The Tiller Boys

The Tiller Boys, an experimental trio formed with Buzzcocks Pete Shelley and drummer Francis Cookson. Often referenced, yet seldom heard, the group reflected shared Krautrock / Fripp & Eno avant-rock preferences and were a regular feature on Manc-centric post-punk bills in 1978/79, making their live debut supporting Joy Division at the Factory (Russell) Club on 9 June 1978, a gig immortalised on Peter Saville's iconic Fac 1 poster. The Tiller Boys also supported Joy Division and Cabaret Voltaire at the Factory on 20 October, Gang of Four in York, and cut a single intended for Factory Records at Arrow Studio in January 1979, although these tracks -three slices of pounding percussion and Neu!-like guitar clangour- were destined not to appear on the new Manchester indie New Hormones proved a bold and eclectic label. Its second vinyl release (ORG 3) came courtesy of The Tiller Boys, whose posthumous Factory extended play 7" (now titled 'Big Noise from the Jungle') was released in March 1980. [SOURCE: CERYSMATIC FACTORY] 

Hans-A-Plast

German independent punk rock band from Hannover, founded in 1978. Released their first album DIY with a little help by the local independent-label Lava Records, which permit to use the label and labelcode for this enterprise. This first album was something like an initial spark to the later called NDW and against any expectation, very successful. More than 10 000 copies sold very fast, so the band decided to do their own Label No Fun Records, founded in 1980. They did a rerelease of the first album and two more on it, but also offers it to several local bands. There was some attention all over the world at this time, and up to now, the band still belong to the most important German punk rock bands. [SOURCE: DISCOGS] 

Robert Rental

Robert Rental was the stage name of Robert Donnachie (1952–2000), a British pioneer of the post-punk DIY industrial electronic music scene in the United Kingdom. Originally from Port Glasgow, Scotland, he moved to the south of England with Thomas Leer in the late 1970s, and became involved with the local music scene. Robert Rental however released very little of his solo music, preferring to collaborate with Thomas Leer, as well as with Daniel Miller (as The Normal). The only solo recording from the 1970s is the 7" single "Paralysis" first released on the homemade Regular Records, then re-released on Company Records in 1978. "Paralysis" was recorded at home on a 4 track Tascam tape recorder which he hired in collaboration with Leer. The single features the distorted sound of a Stylophone. Another distinctive sound that Rental used was that of the EDP Wasp Synthesizer, which he introduced to Chris Carter of Throbbing Gristle and William Bennett of Whitehouse. He also made an acclaimed album with Thomas Leer called 'The Bridge' which was released on Throbbing Gristle's Industrial Records. The album reached number 9 on the Independent Chart in 1980. His other two official releases were the 1980 single "Double Heart / On Location", released on Daniel Miller's Mute Records, and 'Live At The West Runton Pavilion', recorded with Miller in 1979, and released via Rough Trade in 1980. Robert Rental toured with Daniel Miller as The Normal, supporting Stiff Little Fingers. Miller had met Rental through a Throbbing Gristle concert. Robert Rental died of lung cancer in 2000. [SOURCE: WIKIPEDIA] 

Untouchables

The Untouchables were another Wilson High School band and close friends with The Teen Idles (Alec MacKaye is Ian’s brother). The two groups debuted together in a basement in December, 1979. 

The Untouchables’ performances were legendarily chaotic and Alec had to be carried out of a number of shows after hyperventilating and passing out. The Teen Idles and The Untouchables recorded their first demos at a small basement studio called Hit & Run in the spring of 1980 and the tapes were passed around all over town. Rich left for college at the end of the summer and with his departure the band lost their drummer and their practice space. 

During a meeting at a Roy Rogers fast-food joint, which was a central punk hangout at the time, the band decided it was curtains for them, but Danny Ingram volunteered to join, despite the fact that he had never played drums. 

While The Untouchables managed to play a number of shows in D.C., their only out of town appearance was with The Teen Idles in Norfolk, Virginia. Their last appearance as a band was at a Minor Threat / SOA / Black Market Baby show at the 9:30 club in early 1981. They jumped up on stage and took over the equipment to play their version of Sham 69’s "If the Kids are United" until the plug was pulled. [SOURCE: DISCHORD RECORDS] 

Hagar The Womb

Hagar the Womb are an English punk rock band, originally active in the early 1980s and part of the Anarcho-punk movement. In hiatus from 1987, members went on to form We Are Going to Eat You and Melt. A 2011 compilation of their back catalogue brought all members back into contact with each other, and invitations to reform and play gigs and festivals have had Hagar The Womb gigging again since 2012. 

