Premature Ejaculation (band)
| Premature Ejaculation | |
|---|---|
| Origin | Los Angeles, United States |
| Genres | Experimental Avant-garde Industrial Noise Dark Ambient |
| Years active | 1981,1987–1998 |
| Labels | Happiest Tapes on Earth, Dark Vinyl, Baader Meinhoff, Gymnastic, Triple XXX, Cleopatra, Malaise Music. |
| Associated acts | Heltir, EXP |
| Website | http://www.rozznet.com/ |
| Members | |
| Rozz Williams, Ron Athey, Chuck Collison, Kris Fuller, Lee Wilds | |
Premature Ejaculation was an experimental music group from Pomona, California in the United States. It briefly existed in 1981, and was reformed in 1987 by Rozz Williams of Christian Death fame and Chuck Collison.
Contents |
[edit] History
Premature Ejaculation was formed originally in 1981, by Rozz Williams and his live-in boyfriend, performance artist Ron Athey. Unlike the deathrock band Christian Death, Premature Ejaculation did not use standard "rock band" instruments, instead sound was created using various objects and lo-fi devices.[1] They made two recordings 'Premature Ejaculation Part 1 and Premature Ejaculation part 2. These were never released, only distributed copies were sent to friends. However reissue of both cassettes will be in 2010.[2]
Williams' group Christian Death had broken up during this year and he started this project; they played very few live performances, because clubs began refusing to book them, and some of their stage theatrics were deemed controversial. One of the acts included Athey eating a dead cat (the animal was roadkill), documentation of which can be seen in the book Hardcore California.[3] Christian Death was reformed in the summer of 81, and Premature Ejaculation was put on ice.
[edit] Rebirth
The band was reformed in 1987, two years after vocalist and songwriter Rozz Williams left Christian Death. He was joined by Lee Wilds, and then Chuck Collison and Kris Fuller. The group's themes remained avant-garde throughout and focused on the bizarre and taboo, they would use sound clips from crying babies to chainsaws and film clips. In their early live shows, the duo would sometimes throw meat and eyeballs into the crowd.
Collison played a big part in the re-formed group, especially in regards to higher quality electronic gear and better recording facilities which he brought. Collison started his own record label The Happiest Place On Earth to release the groups recordings. Its name was soon changed to The Happiest Tapes On Earth, in order to avoid potential legal problems which may arise from Disney.[4] Collison was on the majority of Premature Ejaculation's material and as a result should be considered the second member.
The first two full length records were released via their own record label, at first these were only available on cassette format. Death Cultures was the first to be released in 1987, and was followed up by Blood Told in Spine and then Assertive Discipline in successive years. In total the reformed group released seven recordings, Anesthesia is the most "well known" of which, this was released on the more professional German label Dark Vinyl Records. They also released on the Cleopatra and Triple XXX labels.
Premature Ejaculation, although not always Williams' most well-known project of the 1990s (see; Shadow Project with Eva O) remained active in some form or another right up until his death in 1998, they were very prolific with a massive back catalogue of releases, the last record 'Wound of Exit' by the group been released posthumously. In 2009 it has been announced several lost Premature Ejaculation recordings will be reissued officially in 2010, these include the early Premature Ejaculation cassettes, Premature Ejaculation parts 1 & 2, Dead Horse Riddles, Not the Real Criminal and many more.[2]
[edit] Project members
- Rozz Williams
- Ron Athey (1981)
- Chuck Collison (1987–1998)
- Lee Wildes
- Kris Fuller
- Paris Sadonis
- Ryan Wildstar
- Erik Christides
[edit] Discography
- PE - Pt.1 (Happiest Tapes on Earth) Cassette 1981, (Malaise Music) double CD 2010
- PE - Pt.2 (Happiest Tapes on Earth) Cassette 1981, (Malaise Music) double CD 2010
- A Little Hard to Swallow (Malaise Music) double CD 2010
- Living Monstrocities / Descent (Malaise Music) double CD 2010
- Body of a Crow (Happiest Tapes on Earth) Cassette 1986
- Death Cultures (Happiest Tapes on Earth) Cassette 1987, Cassette 1989
- Assertive Discipline (Happiest Tapes on Earth) Cassette 1988, (Baader-Meinhof) LP 1989, (Dark Vinyl Records) CD 1994, (Dark Vinyl Records, Hollows Ill Sound Recordings) CD 2003
- Death Cultures III (Happiest Tapes on Earth) Cassette 1988
- Night Sweats (Happiest Tapes on Earth) Cassette 1988
- Blood Told in Spine (Happiest Tapes on Earth) Cassette 1988, (Gymnastic Records) LP 1991
- Blue Honey / Pigface Show & Tell (Happiest Tapes on Earth) Cassette 1988
- Anesthesia (Dark Vinyl Records) CD 1992
- Necessary Discomforts (Cleopatra) Cassette, CD 1993
- Estimating the Time of Death (Triple X) CD 1994
- Dead Horse Riddles (Malaise Music) Cassette 1994
- Wound of Exit (Hollows Hill Sound Recordings) double CD 1998
- 6 (RozzNet.com) CD 2001
[edit] Filmography
- Death Cultures III (Happiest Tapes on Earth) Video 1988
- Not the Real Criminal (Happiest Tapes on Earth) Video 1989
- The End is Here (Happiest Tapes on Earth) Video 1989
[edit] References
- ^ Discogs.com
- ^ a b Happiest Tapes on myspace
- ^ Peter Belsito and Bob Davis, Hardcore California, Los Angeles: Last Gasp, 2004
- ^ Discogs.com
[edit] External links
- Article on PE and Heltir
- Happiest Tapes on myspace
- Dark Vinyl, distributors of the new CDs
- Happiest Tapes on Vampirefreaks.com
- Malaise Music who are releasing the series
