20 июл. 2012 г.

Black Moth Super Rainbow



A notoriously enigmatic band hailing from Pennsylvania, Black Moth Super Rainbow made waves on the indie circuit in the early 2000s with their brand of otherworldly, psychedelic indie pop. The project began in Pittsburgh in 2002, and expanded to include five members (Tobacco, the Seven Fields of Aphelion, Power Pill Fist, Iffernaut, and Father Hummingbird) in the following year. Packing a sound that nodded to contemporary retro-chic electronic acts like Air and the Octopus Project (who they would eventually collaborate with), the group released their first album, Falling Through a Field, in 2003. Basing their operations in an undisclosed location somewhere in rural Pennsylvania, the group released two more albums, Start a People and Lost Picking Flowers in the Woods, over the course of the next three years. A critically acclaimed collaboration with the Octopus Project, 2006's The House of Apples and Eyeballs, combined with a successful debut at that year's SXSW launched the group into the indie limelight. Their sticky, rainbow-tinted fourth release, Dandelion Gum, hit stores the following year.

Black Moth Super Rainbow is an American experimental band from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Their music contains elements of psychedelia, folk, electronica, and pop. Their distinctive sound is characterized by analog electronic instruments including the vocoder, Rhodes piano, and Novatron.

A Graveface insert included inside the album Dandelion Gum describes them as such: «Deep in the woods of western Pennsylvania vocoders hum amongst the flowers and synths bubble under the leaf-strewn ground while flutes whistle in the wind and beats bounce to the soft drizzle of a warm acid rain. As the sun peeks out from between the clouds, the organic aural concoction of Black Moth Super Rainbow starts to glisten above the trees.»

Black Moth Super Rainbow existed under a different name from 2000 to 2002; satanstompingcaterpillars, with the only members being Tobacco and Power Pill Fist. Under this name, the band self-released their music on different labels, including Fuckeroo (Flower Slides) and Side 8. After their third album in 2002 (The Most Wonderfulest Thing), the band added three members (Father Hummingbird, The Seven Fields of Aphelion, and Iffernaut) and changed their name to form Black Moth Super Rainbow in 2003. BMSR began releasing their music on the 70’s Gymnastics Recording company, which is the band’s own imprint (characterized by a tree-person jumping rope in a dress). Many of the tracks from the satanstompingcaterpillars era have appeared, often reworked, in bonus reissued albums, though most of their work from that era would never resurface. Little is known about the band or its members, as they have kept themselves something of an enigma.

On March 17, 2007, the band played alongside The Octopus Project as one band at the South by Southwest music festival, playing music from their collaborative project, The House of Apples and Eyeballs.

Black Moth Super Rainbow also opened for the band The Flaming Lips on their Fall 2007 tour. More recently, BMSR performed at the 2008 SXSW music festival in a badges and wristbands only, packed-to-capacity show at The Thirsty Nickel.

The bass guitarist of BMSR has also released solo albums (Extra Life, Thoust Pain is Thine Angre, Kongmanviong) using an old Atari synth and recording them live to tape. Tobacco has also released some albums (Fucked Up Friends, Super Gum [Destroying Dandelion Gum] {Rumored to be a remix album}). After 2005, Graveface picked them up with Lost, Picking Flowers in the Woods and bonus re-issued versions of their first two albums. Dandelion Gum was BMSR’s third album, released in 2007, and possibly their most successful album with many good reviews. With it came their first music video for the track «Sun Lips». In early 2008, they continued to release Zodiac Girls - Single and Drippers - EP in November. Along with Drippers - EP, BMSR released for MP3 download on their MySpace Bonus Drippers (The Older Unlreased & Hard-To-Find Songs), older and unreleased tracks or bonus tracks like «The Dark Forest Joggers», a Dandelion Gum vinyl exclusive, «Side 9», a Lost, Picking Flowers in the Woods vinyl bonus track. or «Melting in the Meadow», a Start a People outtake track. Word from their MySpace blog says of a fourth album to being released, but there hasn’t been a date told as of yet.

The band is slated to perform at the WIDR Barking Tuna Festival in October, 2008.

On November 4, BMSR released Drippers - EP which not only includes new tracks like «Happy Melted City» or «Milk Skates» but also features some lost tracks from the Dandelion Gum era («We Are the Pagans» and «One Day I Had an Extra Toe») it also features Mike Watt and BMSR’s first official remix of Laura Burhenn’s song «Just for the Night». Three days earlier, BMSR played their last live show for a while, due to the recording of their fourth full-length album Eating Us, which should be released on May 26, 2009.




