Algis Kizys is a New York City

New York City

New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

 bass guitar

Bass guitar

The bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick....

ist most well-known for his long-time membership in No Wave

No Wave

No Wave was a short-lived but influential underground music, film, performance art, video, and contemporary art scene that had its beginnings during the mid-1970s in New York City. The term No Wave is in part satirical word play rejecting the commercial elements of the then-popular New Wave genre...

 indie

Indie rock

Indie rock is a genre of alternative rock that originated in the United Kingdom and the United States in the 1980s. Indie rock is extremely diverse, with sub-genres that include lo-fi, post-rock, math rock, indie pop, dream pop, noise rock, space rock, sadcore, riot grrrl and emo, among others...

 band Swans

Swans (band)

Swans are an influential American post-punk band initially active from 1982 to 1997, led by singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Michael Gira. The band was one of the few groups to emerge from the early 1980s New York No Wave scene and stay intact into the next decade. Formed by Gira in...

. First joining Swans on 1986s Greed LP

LP album

The LP, or long-playing microgroove record, is a format for phonograph records, an analog sound storage medium. Introduced by Columbia Records in 1948, it was soon adopted as a new standard by the entire record industry...

, he stayed with the group through The Great Annihilator

The Great Annihilator

The Great Annihilator is a studio album by Swans. It was released in 1995 and re-released in 2002. The re-released version contains "I Am the Sun" as bonus track....

(1995). He is also a founding member Of Cabbages and Kings

Of Cabbages and Kings

Of Cabbages and Kings is an American Noise rock band from Chicago, Illinois. Its name is a quote from Lewis Carroll's Through the Looking-Glass.-Band history:...

 an off-shoot of Bag People.

Of Cabbages and Kings featured Kizys, founder/guitarist/keyboardist/vocalist/producer Carolyn Master, Vinnie Signorelli (Unsane

Unsane

Unsane is an influential noise rock trio that formed in New York City in 1988. Their music also touches on elements of hardcore punk and metal...

), Ted Parsons

Ted Parsons

Ted Parsons is an American drummer most notable for his membership in bands such as Swans, Prong, Godflesh, Killing Joke and Jesu.-Biography:...

 (Prong, Swans, Godflesh

Godflesh

Godflesh are an English industrial metal band from Birmingham, England. Originally known as Fall of Because, they formed in 1988 by Justin K. Broadrick and G.C. Green and disbanded in 2002. Godflesh's innovative music is widely regarded as a foundational influence on industrial metal and post-metal...

, Jesu

Jesu (band)

Jesu is a post-metal band formed in 2003 by Justin Broadrick following the breakup of Godflesh. Jesu was the name of the last song on the final Godflesh release, Hymns, and Broadrick decided to adopt it as the name of this project....

, Teledubgnosis) and Diane Wlezein. Kizys, Master, and Wlezein previously played in Bag People.

Kizys has spent time in Foetus'

Foetus (band)

Foetus is the primary musical outlet of industrial music pioneer J. G. Thirlwell. Until 1995 the band underwent various name changes, all including the word foetus. Monikers adopted at different times include Foetus Under Glass, You've Got Foetus On Your Breath and Scraping Foetus Off The Wheel...

 live incarnation and played for Glenn Branca

Glenn Branca

Glenn Branca is an American avant-garde composer and guitarist known for his use of volume, alternative guitar tunings, repetition, droning, and the harmonic series. In 2008 he was awarded an unrestricted grant from the Foundation for Contemporary Arts.-Beginnings: 1960s and early 1970s:Branca...

 in his Symphony No. 6.

Kizys was a member of Problem Dogs, his first band formed with Rick Radtke, John Connors, and Demetra Plakas

Demetra Plakas

Demetra "Dee" Plakas is an American musician, best known for being the drummer in the all-female rock band L7. She was preceded by Roy Koutsky.-Early bands:Plakas joined a punk band called as their drummer...

 (who later played drums with L7

L7 (band)

L7 was an American rock band from Los Angeles, that was active from 1985 to 2000. Due to their sound and image, they are often associated with the grunge movement of the late 1980s and early 1990s.-History:...

).

During this time, August 1982, he briefly joined forces with local guitar god Edward "Phast Eddie" Lines to play several shows at the renowned Space Place in Chicago

Chicago

Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...

. Billed as the Phlegm Magnets, Kizys, Lines, Connors and Plakas became quite popular as these shows somehow attracted both derelicts, audiophiles and the DEA

Drug Enforcement Administration

The Drug Enforcement Administration is a federal law enforcement agency under the United States Department of Justice, tasked with combating drug smuggling and use within the United States...

 alike.

From 1994 -1997 Algis Kizys created a band with singer songwriter Soraya Rashid called "Soraya". Other members included Norman Westberg

Norman Westberg

Norman Westberg is a New York City guitarist best known for his work with Swans. Present through almost the entirety of the band's existence, Westberg was brought on for Swans' debut album Filth and appeared on every album through 1991s White Light From the Mouth of Infinity...

