The Phantom Limbs formed in Oakland, California in 1999. They combined 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...

, horror punk

Horror punk

Horror punk is a music genre that mixes Gothic and punk rock sounds with morbid imagery and lyrics, which are often influenced by horror films...

, deathrock

Deathrock

Deathrock is a term used to identify a sub-genre of punk rock incorporating horror elements and spooky atmospherics, that emerged on the West Coast of the United States in 1979.-Characteristics:...

, and goth

Gothic rock

Gothic rock is a musical subgenre of post-punk and alternative rock that formed during the late 1970s. Gothic rock bands grew from the strong ties they had to the English punk rock and emerging post-punk scenes...

 to create a unique synthpunk

Synthpunk

Synthpunk is a music genre combining elements of electronic music and punk rock. The term was coined by Damian Ramsey in 1999 as an attempt to retroactively identify a small sub-genre of punk music from 1977 to 1984 that involved musicians playing synthesizers in place of electric...

 sound.

History

Initially catching the attention of Sam Atakra from the underground punk label Atakra Productions in 1999, their first performance led to a promise from the label owner of relatively free rein in producing a 7" EP that eventually was released as the first on the Atakra indie label. Six months later, with a regional and locally well-known live act, they were picked up by Jello Biafra

Jello Biafra

Jello Biafra is an American musician, spoken word artist and leading figure of the Green Party of the United States. Biafra first gained attention as the lead singer and songwriter for San Francisco punk rock band Dead Kennedys...

 of Alternative Tentacles

Alternative Tentacles

Alternative Tentacles is an independent record label originally based in San Francisco, California and was established in 1979. It was originally used as the label name by the Dead Kennedys for the self-produced single "California Über Alles", and after realizing the potential for an independent...

, who caught them at 924 Gilman Street

924 Gilman Street

924 Gilman Street is an all-ages, not for profit, collectively organized music club usually referred to by its fans simply as "The Gilman." It is located in the West Berkeley area of Berkeley, California about a mile and a half west of the North Berkeley BART station and a quarter-mile west of San...

 and a notable show at San Francisco's now defunct Covered Wagon Saloon, wherein he declared them to be the strangest band he had ever witnessed at Gilman. Three U.S. tours and two European tours later, the Phantom Limbs played their final show with Vanishing in Berlin on 23 October 2004. The following year on Halloween they made the official announcement that The Phantom Limbs had disbanded. The members have lent their talent to the following Los Angeles bands: Circus Redickuless's Organ Grinders from Hell, The Boyscouts of Annihilation, Anal Kitties, Scurvy Dogs and Black Ice

Black Ice (band)

Black Ice is a No Wave/Deathrock band formed in 1999 by members of The Phantom Limbs, Stevenson Sedjwick and Skot Brown. Additionally, Sedjwick has played in Factory Of Angst, Bloody Melinda and other bands; while Brown has been a member of Anal Kitties, Oliver Klossoff And The Applicators, and...

. Loto Ball moved to Chicago, where he regularly performs some form of artistic and musical show with various theater and puppetry ensembles.

Members

• Loto Ball - Vocals
• Stevenson Sedgwick - Keys
• Sköt B - Bass, Keys
• Jason Miller - Guitar
• Mike Klösoff - Drums

The Phantom Limbs was also the name of a prominent Tucson, Arizona

Tucson, Arizona

Tucson is a city in and the county seat of Pima County, Arizona, United States. The city is located 118 miles southeast of Phoenix and 60 miles north of the U.S.-Mexico border. The 2010 United States Census puts the city's population at 520,116 with a metropolitan area population at 1,020,200...

band in the 1980s.

Albums

• Applied Ignorance (LP, Alternative Tentacles (Virus 263), August 2001)
• Displacement (LP, Alternative Tentacles (Virus 305)/Tran Solar, September 2003)
• Random Hymns (EP, Gold Standard Labs (GSL 104) February 2005)

Seven inch singles

• "Girl on a Trapeeze" (Hungry Eye 001, October 1999)
• "Hot Knives and Hornets" (Atakra 001, November 2000)
• "Fleshies/Phantom Limbs Split" (Mungaso 002/SPAM 032, May 2001)
• "Patience" (Hungry Eye 002, December 2003)
• "The Euro 7" w/ Mono Brutal Comic" (Trans Solar 016, October 2003)
• "Vanishing/Phantom Limbs Split" (Hungry Eye 003, December 2003)

Other media

• The Phantom Limbs: The Early Years 1999-2000 (Video - Mungaso 003 / DVD - Mungaso 005, May 2001)

Compilations

• "Gothic Magazine Comp" (Germany) (2005)
• "GSL Golden Grouper Comp" (2005)
• "New Dark Age 2 Comp" (2005)
• "Pagan Love Songs Comp" (2005)
• "Cochon Records Comp" (2004)
• "7" Stunt Record" (2004)
• "Witches of the West" (2003)
• "Apocalypse Always Alternative Tentacles" (2002)
• "KFJC: Live From the Devil's Triangle Vol 4 KFJC" (2001)
• "The Port Lite Compilation CD Food Stamp Records" (2000)

External links

• The Phantom Limbs official page
• Black Ice official site
• Anal kitties official site
• Loto Ball Show site