The band was formed in London in 1980, in the toilets of the Wapping Anarchy Centre, established by the efforts of seminal anarchist bands Crass and Poison Girls. The original line-up was all-female, reflecting the band's purpose of giving women a voice in the anarcho-punk scene: Ruth Elias (vocals), Karen Amsden (vocals), Nicola Corcoran (vocals), Janet Nassim (guitar), and Steph Cohen (bass guitar). One week after forming they played their first gig with Zounds and The Mob, with 'Scarecrow' playing drums. They soon recruited a second guitarist, 'Jon From Bromley', and a permanemt drummer, Chris Knowles, formerly of Cold War and The Boiled Eggs. Corcoran left, leaving two vocalists. The band's first demo included the track "For the Ferryman", which was released on the Mortarhate label compilation LP 'Who? What? Why? When? Where?' in 1984. Cohen was replaced by Mitch Flacko (also of The Mekons) prior to the band's first release proper. The band toured the UK punk circuit for five years, releasing two 12-inch EPs and recording a Peel Session for BBC Radio 1 on 11 February 1984. Their first EP, 'The Word of the Womb' (produced by Pete Fender and released on Conflict's Mortarhate label) was a hit on the UK Indie Chart during 1984, peaking at number six, and staying in the chart for more than five months. Elaine Reubens joined the band in time for the recording of their Peel session. The band released a second EP, 'Funnery In a Nunnery' (UK Indie No. 9) the next year, now on the Abstract label, drawing comparisons with Siouxsie & the Banshees, Delta 5 and The Slits. Flacko left, his replacement being Paul "Veg" Venables, and Julie Sorrell was brought in to replace Amsden. They continued for another year, but there were no further releases and the band split up, with Knowles, Sorrell, Venables, and Harding forming We Are Going To Eat You, who signed to Big Cat Records after their 1987 début EP and went on to release the album 'Everywhen' in 1990. They later changed their name to Melt, releasing a sole EP before splitting up.

The band's drummer, who has a degree in Philosophy and Literature, went on to become a cult DJ under the name Chris Liberator. Bassist Mitch Flacko has been playing bass in avant garde ensembles, and works as a tour manager. [SOURCE: WIKIPEDIA] 

The Normal

A short-lived outfit whose existence is conveniently documented by a lone 1978 single, The Normal was an alias for Daniel Miller, owner of Mute Records. Through the likes of Cabaret Voltaire, Fad Gadget, and Depeche Mode, Miller's label was responsible for opening thousands of minds to the possibilites of electronic music. Despite The Normal's low profile and minimal output, their '"T.V.O.D."/"Warm Leatherette"' single added its own significant contribution to the then-new electronic pop playing field. The B-side, written in tribute to J.G. Ballard's auto-wreck fetish novel "Crash", carried relentless pulsing, clinical snapping, and detached vocal chants; it's since become a classic in the realm, having been covered by the likes of Grace Jones and Chicks on Speed. As The Normal, Miller also contributed to an experimental live EP with Robert Rental entitled 'Live at West Runton Pavilion'; Miller briefly dedicated himself to synth-pop covers of classic rock songs as the Silicon Teens as well. [SOURCE: ALLMUSIC] 

The Teen Idles

The Teen Idles were a punk rock band formed in 1979 in Washington, DC, by Ian MacKaye (bass), Nathan Strejcek (vocals), Georgie Grindle (guitar), and Jeff Nelson (drums), all high school classmates. The band was born out of the demise of The Slinkees, which featured Grindle, Nelson, MacKaye, and vocalist Mark Sullivan, who broke up after Sullivan, a year older than the rest of the band, went to college. 

The group played various shows around DC and, in the summer of 1980, travelled to California for 2 shows, getting an eye-full of Los Angeles burgeoning hardcore scene and importing a number of the scene's traits back to DC, including slamdancing. The Teen Idles proved to be influential to many of the younger punk fans in and around Washington DC, inspiring a new wave of bands who called themselves "harDCore". 

In late 1980, the band broke up. This mainly due to tension between Grindle and Nelson. Grindle's born again Christian girlfriend disapproved of the band, causing him to question his participation, which brought him into conflict with Nelson, who was an atheist. Also adding to the mix was MacKaye's, who was the band's lyricist, dissatification with Strejeck's performances and his own desire to sing. Following their split, the band took money they had saved from their shows to issue an EP called 'Minor Disturbance' on their own Dischord Records. Grindle would drop out of the music scene altogether. Strejcek would help Nelson and MacKaye with Dischord but was soon edged out by the other two, who were dissatisfied with his work ethic, especially after he left a box of Teen Idles records sitting on top of a hot car engine, rendering them unplayable. Nelson and MacKaye formed Minor Threat after The Teen Idles split while Strejcek formed Youth Brigade. Youth Brigade was short-lived and Strejcek soon bowed out of the scene altogether while Nelson and MacKaye continue to run Dischord to this day. The two have also participated in several acts over the years (although Nelson is largely retired from performing). In 1996, in honor of Dischord's 100th release, the label issued a Teen Idles demo on vinyl. [SOURCE: DISCOGS] 

