Live Skull
Encyclopedia
Overview
Live Skull created abrasive no waveNo 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...
music not unlike their 1980s contemporaries Sonic Youth
Sonic Youth
Sonic Youth is an American alternative rock band from New York City, formed in 1981. The current lineup consists of Thurston Moore , Kim Gordon , Lee Ranaldo , Steve Shelley , and Mark Ibold .In their early career, Sonic Youth was associated with the No Wave art and music scene in New York City...
, 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...
, Rat at Rat R
Rat at rat r
-Overview:Noise-rock quartet Rat at Rat R was formed in 1981 by guitarist Victor Poison-tete. Originally hailing from Philadelphia, the band soon relocated to New York City's Lower East Side and became one of the highlights of the NYC noise-rock scene...
, The Chameleons
The Chameleons
The Chameleons were an English post-punk band that formed in Middleton, Greater Manchester, England in 1981. They consisted of singer and bassist Mark Burgess, guitarist Reg Smithies, guitarist Dave Fielding, and drummer John Lever...
, Mars
Mars (band)
Mars was a New York City No Wave band formed by vocalist Sumner Crane in 1975. He was joined by China Burg , Mark Cunningham , and artist Nancy Arlen , and briefly by guitarist Rudolph Grey. The band played one live gig under the name China before changing it to Mars...
, Teenage Jesus and the Jerks and Band of Susans
Band of Susans
Band of Susans was a noise rock band formed in New York City in 1986. It originally consisted of Robert Poss , Susan Stenger , Ron Spitzer , with Susan Lyall , Susan Tallman , and Alva Rogers . However, the band would undergo several permutations over the years, usually involving guitarists...
. Their music featured angular guitar parts interspersed with bleak, quieter passages, for a haunting overall effect. The lyrical subject matter was usually as pessimistic and harsh as the noise rock
Noise rock
Noise rock describes a style of post-punk rock music that became prominent in the 1980s. Noise rock makes use of the traditional instrumentation and iconography of rock, but incorporates atonality and especially dissonance, and also frequently discards usual songwriting conventions.-Style:Noise...
itself. Live Skull never achieved mainstream recognition, but retain underground notoriety and share a family tree with other relatively noteworthy groups.
Biography
Live Skull formed in downtownDowntown
Downtown is a term primarily used in North America by English speakers to refer to a city's core or central business district ....
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...
in 1982 by the guitar/bandleader tandem of Mark C. and Tom Paine. The earliest line-up included Julie Hair on vocals and Dan Braun
Dan Braun
Dan Braun is a musician, composer, writer, editor, art director, and film producer.-Early music career:Dan Braun and his twin brother Josh started several punk bands in high school in Stockbridge, Massachusetts, including Platinum Hardcore and Hack Ptooey. Their first real band was called Spinal...
on drums. They were soon joined by drummer James Lo and Marnie Greenholz (Paine's then-girlfriend), on bass guitar. In 1984, a self-titled debut 12" EP saw release on the tiny Massive label. They soon signed with indie label Homestead Records
Homestead Records
Homestead Records was a Long Island, NY based sublabel of music distributor Dutch East India Trading. It was founded in 1984 by Sam Berger, who was the American Independent buyer for Dutch East India Trading. Berger was finding that many bands who had perhaps released their own first 45 were...
, which released their 1985 debut full-length Bringing Home the Bait. On this LP, vocal duties were shared by Greenholz, Paine, and C. Their 1986 album called Cloud One featured slightly more accessible song structures. A concert album called Live: Don't Get Any On You was recorded at CBGB
CBGB
CBGB was a music club at 315 Bowery at Bleecker Street in the borough of Manhattan in New York City.Founded by Hilly Kristal in 1973, it was originally intended to feature its namesake musical styles, but became a forum for American punk and New Wave bands like Ramones, Misfits, Television, the...
later that year.
Thalia Zedek
Thalia Zedek
Thalia Zedek is an American singer and guitarist. Active since the early 1980s, she has been a member of several notable alternative rock groups, including Live Skull and Come...
joined the band as lead singer in 1987, taking over most vocal duties so that the other members could concentrate on their instruments. Zedek had previously played in the Boston-area post-punk outfits White Women, Dangerous Birds, and Uzi. The band also replaced Lo with ex-Ruin drummer Rich Hutchins (http://www.bloodyrich.net/). Zedek and Hutchins debuted on 1987's Dusted
Dusted
Dusted may refer to:*Dusted , a 1989 debut album from the Gin Blossoms*Dusted , the joint venture of Rollo & Mark Bates*"Dusted" , a 1999 song by Leftfield from their album Rhythm and Stealth...
