To Live and Shave in L.A.

Last updated
To Live and Shave in L.A. (TLASILA)
Origin Miami Beach, Florida, U.S.
Genres
Years active1993–present
LabelsMenlo Park Recordings, Savage Land, Blossoming Noise, Karl Schmidt Verlag
Website http://www.toliveandshaveinla.com
MembersFrank Falestra
Ben Wolcott
Weasel Walter
Thurston Moore
Nondor Nevai
Mark Morgan
Don Fleming
Chris Grier
Andrew W.K.
Graham Moore
Andrew Barranca
Liz Armstrong
Balazs Pandi
Joke Lanz
Mark Shellhaas
Patrick Spurlock
Matt Mitchell
Greg Chapman
Past membersTom Smith (deceased)
The Lady Tigra
Oscar Perez

To Live and Shave in L.A. (TLASILA) is an experimental music collective founded in 1993 by avant-garde composer/producer Tom Smith (formerly of Washington, DC groups Peach of Immortality and Pussy Galore) and Miami Beach musician/producer Frank "Rat Bastard" Falestra. They were soon joined by oscillator player Ben Wolcott; this lineup created the majority of the early releases in TLASILA's extensive discography.

Contents

The group's debut album, 30-minuten männercreme, was released in 1994. Bananafish Magazine described the recording as "a wind tunnel of 30-weight vitriol. [1] " The "wildly inaccessible" [2] ensemble has featured Don Fleming, Andrew W.K., Weasel Walter, Thurston Moore, and at least a dozen other musicians and sound artists.

The group's primary aesthetic assertion posits that "genre is obsolete". Although often categorized as purveyors of noise music, TLASILA have been noted to pursue an unorthodox approach, "construct(ing) songs around an overwhelming plethora of sonic detail, challenging the listener to engage with a surfeit of information," [3] deliberately blurring "the line between harsh metal-on-metal noise and abstract musique concrète" [4] Smith's lyrics "distance" the group "from any potential peers," "scanning like (they) came from some previously unearthed hermetic treatise." [5]

Following the release of The Cortège (Fan Death Records, 2011), the collective went on hiatus, abjuring live performances but releasing albums all the while. Regrouping in January 2015 with the album Unwept to Meet Strange Clay (Karl Schmidt Verlag, 2015), TLASILA resumed its touring activities. [6] [7] [8]

Founding member Tom Smith died in January 2022. [9]

Selected discography

Related Research Articles

<i>Recipe for Hate</i> 1993 studio album by Bad Religion

Recipe for Hate is the seventh studio album by American punk rock band Bad Religion, released on June 4, 1993. It was their last album on Epitaph Records for nine years and the band had switched to Atlantic Records, who re-released the album several months after its release.

Album Collection of audio recordings

An album is a collection of audio recordings issued as a collection on compact disc (CD), vinyl, audio tape, or another medium such as digital distribution. Albums of recorded sound were developed in the early 20th century as individual 78-rpm records collected in a bound book resembling a photograph album; this format evolved after 1948 into single vinyl long-playing (LP) records played at 33+13 rpm.

Wolf Eyes

Wolf Eyes is an American experimental music group from Detroit, Michigan, formed in 1996 by Nate Young. Currently a duo, Wolf Eyes are a prominent act within contemporary noise music. They have collaborated with a variety of artists from different countries and art forms.

Dave Krusen American musician

David Karl Krusen is an American musician who is best known for being the first drummer for the American rock band Pearl Jam and for his work on the band's debut album, Ten. Krusen was also a member of the bands Hovercraft and Unified Theory, and is currently the drummer for Candlebox.

Jad Fair American singer and guitarist

Jad Fair is an American singer, guitarist, graphic artist, and founding member of lo-fi alternative rock group Half Japanese.

Harry Pussy

Harry Pussy was an American noise rock band from Miami, active from 1992 to 1997. The main members were Bill Orcutt on guitar and vocals and Adris Hoyos on drums and vocals. Other members included Mark Feehan on guitar, later replaced by Dan Hosker. They recorded primarily for the Siltbreeze label.

Ashtray Navigations is an English experimental music group centred upon Phil Todd and active since 1991. Colloquially referred to as "Ash Nav", the group operates out of Todd's home in Stoke-on-Trent, from which he also ran the record labels Betley Welcomes Careful Drivers and, subsequently, Memoirs of an Aesthete. The project has also released music through labels such as Siltbreeze, Jewelled Antler, American Tapes, Fargone Records, Menlo Park, E.F. Tapes and Freedom From.

Controlled Bleeding

Controlled Bleeding was an experimental music group based in Massapequa, New York, United States. The group was founded by Paul Lemos, the group's only consistent member. Most of Controlled Bleeding's released recordings feature two main collaborators, Chris Moriarty and vocalist Joe Papa, who both died in the late 2000s. In February 2020 Lemos announced that the band had dissolved.

Jeremy Barnes American musician

Jeremy Barnes is an American musician. He plays accordion, percussion and other instruments. He has been a member of the bands Neutral Milk Hotel, Beirut, and A Hawk and a Hacksaw, and is a co-creator of the record label L.M. Duplication. Influences on his work include music from Eastern Europe, Turkey, and the Caucasus.