Sirens Of 7th Avenue

London, in the middle of the Eighties, The Sirens Of 7th Avenue are polishing their rhythmic section with an echo enhancing the electro orientation of their music, a modernity's artefact for these urban musicians, no matter if they come from London, paris or NYC, this very "Metal Urbain" sound taking it all. Lost in the crowd and city's reverb, that's barely all we know regarding what became of them. [SOURCE: NEW ROSE STORY 1980-2000 4XCD BOOKLET] 

Dramarama

Blending hard rock wallop, alternative rock smarts, power pop songcraft, and punk rock urgency, Dramarama was a band who seemed on the verge of a major commercial breakthrough several times during their 11-year career. Puzzlingly, it never arrived, though the band developed a potent following in their native New Jersey as well as the West Coast; their almost-hit, "Anything Anything (I'll Give You)," was cited by L.A.'s KROQ-FM, arguably America's most influential alternative rock outlet, as the most requested song in the station's history. Formed in Wayne, NJ, by vocalist and songwriter John Easdale in 1983, Dramarama self-released a single and a five-song EP before a French label commissioned a full-length album from the band, which recycled material from both previous releases. The result, 1985's 'Cinema Verite', featured "Anything Anything," which began scoring airplay after the album was picked up by Chameleon Records in the United States. The group relocated to California in time for their second LP, 'Box Office Bomb', which earned enthusiastic reviews but not significantly greater sales. As the band was completing their fourth studio album, 'Vinyl', in 1991, Chameleon Records went bankrupt, and as the band scrambled to come up with the cash to finish the project, the elusive major-label deal finally materialized when Elektra picked up the project. However, while the success of Nirvana in 1991 would seemingly have broken open radio for bands as adventurous as Dramarama, their sound was too far from grunge to capitalize on the new openness, and the band's 1993 album, 'Hi-Fi Sci-Fi', failed to make an impact outside the band's devoted cult following. Dramarama called it a day after a farewell show at Asbury Park's the Stone Pony in 1994; four years later, John Easdale returned to the music business with a solo album. The group was featured on the popular VH1 reality series Bands Reunited in 2004, prompting the collective -minus bassist Chris Carter- to reform around material originally intended for an Easdale solo record. Dramarama relased 'Everybody Dies' in 2005. [SOURCE: ALLMUSIC] 

Lyres

Lyres are a Boston-area garage rock band led by Jeff Conolly, founded in 1979 following the breakup of DMZ. Their most popular songs included "Don't Give It Up Now," "She Pays The Rent" and "Help You Ann". The original lineup of the band featured Conolly, Rick Coraccio (bass), Ricky Carmel (guitar), and Paul Murphy (drums). 

Former DMZ members Coraccio, Murphy, Peter Greenberg, and Mike Lewis all rejoined Connolly in Lyres at some point from 1979 to the early 2000s. The A-Bones drummer Miriam Linna, (a former drummer for The Cramps, and then A-Bones), Yo La Tengo and former Lyres bass player Mike Lewis filled-in with Lyres for a show in 1986. Stiv Bators of The Dead Boys and Lords of the New Church, and Wally Tax of The Outsiders also recorded with Lyres in the late 1980s. 

Lyres were less active in 1989, due to Conolly living in California for a brief period. After a renewed period of activity in the early 1990s, the band went through a dormant period until 1999. The band has been playing regularly during the last two years. Conolly is the one member who has been in every lineup during the large number of Lyres personnel changes. In 2009, Lyres played at the Go Sinner Go festival in Madrid and an additional date in Porto Nuovo. This line-up included a fill-in Peter Greenberg on guitar. [SOURCE: WIKIPEDIA] 

The Witch Trials

One-off project featuring Dead Kennedys' Jello Biafra & East Bay Ray, The Sound's Adrian Borland, Christian Lunch and Morgan Fisher. Only one single was released, recorded in London after DK's first European tour. 

 