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19 июл. 2012 г.

Negativland


The story is about Negativland, a collective of three or more friends who sometimes get together to make music. Well, maybe it's music: recorded audio material - television jingles, radio talk-show clips, conversations culled from radio waves, anything that features the sound of a human voice - is fodder for the collage that comprises a Negativland recording. Mediaddicts who see society suffering under a constant barrage of TV, canned imagery, advertising, and corporate culture, Negativland's members are, by self-definition, artists of appropriation. They create with mirrors.

Gathering the most memorable, most evocative, or most provocative chunks from the spew, they reassemble them into something new - occasionally political, frequently critical - and spin them back into the barrage. Combining, say, car-manufacturers' slogans, sound effects, and a PSA warning against drinking and driving in "We Are Driven" (from their 1993 release, Free), they create a danceable phantasmagoria that disses our culture's obsession with the automobile: simple enough, thought-provoking, and pretty funny. At their worst, the members of Negativland are repetitive and smarmy; at their best, they are razor-sharp, microscopically focused, and deadly accurate.

At a tiny North Oakland, California, studio, where he collaborates with Mark Hosler and Don Joyce (Negativland's brain trust), Chris Grigg explains the band's techniques. "By working with several levels at the same time, we encourage people to observe multiple meanings - even if they aren't intended - in everything around them," he says. Negativland invites us to inspect more closely the surrounding world and its media, a practice Grigg calls "instructive, terribly fun, and a bit psychotic."

Negativland is an experimental music and sound collage band which originated in the San Francisco Bay Area in the late 1970s. They "lifted their name" from a Neu! song. Long-standing band member Don Joyce produces a weekly interactive radio programme, Over The Edge, on listener-supported KPFA in Berkeley, California. A significant number of Negativland's recent releases have been formed from material which was developed by the band live on the show. The core of the band is Mark Hosler, Richard Lyons, Don Joyce and David Wills (aka "The Weatherman"). Chris Grigg is a former member. Peter Conheim joined the band in 1997. Negativland has released a number of albums ranging from pure collage to more musical affairs. These have mostly been released on their own label, Seeland Records. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, they produced several recordings for SST Records, most notably Escape From Noise, Helter Stupid, and U2. Negativland is well-known for the U2 lawsuit, which nearly destroyed them as a band.

Negativland started in Concord, California in 1979 around the core founding members of Lyons and Hosler (who were in high school at the time) and released an eponymous debut in 1980. A number of releases followed in the early 1980s, but it wasn't until after the release of their breakthrough sample and cut-up sonic barrage Escape From Noise in 1987 that Negativland gained wider attention. Following the somewhat unexpected success of this album, Negativland faced the prospect of going on a money-losing tour. To prevent this, they put together a phony press release claiming that their song Christianity is Stupid (featuring the sampled and edited voice of an actor portraying a commissar repeating "Christianity is stupid! Communism is good!", taken from the propaganda movie If Footmen Tire You, What Will Horses Do?) was an inspiration for a real mass-murder committed by David Brom in Rochester, Minnesota. The resulting fallout and media frenzy, based on the humorously fabricated claims by Negativland, had the effect of pointing out the venality of the mass media. Though the story was completely unsubstantiated by any facts, the lurid combination of murder, religion, and "rock" music proved too tempting for the media to ignore. The story ran on TV news shows, newspapers, and magazines, with little to no fact-checking. Soon the world was informed of the "Killer Song" that supposedly led some kid to murder his parents with an ax. The scandal became the foundation for their next release Helter Stupid, featuring a cover photo of a TV news "journalist" intoning the fake ax murder story, with the news station's caption "Killer Song" above his head, and a photo of the ax-murderer

