Stu Spasm | |
|---|---|
 Stu Spasm in Perth in 1986 | |
| Background information | |
| Birth name | Stuart Gray |
| Born | 1961 Australia |
| Genres | Noise rock |
| Occupation | Musician |
| Instrument(s) | Vocals, guitar, bass guitar, piano, synthesizer, sampler, tympani |
| Years active | 1985–present |
| 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.
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]
| Year | Title |
|---|---|
| 1985 | Lorne Green Shares His Precious Fluids |
| Year | Title |
|---|---|
| 1987 | Plays The Devil's Music |
| 1988 | Paddock of Love |
| 1990 | Psychedelicatessen |
| 1994 | Forces You Don't Understand |
| Year | Title |
|---|---|
| 1994 | Crunt |
| Year | Title |
|---|---|
| 2021 | Live! Friday March 13, 2020 |
| 2022 | The Art Gray Noizz Quintet |
| 2024 | Relief |
Babes in Toyland was an American 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.
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).
Katherine Lynne Bjelland is an 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".
The Nihilist Spasm Band (NSB) is a Canadian noise band formed in 1965 in London, Ontario.
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.
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.
Brett Taylor Ford was an Australian rock music drummer and songwriter.
Live Skull is a post-punk/experimental rock band from New York City, formed in 1982.
Nemesisters is the third and final studio album recorded by Babes in Toyland. It was produced by Tim Mac, and released in 1995 by Reprise Records.
Katastrophy Wife was an American rock band formed by Kat Bjelland and her former husband Glen Mattson in 1998. Bjelland also fronted the punk rock band Babes in Toyland between 1987 and 2001. The band currently consists of Bjelland on lead vocals and guitar and her boyfriend, Adrian Johnson, on drums. The band released two albums, Amusia (2001) and All Kneel (2004). A third album was due for release in 2008, but was later cancelled. In May 2014, a 10th anniversary reissue of All Kneel was released as part of Record Store Day. In 2015 Kat Bjelland joined fellow Babes in Toyland band member Lori Barbero and new bass player, Clara Salyer in a reunion tour.
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 (1993–1997), 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).
Painkillers is the second EP by American alternative rock band Babes in Toyland, released in June 1993. It consists of outtakes from their second studio album, Fontanelle (1992), as well as a 34-minute single-track live recording of the band's April 1992 performance at CBGB in New York City.
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.
The Best of Babes In Toyland and Kat Bjelland is a CD/DVD compilation featuring songs by Babes in Toyland and Kat Bjelland's other projects, including her work in Crunt, Katastrophy Wife, and Pagan Babies. It was released in 2004 by WEA International in the United Kingdom.
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.
"Handsome and Gretel" is the third single by American punk band Babes in Toyland. It was released on 7" vinyl, and its songs later appeared on the band's second studio album, Fontanelle.
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.
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).
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