Stu Spasm

Last updated

Stu Spasm
Stu spasm 1986 david gerard 1.jpg
Stu Spasm in Perth in 1986
Background information
Birth nameStuart Gray
Born1961
Australia
Genres Noise rock
Occupation(s)Musician
Instrument(s)Vocals, guitar, bass guitar, piano, synthesizer, sampler, tympani
Years active1985present
Labels Amphetamine Reptile, Black Eye

Stuart Gray (born 1961), better known by his moniker Stu Spasm, is an Australian musician and composer best recognized as the frontman for the experimental noise rock outfit Lubricated Goat.[ citation needed ]

Contents

Biography

Spasm (Gray) commenced his musical journey in Adelaide, South Australia. A devotee of Adelaide’s bourgeoning Punk scene, Spasm worked hard on his guitar playing, developing a New York Dolls/Johnny Thunders repertoire.[ citation needed ]

His first band named Exhibit A played primarily covers sourced from the Dolls, MC5, Birdman and other east coast US artists. [ citation needed ]

Stu Spasm joined the band Salamander Jim, who had already been active since the early eighties, to record their 1985 debut album Lorne Green Shares His Precious Fluids. Spasm soon left the group to pursue his own musical interests and formed Lubricated Goat in Perth in 1986.[ citation needed ]

In addition to himself, the line-up included former Salamander Jim drummer Martin Bland and ex-Kryptonics members Brett Ford and Pete Hartley. John Foy, founder of the Sydney-based label Red Eye Records, was so impressed by Lubricated Goat's music and antics that he created Black Eye Records for the band to issue their records through. Spasm became the group's principal songwriter and penned the majority of their oeuvre.[ citation needed ]

In 1990, while touring Europe to promote Psychedelicatessen , Spasm was stabbed (by Arab heroin dealers in a "transaction gone wrong") in Berlin. He put the band on hiatus and moved to New York where he met and began a relationship with Kat Bjelland of Babes in Toyland. [1] They married in 1992 and began composing songs together. [2] During this time Spasm began recording under the name Lubricated Goat with an entirely different line-up and recorded the material that would comprise Forces You Don't Understand . Along with drummer Russell Simins of The Blues Explosion, Bjelland and Spasm formed Crunt and released a self-titled album in 1994. The group was short lived however, as Bjelland and Spasm divorced in January 1995. [3] [4]

Spasm continued to play under the Lubricated Goat moniker with members such as Rich Hutchins of Live Skull and Jack Natz of Cop Shoot Cop.

In February 2015 he formed a new outfit, The Art Gray Noizz Quintet, with Hutchins, Skeleton Boy (formerly of Woman) on bass, Andrea Sicco (of Twin Guns) on guitar, Nikki D'Agostino on saxophone, and Nicholas John Stevens on trombone. Grace Bergere would eventually succeed Sicco on guitar. The band was originally put together to perform a one-off at an afterparty for the New York premiere of The Color Of Noise, a documentary on Minneapolis Noise Rock label Amphetamine Reptile, as Spasm was heavily featured in the film. [5] A live recording documenting the group performing one of the last shows before pandemic lockdown restrictions shut New York City was released on Primitive Screwhead Tapes in 2021. [6] The group released their debut self-titled LP on Bang! Records in May 2022, and continues on. [7]

2024 saw the release of a feature length documentary on the life and times of Spasm entitled "I Should Have Been Dead Years Ago", directed by Jason Axel Summers, who had previously made "Unknown Passage: The Dead Moon Story". The film premiered to a sold out crowd for the DocNRoll Film Festival in Brooklyn on May 7, 2024 and has been described as "featuring archival footage, photos, interviews, Gray’s sculptures and paintings, live performance footage including Gray’s current band, The Art Gray Noizz Quintet." [8] Australian premiere is set for July 7, 2024 at the Revelation International Film Festival in Perth. [9]


Discography

Salamander Jim

YearTitle
1985Lorne Green Shares His Precious Fluids

Lubricated Goat

YearTitle
1987 Plays The Devil's Music
1988 Paddock of Love
1990 Psychedelicatessen
1994 Forces You Don't Understand

Crunt

YearTitle
1994 Crunt

The Art Gray Noizz Quintet

YearTitle
2021Live! Friday March 13, 2020
2022The Art Gray Noizz Quintet
2024Relief

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Babes in Toyland (band)</span> American rock band, formed 1987

Babes in Toyland was an American alternative rock band from Minneapolis, Minnesota, formed in 1987. The band was founded by vocalist and guitarist Kat Bjelland, along with drummer Lori Barbero and bassist Michelle Leon, who was later replaced by Maureen Herman in 1992.