Come was a British noise project, which was founded in 1979 by William Bennett. In the short time of its existence it had such prominent members as Daniel Miller and J. G. Thirlwell. Bennett would later end the project in 1980 in favor for his then newly formed power electronics project Whitehouse, however a second studio album under the Come moniker was released in 1981 titled I'm Jack. The independent record label Come Organisation was created as a result of the lack of interest other labels showed in the group's recordings. They never performed live.

Neil Campbell is a British musician, notable for his vast catalogue and his many collaborations. In 2005, The Wire declared that he, Richard Youngs and Matthew Bower had "provided the map co-ordinates for much of what passed for a post-punk UK underground during most of the 80s and 90s".

Azita Youssefi, born January 18, 1971 in St. Louis, Missouri, is an Iranian-American experimental musician, artist and music teacher based in Chicago. She was originally associated with the Chicago no wave scene, which included bands such as the Scissor Girls, U.S. Maple and Bride of No No.

Karl Blake is a vocalist, bassist, guitarist and multi-instrumentalist. Most of his own music can be described as progressive-experimental and sometimes psychedelic.

Hovercraft was an instrumental experimental rock group that formed in Seattle, Washington in 1993. It was co-founded by its core duo of guitarist/samplist/tape looper Ryan Shinn, and bassist Beth Liebling. Liebling and Shinn would use the pseudonyms "Sadie 7" and "Campbell 2000", respectively, throughout the duration of the band's history. Hovercraft has been cited as one of the most abrasive, non-commercial sounding bands ever to receive major-label distribution for its albums. Though somewhat overlooked and sometimes heavily criticized because of the band's early association with Pearl Jam singer Eddie Vedder, the group was largely well respected and well received by critics and developed a cult following.

Rafael Anton Irisarri Musical artist

Rafael Anton Irisarri is an American composer, multi-instrumentalist, producer and media artist based in Seattle, Washington. He is predominantly associated with post-minimalist, drone and electronic music. His pointillist compositions lean towards ostinato motifs that tap into minimalist ideals, while his studio production style is characterized by dense layers of reverb and delay. Bowed guitar textures, deep pulsing bass tones, field recordings, submerged piano notes, melancholic strings and subtle electronic counterpoints all contribute and converge equally in his music to create an oceanic experience that contrasts the epic and subdued.

Balázs Pándi Hungarian drummer (born 1983)

Balázs Pándi is a Hungarian drummer and journalist. He has worked and toured with various acts from all around the world including Venetian Snares, Otto von Schirach, To Live and Shave in L.A., The Kilimanjaro Darkjazz Ensemble and Zu. He also played drums for the Blood of Heroes project.

Live at the Garden is a 1967 live album by James Brown and The Famous Flames. It was recorded on January 14, 1967 in the middle of a ten-day engagement at the Latin Casino in Cherry Hill, New Jersey - Brown's first at an upscale nightclub. Like most of Brown's live albums, overdubbed crowd noise was added to the original recording for its LP release. It included one new song, "Let Yourself Go", which was recorded after hours at the casino; it appeared on the album disguised as a live recording. Although Live at the Garden peaked at #41 on the Billboard album chart, it came to be overshadowed in Brown's catalog by his next live album, Live at the Apollo, Volume II, recorded later the same year and released in 1968.

Bob D'Amico is an American drummer. He is best known as the drummer for indie rock bands The Fiery Furnaces and Sebadoh.

Peach of Immortality was an American band out of Washington, D.C., consisting of Jared Louche, Rogelio Maxwell and Tom Smith. They released four albums on Adult Contemporary Recordings, Need (Thee)! (1984), Talking Heads '77 (1985), "Jehovah" My Black Ass-R.E.M. Is Air Supply! (1986), The Best MUX! (1986).

<i>Vedder Vedder Bedwetter</i> 1995 studio album by To Live and Shave in L.A.

Vedder Vedder Bedwetter is the third studio album by To Live and Shave in L.A., released on May 16, 1995 by Fifth Colvmn Records. It is recognized by critics as a particularly "harsh" entry in the noise music genre.

References

  1. Glass, Seymour. "Record Reviews: To Live and Shave in L.A." Bananafish Magazine. 1994: Issue #10.
  2. Sanneh, Kelefa. "Pop and Jazz Guide: To Live and Shave in L.A." New York Times. 10 September 2004: E4.
  3. Brassier, Ray. "Genre is Obsolete." Multitudes #28. March 2007: 47.
  4. Sisario, Ben. " The Listings: May 11 - May 17." New York Times. 11 May 2007
  5. Keenan, David. "To Live and Shave in L.A.: Wigged Out." The Wire August 2002: 14
  6. "Cafe OTO → To Live And Shave In LA + Casual Sect + CLAIRE, Sunday 27 September 2015, 8pm". www.cafeoto.co.uk. Retrieved 2017-09-04.
  7. "The Nine Best Concerts in New York This Weekend, 5/29/15 | Village Voice". 29 May 2015. Retrieved 2017-09-04.
  8. Farrar, Justin. "Live: To Live and Shave in L.A., in Chapel Hill". Indy Week. Retrieved 2017-09-04.
  9. "Tom Smith (To Live and Shave in L.A.) dies". Louder Than War. 20 January 2022. Retrieved 21 January 2022.