Negativland's next project was the infamous U2 record with samples from "America's Top 40" host Casey Kasem. In 1991, Negativland released a single with the title U2 displayed in very large type on the front of the packaging, and "Negativland" in a smaller typeface. An image of the Lockheed U-2 spy plane was also on the single cover. The songs within were parodies of the well-known song, "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For", including kazoos and extensive sampling of the original song. The song I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For features a musical backing to an extended profane rant from well-known disc jockey Casey Kasem, lapsing out of his more polished and professional tone during a frustrating rehearsal, commenting, for instance: "These guys are from England and who gives a shit?" (U2's members are in fact from Ireland.) U2's label Island Records sued Negativland claiming that the "U2" violated trademark law, and the song itself violated copyright law. Island Records also contended that the single was an attempt to deliberately confuse U2 fans, then awaiting Achtung Baby. Funds exhausted, Negativland settled out of court. Most copies of the single were recalled and destroyed. By the mid-1990s, rap had made authorized sampling more common in mainstream music, but the single "U2", for which Negativland did not obtain clearance to use U2 samples, is still illegal to sell in the United States, but is available for free download from Negativland's official web site. In June, 1992, R.U. Sirius, publisher of the magazine Mondo 2000 came up with an interesting idea. Publicists from U2 had contacted him regarding the possibility of interviewing Dave Evans (aka "The Edge") hoping to promote U2's impending multi-million dollar Zoo TV Tour, which featured found sounds and live sampling from mass media outlets (things for which Negativland had been known for some time). Sirius, unbeknownst to the Edge, decided to have his friends Joyce and Hosler of Negativland conduct the interview. Joyce and Hosler, fresh from Island's lawsuit, peppered the Edge with questions regarding his ideas about the use of sampling in their new tour, and the legality of using copyrighted material without permission. Midway through the interview, Joyce and Hosler revealed their identities as members of Negativland. An embarrassed the Edge reported that U2 were bothered by the sledgehammer legal approach Island Records took in their lawsuit, and furthermore that much of the legal wrangling took place without U2's knowledge: "by the time we (U2) realized what was going on it was kinda too late, and we actually did approach the record company on your (Negativland's) behalf and said, 'Look, c'mon, this is just, this is very heavy...'" Island Records reported to Negativland that U2 never authorised samples of their material; Evans response was, "that's complete bollocks, there's like, there's at least six records out there that are direct samples from our stuff." The "U2" single (along with other related material) was re-released in 2001 on a "bootleg" album entitled These Guys Are From England And Who Gives A Shit, released on "Seelard Records" (a parody of Negativland's record label "Seeland Records"). It is thought likely that Negativland themselves were responsible for the re-release, and that U2 gave their blessing; although the Negativland website refers to this release as a bootleg, it is available from major retailers like Best Buy, Amazon, and Tower Records, as well as Negativland's own mail-order business. Negativland are interested in intellectual property rights, and argue that their use of U2's and others' material falls under fair use. In 1995, they released a book with accompanying CD called Fair Use about copyright law in general, and the U2 incident in particular, and were the main subjects of Craig Baldwin's documentary "Sonic Outlaws", detailing the use of culture jamming to subvert the messages of more traditional media outlets. There are many other artists who push the boundaries of copyright law in a similar way to Negativland, including John Oswald, the Evolution Control Committee, The Bran Flakes, Sir Mildred Pierce, and People Like Us. Negativland's Mark Hosler pointed at the irony of U2 infringing copyrights on a massive scale during their Zoo TV tour by broadcasting live satellite images on stage, and getting away with it, while almost simultaneously suing Negativland, who had been doing it for a long time before it ever dawned on U2.

In 1999 Negativland collaborated with UK anarchist band Chumbawamba to produce the album the ABCs of Anarchism, which is largely based around the writings of Alexander Berkman and cut-up versions of the hit song Tubthumping, the theme tune to the children's program Teletubbies and Anarchy in the UK.

In 2003, members of Negativland contributed their efforts to Creative Commons, an organization devoted to providing artists with a broader range of copyright options. In September 2005, to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the band, Negativland curated an art exhibit in Manhattan's Gigantic Artspace gallery. The exhibit, Negativlandland, included a number of pieces of artwork from and inspired by Negativland recordings, video projection of music videos created by the band and others, and some artwork created specifically for the show, such as an animatronic Abraham Lincoln figure (inspired by the band's Lincoln cut-up piece God Bull) and a hands-on exhibit featuring the Booper, the audio-processing unit that band member David Wills (a.k.a. The Weatherman) assembled out of old radio parts. The show will appear in Minneapolis on May 12, 2006, at Creative Electric Studios. The band is hoping to continue to bring Negativlandland to other cities.


Over The Edge series:



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18 июл. 2012 г.

Microstoria


Microstoria is a collaboration between Markus Popp (Oval) and Jan St. Werner (Mouse On Mars). The resulting music is an electronic soundtrack, not without structure, not without melody. The "instruments" used are what could be seen as their successors-machines and digital technology. Where Oval eschews authorship of music, Microstoria explores authorship, especially in relation to improvisation. The tones used in composition are mechanized but paradoxically rich. The resulting pieces are organic in feel; a striking result when viewed in context with their origins.




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17 июл. 2012 г.

