On June 27, 1993, naked and covered in his own blood and fecal material, GG Allin ran down the streets of New York in an attempt to avoid the police after one of his notoriously chaotic (and often short) live shows was shut down. Successfully escaping arrest, Allin made it to a friend’s place where the party continued into the next day. In the wee hours of the morning, God decided to reclaim one his angels from this earthly plain and return him to the heavens. 20 years ago, young Kevin Allin shuffled off this mortal coil.
So how do we pay tribute to this fallen hero? Well, rather than crack beer bottles over our heads and shove bananas in our asses in a public, or fucking everything we kill/killing everything we fuck, you can just spend some money, as there’s a bunch of GG memorabilia hitting the streets this year.
First up, we have America’s favorite scum rocker once again immortalized in polyresin with a brand new bobble Throbblehead doll. Unlike the first one Aggronautix released a few years back, portraying GG in his “1991” look, this one is based on his general appearance circa 1989; some hair, bandana, big sunglasses, leather jacket, the whole nine yards. Slightly more dignified than a glorified diaper and cowboy boots. You can check out it out on the Aggronautix site but if you want to make your office space 80% more transgressive you need to get on it because it’s a limited run of 2000.
What might be the strangest (and probably most downright terrifying) piece of GG merchandise is this which is available from Sikrik Masks. Have you ever wanted to feel like you were GG? I mean, like, be GG? Well, now you can! Sort of! This super creepy latex mask also depicts GG from the late 80s and is sure to give everyone who sees you wearing it all kinds of nightmares. Aside from scaring the shit (would GG have it any other way?) out of your friends, you can also use the mask if you’re trying to rob a bank or have the technical know-how to interrupt the signal of your local PBS station.
Really, though, the best thing about the barrage of GG stuff this year is My Prison Walls, a collection of GG’s journal writing, prose, lyrics, artwork, and correspondences (including letters to/from John Wayne Gacy). The 208-page hardcover is limited to 2500 individually numbered copies and is available from Aggronautix. The first 50 pages of the book are comprised of GG’s log of his first 30 days (his first first 30 days) in prison, titled “30 Days in the Hole.” Our pals over at Vice have offered up a preview/write-up of GG’s prison experience, and from the looks of it, there’s a lot of one-person pant rummages going on. Really though, the book gives some firsthand insight into the mind of an, at best, polarizing and, at worst, psychotic figure in American underground rock culture. It also will probably serve as a good compliment to Todd Phillips’ (yes, that Todd Phillips) 1993 documentary Hated: GG Allin & the Murder Junkies.
No word yet on Merle Allin’s take on this, or if he’s getting a cut of the sales, but I’m just glad that we’re one step closer to a real life Planet GG.
• GG Allin: http://www.ggallin.com