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The artistGenesis P-OrridgestartedThrobbing Gristlebecause of what an old man at a pub told her.
the old man asked her.
Artists start bands for lots of reasons.
But the context music exists in the clubs where its playedis far less pretentious, and more fun.
Plus it gets artists out of the studio and up on stage.
(And, as an aside perhaps, who gets laid more than musicians?)
Starting a band was in another era afuck youto the lofty art world.
But these projects no longer exist outside the art world the way they once did.
Today we have a pretty expanded definition of art.
For instance, Gatess band played thePrada VIP clublast month during Art Basel Miami Beach.
Their approach can be more conceptual too, whether about meta-narrative or representation.
IUD
IUDs roots go back toLizzi BougatsosandSadie Laskameeting in art school when they were 18.
After they graduated, they moved together to New York in 97, sharing an apartment.
We were trying to be artists but we were poor and didnt have studios.
A way to be creative was to make music with your friends, says Laska.
They started the art rock band Actress with artistAmy Gartrelland painter-DJSpencer Sweeney, whos today a sometimes member ofIUD.
(In the early aughts, Bougatsos also had the metal band AngelBlood with artistRita Ackermann.)
In 2004, they started IUD.
Those moments are pretty primal and organic and for me thats what drumming is all about.
Still, with IUD, theres more room for getting weird than with some of her other projects.
Spencer Sweeney continued playing the drum kit and Sadie just followed me filming.
Bougatsos adds, Were both capricorns.
Were both the same age.
We grew up together.
We just get it.
My input into that project was visual first.
One of my classes is about where performance art and conceptual art meets music performance.
Being on stage was almost the art project, explains Samson adding, Our music was sample based.
We werent necessarily trained musicians in the sense we werent even working in a specific key.
Bougatsos remembers, JD would wear this TV box on top of her head.
It reminded me of the Residents, that band with the eyeball heads.
On their 2013 sophomore albumLabor, MEN had a song expressing support for Pussy Riot.
At a visual art residency, she started experimenting withrock sculpturesand then incorporating them into performances.
I was using the drill and the rock as an instrument, explains Samson.
They played at the Kitchen accompanying aLaura Parnesfilm commenting on the Trump era.
Together they started a bandTry Cry Tryand roped in their friendJessie Steadto help out with video projections.
Eventually the three of them became Hairbone formerly Haribo, named after the German gummy company.
At first it wasnt as musical with songs and stuff.
It was kind of more just like a freak out, jot down of thing, explains Stead.
The three-pieces performances are full of wacky theatrics, wigs, and homemade props, like cardboard washing machines.
In the past, theyve described their music as sexy clown, post butt-metal party anthems.
We can play in a museum and the next time a bar or a basement, says Stead.
Its such a DIY thing.
Its been fascinating to have a museum present that.
In a way, its sort of out of context in a museum but its also not.
Theres a long history of art punk bands that we fall in line with.
The band fits into the artists respective practices in different ways.
de Nieves is interested in transformative experiences.
This live act opens up so many portals in the brain.
Stead, in turn, explains that documenting the band is part of her video practice.
I think about the band as a story.
Its life its beginning, middle, and end to me, its like a decade-long movie.
de Nieves is influenced by bands likeBikini KillandLe Tigreas well as avant-garde musicians likePhilip GlassandJohn Cage.
Stead links what Hairbones doing to other art bands likeMike Kelleys Destroy All Monsters.
Mhysa
Mhysa grew out of my studio work, says Philly-based multimedia artistE.
Janeabout their alter-ego persona and music project.
A professor in grad school suggested that Jane take the lip-sync performances more seriously.
I want sincerity from you, he urged.
Jane thought, The realest thing would be if I were to make an album.
They submitted an EP as a midterm in grad school and Mhysas first full length albumfantasiicame out in 2017.
I do the graphic design, the production, sometimes the video editing, says Jane.
I think a lot about it as total art orgesamtkunstwerk.
Other influences include ORLANs body performance, Lynn Hershman Leesons fictionalRoberta Breitmorecharacter, and riot grrrl rap personaMykki Blanco.
It would be too self referential like the snake eating its own tale.
She performs out in the world, says Jane, adding that club parties likeGHE20G0TH1Kare the ideal space.
Mhysa has toured prolifically this year across Europe and North America.
Together the two artists also have the experimental club music projectSCRAAATCH.
He adds, the press releases might as well be artist statements.
Cooper says the collective wasnt medium specific but engaged in a wandering aesthetic approach.
This kind of radical collaboration can take a lot of patience.
It took us a long time before we got anything good, recalls Murphy.
Were an offshoot from the original, like a space pod from the main ship, says Murphy.
MSHRs mad scientist performances feature trippy multi-sensory feedback loops made possible by light-activated synthesizers and sound-activated lights.
Both Murphy and Cooper also have solo art practices.
We operate in a lot of different contexts, says Cooper.
Those contexts determine who we are in that moment.
Murphy adds that with MSHR, they are conscious of how these different contexts influence audience expectations.
They made these long-standing sound and sculpture installations, says Murphy.
You could only watch or listen, you couldnt do both at the same time.
Psychic TV has always centered video.
Today their performances feature a psychedelic light show of video projections.
Its a very spiritual experience, says P-Orridge.
Over the years, throughout these musical experiments, P-Orridge says, I always carried on making art.
Whatever the medium, P-Orridge approaches everything like acut-up.
I see the world that way, constant fragments of fascination swirling around me, she says.
Everything is collaging for me.
Its one of the only ways to guarantee new combinations.
No sort of linear thought would give you that.
Were getting a lot of people from the LGBTQ community and theres not been a lot of gay rock.
Theyre coming to a completely new celebration of loud music and lights and videos.
So many people say that its inspired them and I feel a real responsibility in that.
Theres a sense of unity and deep trust that makes it so worthwhile.
