Bablicon was an American Elephant 6-related free-jazz band consisting of members of Neutral Milk Hotel and The Gerbils.
Bablicon | |
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| Origin | Chicago, Illinois |
| Years active | 1996–2001 |
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The band was formed in 1996 when Dave McDonnell (credited as The Diminisher), Jeremy Barnes (as "Marta Tennae"), and Griffin Rodriguez ("Blue Hawaii") teamed up to write and improvise music. Their almost-entirely-improvised album In A Different City was recorded in a machine shop in Chicago during this time, and later released in 1999 in In the US by their American Label, Misra, and In the UK by their United Kingdom, Pickled Egg Records, with them doing a UK tour with the ladder labels other artists signed at the time. In a unique twist, the band had an audience paint Alternative Vinyl LP covers while they performed, which were later collected as "Painticons" and distributed as the actual album covers for the US LP versions of the album.
Their next release, the Orange Tapered Moon EP, followed in 2000, and was recorded during late night marathon session at WFMU, in an Underground bunker in the house on a hill in Chicago, and Upright piano & buckets Recorded in Leicester, England. The Alternative US LP covers were again created in the same way the In a Different City covers were.
In 2001, the band released the album "A Flat Inside A Fog, The Cat That Was A Dog", another ambitious project. The band split following this release, with McDonnell studying in China and starting the Michael Columbia project with drummer Dylan Ryan, Barnes going to France to work on other projects, and Rodriguez working on his Icy Demons project. Barnes now records as A Hawk and a Hacksaw.
In 2021, the group did their first Interview since March 2002 with the blog website Navel-Gazers. They not only discuss their history, but also share photos, then unknown info, and the projects and activities since breaking up/going on hiatus.
All albums, singles, and EPs were released by the US and UK labels, except for two Japanese pressings of the single "Chunks Of Syrup Amdist Plain Yoghurt", which were released by Japanese label, Contact Records.
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