<i>Fontanelle</i> (album) 1992 album by Babes in Toyland

Fontanelle is the second studio album by the American punk rock band Babes in Toyland, released on August 11, 1992, by Reprise Records. It was the band's first release on a major label, and their first recording to feature Maureen Herman on bass.

Cop Shoot Cop was a noise rock group founded in New York City in 1987. They disbanded in 1996. The band were frequently classified as industrial rock, but were often quite different from many bands so dubbed: having a distinctive instrumental lineup that encompassed twin bass guitars, found metal percussion, and no lead guitar. The group had little mainstream success, despite tours with Iggy Pop and music videos on MTV's Headbangers Ball and 120 Minutes. They retain a cult following—their out-of-print releases sometimes sell for large amounts.

Lubricated Goat are an Australian noise rock band which originally formed in 1986 by multi-instrumentalist Stu Spasm. They achieved brief notoriety in November 1988 for appearing nude on the ABC TV program Blah Blah Blah, wearing only their instruments and shoes. Mainly influenced by the Stooges and the Birthday Party, they are credited for playing a grimy, confrontational style of rock, which preceded grunge. They have issued five studio albums, Plays the Devil's Music (1987), Paddock of Love (1988), Psychedelicatessen (1990), Forces You Don't Understand (1994) and The Great Old Ones (2003).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kat Bjelland</span> American rock musician (born 1963)

Katherine Lynne Bjelland is a former American musician. She rose to prominence as the lead singer, guitarist, and songwriter of the alternative rock band Babes in Toyland, which she formed in 1987. She has been noted for her unusual vocal style alternately consisting of shrill screams, whispering, and speaking in tongues, as well as for her guitar playing style, which incorporates "jagged" tones with "psychotic rockabilly rhythms".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Beasts of Bourbon</span> Australian band

Beasts of Bourbon were an Australian blues rock band formed in August 1983, with James Baker on drums, Spencer P. Jones on guitar, Tex Perkins on vocals, Kim Salmon on guitar and Boris Sujdovic on bass guitar. Except for mainstays Jones and Perkins, the line-up changed over time as the group splintered and reformed several times. Their debut album, The Axeman's Jazz was released in July 1984. Their debut single, "Psycho", was a cover version of the Leon Payne original. The group disbanded by mid-1985 and each member pursued other musical projects.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hungry March Band</span> American brass band

The Hungry March Band is an American brass band with approximately 15-20 active musicians and performers. In performance, the group's size can vary from five to fifty: from a quintet to a large corps of musicians, dancers, baton twirlers, and hula hoopers.

The Nihilist Spasm Band (NSB) is a Canadian noise band formed in 1965 in London, Ontario. The band was founded by Hugh McIntyre, John Clement, John Boyle, Bill Exley, Murray Favro, Archie Leitch, Art Pratten, and Greg Curnoe. Leitch has since retired, Curnoe was struck and killed by a pickup truck while cycling in 1992, and McIntyre died of heart failure in 2004. The band members are mostly local artists. They were one of the artists named on the Nurse with Wound list. They have also been cited as an influence on Sonic Youth, Negativland and Einstürzende Neubauten.

Crunt was an alternative rock band, active from 1993 to 1995. Formed when all three members were living in Seattle, the band included Kat Bjelland of Babes in Toyland and Stuart Gray, who were married during the band's career.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Maureen Herman</span> American rock musician, born 1966

Maureen Herman is an American musician and writer. She rose to prominence as the second bassist of the alternative rock band Babes in Toyland, which she joined in 1992, replacing original bassist Michelle Leon. After Herman quit the band in 1996, she became a writer and remained out of the public light for several years. In 2015, she reunited with Babes in Toyland and embarked on an international tour before she was fired later that year.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Brett Ford</span> Australian rock musician (1959–2007)

Brett Taylor Ford was an Australian rock music drummer and songwriter.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Live Skull</span>

Live Skull is a post-punk/experimental rock band from New York City, formed in 1982.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Guy Maddison</span> Australian musician