Radian


Radian is an experimental/post-rock band from Austria that mixes electronic production and traditional rock instruments resulting in a sound much resembling an electronic act. Their music touches on instrumental rock, post-rock, jazz and electronica, and is notable for imitating some of the more demanding musical structures of intelligent dance music. The trio was formed in 1996 in Vienna. The band has release albums on Rhiz, Mego, and Thrill Jockey, and has recorded with John McEntire of Tortoise.

Members:
Martin Brandlmayr - drums, vibraphone, samples & editing (also a solo artist, a member of Trapist, Kapital Band 1 and Autistic Daughters).
Stefan Nemeth - guitars, lapsteel, electronics (also cofounder of the Mosz label and a member of Lokai)
John Norman - bass





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9 июл. 2012 г.

Taylor Deupree


Taylor Deupree (b. 1971) is a sound artist, graphic designer, and photographer residing in New York. On January 1st, 1997, he founded 12k, a record label that focuses on minimalism and contemporary musical forms. In 12k's 10 years of existence Deupree has released over 40 CDs by a roster of international sound artists and has developed 12k into one of the most respected experimental electronic labels in the world. In September 2000, Deupree and sound artist Richard Chartier formed LINE, a sublabel of 12k that curates its continuing documentation of compositional and installation work by composers exploring the aesthetics of contemporary and digital minimalism. In January 2002 (as a celebration of 12k's fifth anniversary) Deupree launched term., an online series of MP3 releases. While 12k's emphasis lies not only in sound but also on design and presentation, term. exists entirely in the digital domain with no physical object or package. In September, 2003, Deupree started a 3rd record label called Happy to promote unconventional japanese pop. Happy was born from Deupree's interest in Japanese pop and the fact that it is quite unknown outside of Japan.

Since 1993 Deupree has created critically acclaimed recordings for labels worldwide including Spekk, Plop, Noble (Japan), Ritornell/Mille Plateaux, Raster-Noton, Disko B (Germany), Sub Rosa (Belgium), Fällt (Ireland), Audio.NL (Netherlands), Room40 (Australia), Instinct Records, Caipirinha Music, Plastic City (USA), Dum (Finland), and of course 12k and LINE, among others. In January 1999, Deupree currated a compilation for New York's Caipirinha Music label that he titled 'Microscopic Sound'. This release was among the first to gather together artists of this style and helped put a name to a then-rising genre of electronic music.

His solo works in recent years have explored a fusion of digital sound manipulation with organic and melodic textures that take influences from his interest in architecture, interior design, and photography. Themes of minimalism, stillness, atmosphere, nature, and imperfection prevade throughout his work . An intense passion for recording and studio technology creates a strong technological backdrop for all of his compositions.

Collaboration with other musicians is also a very important aspect of Deupree's work. Working with other artists is a way to not only create unique works beyond his solo recordings but to also expand his own techniques and processes as a learning experience. Over record years he has collaborated with a wide variety of artists such as Christopher Willits (US, guitar), Kenneth Kirschner (US, Piano), Eisi (Japan, 3-piece acoustic ambient-rock band), Tetsu Inoue (US, sound artist), Frank Bretschneider (Germany, sound artist), and Richard Chartier (US, sound artist). Deupree feels the importance of collaborative work is to not layer two individual styles but to create a 3rd, fusion sound that incorporates the strengths of each collaborator yet sounds like a unique, 3rd identity.

Deupree continues to evolve his sound and approaches each project with a new direction and different process. Continued shifting and sound exploration is vital to his work. He has many recording and remixing accomplishments and a substantial, varied, discography formed over 14 years. His design and photography work has appeared on dozens of projects and record labels around the world and published in a number of books in Japan and the UK.



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Tu M'


TU M’ - Italian multimedia duo formed by Rossano Polidoro and Emiliano Romanelli in 1998. Their works include music, video and photography. They live and work in Città Sant’Angelo (Pescara, Italy). Through a personal use of digital and analog instruments, the TU M' reveal a complex universe made up of present and past, closeness and distance, where seeing and listening become a meditative contemplation.

During the years, their compositions, well received by the critics and the public, have been released for labels including: Headz (Japan), Dekorder (Germany), Fällt (UK), Cut (Swiss), ERS/Staalplaat (NL) and Phthalo (USA). Together with various participations on Bip-Hop (France), Crónica (Portugal), Mute (UK), FatCat (UK), Innova (USA), Bottrop Boy (Germany), 12k/term (USA), Ache (Canada), CubicFabric (Japan) and others.

They have worked in various fields together with numerous musicians and artists including: Steve Roden, Simon Fisher Turner, Frank Metzger, Annja Krautgasser, Dan Warburton and others.