Dead Kennedys mouthpiece Jello Biafra chose an unusual diversion from his main band's agitprop doings with this determinedly anonymous EP (recorded in Britain and initially released in France). The sole credit goes to engineer (and former latter-era Mott the Hoople keyboardist) Morgan Fisher, while the co-conspirators' identities remain a mystery. This may be deliberate, because Biafra's theatrical style is unmistakable. So are his lyrics, although he's not just affecting some shock horror pose to scare your mom; bigger game is afoot here. Jangling, repetitive synthesizers and guitars become the building blocks for scabrous broadsides against the faceless powers that be: "Trapped in the Playground" is a graphic sketch of environmental poisoning run amok from the viewpoint of the scarred survivors ("The elephant man poses nude in our centerfold"). "Meat Beat" is an equally grim look at sexual assault from the perpetrator's standpoint -a well-established device for Biafra to slip into the mindsets of the people that he condemns. "Humanoids From the Deep" is the standout, with Biafra gleefully reeling off the penalties of genetic manipulation, which yield the monstrous mutations referenced in the title -nearly 20 years before such topics became common daily newspaper fodder. The sparseness and throbbing synthesizers only add to the effect. "The Taser" is the ultimate horror story, where a smug cop matter-of-factly demonstrates an electric shock device's effects on hapless, unwilling suspects. Like many of Biafra's solo ventures, The Witch Trials is an acquired taste; the appreciation depends on if you enjoy a dash of subversive disturbance in your artistic diet. Still, Biafra proves every bit as clever as in his parent band -and, for fans of his hot-wired, razor-edge wordplay, the results don't get any better than this effort. [SOURCE: ALLMUSIC] 

The Art Of Noise

Anne Dudley, Gary Langan, and Paul Morley were members of producer Trevor Horn's in-house studio band in the early '80s before they formed The Art of Noise, a techno-pop group whose music was an amalgam of studio gimmickry, tape splicing, and synthesized beats. The Art of Noise took material from a variety of sources: hip-hop, rock, jazz, R&B, traditional pop, found sounds, and noise all worked their way into the group's distinctly postmodern soundscapes. 

Dudley was the center of the group, having arranged and produced material for Frankie Goes to Hollywood, ABC, and Paul McCartney before forming The Art of Noise. The trio signed with Trevor Horn's ZTT label, releasing their first EP, 'Into Battle With the Art of Noise', in 1983. The following year, the group released the full-length '(Who's Afraid Of?) The Art of Noise!', which featured the hit single "Close (To the Edit)".

After "Close (To the Edit)," the group parted ways with Horn and ZTT, releasing 'In Visible Silence' in 1986; the album included the U.K. Top Ten hit "Peter Gunn", which featured Duane Eddy on guitar. 'Re-works of The Art of Noise', an album of remixes and live tracks, was released that same year. 'In No Sense? Nonsense!', released in 1987, saw the band experimenting with orchestras and choirs, as well as horns and rock bands. The next year, The Art of Noise released a greatest-hits collection, 'The Best of the Art of Noise', which featured their collaboration with Tom Jones on Prince's "Kiss".

'Below the Waste' (1989) captured the band experimenting with world music; it received a lukewarm critical and commercial reception. The following year, a low-key remix album directed by Killing Joke's Youth called 'The Ambient Collection' appeared. Later in the year, The Art of Noise broke up. Dudley eventually worked with Killing Joke's Jaz Coleman and Phil Collins. Horn, Dudley, and Morley reunited in 1999 for a new album, 'The Seduction of Claude Debussy'. Kevin Godley and Lol Creme were added to the lineup. [SOURCE: ALLMUSIC] 

Abwärts

Abwärts ("Downwards") is a West German post-punk group from Hamburg. Members Mark Chung and FM Einheit would leave the group in the early 1980s to join the Berlin-based band Einstürzende Neubauten. Their best-known recordings include the single "Computerstaat" ("Computer State") (1980) and the LP's 'Amok Koma' (1980) and 'Der Westen ist Einsam' ("The West Is Lonely") (1982), the latter in particular being regarded as a classic of West German post-punk. The group is profiled along with other contemporaries in Jürgen Teipel's 2001 documentary novel "Verschwende Deine Jugend". [SOURCE: WIKIPEDIA] 

Tackhead

A collective stretching from the early days of the hip-hop label Sugar Hill into the industrial music of the 1990s, Tackhead produced at least half-a-dozen albums under a variety of nominal heads -Keith LeBlanc, Gary Clail, and finally Tackhead. The group came together in the early '80s as the Sugar Hill house band, with guitarist Skip McDonald, bassist Doug Wimbish, and drummer Keith LeBlanc. (The trio had performed on the three best early hip-hop tunes, the Sugarhill Gang's "Rapper's Delight" and Grandmaster Flash's tracks "The Message" and "White Lines"). When McDonald, Wimbish, and LeBlanc met British dub producer Adrian Sherwood (of the On-U Sound System), they moved to England and in 1986 recorded 'Major Malfunction', a street-wise funk-rock LP with doses of Sherwood's studio trickery informing the whole. Since LeBlanc had a bit of name recognition due to his 1983 dance hit "No Sell Out", the album was released under his name. Another Brit, vocalist Gary Clail, had joined the Tackhead conglomeration by that time, and it was his name -or rather Gary Clail's Tackhead Sound System- that graced the cover of the 1987 album 'Tackhead Tape Time', on Nettwerk Records. After another collective recording on Keith LeBlanc's 1989 album 'Stranger Than Fiction', the Tackhead team finally coalesced as a stable group on 'Friendly as a Hand Grenade'. The album, also released in 1989, was the first recorded as Tackhead, and the addition of a standard vocalist (Bernard Fowler) made the group that much more stable, in image if not in sound. 'Strange Things' followed in 1990, with contributions from Melle Mel and Mick Jagger. The album appeared to be a conscious attempt at mainstream rock success (not unlike that of Living Colour), and failed. LeBlanc, Wimbish, and McDonald continued to play for On-U Sound System projects, such as Gary Clail's 1991 album 'The Emotional Hooligan'. Between 1993 and 1997, the group issued three releases containing rare tracks, B-sides, and live material through Blanc Records, titled 'Power, Inc. Volume 1', 'Power, Inc. Volume 2' and 'Power, Inc. Volume 3 (Live)'. After a long hiatus, the group briefly reunited for European and American tours in 2004. In 2006, On-U released the double disc compilation 'Tackhead Sound Crash: Slash & Mix - Adrian Sherwood', providing a thorough introduction and reappraisal of their sound. 

