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VIVA
L'AMERICAN DEATH RAY MUSIC
Who is
VivaL'AmericanDeathRayMusic?
Jeffrey
Bouck, drummer/percussionist (Lithops, Polyphonic Spree),
and a designer chef who specializes in cooking in confined
spaces. Harlan T. Bobo, bassist (The Limes, Timothy Prudomme),
who also cooks, but mainly for himself and occasionally
Shawn, is stricken with night blindness yet he still is
able to construct mechanical simians and sings at breathlessly
low decibels. Nicholas Ray, singer/guitarist (The Limes,
Valentines), is graced with the gift to work just about
any job, some of which are hard to actually classify as
'jobs' and although he has no discernable experience in
the art, he none the less harbors the belief he would make
a good shoe maker.
So
why do these men with such prodigious and nebulous skills
bother to steal away into the dark night after night to
play "music" to trodden and often malicious groupings
of various size? And why do they gather in living quarters
and various "studios" to record there musings
as it were" Nicholas states, "we do these things
for the large sums of money we receive". But are we
glibly to be lead to believe that this gathering of minds
is simply for the temporal venture of "moneys".
Possibly,
But
I believe there is more to this strange case.
Come
along shall we. What
is VivaL'AmericanDeathRayMusic? For
this question we shall put aside the obvious ramifications
of their elongated and lofty title and their trepanacious
and often-shifty social-politico ideas that they align with
said title and concentrate on the musical. First
off there appears to be no easily definable method for there
music. They make tumbling attempts at grandiosity while
taking awkward stabs at virulent pop. They are magazine
collage artists whose finished products are as much murky
as they are obvious. They willingly throw themselves into
derelict and hopeless improvisational alleyways to emerge
relatively unscathed at the other end. They embrace and
invite the listener to converse with them and then leave
them standing awkwardly alone as they move on to talk to
someone they are more acquainted with. They make music for
people who believe they are listening to music of their
generation. They
are truly ninjas at play in the fields of the Lord.
-The
Robot
Headquarters 2004
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