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PLEASE
NOTE:
This informative piece was taken directly from 'The Raven Fan
Site' (which no longer exists). It has not been altered in any
way, apart from the removal of the link back to The Raven Fan
Site. We could've changed it, but we didn't because we decided
the piece was best left as it is in order to give the best
possible information.
Raven's Shirts
(Lots of pictures here, this page will take a while to load)
Prologue:
When most wrestlers want to portray an "alternative" look, they'll instantly jump to the generic stuff, like a Marilyn Manson shirt, maybe spooky face paint, or a "gothic" trenchcoat, but the Raven character is far more advanced than that. The deepest most developed character in all of wrestling, the Raven character feeds off of a true underground/punk/gothic style, most noticible in his clothing. So... without further adu, here is a list of some of Raven's shirts, in no particular order, along with full explanations and links.
 1983 Suicidal Tendencies |
Shirt 1: Suicidal Tendencies |  1987 Join The Army |
1988 How Will I Laugh Tomorrow When I Can't Even Smile Today
1989 Controlled By Hatred... Feel Like Shit... Deja-Vu...
The shirt design:
What is it?
A shirt picturing the cover to the album "The Art of Rebellion" by The Suicidal Tendencies. ST is a Punk/Rock band from Southern California, who's members include:
 1990 Lights Camera Revolution |
Mike Muir - Vocals Mike Clark - Guitar Dean Pleasants - Guitar Brooks Wackerman - Drums Josh Paul - Bass |
 1992 F.N.G. (Compilation) |
From the
Suicidal Tendencies website:
Since the early 80's when
"alternative" really meant something, Suicidal
Tendencies have been dishing out their trademark blend of punk,
thrash and funk, laced with confrontational lyrics. They spend
the ensuing decade winning scores of converts with their
uncompromising material and blistering live shows. The Southern
California band's battles in the trenches paved the way for many
of the acts now enjoying mega-success in the world of modern
rock. [continued on the Suicidal Tendencies site]
From www.RealDev.com/st:
They began as a skater-punk band back in 1982 and quickly added some metal flavoring thereafter. By 1991, there was a funk-metal twist thrown into the emotion pool of Suicidal; and a funkadelic side band called Infectious Grooves was brought together by Muir & Trujillo. 4 years and 3 albums later, during their recent U.S. tour, Suicidal Tendencies announced that they are breaking up.
Mike Muir has formed a band called Cyco Miko (wonder where that name came from?... hehe), which has recorded a P-Rock LP called "Lost My Brain (Once Again)" along with Steve Jones (ex-Sex Pistols) playing guitar on 7 tracks, in addition to Adam Siegel (Guitars), Dave Kushner (Guitars), Dave Silva (Bass) and Greg Saenz (Drums). This album has been available in the U.S. and Europe since January. For your information, Adam Siegel is playing in a band called 'My Head' along with Dave Silva and Greg Saenz. Mike Clark has formed his own band called Creeper.
To speak of Suicidal without aknowledging their ability to put the most extreme of thoughts into words would be absurd. Unless your life is all so "lovely" or you've built solid mind walls to protect those feelings you can't deal with, you might just relate! Yeah, maybe some of their lyrics are pugnacious, but sometimes that's the only way to get people to listen. Every album has it's own unique ambiance and I believe it is especially important to listen to all of their material before misconstruing their perspectives.
 1992 The Art Of Rebellion |
 1993 Still Cyco After All These Years |
 1994 Suicidal For Life |
Suicidal Tendencies links
 1997 Prime Cuts |
Suicidal
Tendencies official site What more can you ask for? Updated frequently, lots of good stuff here. Another nice one. Lots of recent info on members, as you can see I used some of it on the section it's so good. |
 1998 Friends & Family (Compilation) |
Shirt 2: Sandman
Commonly thought
of to be a shirt about the ECW wrestler "The Sandman"
(pictured left), that's far from the truth.
The Sandman shirt has a long story behind it. I guess I'll start out with a brief summary for those unaware of what Sandman is. Sandman is a comic book, but not just an ordinary one. It was a revolutionary comic, for a number of reasons. The first one is because, Sandman is a very dark, gruesome, sometims morbid comic, while at the same time beutiful and poetic. Sort of a Goth comic I guess you could say. It's one of those take-you-to-another-world type things, with a huge and developed storyline involving multiple characters and situations, all based around a central angle, of The Sandman. Sort of like X-files, how the main thing is the conspiracy, but then there's a lot of little tiny stories.
Sandman was
also unique because unlike most comics that basically run
forever, Sandman was created right from the beginning to end at
issue #75, which it did in 1996, at the peak of popularity, and
to the sadness of many fans.
That's just the super breif summary, as I said
Sandman is a really deep comic that you really have to get into.
And no you don't have to be a "goth", or be part of a
cult to enjoy it (although it may help, heh heh). Anyway now I'm
going to reprint portions of a documentary done on the comic
which will explain some more things...
