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DANGEROUS TOP
"You'll always want to know where
he's playing. But you'll never want
him to know where you live..."
Origin Unknown
Genres Psychobilly, punk rock
Years active 2011-present
Website DangerousTop.com
Members
Dangerous Top
Thing 1
Thing 2
Dangerous Top is an American psychobilly
guitarist. He first surfaced in Iowa clubs in 2011,
and has gone on to establish himself with
audiences throughout Iowa and Minneapolis.
CONTENTS
Career
overview
popularity, opposition
alt/music
mainstream
- 3 Discography
- 4 References
- 5 Links
CAREER
overview
Dangerous Top's psychobilly features high-fevered
Punk energies and stripped-down arrangements. A
Ramones influence is sometimes prominent; at other
moments, a fierce hardcore/thrash inclination is
evidenced. The hideous tenors and titles of his all -
instrumental "song projectiles" reflect his trademark
'undead predatory deviant' character.
legend
According to an early Dangerous Top press release,
"An anonymous Iowa punk rock guitarist emerged
unrepaired from court-ordered psychiatric rehabilitation.
The gleeful, twisted wretch went on to escape that
state's notorious execution alley, only to be hunted
down and lynched by a revenge-maddened mob.
"On the third night, he rose again -- as Dangerous
Top."
"It is further whispered that the coffin-shaped case in
which his skull-and-crossbones Telecaster is interred
between late-night sprees contains a mixed-bed of soil
from outside Memphis' Sun Studio and rubble remains
of NYC's storied punk birthplace, CBGB's." (1)
popularity, opposition
His initial Iowa fan base has been complemented
by a fast-spreading Minnesota one. Fans have
been described -- by supporters and critics, alike
-- as "rabid." "Most outfits would kill for the rabid
loyalists who mass at Dangerous Top stages. Of
course, he says he did exactly that..."
(BoneCats.com) "A rabid and rebellious amalgam
of Elvis-headed hoods, mohawked punk rock
cretins, and fallen 'pin up' models." (Family Values
In Culture)
Dangerous Top is notorious among bookers and
bands for being inaccessible. He doesn't associate
with other musicians. No one has seen his face. .
The ski-masked "guitarist from beneath" has
sparked an unlikely union of conservative Christians
and liberal feminists. Following his Minneapolis
appearances, they decried the rampaging guitarist
for "celebrating the unspeakable," and fuelling the
"debasement of popular culture." (2)
PRESS TREATMENT
alt/music
Coverage of Dangerous Top in alternative, rock'n'roll
media has been largely sympathetic.
His earliest known mention (6/18/2011) was in the
Des Moines-based online psycho 'zine BoneCats.com.
"Last night's unannounced performer at the
Roundstone was Dangerous Top. New to the local
scene, the mysterious, hooded psychobilly guitarist
fronted a slap bass and basic drums. His savage
instrumentals were brief, but incited to crowd to
mayhem." (3)
Over subsequent months, press notice increased. A
Cedar Rapids columnist hailed Dangerous Top as
"doubtlessly our nastiest and best area rep of the
foul, netherworldly psychobilly that finds expression
in the Meteors, Brains,Demented Are Go, and
Mad Sin." (4)
"Others may 'push the envelope," asserted an essayist
at SoundsNScenes (Ames), "but this masked miscreant
grinds it under his creeper, then rips it to shreds. He's
smutty, outrageous, violent, and despicable. And his spiky,
enratured cult loves every second of it." (5)
As Dangerous Top continued his Iowa
crusade, press notices, albeit generally
of the alt variety, increased. BoneCats.com,
in particular, touted the hooded performer.
[CITATIONS NEEDED]
Late in 2011, Dangerous Top turned up in Minneapolis.
His vicious blend of punk and psycho attracted fervent
support. A blogger at Bonecats.com witnessed
Dangerous Top's farewell Des Moines show:
"Indefatiguable backers Thing 1 and Thing 2 kept up a
riotous bass/drum hyper-beat. Their hectic animations
drove the mob at stage-front to ecstatic fisticuffs delirium.
Emaciated and ashen, each sported a shaved head and
lopsided, oversized scarlet-paint grin. Demi-demons to
the Supreme Evildoer, if you will. Dangerous Top is a
hulking, executioner's-hooded six-string strangler who
tears off and flings flashes of chunk-chordy fury. And,
though he seldom abandons his hunkered-down,
spread-legged posture at the stage-front's center
point, the "predatory criminal from beyond the grave"
captivated the tough-as-coffin-nails audience, holding
it happily in chains through the storm." (6)
Mainstream press
Attention from corporate-owned Iowa mainstream media
outlets has been considerably less positive, typically
reflecting the 'outside the scene' values and perspectives
of critics.
"Vulger and cartoonishly bombastic," pronounced the
Des Moines Tribune, in it's weekly entertainment
supplement. (7)
KCOATV in Minneapolis: "An adults-only" rocker who
has aroused the organized ire of many." (8)
"That such blatantly sick carryings-on enjoy enthusiastic
reception underscores the need to redouble positive
efforts to hoist aloft our state's 'flag of rightness,'"
editorialized the Twin Cities Reader-Republican. (9)
Other daily Minneapolis and Minnesota
journals picked up the story, building it
into a controversy that pitted psychobillies
against more "respectable" voices.
[CITATIONS NEEDED}
DISCOGRAPHY
To date, only one Dangerous Top recording is known
to exist. The 80-copy bootleg, My Will Be Done,
was taped live at an unnamed location, and is heatedly
sought.
Bonecats.com got hold of one precious copy: "5-body
pileup metallic psycho distemper slams raggedy
revelers into girly-menacing fracture. Music to force
unnatural acts by. Dangerous Top's thundering, uber -
distorted Telecaster detonates as anti-social insanity."
Similar praise was lavished on the raw disc by
Minneapolis blogger Simba Lee Blood:
" 'Damnation Dance Party,' 'I Fisted a Monster,' and
'Triple X Throwdown' recall the Ramones' short'n'fast,
less-is-more ethos. They're over nearly before settling
in (though mauled corpses strewn in their wake
evidence chilling passage.) And while some cuts
endure a bit longer ('Behind Every Pretty Face Lies a
Skull,' the grimly frenetic 'I Call My Baby STD'), none
pass the two-minute finish-line."
"Makes you wanna detonate the planet," was the
trenchant assessment penned by blogger White Noise.
REFERENCES
1) press release "Dangerous Top Stalks Among Us"
6/15/2011
2) article "The thing about...Dangerous Top"
HawkeyeTalk.net 8/3/2011
3) news item Bonecats.com
6/18/2011
4) review " 'Unknown Psycho' performs"
Cityzine.com 8/4/2011
5) article "A look at this year's crop"
SoundsNScenes 8/13/2011
6) online gig review BoneCats.com
9/21/2011
7) local "Things around town" briefs
Des Moines Tribune 10/14/2011
8) local television news commentary "Dangerous
Top Dangerous" KCOATV (Mpls) 2/17/2012
9) publisher's notes "Dangerous Top a stain on state"
Twin Cities Reader-Republican 3/9/2012
10) online review My Will Be Done
Bonecats.com 3/22/2012
Links
YouTube: "Damnation Dance Party" / "I Fisted a
Monster" (THESE CLIPS WERE DELETED
FOLLOWING AN ONLINE PETITION PROTEST.)
