(Translated from my original Italian text by Gemini and Piero Scaruffi)

D Generation were New York punk rockers whose style proclaimed them from the start as the natural heirs to the Dead Boys, and whose public behavior harked back to the confrontational poses of the Sex Pistols. In an era when punk had almost gone extinct, their exploits caused an immediate sensation. Singer Jesse Malin and guitarists Danny Sage and Richard Bacchus were formed in historical punk environments, centered around the club CBGB's. D Generation were born in August 1991, but were in reality only the final stage of a series of groups in which the three had served. For their first records, they were taken under the wing of Andy Shernoff (the brain behind the Dictators) and Daniel Rey (who produced the Ramones). The singles No Way Out/ Guitar Mafia (Gasatanka, 1993) and Wasted Years/ Waiting For The Next Big Parade (Sympathy, 1993) established themselves as generational anthems in an era (along the lines of the Who and the Animals) when anthems were no longer in fashion.

D Generation (Chrysalis, 1994) explodes with the savage power of No Way Out (reminiscent of Johnny Thunders' Leave Me Alone). Less fierce and more melodic, Guitar Mafia unmasks the hidden ambitions of the group. The burning power-pop of Feel Like Suicide and the driving rock and roll of Frankie are indeed worth more than the desperate ballads Waiting For The Next Big Parade and Wasted Years. Degenerated closes the disc with an epileptic slam-dance that cites Clash City Rockers and Search And Destroy. It is not fury, but determination that keeps these clichés standing.

No Lunch (Columbia, 1996) reprises four of those songs and adds nine more for a grand-style launch. The record, melodic and professional, is the negation of the premises from which they started, and the echoes of Guns N' Roses and Cheap Trick could not be more out of place.

Through The Darkness (Columbia, 1999) marks a partial return to form, although this heirs of the Ramones sound a lot more like a cross between the Smashing Pumpkins and the T. Rex in Helpless and like a cross between Siouxsie and the New York Dolls in Only A Ghost, and in the end we are again left with the feeling that their authentic passion is for the power-ballad, the genre that triumphs in the desperate lyrics of Rise And Fall and Lonely.

Chrome Locust, formed by ex-members of D-Generation (drummer Michael Wildwood) and Murphy's Law (guitarist Todd Youth), debuted with Chrome Locust (MIA, 1999), a collection of old-fashioned rock'n'roll rave-ups a` la MC5.

Jesse Malin formed Bellvue which released To Be Somebody (Golden Seal, 2001). Fine Art of Self Destruction (Artemis, 2003) was his first solo album, followed by The Heat (Artemis, 2004), whose apocalyptic crowd reinvented him as an hyper-realist bard in the vein of Lou Reed and Bob Dylan.

Jesse Malin's solo album Glitter In The Gutter (2007) was a mediocre summary of his career and message. It was followed by On Your Sleeve (2008), Mercury Retrograde (2008) and Love It To Life (2010).