Secret History of Rock. The Most Influential Bands You've Never Heard (44 page)

Alec Empire, Atari Teenage Riot:

Einstürzende Neubauten were so important in Germany, or in Berlin especially. Every band had to sound like them in the ‘80s, and I didn’t like that. Then I discovered the stuff later on in the ‘90s.

Though they’ve cut down on activity in the ‘90s, Neubauten remains an active and viable band. The majority of their recent work, with the exception of 1993’s
Tabula Rasa
, has been tied to the theater. They’ve even set up a label, Ego, to release film- and stage-related work, as well as solo projects. Their recent
Faustmusik
was written for an opera, based on the Faust tale, that featured Bargeld in the role of Mephistopheles. Increasingly, outside projects have consumed the time of individual members. Since 1983, Bargeld has been a member of Nick Cave’s band, the Bad Seeds. Hacke was a member of another
Birthday Party
offshoot, Crime and the City Solution, while Einheit has explored the further devolution of environmental music with his side band Stein (stone), which uses rocks to create percussive music.

DISCOGRAPHY

Kollaps
(ZickZack [Germany], 1981; 1988)
; their dark and transgressive debut.

Drawings of Patient O.T.
(Some Bizarre / Ze, 1983; Thirsty Ear, 1995)
; a more melodic album, with an expanded lineup.

80-83 Strategies against Architecture
(Mute, 1983; 1994)
; a compilation of early material, including many of the tracks from
Kollaps
.

2x4
(ROIR, 1984)
; a live recording made in 1982.

Halber Mensch
(Some Bizarre / Rough Trade, 1985; Thirsty Ear, 1995)
; their best amalgamation of industrial percussion with song structure.

Fünf auf der nach oben offenen Richterskala
(Some Bizarre, 1987; Thirsty Ear, 1995)
; a record with some original music in English.

Haus der Lüge
(Some Bizarre / Relativity, 1989; Thirsty Ear, 1995)
.

Strategies against Architecture II
(Mute, 1991)
; a second compilation, with a mix of album tracks and previously unreleased material from 1984-1990.

Die Hamletmaschine
(Ego / Rough Trade, 1991)
; their first effort in theater music, and the first release on their Ego label.

Tabula Rasa
(Mute, 1993)
; a conceptual work dealing with German unification.

Faustmusik
(Mute, 1996)
; music composed for a theater production of Faust that starred Bargeld.

Ende neu
(Mute, 1996)
; featuring a streamlined group with Bargeld, Unruh, and Hacke, this was issued in Remix form the following year, with contributions from Jon Spencer, Alec Empire, Barry Adamson, and others.

CHROME

Helios Creed, Chrome:

We wanted to make scary-funny music, if you can imagine that. We were definitely trying to twist it to the ends of human imagination at the time.

By marrying the two seemingly incompatible sounds of ‘60s acid rock and ‘70s punk and adding bits of the latest technology, Chrome pioneered its own dark and twisted brand of freak rock, a kind of psychedelic cyberpunk. Though their music was of limited commercial appeal, the band managed to connect with a rather varied crew of new-wave rejects. Their bad-trip sci-fi rock has inspired post-hardcore maniacs like Jesus Lizard (who recorded a Chrome medley) and the Butthole Surfers (on whose records Chrome members have played), as well as goth and industrial acts from Ministry to Nine Inch Nails to Marilyn Manson. Now, younger groups like Pigeonhead and Six Finger Satellite are incorporating elements of Chrome’s sound to bring the group’s acid punk into the next century.

Chris Cornell, Soundgarden:

I was a big Chrome fan. It was just like walking through a shopping mall on acid. Sounds came at you from every direction, kind of like industrial before anyone knew what that was. I’ve played Chrome for people who never heard them and they can’t believe it came out in 1979. It sounds so much like what people are doing today. A certain amount of rhythmic, atonal guitar is probably how it translated to our band, where you didn’t have to have riffs that sound like Black Sabbath. You could use the guitar as a rhythmic instrument without any melody at all.

After studying music and art in Los Angeles with an associate of experimental composer
John Cage
, Thomas Edward Wisse headed north to San Francisco, where he assumed the name Damon Edge and formed Chrome in the mid-‘70s. With bassist/violinist Gary Spain, guitarist John Lambdin and others, Edge played drums and produced Chrome’s 1978 debut,
The Visitation
, on his own Siren label. It wasn’t until guitarist Helios Creed (B. Johnson) joined later that year, though, that Chrome began to assert a distinctive sound and personality. Edge and Creed entered into a songwriting and producing partnership that incorporated Creed’s love for Jimi Hendrix and folk music, Edge’s avant-garde past, and the group’s recent discovery of bands like the Sex Pistols and
Throbbing Gristle
, as well as nonmusical influences like science fiction books and horror movies, from Philip K. Dick to Invasion of the Body Snatchers to A Clockwork Orange. “I took all that stuff, put it in a bowl and mixed it up, and what came out was quite different than any of it,” Creed says of Chrome’s early sound.

David Yow, Jesus Lizard:

Chrome was very important. I remember many, many nights of getting really drunk and taking a good bit of acid and just listening to the
Chrome Box
over and over. It would take us places we didn’t know existed. I liked the funkiness – not in a James Brown way, but in a dirty, screwy way. Some of the songs were really high-tech and clean, and some sound like a ghetto-blaster in the bathroom with a drum set.

With
Alien Soundtracks
, the first fruits of the Edge/Creed collaboration, Chrome managed to cram all their disparate elements onto a simple, groundbreaking four-track recording which Creed called “industrial strength music.” The album was punk in its disdain for high production values and its menacing attitude, but it was too psychedelic – with screaming guitar and electric violin solos – for most punks. And with its electronic effects and tape collages, the sound had more in common with the industrial noise of
Throbbing Gristle
than the burgeoning San Francisco punk scene. A truly inspired blend of new and old rock freakiness, the record defined Chrome’s place as leaders of the pseudo-genre known as acid punk.

