Dave Clifford

Biography

Born under the bad sign itself-Scorpio-just after the 1969 arrest of the Manson Family, Dave Clifford has always held a fascination with evil and aberrance. That fascination spills into a rabid passion for music in multiple forms of evil and aberrance. Upon graduation with a B.S. degree in Journalism from the University of Colorado in 1993, he began work as a freelance writer for Your Flesh magazine and as a video editor. Having played guitar in a handful of post-punk bands in the Denver area, he relocated to San Francisco in 1995 playing drums with his current band, The VSS. In subsequent years, two albums and tours of the United States and Europe wore on the keyboard-based noisepunk group, which eventually called it quits in 1997. During this time, Clifford worked as a freelance music writer for the SF Weekly, Your Flesh, Wired, and CNet. Following the demise of The VSS, he played bass for Tarot Bolero and drums for VSS offshoot groups, Slaves and the Devil's Pleasures. Currently, Clifford exercises his aesthetic eugenics for the All Music Guide, Alternative Press, Your Flesh, SF Weekly, The Rocket, Addicted to Noise, SonicNet, Cleveland Scene, and Time Out NY, with sporadic entries in other publications. He has never given a high-five, nor used the word "rad" in any sense of seriousness.

Dave Clifford's Desert Island List: (no particular order)

Stooges "Funhouse"

Swans "The Great Annihilator"

Swans "Soundtracks for the Blind"

Funkadelic S/T

Misfits "Earth A.D."

Misfits "Static Age"

Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds "Let Love In"

Doors "Waiting for the Sun"

Tom Waits "Frank's Wild Years"

Sixteen Horsepower "Low Estate"

Leonard Cohen "Songs of Love and Hate"