Their audio-visual works have been presented and exhibited in various museums and galleries including: Castello di Rivoli (Torino, Italy), Arnolfini Gallery (Bristol, Uk), Macro (Roma, Italy), Stuk Art Centre (Brussels, Belgium), Kunst Meran (Merano, Italy), Centro d’Arte Contemporanea Luigi Pecci (Prato, Italy), Università degli Studi di Napoli (Napoli, Italy), Warehouse Contemporary Art (Teramo, Italy), Galleria Civica d’Arte Contemporanea (Monfalcone, Italy), Civica Galleria D’Arte Moderna di Gallarate (Varese, Italy), Palazzo Lucarini Contemporary (Trevi, Italy), Zelle Arte Contemporanea (Palermo, Italy), New Chinatown Barbershop Gallery (Los Angeles, Usa), Pianissimo Gallery (Milano, Italy), T293 Gallery (Napoli, Italy), Batofar (Paris, France), Purple Institute (Paris, France), Neon Gallery (Bologna, Italy). And in various festivals including: ArezzoWave Festival (Arezzo, Italy), Dissonanze/Enzimi (Roma, Italy), Napoli Film Festival (Napoli, Italy), Videominuto (Prato, Italy), Sintesi Festival (Napoli, Italy) and others.

In 2002 they set up and manage the net project - TU M'P3 Soundtracks For Images - a research on the possible relationships between music and image in various cultural contexts, where over 180 musicians and composers from every corner of the world were invited to produce an inedited soundtrack to a series of digital polaroids made by the TU M' themselves. The archive contains over 200 freely downloadable mp3s

In 2003 they set up the recording label - MR.MUTT Records - where they document the work of international composers and ensembles which explore contemporaneity via the use of the laptop in various musical contexts.

In 2003 they created the musical ensemble - STENO - together with the German artist and musician Frank Metzger. In it they explore a personal world made up of second-hand music. They released their first work «Second-Hand Furniture» with Mr.Mutt (Italy).




See also TU M'P3 Soundtracks For Images - a research started in 2002 until 2005, on the possible relationships between music and image in various cultural contexts. Over 180 musicians and composers from every corner of the world, were invited to produce an unedited soundtrack to a series of digital postcards made by TU M' themselves. The archive contained 230 freely downloadable mp3s, totalling nearly 12 hours of music.


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3 июл. 2012 г.

Olkin Donder - Oben Glex


Each of us at some point have had a garden, an oasis, an escape from the pressures of daily life. Olkin Donder's version of this is a portal to a different region of the Earth all together, while we root through weeds and curse the rain, this guy beholds hidden facets of primordial creation. You can almost feel the layers of dirt, rock and clay pass through your hands as you listen to this; there's no other way to explain what is going on. This bold, exploratory feel coupled with the urgently complex rhythms is enough to make me look for my own pick ax and shovel. Time to do a bit of digging, there's something buried down there which faintly glows up through the detritus life becomes overgrown by and perhaps just perhaps those errant question marks of electronic accentuation can help clear it away. I've always been more prone to exploring the strange edge we glide upon never daring to look down for fear of becoming enraptured by the darkness, Olkin Donder have no qualms moving within such a place.

Illuminating those caverns, questioning the breaks between the plates, the never ending search for what lies beyond or in between spaces of words. The general tone of this record is that of wonder and quiet awe, as though we are spectators but not revealed to those we observe; we keep silent watch and relay back what we can without being discovered. If you've ever played hide and seek after dark, even the most placid and inviting suburban backyard can become somewhat menacing once the sun goes down. The trees become mere outlines and for some reason the wind rises giving them the illusion of movement, of course later in life you realize that you weren't being studied but back then those towering specters terrified and much of what Oben Glex create takes me to those quiet nights again. The drifting, subterranean style on some of these tracks put me in mind of the memories we all have of breathing liquid in the womb, clearly this album is an exposition on origins and orientation.

Feel that guide rope go taut, the first beads of apprehension break out on your forehead and before you know it the chorus of an unseen race surrounds you, those flickering lights you saw in the distance turned out to be a thousand eyes that belong to what can only be described as phantasmic manifestations of absolute intellect. They proceed upon a course we can only glimpse as we scramble over the slippery rocks and try not to lose our footing; it's hard to pick out precisely when this release crept out of the shadows with it's beckoning gesture of seduction. I sense a great threshold being brought into view when I put this one on... there's a feeling of euphoria the further it goes along that perhaps if I play it enough I, too will behold what Olkin Donder did during their journey. An obscure, occult study of what can be felt and is real in every sense of the word except the physical. Perhaps this is what the music is for, it serves as a marker for what my limited human vision cannot perceive.