[Raven in the upcomming video game "WCW vs
nWo: Revenge"]
Lord Morpheus is dead. His death and burial played
out in the hit comic book Sandman. The last issue, #75,
came out just last month [May 1996]. In the wake of this final
publication, Morpheus and his creator, Neil Gaiman, have left
behind a changed comics industry, one that is now open to a more
sophisticated breed of fantasy, and is another step further in
its quest to legitimize comics as an art form.
Sandman was the most successful recent entry in this struggle, a subtle and intelligent contribution to an art form normally associated with Spandex costumes and testosterone-laden fistfights. Although Sandman's publisher, D.C. Comics, is better known for mainstay characters like Batman and Superman, Sandman has been one of D.C.'s top sellers for years now.
Sandman's success was not always so assured. In 1988, Gaiman was asked if he wanted to write a regular series for D.C. Never a big fan of the superhero genre, he suggested Sandman instead, and D.C., which has historically been more willing to explore fantasy than other mainstream competitors, gave Gaiman the comic.
Sandman is a contemplative, heady book. It stars Morpheus, the lord of all whimsy and imagination. In the stories, which range from the fantastic to the horrific, Morpheus is sometimes at the forefront of the action, and sometimes his powers and knowledge provide only a backdrop for more intimate, mortal occurrences.
Sandman's
succeeded, in part, because it appealed to the nontraditional
comic book audience; the focus on myth and history went against
the mainstream grain. Lance Smith, who works at the Dreamhaven
comic shop in Dinkytown, says that there have been a lot of
readers who buy only Sandman and no other comics.
In addition, Sandman attracted an unprecedented number of female readers. On one hand, says Smith, the mere omission of the adolescent male concerns in superhero books was enough to merit a look: " ... it's not one continual fight scene, it's not a slugfest with Spandex." On the other hand, Gaiman has a knack for well-rounded female characters: "The women in Sandman may not always be sympathetic, but they're strong and realistic. They have problems, but they're real problems, not the kind of problems you see in X-Men." [the full article can be found at www.daily.umn.edu/ae/Print/ISSUE28/cover.html]
Links
If you want even more links, enter "sandman comic" at yahoo.com. The links I listed above should be more than enough, if you follow them and the links on those sites, you really can spend hours finding out more about The Sandman. I sure did.
Shirt 3: Nevermore
1995 Nevermore
The shirt design
What is it?
Nevermore is the name of a metal band. Based in Seatle, Washington, it's members include:
 1996 (EP) In Memory |
Warrel Dane vocals Jeff Loomis guitars Pat O'Brien (1996- ) guitars Jim Sheppard bass Van Williams drums |
 1996 The Politics of Ecstacy |
From BNR Metal pages:
From the official Nevermore page:
Long before the pox of grunge was cast upon the northwest city of Seattle, the region was well-renowned in the mid-1980's as a fertile breeding ground for stylish metal bands such as QueensrØche, Fifth Angel and Heir Apparent. One of the heavier bands to achieve success during that time was Sanctuary, who released two major-label records (Refuge Denied and Into The Mirror Black), netting tours with bands like Megadeth, Fates Warning and Testament. After dissolving due to internal conflicts, vocalist Warrel Dane and bassist Jim Sheppard continued to pursue music that was both powerful and melodic, music that was strong enough to transcend the limitations of the trend du jour. Thus, Nevermore were born. It only took some rough demo tracks to draw the attention of studio whiz Neil Kernon, who established an illustrious career producing records for the likes of QueensrØche, Dokken and Flotsam & Jetsam. Kernon produced the demos that got Nevermore signed, and he also manned the board for their debut record (released in February of 1995). The album won rave reviews from metal publications around the world, allowing them to tour the States with Death and culminating in a performance at the prestigious Dynamo Open Air festival in Holland before a crowd of 100,000 people. To hold over fans waiting for their second album Nevermore released a limited-edition EP, In Memory, in July. In contrast to the dark mood of the EP, the full-length The Politics Of Ecstasy is a breathtaking technical workout that showcases their stunning level of musicianship and songwriting skill. For a solid hour, the band will captivate listeners with material that ranges from the brooding atmosphere of "Passenger" to the intricate intensity that lies within the ten-minute closer "The Learning". Their past accomplishments have been considerable, but pale in comparison to the work they're about to unveil, and The Politics Of Ecstasy will undoubtedly be hailed as a masterwork by serious-minded heavy music fans.
Although second guitarist Pat O'Brien parted ways with the band (he's currently playing with, believe it or not, Cannibal Corpse), the band are rehearsing new guitarists and are about to hit the US for their first tour in 2-1/2 years along with Flotsam And Jetsam.
Links:
Nevermore: The band's official site
Nevermore site at centurymedia.com
Nevermore buliten board on imusic.com
Order the "Nevermore" t-shirt online!
It's super easy! Just go to the official Nevermore page(the first link on this section) and click on the Nevermore album, and and on the pull down menu, there's an option not only to buy the CD, but to buy a t-shirt in 3 popular sizes!
