Spazz

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Spazz
General information
origin Redwood City (United States)
Genre (s) Powerviolence
founding 1992
resolution 2000
Founding members
Vocals, guitar
 Dan "Lactose" Bolleri
Vocals, bass
 Chris Dodge
Vocals, drums
 Max "Hirax" Ward

Spazz was a Californian music group that existed from 1992 to 2000 and is one of the most influential bands in power violence .

history

Spazz was founded in 1992 in Redwood City by Dan Bolleri (ex-member of Sheep Squeeze), Chris Dodge (ex-member of No Use for a Name ) and Max Ward (ex-member of Plutocrazy) . Dodge, who initially worked full-time at Fat Wreck Chords , was the operator of the Slap A Ham Records label , on which many of the early power violence bands published. Slap A Ham hosted a power violence festival called Fiesta Grande , where Bolleri, Dodge and Ward met for the first time in 1992. The band initially called themselves Gash, but after a short time changed it to Spazz, a corruption of the English word for spasticity . Spazz are among the pioneers of the second wave of power violence. The genre emerged in 1986 with the formation of the band Infest in Los Angeles; the definition came in the early 1990s by a scene in California, which Spazz belonged to groups like Man Is the Bastard or No Comment in the lead. The band set itself apart from the then common hardcore in various ways - musically they mixed grindcore elements into their music, showed themselves culturally open to the hip-hop and graffiti scene and fashionably distanced themselves from common punk norms. Guitarist Bolleri names Neurosis as influences of the band, producer Bart Thurber and singer of the experimental rock band Oxbow , Eugene Robinson , as personal influences . Spazz initially received a lot of support from the straight-edge scene. A substantive connection to the hardcore and grindcore scenes, the musical intersection of which is powerviolence , was the DIY ethic practiced by the band . The band was closely networked and published numerous records on small and very small labels, often as a split with befriended bands. Drummer Ward has been running the still existing 625 Thrashcore label since 1993, which is now based in New York . In 2000 Dodge had to move to Los Angeles , which the band took as an opportunity to break up. In 2015, the Scottish indie label Mind Ripper Collective released the compilation album Spazzin to the Oldies , on which 26 bands of the genres power violence, noise , crustcore and punk cover songs by Spazz.

Ward is currently still the owner of 625 Thrashcore. He is a full-time history assistant professor at Middlebury College and plays drums in the power violence band What Happens Next in his spare time. Guitarist Bolleri is now a producer of hip-hop music under the name "DJ Eons One" and a member of the hip-hop duo Grand Invincible, and he also plays in the hardcore band Funeral Shock. Dodge plays bass in the hardcore band Burn Your Bridges.

Style and meaning

The three members were located in the California hardcore scene, but agreed from the start that they wanted to avoid template-like song structures. So they experimented with song structures, tempo changes and samples and occasionally used unusual instruments. What was unusual for a band of this musical spectrum was its opening to hip hop; for the album La Revancha , for example, Kool Keith contributed a sample . Another defining element of Spazz's music was that Bolleri, Dodge and Ward all worked as singers and took turns singing during the songs. In the media, the humorous and sometimes confused lyrics of the Spazz songs are often emphasized; According to the band, the humorous element was not used in a planned manner, but resulted from the textual description of everyday experiences or was intended to "entertain ourselves with it".

For Vice magazine, Mason Adams described the music as "groundbreaking" for the power violence genre 20 years ago, whereas today it sounds to the listener like " Hardcore distilled to a pithy essence , packed with (...) humor and funk". Noisecreep magazine described Spazz as "one of the most influential bands in the (Californian) punk and hardcore scenes", which is still considered a role model for hardcore bands in the region. Tony Shrum of New Noise magazine stated that Spazz “defined power violence ” and that the band “intimidates and inspires” at the same time. On the occasion of a review of the album Crush Kill Destroy, PunkNews described Spazz as "the original gangsters of West Coast power violence" and analyzed that they were based on the sound of bands from the first wave of power violence such as Crossed Out and No Comment, a unique mixture adding self-referential humor and creating a serene but brutal genre. The Ox-Fanzine wrote that Spazz had "defined extreme hardcore" and "set standards in the most brutal form of hardcore", and defined the music as "bass-heavy, (...) varied stick hardcore".

“Samples from kung fu films, skateboard videos, hip hop, television and B-movies are used to break up 40 to 70-second explosions of metallic hardcore, which bounce around in the skull like a pinball, and whose titles are perfect sayings for a toilet door submit."

- Mason Adams, Vice

"Angry growls about the collapse of society and corrupt institutions were screamed over fat riffs that bathe with relish in influences of hardcore, D-beat , crust and grindcore."

- Tony Shrum, New Noise

Discography

  • 1993: Spazz ( EP , Slap A Ham Records )
  • 1994: Dwarf Jester Rising (Clearview Records)
  • 1997: La Revancha (Sound Pollution Records)
  • 1999: Crush Kill Destroy (Slap A Ham)

Split releases

  • 1994: Split-7 "with Floor (Bovine Records)
  • 1994: Split-7 "with Rupture (Sludge Records)
  • 1995: Split album with Subversion (Deported Records)
  • 1995: Split-7 "with Charles Bronson (625 Thrashcore)
  • 1995: Split-7 "with CFDL (Slap A Ham)
  • 1996: Split album with Romantic Gorilla (Sound Pollution)
  • 1996: Split-7 "with Brutal Truth (Bovine)
  • 1996: Split-7 "with toast (HG Facts)
  • 1996: Split-7 "with Jimmie Walker (Slap A Ham)
  • 1997: Split-7 "with Black Army Jacket (Dogprint Records)
  • 1997: Skinny Top, Heavy Bottom (Split-5 "with Gob, 702 Records)
  • 1997: Double Whammy (Split-7 "with Lack of Interest, Deep Six Records)
  • 1997: Split-7 "with Slobber (Sacapuntas)
  • 1997: Split-7 "with Hirax (Theologian Records)
  • 1997: Split-7 "with Öpstand (Coalition Records)
  • 1997: Split-7 "with Monster X (reservoir)
  • 1998: Split-7 "with 25 Ta Life (Edison Recordings)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Lion City DIY (blog): An Oral History of Powerviolence. LionCityDIY.Blogspot.de, accessed on May 11, 2016 .
  2. ↑ 90s Power Violence: A Handful of Diamonds in a Sea of ​​Shit. Metal Inquisition, accessed May 9, 2016 .
  3. ↑ a b Spazz guitarist Dan Lactose Recalls His Days in the Band. Noisecreep.com, accessed May 10, 2016 .
  4. ↑ Mind Ripper Collective Unveils Tribute To Powerviolence Legends Spazz. ZTMag.com, accessed May 11, 2016 .
  5. ↑ a b The Strange and Enduring Afterlife of Spazz, Powerviolence and Slap A Ham Records. Vice.com, accessed May 9, 2016 .
  6. ↑ NeuFutur.com: Chris Dodge Interview. Retrieved January 27, 2020 .
  7. ↑ Spazz interview. Trust-Zine.de, accessed on May 11, 2016 .
  8. ↑ Tankcrimes to Reissue Sweatin 'to the Oldies I and III. NewNoiseMagazine.com, accessed May 11, 2016 .
  9. ↑ Crush Kill Destroy. PunkNews.org, accessed May 11, 2016 .
  10. ↑ Mosh Of Ass.Ox-Fanzine.de, accessed on May 11, 2016 .
  11. ^ Crush, Kill and Destroy. Ox-Fanzine.de, accessed on May 11, 2016 .