Harley Flanagan Releasing "Hard-Core: Life Of My Own" Memoir

Hardcore punk and metal crossover artist and controversial NYC mainstay Harley Flanagan (Cro-Mags) recently released his brand new solo album, appropriately titled "Cro-Mags." It's no secret that the writing of "Cro-Mags" surrounded Harley Flanagan's highly-publicized arrest in 2012. This record is a proverbial window into his world at that time.

"I first started writing the album in 2012. My intention was to write a bunch of short fast songs- old school style- the way I did it in the early days," states Flanagan. "I started tracking all the songs myself. Originally, I tracked them all on acoustic guitar, then I put drums on some of them."

He goes on to say, "Early in the project several things in my life exploded, one being the Webster Hall incident. As most people now know, I was jumped at a show that my old band was playing. I put several people in the hospital and I was stabbed in the leg and needed 40 stitches. I was arrested, my name was dragged through the mud, I went to Riker's, and went to court several times where the charges were eventually dropped for lack of evidence. After that, I went back into the studio to finish the album.

"I have always been the kind of writer who writes from my life experiences. My music and my book are extensions of me, not fantasy or fiction or BS. I don't write fantasy type lyrics, I never have, and unfortunately this is what was going on in my life at the time and this was really heavy on my mind, so that is what came out. It made for a very aggressive album. I haven't had that type of fire in me in a long time.

"I am in a much better place in my life now so I'm sure lyrically my next record will be much different, but you should definitely expect more aggressive riffs and songs."

2016 continues to be a busy year for Harley Flanagan, as he will also release a no-holds-barred memoir about his life, entitled "Hard-Core: Life of My Own," this fall via Feral House Publishing. In the book, Flanagan details his beginnings in the drug and crime ridden New York City of the 1970's to the early days of punk rock, hardcore, and beyond. Pre=orders are up now at this location.

Anthony Bourdain - famed chef, author, television personality and avid music fan - has been an outspoken Harley supporter for years. He states, "Harley Flanagan's incredible story is not just the history of New York hardcore, of which he is a founding father, but a history of New York itself. It's all here, an amazing series of unlikely coincidences, catastrophes, accomplishments, and associations. Chances are if it happened in New York and it was important and interesting? Harley Flanagan was somewhere in the room. If you care anything about music history, punk rock, hardcore or just a ripping good story, this is the punch in the face you want and need."