Whatever the case, this could be the most subversive entry in Xtraplex's catalog yet. This small label doesn't attract much attention but they have now put out eight releases which by now have taken me to places I have to concentrate intently to even attempt literary conveyance. My own ability to compose and create has continually expanded due to what they do and I thank them for it! Again they have somehow managed to set the scene and give it a grandiose sheen of incalculable sonic reflection, how else is it possible that I now look out my now urban window and see those trees once again only this time they appear to be waving; now that I have tuned into their wavelength they can go. Is it all happenstance or are my surroundings more aware of me than I am of them, questions questions questions... ©

A while ago we sent out Olkin Donder to the ∆-b850411 sublayer on an expedition in order to capture rare recordings of what we understood to be some kind of inter-dimensional birth gathering. He disguised himself as a Thompson-like humanoid gonzo-recorder and together with his own inseparable visual sidekick Han Leese they became our personal representing creative ganglions out (or in) there. Some months, days, minutes or whatever later they returned to our anticipating midst with this 43 min poetic sci-fi fairy tale ... Yet, another Xtraplex debut release was oozed...






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Arcane Device / David Lee Myers


Arcane Device is the project of David Myers to release his experimental works with manipulated feedback processing.

Myers invented his own machine for feedback and started releasing his first experimental works in 1987. He has also collaborated with people like Asmus Tietchens, Kim Cascone, and others and has his own label called Pulsewidth.

David Lee Myers (b. 1949) is a sound and visual artist living in New York City. He has produced music based on feedback principles since 1987, using his unique "feedback machines". As Arcane Device, and more recently under his own name, Myers has had twenty recordings released by Generator, ReR, Silent, RRRecords, Staalplaat, and many other labels.




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2 июл. 2012 г.

Karl Holmqvist


Karl Holmqvist, born 1964, is a Swedish artist known for his text based works, poetry and readings. Holmqvist has exhibited at the ICA - Institute of Contemporary Arts 2009, CAM - Chelsea Art Museum, 2009, The Living Art Museum, Reykjavik (2008), Tensta Konsthall (2008) Manifesta 7 - Comitato Manifesta 7, Bolzano (2008) and at PERFORMA 05 - Performa, New York City, NY (2005).



Triple Canopy Voice recording of poem "You Thrust Me" by Florine Stettheimer
ARTFACTS
West London Projects
Performa 5
“Hymn to Pan” at Badischer Kunstverein [& on deutch]



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Henry Rollins



Henry Rollins (born February 13, 1961 as Henry Lawrence Garfield) is an American Grammy Award-winning alternative rock singer and songwriter, spoken word artist, book author (prose and poetry), radio and TV personality, occasional movie actor, comedian, and voice-over artist.

He is perhaps best known for his work with the hardcore punk band Black Flag from 1981 to 1986, and for leading the Rollins Band since 1987.

Critic Steve Huey decribes Rollins as "a post-punk renaissance man ... Rollins is relentlessly busy ... and has kept his artistic integrity, becoming a kind of father figure for many alternative bands of the '90s."

Rollins grew up in Washington, D.C.. His parents divorced when he was young, and Rollins was raised primarily by his mother, Iris, who taught him to read before he entered school, and who he credits with instilling his lifelong love of reading.

He was prescribed Ritalin as a child and was sent to the The Bullis School, a Washington, D.C. military school. He disliked the authoritarian atmosphere and the then-boys-only campus, which impeded his early attempts at dating and made him uncomfortable around women for several years. More positively, he said Bullis helped instill in him a sense of discipline and a strong work ethic. It was at military school that he began to develop his muscular build, and began writing. Rollins described his early literary efforts as follows:

"I would write short stories, and they're probably horribly written, about blowing up my school and murdering all the teachers. Which I would show to this English teacher who I was friends with, my one ally at this school. And he would go, "Okay, don't show this to your real English teacher. You know, because you can't say 'fuck' and hand it in as an essay at this school." I went to a pretty uptight all boys school. But he said, "Show me this stuff." And, "I like that you're writing creatively. Keep this up. Just don't show it to your 'teacher-teacher' because you'll get in trouble.""

After high school, Rollins worked at a number of jobs (including as a laborer at the National Institutes of Health), before becoming the manager of a Häagen-Dazs ice cream store.