 (ex Swans), Ted Parsons (Prong), Vinnie Signorelli (Swans, Unsane), Eric Hubel (Glenn Branca

Glenn Branca

Glenn Branca is an American avant-garde composer and guitarist known for his use of volume, alternative guitar tunings, repetition, droning, and the harmonic series. In 2008 he was awarded an unrestricted grant from the Foundation for Contemporary Arts.-Beginnings: 1960s and early 1970s:Branca...

), and J. G. Thirlwell

J. G. Thirlwell

James George Thirlwell , aka Clint Ruin, aka Frank Want, aka Foetus, is an Australian vocalist, composer and record producer...

 (Foetus)

Kizys with Jonathan Bepler and David Thorpe composed "Firmament" for Nerve

Nerve (magazine)

Nerve is a free magazine published by Catalyst Media in Liverpool, North West England. Combining features on social issues with artist profiles, it runs to 32 pages and is published about three times a year...

 magazine's "Sweet & Vicious" audio book. Firmament served as a soundscape to the JT Leroy story, "Natoma Street", performed by Callie Thorne

Callie Thorne

Calliope "Callie" Thorne is an American actress known for her current role as Dr. Dani Santino on the USA Network series Necessary Roughness...

. Gus Van Sant

Gus Van Sant

Gus Green Van Sant, Jr. is an American director, screenwriter, painter, photographer, musician, and author. He is a two time nominee of the Academy Award for Best Director for his 1997 film Good Will Hunting and his 2008 film Milk, both of which were also nominated for Best Picture, and won the...

 used "Firmament" for the pivotal scene in his film, "Finding Forrester

Finding Forrester

EnglishFinding Forrester is a 2000 American drama film written by Mike Rich and directed by Gus Van Sant. A black American teenager, Jamal Wallace , is invited into a prestigious private high school. By chance, Jamal befriends a reclusive writer, William Forrester , through whom he refines his...

", starring Sean Connery

Sean Connery

Sir Thomas Sean Connery , better known as Sean Connery, is a Scottish actor and producer who has won an Academy Award, two BAFTA Awards and three Golden Globes Sir Thomas Sean Connery (born 25 August 1930), better known as Sean Connery, is a Scottish actor and producer who has won an Academy...

.

Kizys's current band, NeVAh, features Vinnie Signorelli (Unsane

Unsane

Unsane is an influential noise rock trio that formed in New York City in 1988. Their music also touches on elements of hardcore punk and metal...

) and Norman Westberg

Norman Westberg

Norman Westberg is a New York City guitarist best known for his work with Swans. Present through almost the entirety of the band's existence, Westberg was brought on for Swans' debut album Filth and appeared on every album through 1991s White Light From the Mouth of Infinity...

 from Swans. NeVAh are currently playing in what's left of New York's underground scene.

Discography

Swans

Swans (band)

Swans are an influential American post-punk band initially active from 1982 to 1997, led by singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Michael Gira. The band was one of the few groups to emerge from the early 1980s New York No Wave scene and stay intact into the next decade. Formed by Gira in...

Year	Name	Ref
1986	Greed
1986	Holy Money Holy Money Holy Money is the fourth studio album by the New York No Wave band Swans. The album was recorded in the same sessions as A Screw and Greed. It was later reissued on CD with the 3 tracks from the A Screw and then again with Greed and then once again with Greed, Cop, and Young God...
1987	Children of God Children Of God (album) Children of God is the eighth album by the American band Swans, released in 1987. It was re-released along with some songs by World of Skin on CD in 1997, as Children of God/World of Skin. On this re-release, the original album version of Our Love Lies was replaced with the version included on the...
1992	Love of Life Love of Life (album) Love of Life is a studio album by Swans. It was released in 1992. It was also released in a limited edition box that was designed to contain it and their previous studio album White Light from the Mouth of Infinity....
1995	The Great Annihilator The Great Annihilator The Great Annihilator is a studio album by Swans. It was released in 1995 and re-released in 2002. The re-released version contains "I Am the Sun" as bonus track....

Of Cabbages and Kings

Of Cabbages and Kings

Of Cabbages and Kings is an American Noise rock band from Chicago, Illinois. Its name is a quote from Lewis Carroll's Through the Looking-Glass.-Band history:...

Year	Name	Ref
1987	Of Cabbages and Kings
1988	Face
1990	Basic Pain Basic Pleasure
1992	Hunter's Moon

Other appearances

Year	Name	Artist	Ref
1989	Symphony No. 6 (Devil Choirs at the Gates of Heaven)	Glenn Branca Glenn Branca Glenn Branca is an American avant-garde composer and guitarist known for his use of volume, alternative guitar tunings, repetition, droning, and the harmonic series. In 2008 he was awarded an unrestricted grant from the Foundation for Contemporary Arts.-Beginnings: 1960s and early 1970s:Branca...
1992	Male Male (album) Male is a live album by Foetus in Excelsis Corruptus Deluxe. It records the Foetus live performance of November 3, 1990 in Manhattan's famed CBGB nightclub...	Foetus in Excelsis Corruptus Deluxe Foetus (band) Foetus is the primary musical outlet of industrial music pioneer J. G. Thirlwell. Until 1995 the band underwent various name changes, all including the word foetus. Monikers adopted at different times include Foetus Under Glass, You've Got Foetus On Your Breath and Scraping Foetus Off The Wheel...