, which spawned a black-and-white music video for the song "5-D", likely filmed in the same abandoned warehouse featured in the album's cover art. (This video later appeared on the Twelve O'Clock High video compilation.)
The group signed to the larger Caroline Records
Caroline Records
Caroline Records started out as a subsidiary of Richard Branson's Virgin Records label during the early to mid 1970s. The label originally specialized in putting out budget price LPs by mainly progressive rock and jazz artists generally not considered to have a great deal of 'mainstream' or...
label, debuting with 1988's six-song Snuffer 12". Hutchins was now also playing with the band 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:...
. Greenholz subsequently left and was replaced by Sonda Andersson, a former member of Rat at Rat R
Rat at rat r
-Overview:Noise-rock quartet Rat at Rat R was formed in 1981 by guitarist Victor Poison-tete. Originally hailing from Philadelphia, the band soon relocated to New York City's Lower East Side and became one of the highlights of the NYC noise-rock scene...
and cousin of avant-garde composer 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...
. Released in 1989, Positraction
Positraction
Positraction was the last album released by New York band Live Skull. It was released by Caroline Records in 1988.-Track listing:All songs written by Live Skull, unless otherwise noted.# "Circular Saw" 2:06# "Richie's House" 3:39# "Mr...
was a more accessible, song-oriented effort that maintained the generally positive critical reaction. Live Skull disbanded in 1990 due to sustained lack of commercial success, with Paine deciding to focus on an alternate career.
Post-breakup activity
Zedek moved back to Boston and fronted the blues-rockBlues-rock
Blues rock is a hybrid musical genre combining bluesy improvisations over the 12-bar blues and extended boogie jams with rock and roll styles. The core of the blues rock sound is created by the electric guitar, piano, bass guitar and drum kit, with the electric guitar usually amplified through a...
-oriented Come
Come (US band)
Come was an American alternative rock band from 1990-2001. Come was formed in Boston by Thalia Zedek , Chris Brokaw , Arthur Johnson , and Sean O'Brien .-Band history:...
, which went on to recognition via Matador Records
Matador Records
Matador Records is an independent record label, with a roster of indie rock artists and bands.-History:Matador was started by Chris Lombardi in 1989 in his New York City apartment. The following year, Lombardi was joined by former Homestead Records manager Gerard Cosloy, and the two of them have...
. Several Live Skull members briefly reunited in the band Fuse, which released a double 7" in 1992. Lo would go on to drum for Wider and then for Chavez
Chavez (band)
Chavez is an alternative rock/math rock band from New York, formed in 1993. After a period of inactivity, the band reformed in 2006. They released two independent non-charting albums in the mid-1990s...
in the mid-1990s.
Richard Hutchins performed for a few years in Digitalis, which featured another former Rat at Rat R
Rat at rat r
-Overview:Noise-rock quartet Rat at Rat R was formed in 1981 by guitarist Victor Poison-tete. Originally hailing from Philadelphia, the band soon relocated to New York City's Lower East Side and became one of the highlights of the NYC noise-rock scene...
member John Meyers, Reverb Motherfuckers guitarist Skinny John, and 3 Teens Kill 4
3 Teens Kill 4
3TK4 was a musical group based in the East Village of New York City in the 1980s. They are most notable for featuring David Wojnarowicz, a famous artist, as a member....
, Bite Like a Kitty and brief early member of Live Skull, Julie Hair, whom Richard married in 2000. Digitalis split up around 1998. Hutchins currently performs in Lubricated Goat
Lubricated Goat
Lubricated Goat was an Australian noise rock band of the 1980s.They achieved brief notoriety for playing on a television program naked, wearing only their instruments and shoes...
, Phideaux, the Hungry March Band
Hungry March Band
The Hungry March Band is a brass band with approximately 15 active musicians and performers. In performance, the group's size can vary from five to fifty: from an intimate quintet to a giant entourage of musicians, dancers, baton twirlers, hula hoopers, and second-liners...
, and various other projects.
Tom Paine (Lance Goldenberg) received an MFA in film at the University of South Florida in Tampa. He is a writer and expert in world cinema. A favorite film of his is Alejandro Jodorowsky
Alejandro Jodorowsky
Alejandro Jodorowsky Prullansky, known as Alejandro Jodorowsky, is a Chilean filmmaker, playwright, actor, author, comic book writer and spiritual guru...
's "Santa Sangre."