A longtime music fan with wide-ranging tastes (a fan of Washington D.C.'s funky Go Go music from his teen years) Rollins became involved in the punk music scene through his close friend Ian MacKaye (who would later head Minor Threat and Fugazi). Bad Brains was one of Rollins's favorite groups; singer H.R. would sometimes coax Rollins onstage to sing with them.

Rollins joined S.O.A. (State of Alert)as a singer; the group released one EP on Dischord Records before disbanding. Rollins's steady employment enabled him to finance the recording and pressing of the S.O.A. EP.

In 1981, his friend Mitch Parker gave him a copy of Black Flag's Nervous Breakdown EP. Rollins soon became a huge fan and began exchanging letters with the group. When Black Flag toured the East coast, playing Washington D.C. and New York City, Rollins attended as many performances as he could. At an impromptu show in a bar, he asked to sing Clocked In. As vocalist Dez Cadena was switching to guitar, the band invited Rollins to a rehearsal. Impressed by his stage demeanor, they asked him to become their permanent vocalist. Despite some doubts, he accepted, due in part to MacKaye's encouragement. His high level of energy and intense personality made him a perfect fit as their frontman.

After joining Black Flag, Garfield changed his surname, and got the Black Flag logo tattooed on his arm (thought it was the back of his ultra-thick neck?). It was to be the first of many tatoos (others are punk rock group The Misfits' ghost-faced mascot, the "stickman" sigil of German experimentalists Einsturzende Neubauten, and an impressive 'Search and Destroy' logo taking up his entire back.) As Rollins become more heavily tattooed and more havily-built, wore less clothing on stage, and would often take to the stage barechested and barefoot wearing only a pair of black shorts.

Rollins toured and recorded with Black Flag from 1981 until their breakup in 1986. During Rollins' tenure, Black Flag's music underwent dramatic changes. Though guitarist Greg Ginn was the primary songwriter, Rollins wrote a number of songs with Black Flag.

Throughout most of his time with Black Flag, Rollins kept a diary of his thoughts and experiences. In 1994 he published these diaries as Get In The Van; the book also featured many photographs, as well as Rollins' reminiscences of his time with the group before he kept a diary. Rollins read portions of Get In The Van for an audio book; this recording won a Grammy. Rollins later characterized the entire affair as "corny" and gave his Grammy statuette to an acquaintance.

Rollins began publishing his own books during his time with Black Flag. His early efforts were self-made volumes (photocopied and stapled), though he quickly began printing chapbooks before moving on to establish 2.13.61, an independent publisher named after his birthday.

Also while in Black Flag, Rollins met Joe Cole, an acquaintance of Ginn. They became close friends, and, in December 1991, Rollins and Cole were robbed at the home they shared. Cole was murdered by a gunshot to the head, and while Rollins escaped without injury, the crime remains unsolved. Most of Rollins' subsequent efforts have been dedicated to his late friend's memory. Rollins recounted his friendship with Joe, Joe's murder, and Rollins' attempts to 'come to terms' with this, in his book Now Watch Him Die.

After Black Flag broke up in early 1986, Rollins quickly formed a new group and released a solo album and an EP with guitarist Chris Haskett. Soon, he added former Gone members Andrew Weiss and Sim Cain, calling the new group the Rollins Band. They gained popularity through the strength of albums like The End of Silence (1992) and Weight (1994). He also gained roles in movies and television shows (particularly as a VJ on MTV) and recorded a cover of AC-DC's Let There Be Rock in 1991 with The Hard-Ons.

Beginning in his later years in Black Flag, he has toured as a spoken-word artist, focusing mostly on social topics, as well as recounting his life experiences. His blend of self-deprecating humor and serious discussion of important social issues has gained him great popularity. He has released nine spoken-word albums through his 2.13.61 publishing company (and several through other record companies); 2.13.61 has also released books by Rollins, Joe Cole, Nick Zedd, Nick Cave and Michael Gira, as well as albums by Rollins Band, Exene Cervenka, Hubert Selby Jr., The Birthday Party, and Gun Club.

Rollins is an avowed free jazz fan, having released albums by Matthew Shipp and Roscoe Mitchell on his 2.13.61 label. In 1990, Rollins guest-hosted a Los Angeles, California college radio program and devoted much of this appearance to saxophone player Albert Ayler's music.
On May 17, 2004, Rollins began hosting a weekly radio show, Harmony In My Head (named after a favorite Buzzcocks song) on Los Angeles' Indie 103.1 radio. The show aired every Monday evening, with Rollins playing a variety of rock, punk, rap and jazz music. He put the show on what would be an indefinite hiatus, with the last show airing on December 27, 2004, in order to undergo a spoken-word tour in early 2005. An expanded edition of Rollins' song lists and show notes of the first run of the show were published by 2.13.61 in November 2005 by fan demand as the book Fanatic. In late 2005, Rollins announced the return to the airwaves of Harmony in My Head; Internet users can listen online every Tuesday evening from 8 to 10 p.m., PST, at www.indie1031.fm as of December 27, 2005.

