Hovercraft (band)

Hovercraft

Hovercraft was an instrumental experimental rock group that was formed in 1993 in Seattle, Washington. It was co-founded by its core duo of guitarist/samplist/tape looper Ryan Shinn, and bassist Beth Liebling. Liebling and Shinn would use the pseudonyms "Sadie 7" and "Campbell 2000" throughout the duration of the band's history. Hovercraft has been cited as one of the most abrasive, non-commercial sounding bands ever to receive major-label distribution for its albums.

Though somewhat overlooked and sometimes heavily criticized) because of the band's early association to a platinum-selling rock star, the group was largely well-respected and well-received by critics and developed a cult following.

History

Early history

Liebling and Shinn, who met as anatomy students in medical school, had been playing together in the band Space Helmet since Liebling had moved to Seattle. Space Helmet existed "for a year and a half," according to Shinn. Space Helmet broke up due to Shinn's relocation to New York. The rest of the band, except Liebling, but initially including Shinn's brother, continued and formed the Krautrock/post-rock oriented band Magnog. Shinn did not remain in New York for long, and the newly-christened Hovercraft was formed upon his return.

Hovercraft's sound came to be characterized by Shinn's effects-laden guitar soundscapes, which made heavy use of delay and reverb on his main guitar, a Fender Stratocaster. The use of looping effects enabled him to often simulate the simultaneous playing of multiple guitarists, though he was always the lone guitarist, both in the studio and onstage. Leibling generally played single-note, ominous, pulsating bass lines, played "clean" (with no effects). Early drum beats were generally sparse, yet jazzy; they became more complex as the band gradually added more highly-skilled drummers over the years.

January 8, 1995, recordings by Hovercraft and Magnog are played back to back on the Self-Pollution Radio Show, a four hour long pirate broadcast out of Seattle which was available to any radio stations in which wanted to tune in. The tracks which followed immediately after Pearl Jam's final set are described by Eddie Vedder as a "cleansing of the palette." The recording would appear on Hovercraft's first release, a seven-inch single on the band's own Repellent Records. Recorded in August 1994, Zero Zero Zero One featured "Paul 4" on drums and on "box of nails." No track titles were given, but "0001-A" and "0001-B" are etched into either band of the vinyl sides. It was also released as a VHS tape "video single" in a simple black slipcase.

The single was initially handed out at gigs; stickers affixed to the plastic slip of ones sold in stores boasted, "Featuring Eddie Vedder of Pearl Jam." "Paul 4" is the pseudonym of early member Bobby Tamkin currently with his own band, Xu Xu Fang, and it is known that Tamkin used the name "Paul 4" when he toured with Hovercraft opening for Mike Watt's spring 1995 tour in support of his star-studded album Ball-Hog or Tugboat?. Hovercraft, and Dave Grohl's new band Foo Fighters, played short sets before both Grohl and Vedder would join headliner Watt as members of his band. This was Hovercraft's first tour, as well as the first major tour for Grohl since the suicide of Kurt Cobain. Hovercraft toured later that year with Sky Cries Mary.

Though Vedder donned a long wig in order to conceal his face somewhat, his true identity soon become widely known. Subsequent Hovercraft tours would often be flooded with fans of the Pearl Jam front man. However, Vedder was soon replaced by former Pearl Jam drummer, Dave Krusen, who adopted the stage name "Karl 3-30." With a more technically proficient drummer, the band was now free to play beyond the lo-fidelity noise experiments of its debut release, and play proper shows with structured improvisation and avant experimantalism. Hovercraft toured in 1995 opening for Sweet 75. (Like Dave Grohl, Krist Novoselic's first tour following Cobain's suicide featured Hovercraft).

Hovercraft would join Sky Cries Mary and Sweet 75 for Microsoft and World Domination Recordings' joint "Transmissions from Space" tour in November 1995, an interactive, multi-media exposition highlighting the new CD Plus technology.

Angular Momentum (Live performances, motifs)

Live shows were marked by a stage prepared in advance of entrance by crowds. When the band did enter, not a word was uttered, and eye contact was never made with spectators. The stage was shrouded in darkness as a projector played black & white scientific films and space-themed documentary clips from the reel-to-reel era (1940s-1970s), and free-use stock footage, somewhat synchronized to the music. Examples of film material include insects mating, time-lapse footage of flowers blooming, and asteroids crashing. Though often featuring fragments of album tracks, each live show was played as a single forty to forty-five minute long semi-improvised piece with no breaks. The film collages were created by Shinn and Liebling, and were altered for each tour the band went on. According to Shinn, the band used films in their concerts "since the very first show."

The group's artwork, album and song titles ("Haloparidol", "Vagus Nerve", "Phantom Limb", "Endoradiosonde" (a kind of "Radio Transmittor Pill", "Benzedrine", "De-Orbit Burn") featured foreboding themes of medical, astronautical and scientific experimentation, satellite imagery, hallucinations, and medical conditions. Though these are common in the post-rock, space rock and avant-garde music scenes, Hovercraft's are likely bolstered by Shinn and Liebling's medical/scientific training, as well as their youths:

"I think that we've always wanted to be doctors and psychiatrists. I was really sick when I was a kid so I grew up in a lot of hospitals. Sadie was in a couple of institutions... so I think we all had our eyes wide open. So I guess we've always wanted to see it from the other side." - Shinn, 1997 interview

Group photos distributed to the press were also shot in silhouette, contributing further to the group's shadowy mystique, though a photo of the group does appear inside Akathasia, though Liebling is obscured by darkness.