Albums
- Bringing Home the Bait - LP (1985, Homestead)
- Cloud One - LP/Cassette (1986, Homestead)
- Don't Get Any On You (live in CBGB's, NYC, November 8, 1986) - LP/Cassette (1987, Homestead)
- DustedDustedDusted may refer to:*Dusted , a 1989 debut album from the Gin Blossoms*Dusted , the joint venture of Rollo & Mark Bates*"Dusted" , a 1999 song by Leftfield from their album Rhythm and Stealth...
- LP/CD/Cassette (1987, Homestead) - PositractionPositractionPositraction was the last album released by New York band Live Skull. It was released by Caroline Records in 1988.-Track listing:All songs written by Live Skull, unless otherwise noted.# "Circular Saw" 2:06# "Richie's House" 3:39# "Mr...
- LP/CD/Cassette (1989, Caroline / What Goes On)
EPs
- Live Skull 12" (1984, Massive)
- Swingtime / Raise The Manifestation / Pusherman 12" (1986, Homestead)
- Snuffer 12"/Cassette (1988, Caroline / What Goes On)
Compilation Appearances
- Tellus #1 - "Corpse" - Cassette (1983, Tellus Audio Cassette MagazineTellus Audio Cassette MagazineLaunched from the Lower East Side, Manhattan, in 1983 as a subscription only bimonthly publication, the Tellus cassette series took full advantage of the popular cassette medium to promote cutting-edge downtown music, documenting the New York scene and advancing experimental composers of the time...
) - Speed Trials - "I Was Wrong" - LP (1984, Homestead)
- Terminal! - "Common Cruelty" - 8" Flexi (1984, Philadelphia fanzine Terminal, issue #18)
- Tellus #8: USA/Germany - "Pulverized By Gratitude" - Cassette (1985, Tellus Audio Cassette MagazineTellus Audio Cassette MagazineLaunched from the Lower East Side, Manhattan, in 1983 as a subscription only bimonthly publication, the Tellus cassette series took full advantage of the popular cassette medium to promote cutting-edge downtown music, documenting the New York scene and advancing experimental composers of the time...
) - Tellus #10: All Guitars! - "Bad Hospital" - Cassette (1985, Tellus Audio Cassette MagazineTellus Audio Cassette MagazineLaunched from the Lower East Side, Manhattan, in 1983 as a subscription only bimonthly publication, the Tellus cassette series took full advantage of the popular cassette medium to promote cutting-edge downtown music, documenting the New York scene and advancing experimental composers of the time...
) - Plow! - "Flake Out" - LP (1985, Organik)
- The Wailing Ultimate: The Homestead Records Compilation - "Fort Belvedere" - LP/CD (1986, Homestead)
- Human Music - "Alive Again" - 2LP/CD (1988, Homestead)
- Sounds And Shigaku Limited Present: Beautiful Happiness - "Paul Revere's Bush (Tree Girl)" - LP (1988, What Goes On)
- Like A Girl I Want You To Keep Coming - "Tri-Power" - LP/CD (1989, Giorno Poetry Systems)
Video
- Skull Fuck - VHS (live in Cincinnati, Ohio, circa 1986) (Atavistic - ATV6)
- Live Skull Live - VHS (live in Fort Worth, Texas, April 22, 1989) (1989, Videophile)
External links
- Live Skull: Smart Band in a Hard Place by Caroline Ely
- TrouserPress overview
- Live Skull / Zedek album reviews
- Live Skull trading page listing some rarities, lyrics, live setlists, etc.
- Website of drummer Rich Hutchins
- http://www.sonicyouth.com/mustang/cc/sy052485a.jpgShow flyer (drawing by Jimi HendrixJimi HendrixJames Marshall "Jimi" Hendrix was an American guitarist and singer-songwriter...
) from concert w/ Sonic YouthSonic YouthSonic Youth is an American alternative rock band from New York City, formed in 1981. The current lineup consists of Thurston Moore , Kim Gordon , Lee Ranaldo , Steve Shelley , and Mark Ibold .In their early career, Sonic Youth was associated with the No Wave art and music scene in New York City...
on May 24, 1985] - Live Skull Discogs page
- Live Skull "Corpse" (3:56) published at Tellus Audio Cassette MagazineTellus Audio Cassette MagazineLaunched from the Lower East Side, Manhattan, in 1983 as a subscription only bimonthly publication, the Tellus cassette series took full advantage of the popular cassette medium to promote cutting-edge downtown music, documenting the New York scene and advancing experimental composers of the time...