Rollins is a co-host of the television program Full Metal Challenge on TLC, as well as the host of a weekly series called The Henry Rollins Show on the Independent Film Channel (IFC) airing every Saturday night at 10 p.m. The show is described this way on its official Web site henryrollins.ifc.com.

"Henry Rollins unveils the independent alternative to late night programming with his unique take on music, film, politics and pop culture with the help from intelligent celebrity guests and the most eclectic musical performances on television."

Prior to his weekly series on IFC, Rollins was a host of Henry's Film Corner, a monthly look at movies and cinema.

In 2004, he became an outspoken human rights activist, most vocally a crusader for gay rights. He has pinpointed the rights for gays to marry as a "vital issue impeding on the rights of Americans today." He was the host of a benefit concert called "WedRock" to raise money for a pro-gay-marriage organization. During the 2003 Iraq War, he started touring with the United Service Organizations (USO) to entertain troops overseas, despite his personal opposition to the war and the Bush administration. Rollins has also been very active in the campaign to free the "West Memphis Three" - three young men who many believe were wrongly convicted of murder. Rollins appears with Public Enemy frontman Chuck D on Black Flag song Rise Above on "Rise Above: 24 Black Flag Songs to Benefit the West Memphis Three," a benefit album to help pay for the West Memphis Three defense fund. He also appears on a cover of Black Flag's Slip It In with singer Inger Lorre.



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Brion Gysin


Brion Gysin (January 19, 1916 in Taplow, Buckinghamshire, UK - July 13, 1986 in Paris, France) was a writer and painter.

He is best known for his rediscovery of Tristan Tzara's cut-up technique while cutting through a newspaper upon which he was trimming some mats. He shared his discovery with his friend William S. Burroughs, who subsequently put the cut-up technique to good use and dramatically changed the landscape of American literature.

Educated in England, at Downside College (1932-34), he moved to Paris where he studied at the Sorbonne. Among those he met at this time are renowned members of the Surrealist group, including Max Ernst, Salvador and Gala Dali and Picasso. Gysin’s work was included in the Surrealist Drawings exhibition in Paris in 1935 (Galerie Quatre).

He first visited the Algerian Sahara in 1938, a journey that was to have a deep and lasting influence on his life. Equally significant to the form of his later giant landscape paintings were the years he spent in New York working as assistant to Broadway stage designer Irene Sharaff (1940-43). In 1953, having returned to North Africa, Gysin opened the Thousand and One Nights restaurant, where the Master Musicians of Joujouka played an ‘extended residency’.

Gysin altered the cut-up technique to produce what he called permutation poems in which a single phrase was repeated several times, with the words rearranged in a different order with each reiteration. Many of these permutations were derived using a random sequence generator in an early computer program written by Ian Sommerville.

He also experimented with permutation on recording tape, by splicing together the sounds of a gun firing recorded at different amplitudes in the BBC Radiophonic Workshop thus producing 'Pistol Poem.' The piece was subsequently used as a theme in 1960 for the performance in Paris of Le Domaine Poetique, a showcase for experimental works by people like Gysin, Françoise Dufrêne, Bernard Heidsieck, and Henri Chopin.




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Evolution Control Committee


The Evolution Control Committee (The ECC) is an experimental music band based in San Francisco. The ECC was founded by Mark Gunderson (a.k.a. TradeMark G.) in Columbus, Ohio, in 1987. It typically uses uncleared and illegal samples from various sources as a form of protest against copyright law. The ECC is probably best known for its song "Rocked by Rape", consisting of samples of Dan Rather's deadpan delivery describing various atrocities over looped riffs from AC/DC's "Back in Black". Nearly as popular are the "Public Enemy/Whipped Cream Mixes", with Public Enemy's inflammatory raps over classic Herb Alpert Tijuana Brass.The ECC also produces numerous audio experiments, such as the disfiguring of compact discs, and has produced a few video works as well, ranging from re-edited 50's corporate shorts to a Teddy Ruxpin reciting the works of William S. Burroughs. Other activities include culture jamming.



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