mehan jayasuriya

Were it not for the Blood Brothers, I might never have taken up music journalism. They were the first band I ever wrote about, the first band I ever photographed, the first band that ever put me on their guest list and the first band I ever interviewed. As such, I’ve always felt like I owed them one, especially since they never quite got their due outside of punk/hardcore circles (the notable exception being PopMatters, which rightly championed the band from early on; Mike Meginnis’ 2007 essay on Young Machetes, war and rhetoric is particularly noteworthy). So when given the opportunity to review the band’s freshly reissued catalog, I went a bit overboard and penned a 6,000+ word essay that, thankfully, PopMatters has seen fit to print. I’ve always felt privileged to have witnessed a band as vital, inventive and dynamic as the Blood Brothers were at their prime; hopefully I’ve managed to convey at least some of that excitement in my essay, which you can read here.