TOMMY VICTOR Looks Back On More Than 30 Years Of PRONG Releases In New YouTube Series

January 22, 2019

Tommy Victor will reflect on more than 30 years of PRONG releases through a YouTube series called "Tommy Plays Prong, Retrospects Of Music And Life". In the series, Victor will highlight various tracks from the 12-album PRONG catalog and do guitar playthroughs. Victor will also discuss growing up in Flushing, Queens, New York, living on the Lower East Side of New York City in the violent eighties, working at CBGB as a sound engineer from 1986 to 1990, and touring with PANTERA, WHITE ZOMBIE, BAD BRAINS and SEPULTURA.

"PRONG was definitely a Lower East Side band," says Victor. "We weren't a bunch of kids in the suburbs playing in garages. We were part of that whole art scene, the same scene as street artists like Keith Haring and Basquiat. It was a completely different world back then. A lot of people were willing to live Spartan lifestyles in shitty conditions in this fantasy art world."

On doing sound at CBGB from 1986 to 1990:

"Hilly (owner CBGB) just threw me in there. I had no idea what I was doing. He trusted me because I was 'in a band' and had me give thumbs up or down on the band playing the hardcore matinees."

Having been clean from drugs and alcohol for many years, a sober Tommy reflects on the glorification of the early "druggie-chic" days.

"In those days, it was cool to be a junkie. A lot of early punk times revolved around that. That type of rebellion against society, the ultimate rebellion is trying to kill yourself with drugs. That era, where a dark hedonism was a priority in people's lives doesn't really exist anymore, which I think is good."

On longevity, and finding one's path:

"Inevitably, if you survive, you come to the realization that all that stuff was a fad, really, and there's more to life than those old statements that you thought were so important earlier on. There's important aspects of it, but there has to be balance in your life, you have to move on, you keep walking in life, you don't just stay there."

The first two trailers for the "Tommy Plays Prong" series can be seen below.

Find more on Prong

Prev More News Next

Comments Disclaimer And Information

BLABBERMOUTH.NET uses the Facebook Comments plugin to let people comment on content on the site using their Facebook account. The comments reside on Facebook servers and are not stored on BLABBERMOUTH.NET. To comment on a BLABBERMOUTH.NET story or review, you must be logged in to an active personal account on Facebook. Once you're logged in, you will be able to comment. User comments or postings do not reflect the viewpoint of BLABBERMOUTH.NET and BLABBERMOUTH.NET does not endorse, or guarantee the accuracy of, any user comment. To report spam or any abusive, obscene, defamatory, racist, homophobic or threatening comments, or anything that may violate any applicable laws, use the "Report to Facebook" and "Mark as spam" links that appear next to the comments themselves. To do so, click the downward arrow on the top-right corner of the Facebook comment (the arrow is invisible until you roll over it) and select the appropriate action. You can also send an e-mail to blabbermouthinbox(@)gmail.com with pertinent details. BLABBERMOUTH.NET reserves the right to "hide" comments that may be considered offensive, illegal or inappropriate and to "ban" users that violate the site's Terms Of Service. Hidden comments will still appear to the user and to the user's Facebook friends. If a new comment is published from a "banned" user or contains a blacklisted word, this comment will automatically have limited visibility (the "banned" user's comments will only be visible to the user and the user's Facebook friends).