In 2013, the band again reunited to record 'For the Love of Money', a collection of soul and funk covers and a redo of their own single, "Stealing". The set was issued by Dude Records in January the following year. Robo Bass Hifi (German producer Markus Kammann) remixed a series of Tackhead and Fats Comet tracks. Entitled 'The Message', it was credited to all three acts and released as a limited-edition offering in mid-2016. [SOURCE: ALLMUSIC]

Étant Donnés

Born in Rabat, Morocco, Eric and Marc Hurtado founded in 1977 the band Etant Donnés that quickly became essential in the field of experimental films, performance and music concrete and experimental, recording approximately 30 albums and counting numerous collaborations with major artists of the international music scene and cinema as like Alan Vega (Suicide), Genesis P. Orridge (Throbbing Gristle, Psychic TV), Michael Gira (Swans), Lydia Lunch, Philippe Grandrieux, Mark Cunningham, Bachir Attar (Master Musicians of Jajouka) or Vomir. Etant Donnés has participated in prestigious festivals and exhibitions in Documenta in Kassel, The Kitchen in New York, Matresss Factory Pittsburgh, Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art in Newcastle, Sonar in Barcelona, ​​Biennale of Lyon, Centre Pompidou, Foundation Cartier, Etrange Festival in Paris, Transmusicales Rennes Berlin Atonal, etc. [SOURCE: ROTORELIEF] 

Dicks

One of the few hardcore bands from the early '80s to feature an outspoken and openly gay frontman -in Texas, no less- the Dicks, alongside the Big Boys, were the national scene's voice from the Lone Star state. Formed in Austin in 1980, the Dicks released their first and most famous single, 'Hate the Police', shortly thereafter. The track, which would later get a most reverential treatment by quasi-grunge hucksters Mudhoney, is considered one of the best from the heyday of American hardcore. Their debut, a live split LP with fellow Texans the Big Boys, 'Live at Raul's Club' was released in 1981. Gary Floyd would leave Texas and relocate to San Francisco, putting together a new lineup of the Dicks, and releasing that roster's debut -this time a studio release- 'Kill from the Heart' on legendary California punk label SST in 1983. The band would release one more album, 1985's 'These People' on Alternative Tentacles. The band split shortly afterwards, with Floyd starting the more blues-rock influenced Sister Double Happiness in the late '80s. Floyd's ability to identify with the gay experience in America in the late '70s/early '80s in a genre that was heavily macho and resistant to such ideas made him a great influence to subsequent bands, especially those who would make up the queercore movement in the mid-'90s. The original lineup of the Dicks (sans Glen Taylor, who died in 1997), played a serious of reunion shows in 2004 and 2005. [SOURCE: ALLMUSIC] 

Current 93

With a glut of industrial-pop hybrids on the market in the 1980s and '90s, several bands stayed true to the experimental nature of early industrial music. The Psychic TV axis alone spawned many creative artists, including Current 93's David Tibet, who blends Gothic chanting and haunting atmospherics with industrial noisescapes courtesy of tape loops and synthesizers. Though Tibet doesn't quite have bandmates, he frequently works with a core of collaborators including ex-Psychic TV compatriot John Balance (more famous for his work with Peter Christopherson in Coil); Fritz Haaman, formerly of 23 Skidoo (like PTV an offshoot of the most influential of the early industrial acts, Throbbing Gristle); Steven Stapleton of Nurse with Wound fame; Rose McDowall of Strawberry Switchblade; and Hilmar Örn Hilmarsson, also a former member of Psychic TV. Steven Stapleton is probably the most frequent member, appearing on virtually all Current 93 releases -a favor which David Tibet returns by working with Stapleton on most projects by Nurse with Wound.

