Whores Frontman Christian Lembach Highlights His Favorite Band T-Shirts
A metalhead’s t-shirt collection contains some of their most prized possessions. Sweaty, stained and torn, our shirts are chronicles of our lives, physical markers of a past time and place that we pridefully put on our bodies every day. They have a clear pecking order: there are those shirts you wear only when all the best ones are in the laundry, there are the absolute favorites you wear once every couple of weeks, and there are all the shirts in between, each with their own clear rank. To a metalhead, T-shirts are EVERYTHING.
Christian Lembach of Whores is the latest to share his most prized threads for our series My Metal T-Shirt Collection. Unsurprisingly given the nature of Whores music — and with a breath of fresh air — many of Christian’s chosen shirts aren’t metal at all (although they’re certainly metal adjacent), but don’t worry, he’s got plenty of credible metal wears too. Whores are about to embark on a headlining tour of Europe with special guests Heads; get dates here and at the bottom of this post.
1. Amphetamine Reptile
This shirt is a long sleeve, which is cool.
If you don’t know what this is, you are a goddamned nerd. When I was a small fry I totally worshiped at the altar of this rad label, which shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone familiar with our band.
When Whores first started out, I got an email notification that AmRep’s head honcho Thomas Hazelmyer had just bought a download of one of our EPs on Bandcamp. I nearly shit myself. We have since become friends, which is nuts.
We have been lucky enough to be included on two different AmRep releases: Bash 17 with Melvins, Mudhoney, Lydia Lunch, Cherubs et al. as well as the legendary Dope, Guns and Fucking in the Streets compilation, which is basically a laundry list of bands that have influenced us. Hail, hail Haze XXL.
2. Big Business
This shirt has gold ink on it, which is cool.
I was a huge fan of both Karp and Murder City Devils before Big Biz started doing their thing. The first time I head “O.G.” from Head for the Shallow I instantly knew that I had just found my new favorite band, crushing, melodic and unrelenting. I strive to be half the band they are.
We had the pleasure of supporting Big Business last summer in Europe. They are both very, very funny people and a pleasure to be around.
3. The Birthday Party
I had this shirt custom made on Etsy. That website is cool.
The Birthday Party is probably my favorite band ever. They embody so many different things I love, and their entire catalog is flawless. Without them we wouldn’t have The Jesus Lizard, along with about a million other bands. They are similar to The Velvet Underground in that they influenced an entire generation.
4. Black Flag
This is a crew neck sweatshirt, which is cool.
If I have to explain Black Flag to you… idk man. You may be too far gone.
5. Ceremony
This shirt is pretty, which is cool in that it weeds out and alienates bros.
A lot of people have given Ceremony shit for their last record L-Shaped Man, but that’s only because their first couple of records ripped so hard. They have even taken to making “I MISS THE OLD CEREMONY” t-shirts. I appreciate sardonic and self-deprecating humor. I also appreciate this band’s entire recorded output.
6. Flipper
I wear this shirt a lot. Some people think I have several. Cool.
Along with side two of Black Flag’s superlative My War album, Flipper are to blame for a ton of the music that I listen to, one of the first bands to slow down and strip down punk to its bare, ugly essentials. The main riff in the song “Participation Trophy” off our last record Gold started out as a Flipper rip off. I love them so much.
The sound guy on our last European tour played Flipper’s “Sex Bomb” after one of the shows and it pretty much cleared the room. It was awesome.
7. Mayhem/Morrissey
This shirt is just cool.
OK, so this is a rad parody/mashup tee made by Sex & Death out of Austin, TX. I kind of love that it annoys fans of both Morrissey and Mayhem. I also love this shirt.
8. Melvins
This shirt is not black. Cool.
Ahh, Melvins. The undisputed kings of the whole deal. It’s hard to really say too much about this band that hasn’t already been said. We’ve been lucky enough to play with them twice now. I actually got an unsolicited compliment from Buzz when we played together last year. We can die in a plane crash or some other awful accident, and I will know that my work on planet Earth is done.
9. Red Fang
This band is from Portland. This shirt has a bird on it. Cool.
Red Fang rules so much it’s not even funny. They, however, are very funny. Every single thing about this band is perfect.
We’ve had the privilege of supporting Red Fang on two U.S. tours now. The super talented and generous Whitey McConnaughy, who has directed most every one of their rad videos, also directed ours. Some of the biggest strides our band has made are a direct result of touring with them. I guess the only thing left to say is thank you.
10. Retox
Pretty much everything Justin Pearson is involved with is cool.
I am a huge fan of The Locust, Head Wound City, Swing Kids, Some Girls and pretty much everything else JP is involved with. Retox, however is probably still my favorite.
We played an ATL show with Retox a few years ago, and I really hit it off with Michael Crain, their guitar player. He is also a member in good standing in both Dead Cross and C.U.N.T.S. He used to be in The Festival of Dead Deer and Kill The Capulets. ANYWAY, we became fast friends due to a shared history and similar worldview, and we ended up doing our first-ever full U.S. tour with Retox soon after that. I talk with Michael regularly, and he always comes and represents like the O.G. he is every time we play L.A.
Whores 2018 European tour dates:
04.10.18 Greece Athens Kyttaro Live Club w/o Heads
05.10.18 Switzerland Pratteln Up In Smoke Festival w/o Heads
06.10.18 Netherlands Nijmegen Soulcrusher Festival
07.10.18 France Paris Olympic Cafe
08.10.18 UK Leeds Temple Of Boom
09.10.18 UK Sheffield Corporation
10.10.18 UK London Underworld
11.10.18 UK Manchester Star And Garter
12.10.18 UK Bristol Exchange
13.10.18 Finland Helsinki Blowup Vol. 4 w/o Heads
14.10.18 Belgium Antwerp Desertfest
16.10.18 Germany Hamburg Molotow
17.10.18 Denmark Aalborg 1000Fryd
18.10.18 Sweden Gothenburg Skjul Fyra Sex
19.10.18 Norway Porsgrunn Sort & Blå
21.10.18 Germany Hannover Mephisto
22.10.18 Germany Berlin Musik und Frieden
23.10.18 Poland Warsaw Hydrozagadka
24.10.18 Hungary Budapest Dürer Kert
25.10.18 Austria Wien Arena
26.10.18 Italy Bologna Freak Out
27.10.18 Italy Milano Ligers
28.10.18 Germany Stuttgart Juha West