Recorded on two days in March and April of 1996, the ten-inch format of Stereo Specific Polymerization, also released on the Liebling-run Repellent, allowed for recordings that more closely approximated their live sound.

In August 1996, they appeared on a hidden track on the Germs tribute album A Small Circle of Friends. Allegedly recorded in a "L.A. garage" in order "to capture the Germs feel", Hovercraft's contribution is a sixteen-minute long, mostly instrumental reprise of "Shutdown". The track, which follows a more conventional version of the song by Monkeywrench, features a conversation in Italian between Shinn and Liebling, making it the only recording by the band to feature any vocalization.

After running the small club circuit of the North America a few times on their own, they supported Unwound on a European tour. Hovercraft even opened for classic rockers The Who on a short series of stadium concerts in the U.S. Northwest in late 1996.

Enter The Black Hole (Signing to Blast First)

In 1997 they were signed to Blast First Records in London by label head Paul Smith. In North America, debut album (released as double-LP and single CD) Akathisia was distributed by Mute Records America. Akathisia's liner notes state that the album was "preserved and magnetically encoded 12.1995."

The vinyl etchings on the four sides of Akathisia were as follows:

• Side A: "Do You..."
• Side B: "Dare To..."
• Side C: "Enter The..."
• Side D: "Black Hole?"

(This was the slogan of the cult classic 1980s Gottlieb pinball game, Black Hole.)

The new lineup played at the first Terrastock festival in Providence, R.I., in April 1997. They then toured with Japan's Kirihito and U.S. rock band Caustic Resin, and handled the opening slot on a tour with Fugazi, as well as a tour opening for Helmet and The Melvins. An EP featuring remixes of two truncated Akathisia songs by Scanner was released later in 1997.

Final drummer, final album

1998 brought yet another change of drummer as Ric Peterson took the stool as "Dash 11". His much harder-hitting, more visceral style was the apparent catalyst in the band's shift from ethereal 15-minute songs to more concise, angular arrangements. The track "Epoxy" from the band's upcoming album first premiered for the world on Pearl Jam's Monkeywrench Radio broadcast, on January 31, 1998.

One year in the making, Hovercraft's final album, Experiment Below, was released in September 1998. In 1998-99, Hovercraft toured Europe again with Add N to (X), and the U.S. with The Boredoms, Melvins, and Mr. Bungle. They also played a number of one-off shows with Wire, Hater, Mudhoney, and IQU.

Schema, Spooky Remixes & The Final Burn-out

Hovercraft teamed up with Stereolab guitarist/ backing vocalist Mary Hansen, forming the band Schema. Schema featured vocals and instrumentals in approximately equal measure, adding some synthesizer. An eponymous maxi-EP/mini-album was released in 2000 on avant-garde Kill Rock Stars imprint, 5 Rue Christine. A second album and a tour was planned. However, while riding her bicycle in London on December 12, 2002, the 36 year-old Hansen was struck by a truck and killed.

Hovercraft's last live performance was on February 16, 2001, at the Experience Music Project museum in Seattle.

Hovercraft and DJ Spooky worked on remixes of each other's works in the late 1990s; two DJ Spooky remixes of Hovercraft were released (on various-artist techno compilations), but Hovercraft's versions of his songs never were.

Hovercraft discography

Albums

• Akathisia - CD/2xLP (Blast First/ Mute, 1997)
• Experiment Below - CD/LP (Blast First/ Mute, 1998)

EPs, Singles

• Zero Zero Zero One - 7" (Repellent, 1995) (recorded 1994)
• Hovercraft (a.k.a. Stereo Specific Polymerization)]] - 10" (Repellent, 1996)
• Scanner Remixes - CD EP/ 12" EP (Blast First/Mute, 1997)

Various-artist appearances

• "Shutdown Reprise" on A Small Circle of Friends: A Germs Tribute (Grass, 1996)
• "Angular Momentum" and Scanner's "De-Orbit Burn Remix" on Newman Passage (Mute, 1997)
• "Stereo Specific Polymerization (Mad Psychotic Hyper-Accelerated Lower East Side Mix)" by DJ Spooky on Electric Ladyland, Vol,4 (1997, Mille Plateaux)
• "Hymn" (feat. spoken word by Eddie Vedder) on Kerouac - Kicks, Joy, Darkness (Rykodisc, 1997)
• "Stereo Specific Polymerization (Beneath the Underdog Mix)" by DJ Spooky (10" split with Spectre on Word Sound Records, 1998)
• "Haloparidol" (short version) on Chicago Cab (a.k.a. Hellcab) soundtrack (Loosegroove [U.S]/ Play It Again Sam [U.K.], 1998)
• "Anthropod" on In Transit (split tour CD EP w/ Add N to (X) and Appliance) (Blast First/ Mute, ca. 1999)

Video

• "0001" - VHS video single (Repellent, 1995)
• Band (still w/ Vedder as drummer) made brief appearance in movie Hype! (Lions Gate, 1996)

Schema discography

Albums

• Schema - CD/LP (5 Rue Christine [5RC], 2000) see All Music Guide review

External links

• Hovercraft database formerly known as The Aurora Lab; includes mp3 download of a live show
• 1997 Frequency interview with Shinn
• Tour chronology