Album Notes

roxword Bio

Born in New York, roxword was raised on the tunes of Ellington and Ella with a healthy dollop of Basie. He studied the words of Wordsworth and Blake. He understood Whitman and Ginsberg and Beckett and Borges and Kerouac and Dylan. He admired the art of Van Gogh and Duchamp and Warhol and Dali. He formed his first band when he was 16. Influenced by The Fugs, Captain Beefheart and Little Walter, Rocky Raccoon's Abnormal Tabernacle Choir and Swing Band, an energetic big band punk blues dada hybrid, were doomed from the start to enigmatic cult obscurity.

No matter. He dug further underground and took harp lessons from Blues Boy Bain, studied Sonny Terry, and rediscovered the pulsating rhythms from the Kalamazoo train yards of his youth. He performed solo in front of sketchy liquor stores, edgy skid row bus stops, and under dark overpasses for dimes and nickels and the odd quart of low-class high-proof vodka. But his luck was changing. He was invited to an audition for a back-up band. roxword was chosen.

As a charter member of the Supersonics, he supported the legendary Eddie Silver, and became a small cog in the big wheel of the first great rock 'n roll revival. Unfortunately, at the height of their popularity, bass player Biker Mike Carter (the Stu Sutcliffe of the group) was fired for incompetence and soon after, real tragedy struck the band. Hotshot drummer Mister Dean and dynamic Silver City Dancer Boy Orbison died too young for a reunion tour. Eddie Silver and the Supersonics soon fell apart, emotionally and musically. Eddie returned to his native Scotland and instead of groupie tarts, he picked up legal torts. In retrospect, the Supersonics were a showtime band and had no patience for the studio. Their only recording, "Live from Lebanon, The Best Damn Dolphin Christmas Party Ever!", was a searing performance perfectly captured by reclusive, misunderstood genius cab driver/producer, Gerg Llewop.

In university, roxword joined the midwest avant-garde scene (Madtown, Wisconsin). He teamed with Broose Presston and Beezer Pohle in a raw but spontaneously crunchy band called The Psycho. Their hard-to-find release "Symphonies for Found Objects" was hailed 'an eerie masterpiece', and disturbed almost everyone who heard it.

After stepping out one day for a divorce, and some fresh air, roxword hopped on his trusty 10-speed and kept on going...over 5,000 miles later, he stopped in Vancouver, Canada and persuaded star vocalist Dentist Dave of the grungy punk wave phenom band The Sluts to defect and join him in the ill-fated "Frippertronics for Fools" project. They worked on it for four years, but could never get it off the ground with only one of the mandatory two Revox tape machines.

He moved to Toronto and met co-conspirators Marcus Hildebrandt and David Junkin. Together they created the infamous under- ground dadaist drinking/performance/art club, 'The Group of Three and a Half'. Shouts of "COCCCKKKROOOOOOOOACH!" were often heard in hip pubs and better restaurants throughout the city. Livers were seriously challenged. The mysterious half-member was never fully revealed. roxword issued a short-run series of lithographs called 'Visual Rap'. Featuring 13 designs, these retro-punk ransom note Zen-poems cut through the clutter in galleries, bookstores, offices, restaurants, homes, dustbins...wherever they're found.

It was a long 10-year stretch before roxword released another statement. After a vagabond trip around the world (doing time in Buddhist monasteries and urban zoos) he moved to the suburban wasteland of Las Vegas and hand-picked two lunatic young men from the advertising grind. In Keyboard Karl Sutton and Bachelor Christopher Benham, he saw the perfect foil for his spoken word rants and Duchampian funk. "spiritual demons" is the result of their collaboration in the desert.