Lubricated Goat
Lubricated Goat | |
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Origin | Amphetamine Reptile, Sub Pop, Sympathy for the Record Industry , PCP, Reptilian |
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Past members |
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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).
History
Lubricated Goat were formed in
En route to Sydney after a visit to England, Spasm went via Perth to visit former Singing Dog drummer Ford, who was then playing in the Kryptonics with Hartley. While in Perth, Spasm recorded side 1 of the band's debut album, Plays the Devil's Music, at No Sweat Studios with Ford and Hartley. Side 2 was recorded in Adelaide on a 4-track with Bland.[2]
Lubricated Goat signed to Red Eye Records offshoot Black Eye Records, established by John Foy.,[1] which released Plays the Devil's Music in July 1987. According to Australian musicologist Ian McFarlane, "For the musicians involved, it was simply a chance to exist on the very edges of the Sydney rock scene, and to play out a sick joke for their own entertainment... Foy... liked the joke and formed the Black Eye label specifically as an outlet for the recorded works of this bunch of noise terrorists".[1]
In Sydney, Spasm recruited bassist
On 2 November 1988, the band provided a nude performance,
In a line-up change, Hartley was dismissed and Ford quit, replaced respectively by guitarist Charles Tolnay (ex-Grong Grong, King Snake Roost) and drummer Gene Revet (ex-Ragdoll, the Space Juniors).[1] In May 1989, they issued the Schadenfreude EP.[1] Lubricated Goat's back catalogue was reissued by Amphetamine Reptile Records in the United States and on Normal in Europe before the band embarked on its first US tour in mid-1989.[1] Tolnay and Revet did not participate in the tour; Spasm and Maddison were joined by ex-Bloodloss member Renastair EJ (on guitar and saxophone) and Bland (on synthesiser as well as drums).[1] Later, after Maddison's departure, this line-up recorded a third full-length album, Psychedelicatessen, with Lachlan McLeod (ex-Salamander Jim) on bass guitar and audio sampler.[1] McFarlane noted that the album showed "a variety of styles (from noisy free-form jazz to noisier hard rock), with tortured guitars and raw vocals being the band's characteristic mode of operation".[1]
In 1990, the group commenced its first European tour, one that was plagued with tragedy via the stabbing of Spasm in Berlin – "in a drug deal gone wrong", according to McFarlane.[1] The incident placed Lubricated Goat on hiatus.
Various incarnations of Lubricated Goat (often featuring only Spasm) existed in the early 1990s, documented on the 7-inch singles "Meating My Head" (1990, part of the
Lubricated Goat resumed activity in the mid-2000s. Among the members were Australian drummer Hayden Millsteed (also a founder of New York post-punk band Bell Hollow), who performed on the band's 2003 album, The Great Old Ones, which featured re-recordings of previously released Lubricated Goat and Crunt tracks.
In 2007, a new line-up of Lubricated Goat started writing and performing new songs alongside their older ones. This ensemble included Anne Mette Rasmussen on keyboards, sound effects and backup vocals; Creighton Chamberlain (formerly of
The line-up changed again in 2009, with Chamberlain replaced by Jack Natz, formerly of the 1980s New Jersey punk band the Undead as well as Black Snakes, Cop Shoot Cop and Red Expendables. Natz had previously played bass in Lubricated Goat intermittently from the late 1990s through to the mid-2000s. Rasmussen left to form her own band, LoveStruck, which also included both Spasm and Hutchins.
Spasm later headed the Art Gray Noizz Quintet with Hutchins, Ryan Skeleton Boy (formerly of Woman) on bass, Andrea Sicco (of Twin Guns) on guitar, and rotating fifth members such as metal percussionists, sax or trombone players.[5]
Temporary 1988 member Read died in Melbourne in 2016 after battling liver cancer.[6][7]
Discography
Studio albums
- Plays the Devil's Music (1987, Black Eye Records)
- Paddock of Love (1988, Black Eye Records) (1989, Amphetamine Reptile Records)
- Psychedelicatessen (1990, Black Eye Records/Amphetamine Reptile Records)
- Forces You Don't Understand (1994, PCP Entertainment)
- The Great Old Ones (2003, Reptilian Records)
Extended plays
- Schadenfreude 12-inch (Black Eye Records, 1989)
Singles
- "Meating My Head" 7-inch (1990, Sub Pop)
- "Shut Your Mind" 7-inch (1992, Sympathy for the Record Industry)
- "Play Dead" 7-inch (1993, Sub Pop)
Compilation appearances
- "Jason's Place" on Waste Sausage LP (1987, Black Eye Records)
- "In the Raw" on Good Beer, Tasty Sandwiches cassette (1989, Twin/Tone Records/Amphetamine Reptile Records)
- "Bad Times" on Dope-Guns-'N-Fucking in the Streets Volume Four double 7-inch EP (1990, Amphetamine Reptile Records)
- "Bad Times" on Dope-Guns-'N-Fucking in the Streets Volumes 4–7 CD (1990, Amphetamine Reptile Records)
- "All Too Sane", "Guttersnipe", "Kill Somebody Today", "Can't Believe We're Really Making Love" and "Jason the Unpopular" on Love God – Music from the Original Motion Picture Soundtrack CD (2000, Koch Records)
- "Play Dead" on Color of Noise Comp CD (2012, Amphetamine Reptile Records)
- "Play Dead" on The Color of Noise (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) LP (2015, Amphetamine Reptile Records)
References
- ^ ISBN 1-86508-072-1. Archived from the originalon 4 June 2004.
- ^ Plays the Devil's Music (booklet). Lubricated Goat. Sydney, Australia: Black Eye Records. 1987.
{{cite AV media notes}}
: CS1 maint: others in cite AV media (notes) (link) - ^ Creep, Cousin (August 2008), Pissant!: A story of 80s Australian underground, cousincreep.com, retrieved 17 May 2009
- ^ a b Warden, Ian (5 December 1988). "I Saw: Corruption as entertainment". The Canberra Times. Vol. 63, no. 19, 418. p. 32. Retrieved 6 October 2016 – via National Library of Australia.
- ^ "Art Gray Noizz Quintet - Home". Facebook.com. Retrieved 7 April 2020.
- ^ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 31 August 2021. Retrieved 1 October 2017.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link) - ^ "R.I.P. Thug co-founder Peter Read | News". I94bar.com. 17 August 2016. Retrieved 7 April 2020.