Guy Bernard Maddison is an Australian punk and grunge musician. From 1986 to 1989 he worked as a member of noise rock group Lubricated Goat and appeared on their album Paddock of Love. He was a member of Bloodloss (1993–97), a blues-punk band, alongside Mark Arm on vocals. From 2001 Maddison is the bass guitarist of the United States-based grunge band, Mudhoney, and has worked on their studio albums, Since We've Become Translucent (2002), Under a Billion Suns (2006), The Lucky Ones (2008), Vanishing Point (2013), Digital Garbage (2018) and Plastic Eternity (2023).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">King Snake Roost</span> Australian noise rock band

King Snake Roost were an Australian noise rock band. King Snake Roost formed in 1985 in Adelaide and in 1987 the band moved to Sydney. The band broke up in 1990 after a two-month tour of the US. In Australia and the USA the band played with some of the most influential noise rock bands of the 1980s, including Sonic Youth, Big Black, Mudhoney, Helmet, Babes In Toyland, Lubricated Goat, feedtime and The Mark of Cain. KSR played at some prestigious 1980s US venues, including, CBGB and Maxwell's.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pagan Babies (band)</span> American rock band

Pagan Babies were an American rock band formed by Kat Bjelland and Courtney Love in 1985. Love had initially conceived the band in Portland, Oregon with Bjelland under the name Sugar Babydoll, and the group was joined by bassist Jennifer Finch upon their relocation to San Francisco. The group would go through several lineup and name changes before recording a four-track demo under the Pagan Babies name with drummer Deirdre Schletter and bassist Janis Tanaka.

<i>Plays the Devils Music</i> 1987 studio album by Lubricated Goat

Plays the Devil's Music is the debut studio album by Australian noise rock band Lubricated Goat, released in July 1987 by Black Eye Records.

Nunbait were an Australian punk rock band formed in 1989. They joined the thriving inner-city music scene in the late 1980s and early 1990s that featured artists such as The Cosmic Psychos, Frenzal Rhomb, and Kiss My Poodles Donkey, as well as Tumbleweed, The Meanies and Nitocris. Nunbait were leaders in the second wave of punk inspired bands that followed the Black Eye Records groups, such as Thug, Lubricated Goat and Box the Jesuit.

Jack Natz is an American bass guitarist and vocalist best known as the original bassist of The Undead and a member of the noise rock group Cop Shoot Cop. He has also acted in independent cinema, such as in the 1987 film Submit to Me Now. In 2003, he joined Lubricated Goat, led by musician and composer Stu Spasm, and recorded and toured with them. He lives in Brooklyn, with his attention focused on creating collages, paintings and found object sculptures.

<i>The Great Old Ones</i> 2003 studio album by Lubricated Goat

The Great Old Ones is an album by noise rock group Lubricated Goat, released in 2003 by Reptilian Records. It featured 2003 re-recordings of previously released Lubricated Goat and Crunt tracks.

Bloodloss was an Australian post-punk, grunge band formed in 1982. The original line-up was Martin Bland on drums, Renestair E.J. on guitar and saxophone, Jim Selene on bass guitar, and Sharron Weatherill on lead vocals and guitar. They issued five albums: Human Skin Suit, The Truth Is Marching In (1990), In-a-Gadda-Da-Change (1993), Live My Way and Misty (1996).

References

  1. McFarlane, Ian (1999). "Lubricated Goat". Allen & Unwin Pty Ltd. Archived from the original on 4 June 2004. Retrieved 25 May 2013.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
  2. Karlen, Neal (1994). Babes in Toyland: The Making and Selling of a Rock and Roll Band . Times Books. p.  243. ISBN   9780812920581 . Retrieved 25 May 2013.
  3. Howell, Stephen. "Crunt". Allmusic. Retrieved 25 May 2013.
  4. Coolidge, Danger (2008). "Stu Spasm Interview No. 2" (PDF) (7). Unbelievably Bad. Retrieved 25 May 2013.{{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  5. "StuART Spasm formed a new band for AmRep movie party, schedules more shows".
  6. "The Art Gray Noizz Quintet LIVE, by The Art Gray Noizz Quintet". Big Neck Records. Retrieved 25 May 2022.
  7. "ART NOIZZ QUINTET, THE [LP, 2022]". Bang Records. 10 May 2022. Retrieved 25 May 2022.
  8. "I Should Have Been Dead Years Ago – Nitehawk Cinema – Williamsburg". nitehawkcinema.com. Retrieved 13 June 2024.
  9. "I Should Have Been Dead Years Ago". Revelation Perth International Film Festival. Retrieved 13 June 2024.