The trio of Tibet, Balance, and Haaman debuted in 1983 by recording the single "Lashtah" for Laylah Records. Until the end of the '80s, Tibet -utilizing the various lineups- recorded at a frenetic pace, issuing more than two albums per year for both Laylah and the Maldoror label. By the '90s, Tibet's output and style changed slightly: his productivity slowed somewhat, and the sound grew more subdued, encompassing acoustic folk in its most sinister permutations. Productivity picked up in the 2000s with more Current 93 material being recorded and reissued. Tibet also designed a bottle label for the Absinthe liquor company in 2005. 2006 saw the release of both 'Black Ships Ate the Sky' and 'Sleep Has His House' on Durtro Records, followed by 'Inmost Light' in April 2007. The latter record marked a new direction for C93. In 2009, they released 'Aleph at Hallucinatory Mountain' amid a flurry of other activity including Tibet's art exhibitions and touring. Though it kept its mostly acoustic dreamy feel, Tibet expanded his sonic palette and added some real electric, nightmarish rock on this set. Some of its special guests included guitarist James Blackshaw, Rickie Lee Jones, and Andrew W.K. A new Tibet side project, Myrninerest was formed with some of Current 93's collaborators including Blackshaw, and Andrew Liles. Their debut, 'Jhonn, Uttered Babylon', was recorded in memory of Jhonn Balance of Coil and released in 2012. Current 93, who continued to play live sporadically, returned to recording in 2013. 'I Am the Last of All the Field That Fell' was released in March of 2014. [SOURCE: ALLMUSIC] 

The Butcher Shop

The Butcher Shop was the project developed by Tex Perkins, at the same time as Beasts Of Bourbon, in the late 80s. In this band, the artist showed his wildest, brutal and sonic side, walking amont swamp blues and grunge (before the name "grunge" existed for music). In this sonic adventure Mr. Tex Perkins was surrounded by several musicians, such as people from Lubricated Goat, Beasts Of Bourbon (Spencer P. Jones) or the American musician Kid Congo Powers (The Gun Club, The Cramps, Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds...) among others. [SOURCE: MUNSTERAMA] 

Aviador Dro

Aviador Dro (full name El Aviador Dro y Sus Obreros Especializados) are a pioneering synth-pop group from Madrid, Spain. Inspired by electronic groups such as Kraftwerk, Devo, and The Residents, as well as science fiction, Dadaism, and technology, the group creates futuristic, highly melodic electronic pop music. Members have included dozens of musicians throughout the band's history, including several members of Esplendor Geométrico and Los Iniciados, but the only constant has been founder Servando Carballar Heymann, nicknamed Biovac N. 

The group's roots lay in Alex y los Drugos, a punk rock band formed in 1977 by a group of friends from Madrid's Santamarca Institute. This evolved into a techno pop project known as Holoplástico, which changed its name to Aviador Dro in 1979. Spanish label Movieplay issued the group's first two singles, "La Chica de Plexiglás" (1980) and "La Visión" (1981). The band founded its own label, Discos Radiactivos Organizados (DRO), in 1982, and released debut full-length 'Alas Sobre el Mundo', single "Selector de Frecuencias," and EPs 'Nuclear, Sí' and 'Programa en Espiral' during the same year. After issuing 1983's 'Tesis' LP (expanded into double-album 'Síntesis'), Aviador Dro started touring around Spain, soon having the opportunity to open for The Stranglers and David Bowie. Several Aviador Dro full-lengths and singles appeared on DRO throughout the remainder of the '80s, including albums 'Cromosomas Salvajes' (1985), 'Ciudadanos del Imperio' (1986), and 'Ingravidez' (1988). The label released 'Heroes de Los 80', the group's first compilation, in 1990. 

Aviador Dro departed DRO in 1988, and members Servando Carballar and Marta Cervera founded a new label, La Fabrica Magnetica. The group's first album of the new decade, 1991's 'Trance' (credited to Aviador Dro 4000), saw the group moving into more of an EBM/industrial dance direction. 1992 compilation 'Primer Aliento', also on La Fabrica Magnetica, brought much of the group's early material to CD for the first time. Live album 'Cyberiada' followed in 1997 on the Lollipop label, which also released the 1998 compilation 'Materia Oscura'. The career-spanning double-CD 'Opera Cientifica 1979-1999' appeared on Rompeolas Compañía Discográfica in 1999. 'Vano Temporal', an enhanced CD of early material, appeared the same year on Lollipop. In 2000, Cosmos Records released a tribute called 'Aviador Dro Re-Programado', featuring Aviador Dro's originals performed by Ford Proco, Spunky, Calígula 2000, and Panóptica, among others. The same label released 'Mecanisburgo', an Aviador Dro full-length CD packaged with an interactive game CD-ROM, in 2001. Another two-CD compilation, 'Todos Sus Singles y EPs 1982-1998', was released that same year on Ventura Music. 

