Poison Idea “Punish Me“

by Jason Ankeny Nihilistic Portland, OR, hardcore outfit Poison Idea was formed in 1980 by frontman Jerry A., guitarist Tom Roberts, bassist Chris Tense, and drummer Dean Johnson. The group debuted three years later with the EP Pick Your King, cramming 13 songs into a 16-minute time frame; the Record Collectors Are Pretentious Assholes EP followed in 1985, fine-tuning the band’s blistering sound and fatalistic worldview. Thanks to their notoriously insatiable diet of drugs, alcohol, and junk food, the members of Poison Idea all ballooned past the 300-pound mark by the time of the 1986 full-length Kings of Punk, with Roberts -- who now tipped the scales at an impressive 450 pounds -- rechristening himself Pig Champion in honor of the occasion. Tense and Johnson were then dismissed from the lineup, although the former returned