Scott Kannberg, Pavement:

Their late 70’s records are pretty crazy, warped stuff. There’s a lot going on, electronic noises and minimal drums with rock guitar. They’re very foreign sounding records. We were really influenced by those on our first single. We were like, “Oh, this sounds like Chrome. This is great.”

For their 1979 follow-up,
Half Machine Lip Moves
, Edge and Creed delved even further into futuristic nightmare soundscapes. Having dismissed their bandmates for the record, the duo played all instruments – besides what they credited to a helpful computer they named John L. Cyborg. The sound is more processed and electronic, and even more extreme than
Alien Soundtracks
. Songs like
Abstract Nympho
and
March of the Chrome Police (A Cold Clawey Bombin)
push the noise and instrumental effects to ridiculous levels while sacrificing neither the strong rock beat nor the sense of humor.

Edge and Creed continued to go it alone for 1980’s
Red Exposure
, a more polished studio record that moved closer toward the recognizably industrial sound that would be adopted by later sampler-oriented industrial bands like Nine Inch Nails. By the end of the year, though, Chrome became a full band once again when it added John and Hilary Hanes – known as the Stench Brothers – on bass and drums. Their addition made subsequent records like
Blood on the Moon
and
3
^rd
from the Sun
tighter and more driving, plus it opened Chrome to new possibilities. “It had a better sound in a lot of ways, more energetic. Also, they enabled us to play live,” Creed says.

In 1982, San Francisco indie Subterranean released the 6-LP collection,
Chrome Box
, which reissued all previous Chrome records plus two discs of new material,
Chronicles I
and
II
. In 1983, Edge moved with his girlfriend to France and the partnership between Edge and Creed abruptly ended. Against Creed’s wishes, Edge continued recording what were essentially solo albums under the Chrome name. Released on European labels, these later Chrome releases failed to capture the metallic dementia of the group’s earlier work. Left without a group, Helios Creed embarked on a solo career that came closer to carrying on the mission of the original Chrome.

In 1995, after returning to the U.S. and struggling with heroin addiction, Damon Edge died of a heart attack at age 45. The following year, Helios Creed – now a middle-aged parent of a teenage Marilyn Manson fan – re-formed Chrome with the Stench Brothers and released a new record called
Retro Transmission
. Like all past Chrome releases the album’s cover features Damon Edge’s collage artwork, making it the closest thing to a fully reunited Chrome record we’re ever likely to see.

DISCOGRAPHY

The Visitation
(Siren, 1978)
; Edge’s pre-Helios Creed release.

Alien Soundtracks
(Siren, 1978; Touch 8 Go, 1990)
; the first of two classic Chrome albums, featuring a four-person band led by Edge and Creed.

Half Machine Lip Moves
(Siren, 1979; Touch & Go, 1990)
; the second of the group’s most successful records, recorded with only Edge and Creed.

Read Only Memory
EP
(Siren, 1979)
; a soundtrack recording.

Red Exposure
(Siren, 1980)
; the second full-length record to feature Chrome as a duo of Edge and Creed.

Blood on the Moon
(Siren, 1981)
; a more full-band sound, with the addition of the Stench brothers.

3rd from the Sun
(Siren, 1982)
.

No Humans Allowed
(Siren, 1982)
; a compilation of rare tracks and singles.

Chrome Box
(Subterranean, 1982; Cleopatra, 1996)
, the three-CD box set reissue (originally 6 LPs) contains the majority of Chrome recordings made with Edge and Creed together.

THE BIRTHDAY PARTY

David Yow, Jesus Lizard:

I think the Birthday Party and Led Zeppelin are my two biggest influences. The structures, combining punk rock with swing, sounded kind of dangerous and a little harder to get hold of. I remember after one of the first Scratch Acid [Yow’s first band] shows, listening to a tape of the show and getting really bummed out because it sounded to me like I was just mimicking Nick Cave. I remember I said, That’s gotta stop, I gotta stop doing that.” I don’t think I was doing it on purpose, it was just that it was the first time I’d been singing in a band and the Birthday Party was my favorite group. So I just took from them, almost subconsciously.

The Birthday Party was eternally morbid and perverse, and played music like rabid junkyard dogs. As such, they were quickly (though reluctantly) recognized as a leading influence on the goth bands that arose in the early ‘80s, even as the band’s dark wit and confrontational live show made them heroes to groups like the Jesus Lizard and Butthole Surfers. In the ‘90s, as the early legacy of the Birthday Party has been carried into adulthood through their leader Nick Cave’s solo career, the group’s unbridled anarchy continues to inspire bands around the world.

The Birthday Party’s roots lie in Australia’s Boys Next Door, a band started by singer Nick Cave, guitarist Mick Harvey, and drummer Phil Calvert while at boarding school in the early ‘70s. With high school graduation and the addition of bassist Tracy Pew and guitarist Rowland S. Howard, the band became part of a Melbourne punk scene split between arty college bands and junkie rockers. Though Cave enrolled briefly in art school to pursue painting, the group had more in common with the seamier, drug-addicted bands inspired by aggressive American proto-punks like the
Stooges
,
Suicide
, and the Velvet Underground.

The Boys Next Door soon developed a reputation in Melbourne for their sometimes violent stage show, which made it difficult to get gigs and caused problems with the police. As Australia was becoming a dead end for the band, they released a debut album, 1979’s Door Door. While they’ve has since disavowed the record, it proved instrumental in determining the group’s future path. Unhappy with the record and everything the Boys Next Door had become, the group decided to move to England. With the release of a second album, the group changed its name to the Birthday Party.