The group signed with Spanish independent label Subterfuge Records in 2004, releasing EP 'Ultimatum a la Tierra' ‎and full-length 'Confia en Tus Maquinas' that year. The label released the group's 2007 full-length, 'Candidato Futurista'. Omega Point Records brought Aviador Dro's music to American audiences with the release of 2006 compilation '¡Eléctrico! The Best of El Aviador Dro 1978-2006'. 2010 full-length 'Yo, Cyborg' arrived on PIAS Spain, followed by CD/book 'La Voz de la Ciencia' on Altafone Music in 2012. Spanish indie pop label Elefant Records released 'Otros Mundos, Otras Estrellas (1979-1982)', a double album compiling early tracks, alternate versions, and covers, in 2015. [SOURCE: ALLMUSIC] 

Alan Vega

One half of the seminal electronic duo Suicide, Alan Vega was born in Brooklyn, New York, in 1938. He began his career as a visual artist, gaining notoriety for his "light sculptures"; eventually Vega opened his own lower Manhattan gallery space, which he dubbed the Project of Living Artists. The Project served as a stomping grounds for the likes of The New York Dolls, Television, and Blondie as well as the 15-piece jazz group Reverend B., which featured a musician named Martin Rev on electric piano. Soon, Vega and Rev formed Suicide, whose minimalist, aggressive music -a fusion of Rev's ominous, repetitive keyboards and Vega's rockabilly snarl- helped paved the direction for the electronic artists of the future. 

Suicide disbanded in 1980, and both Vega and Rev undertook solo careers. Vega's self-titled 1980 debut (including the hit single "Jukebox Babe") and his 1981 effort 'Collision Drive' continued to explore the fractured rockabilly identity he had established in his earlier work. 'Saturn Strip', produced by longtime fan Ric Ocasek and released in 1983, marked Vega's debut for Elektra Records; corporate relations soured during production for 1985's 'Just a Million Dreams', however, and at one point the label even attempted to remove the singer from his own studio sessions. Suicide briefly re-formed in 1988, resulting in their third album, 'A Way of Life'. 

At the turn of the decade, Vega also began exploring new media outlets: "Deuce Avenue War/The Warriors v3 97", his first book of photography, appeared in 1990, while "Cripple Nation", a collection of prose and lyrics, bowed in 1991. After the release of Vega's solo albums 'Deuce Avenue' (1990) and 'Power on to Zero Hour' (1991), Suicide again reunited and toured. In 1995, Vega resurfaced as a solo artist with 'New Raceion'; a year later, he returned with 'Dujang Prang'. 'Cubist Blues' (with Alex Chilton and Ben Vaughn) appeared in 1996, as did 'Getchertikitz' with Ocasek and Gillian McCain. Vega then collaborated with Finnish electronic duo Pan Sonic under the name Vainio Väisänen Vega, resulting in the 1998 album 'Endless'. This was followed by 1999 solo albums 2007 and 'Sombre', as well as an appearance on Étant Donnés' album 'Re-Up', which also featured Genesis P-Orridge and Lydia Lunch. 

Suicide re-formed yet again in the early 2000s (yielding 2002's 'American Supreme'), and a second Vainio Väisänen Vega album, 2005's 'Resurrection River', appeared on Mego. In 2007, Vega released the solo album 'Station' on Blast First Records. He then collaborated with Marc Hurtado (one half of Étant Donnés), producing the 2010 full-length 'Sniper'. Vega died in 2016 in New York City at the age of 78. [SOURCE: ALLMUSIC] 

A Split - Second

After the Belgian synth pop group Extraballe disbanded, Mark Ickx joined up with Chrismar Chayell to form A Split Second, which debuted in 1986 with the dance single "Flesh". The duo quickly took a detour into more industrial sounds with their next single, "Rigor Mortis"; both those tracks and others were compiled on their eponymous debut American EP, which followed their first Belgian album, 1987's 'Ballistic Statues', by a year. A Split Second's sound had by now coalesced into a mix of programmed industrial beats, synthesizers, heavily distorted guitars, and alternately melodic and vicious vocals; unsurprisingly, they were signed in America to the Wax Trax! label, which issued 'From the Inside' in 1988. A number of singles and EPs followed on both Wax Trax! and the Belgian Antler-Subway label, some later taken from the 1990 album 'Kiss of Fury', which found the group switching to Caroline for U.S. distribution. Little new material was heard from A Split Second until 1993, when the duo returned with 'Vengeance C.O.D.'. [SOURCE: ALLMUSIC] 

Nurse With Wound

A loose experimental project formed in 1978 by Steven Stapleton, Nurse with Wound explored abstract music -influenced by Krautrock, freewheeling jazz improvisation, and Throbbing Gristle but including a heavy debt to surrealists Dali and Lautréamont- with an overpowering release schedule of limited-edition albums and EPs. Stapleton worked with an ever-changing list of collaborators during the early years of Nurse with Wound, though Current 93's David Tibet was the only frequent recording companion during the 1980s and '90s. 

