The Inhuman

August 16 1962 - September 13 2019

Slug Useless' (Friend and Former Bandmate) essay printed in the Lumpy Records 7":

"Joel would be so happy if he knew of your love of his music. Joel was just a regular kid that got spit onto the streets when he was young. Under different circumstances he would have been a D&D gamer with a comic book collection. I met Joel in 1982. He was living in a sleazy motel on the south side of Tucson. He had run away from home because his Mom had contracted MS and his Dad had made poor Joel her full time caretaker. His Dad basically just left Joel alone to take care of his Mother when he was only 16 years old. Joel did this for a couple of years. They moved from West Kansas to Tucson in 1981 and the combination of the stress of being a caretaker and the heat broke him, and he had to run away. The problem was he had no job, no money, and no skills. He washed dishes, mopped up shit, and was even a clown for a while selling 10 cent burgers. He ended up poor and broken and moved back home. Music was his one big escape. He jammed with us and even helped us start our band "The Corporate Whores". He played drums at our first two gigs. The problem was he couldn't be around much, so he was never in a full time band. Finally Joel's Dad took off and eventually killed himself. Joel got out and moved to Minneapolis in 1985. It was very good for him. In 1986 he visited Tucson and that is when he gave me the Cancer Bunny cassette, which was his current band at the time. He said that they had opened for the Swans a couple of times. That was the last time I saw him. Years later, when I started Disillusion Music Label, I tried to find him. I heard through a mutual friend that he had come down with MS and was very sick. I never could find him so I assumed the worst... The only InHuman performance that I can recall was at the Backstage, "Self Destruction Night," early 1983. He started the show with a magic trick. He had a blood bag in his hand and a dull rusty razor. The first thing he did was say, "Let the ceremony begin." Then he cut a huge gash in his arm with the blood streaming down and the crowd made a huge gasping sound thinking he had just sliced his arm open..."