In this case, Death warmed over is a good thing. The Detroit-based group called Death played punk music before there was punk music. Their 1974 demos were excavated by an indie label and released last year, and next weekend they’re playing their first concert in LA. Off-Ramp's Lainna Fader talked with Death’s singer and bassist Bobby Hackney from his home in Vermont.

In the early 1970s, the music of Detroit was split into two scenes: the black soul, funk and R&B of Motown and the white rock 'n' roll of MC5, The Stooges, Alice Cooper, and Bob Seger Somewhere in the middle was Death, brothers David, Bobby, and Dannis Hackney, who put out punk music years before anyone else was playing punk on the east side of Detroit.