reagan Youth’s “Rock Against Reagan” 1984 tour. He wrote for Screw magazine and joined the world’s most dangerous band the Raunch Hands as they rocked and rolled and debauched across the globe. After the Raunch Hands took a break in the early ‘90s he lived in Spain and played skins in the Pleasure Fuckers before moving back to New York to write and publish full time. Somewhere in there he finds time to play badass rock’n’roll as the Edison Rocket Train (look up “swamp stomp blues skronk” in your dictionary.) I Have Fun…documents Edison’s life in a very hilarious, smart ass but never jaded way. He gives the reader many life lessons (dating advice in the porn world, the best places to dine in Spain) and preaches the word of rock and roll.

Speaking of preaching, there’s a spoken word CD of I Have Fun… that’s a good listen (sold separately, folks.) You get seven tracks of Edison doing shtick, backed by members of the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion and the Raunch Hands. I think “GG Allin Died Last Night” is set to the tune of the Misfits’ “Some Kinda Hate.” Dig it all!

Detroit Cobras, Those Young Lions, Little Boots and Drusilla
Music Mill, Indianapolis, IN
December 5, 2008

“Rock and roll is the best job of all time. You don’t get to call in sick.” – Mike Edison, author of I Have Fun Everywhere I Go

Well, you do if you’re the Detroit Cobras, most recently evidenced by their first area show in several years. Strike that, the band was having fun but the singer wasn’t. How about calling in “I just don’t give a shit?” I mean really, could it have been more obvious singer Rachael Nagy didn’t want to be there? She stood still, rolled her eyes and tapped her feet (and not in time to the music.) Many audience members noticed it and commented on it. I heckled at one point “At least it’s better than a day job” but got no response. Read the rest of this entry »