Shirt 4: Dinosaur Jr
1985 Dinosaur Jr
1987 You're Living All Over Me
The shirt design
1998 Bug
[This is the biggest pic I could find. Oh well, better than nothin']
 1991 Fossils |
 1991 Green Mind |
 1991 Whatever's Cool With me |
 1993 Where You Been |
| What is it? |  1994 Without a Sound |
 1997 Hand it Over |
The shirt is a picture of the cover to a project done by Dinosaur Jr, not a full album though. What is Dinosaur Jr? I'm glad you asked. Dinosaur Jr is an indie guitar band from Amherst, Massachusetts, that pumped out it's first album back in 1985. It's last was in 1997 (Hand it over). Like the other t-shirts I have some good articles about the band, but this time I think I'll start at the end of the story:
MTV.com
December 4 1997 [11:00 EDT] -- "You won't have Dinosaur Jr.
to kick around anymore."
The alt rock veterans who were driven by the melancholy guitar wanderings of J Mascis for some 13 years have decided to call it quits. In a statement released Wednesday, spokespeople for the band say that when the group wrapped up its current U.S. tour and found itself without a record label (Reprise Records had dropped the band a few weeks ago), they decided the time was right to pack it in.
Since forming in Amherst, Massachusetts in 1984, the group has gone on to release seven albums and manage to prompt "Spin" magazine to once proclaim "J Mascis is God."
Original bassist and Dino co-founder Lou Barlow left the band in 1988, forming Sebadoh. Barlow's departure lead to a string of temporary replacements, including Gumball's Don Fleming and Screaming Trees Van Connor, before settling on Mike Johnson in 1992. Original drummer Murph then left the band in 1994, and after Mascis himself handled drum duties on 1994's "Without A Sound" George Berz was brought on as the band's new fulltime drummer.
The group released its last album, "Hand It Over," earlier this year, and despite critical praise, found little commercial success (a scenario familiar to the band throughout its career). Mascis and Johnson will now pursue solo careers, while, according to the statement, Berz "will be accepting lucrative offers to drum for rock bands."
From
algonet.se/~perhed/dinoinfo.html
Dinosaur Jr is an indie guitar band from Amherst, Massachusetts. J. Mascis was born Joseph Donald Mascis Jr. in Amherst, Massachusetts, USA, on December 10th, 1965. Joseph's first music experience was a highschool band called High Speed Vomit, which he played drums in. Joseph was very much into drumming in the beginning because he was a big fan of John Bonham (Led Zeppelin). In 1983 he was playing drums for a hard-core Massachusetts punk rock band called Deep Wound. The members of that band were among others Lou Barlow on guitar. After this band broke up, J. started writing some songs, and a friend of his working at Homestead records, told him to put a record together, so J. got Lou Barlow from his previous band to play bass, and called on Patrick Murphy a drummer from All White Jury, whilst J. himself changed over to lead guitar and vocals. They signed a contract with Homestead Records and the first album, called Dinosaur, was released in 1985. In the beginning they called themselves Dinosaur but when they found out that a man called Robert Hunter had a band called Dinosaur they had to change it to Dinosaur Jr.
In the beginning the members of the group were (as written above): Joseph Mascis (vocals, guitar), Lou Barlow (bass) and Murph (drums) but became more and more of a solo project for J. Mascis. The first real breakthrough came with Bug in 1988. The music is influenced by Neil Young, Sonic Youth, Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath and old British Punk Rock.
The very typical thing for Dinosaur Jr's music (at least I think so) is the long and floating electric-guitar solos that sometimes last for up to two minutes and Mascis drawling and almost whining voice.
Links
A sweet Dinosaur Jr page. Lyrics, pics, info, lots of cool stuff. Make sure you check out all the links here, some of them are easy to miss, but have lots of good info and other cool stuff.
Lots of info. Don't miss getting the SWEET sound clip! This band sounds awesome!
Good stuff here, including SWEET sound clips!
Wierd site, but it has some cool pictures of J, and some other goodies too.
Lots of stuff here, tabs, recent news, lots of info, and pics. Check it out.
A handfull of pictures you won't find on any other site.
This is a sweet page! Lots of pics, and lots of info on the band, not just the albums but a tells about solo projects and singles with pictures and everything, really sweet page! Oh yeah sound clips too!
Warner's page for Dinosaur Jr. It's still up apparently even though the band isn't with them anymore. I don't think it's linked on Warner's page though, but who cares it has a sound clip on it and a little info.
Huge site, lots of stuff on here. You can tell this guy has put a lot of time into his site, it's one of the most professional looking Dino page's I've seen.
About half a dozen good pictures which I haven't seen on other sites, but that's about it.
 |
Shirt 5: Infinite | |
The Shirt design:
What is it?
Infinite Body Piercing, a body piercing shop. As you can see up above by the address, it's located in Philly, PA. Home of ECW, where Raven wrestled for some time.
Links
Infinite body piercing's home page.
Well there you have it, some of Raven's shirts. Now, don't email me to tell me that I missed a shirt, because I know this is not a complete list of every shirt Raven has ever worn! It's only the most popular shirts, and I am planning on adding new shirts all the time.
Special thanks to Unowhere for a lot of the t-shirt info. You can check out his site [HERE].