Nurse with Wound's first three albums ('Chance Meeting on a Dissecting Table of a Sewing Machine and an Umbrella', 'To the Quiet Man from a Tiny Girl', and 'Merzbild Schwet') reflect a naked, minimalist slant with long periods of quiet suddenly interrupted by guitar chords inspired by the avant-garde wing of psychedelia/jazz-rock, chains, music boxes, and found-sound recordings. By the early '80s, Stapleton had begun to incorporate noisy, abrasive rhythms that put him more in line with contemporary EBM masters like Skinny Puppy and SPK. Though Stapleton continued his surrealist slant, he often moved back to more empty recordings. These works -beginning with 'Soliloquy for Lilith' in 1988- came to light in the context of the growing ambient/electronic movement, however, putting Nurse with Wound squarely in line with music trends for the first time. 

Stapleton recorded two split singles with Stereolab during 1995 and continued his hectic, uncompromising release schedule from his base in southern Ireland. In 2005 the double-CD compilation 'Livin' Fear of James Last' offered an overview of their output. That same year the two-CD compilation 'Judas as Black Moth' was released through the Sanctuary label. On May 5, 2005, Stapleton recorded an improvisational live piece in Vienna and released it in 2006 under the title 'Soundpooling'. 'Tooth, Teeth, Milk, Skin, Teeth' was released in mid-2007, while NWW's terrifying 1982 cult classic 'Homotopy to Marie' was reissued on CD just in time for Halloween 2007. Three new albums were issued in 2008: 'Huffin' Rag Blues', 'The Bacteria Magnet', and 'The Continuous Accident'. In early 2009, the retrospective 'Paranoia in Hi-Fi: Earworms 1978-2008' prefaced a slew of new albums including 'Space Music', 'The Surveillance Lounge', and 'May the Fleas of a Thousand Camels Infest Your Armpits'. 

In 2010, NWW collaborated with Larsen and Eberhard Kranemann (aka Fritz Muller) on 'Erroneous: A Selection of Errors', for Important. With NWW remaining ever-prolific, 2011 saw the releases of 'Space Music 2', 'The Vernacular Surface', and collaborations with Sunn 0))) ('The Iron Soul of Nothing') and composer Graham Bowers ('Rupture'). Two self-released CD-R albums -'Dream Memory' and '?'- were issued in 2012, as was the collaborative LP-only release 'Cabbalism' with Blind Cave Salamander. The NWW reissue campaign continued in early 2013 with 'A Sucked Orange/Scrag'. [SOURCE: ALLMUSIC] 

S.Y.P.H.

A cult band in their native Germany and even more obscure to the rest of the world, S.Y.P.H. are akin to Blurt, The Fall, Wire, The Plastic People of the Universe, and other long-running acts who influence rock from its very fringes. Formed in the city of Solingen in 1977 by Peter "Harry Bag" Braatz, Uwe Jahnke, and Thomas Schwebel, the band's name wasn't originally an acronym. It was soon changed and supposedly stood for "Smashed Yankee Pummels Homo," although different explanations would be given through the years. In 1979 their debut single, 'Viel Feind, Viel Her', appeared and was followed a year later by the full-length 'S.Y.P.H.'. The experimental edge displayed on their punkish debut would be explored further on their second album of 1980, 'PST', which was produced by Can member Holger Czukay. After Schwebel left to join Die Fehlfarben, the band appeared on Czukay's album 'On the Way to the Peak of Normal' before falling apart. 

The year 1981 would still see a flurry of releases as Braatz unloaded the vaults and issued two albums of unheard material plus one live collection. Braatz and Jahnke re-formed the band in 1982 and released 'Harbeitslose', an album filled with sprawling, free-form pieces and post-punk songs. They split again soon after its release, only to re-form in 1985 for the surprisingly accessible, synthesizer-based album 'Wieleicht'. Just two years later the band did a complete turnaround with the guitar-driven 'Am Rhein', a brittle effort that closed with a nearly 16-minute avant-reggae song. After a quiet period they reappeared in 1993 with 'Rot, Geld, Blau', then immediately announced another breakup. This one would last until 2004, when Braatz and Jahnke returned with an appearance on The Fall tribute album 'Perverted by Mark E'. The full-length '-1' followed in 2006 along with an appearance on the tribute album 'Silver Monk Time: A Tribute to the Monks'. Somewhat representative of the band's evolution away from punk, S.Y.P.H. now stood for "Save Your Pretty Hearts." [SOURCE: ALLMUSIC]