Red Krayola

Red Krayola

Infobox Musical artist
Name =The Red Krayola


Img_capt =
Img_size =
Landscape =
Background =group_or_band
Alias =The Red Crayola
Origin =Houston, Texas, USA
Instrument =
Genre =
Occupation =
Years_active =1966-present
Label =Rough Trade Records, International Artists, Celluloid Records, Leiterwagen Records, Radar Records, Sordide Sentimental
Associated_acts =
URL =
Current_members =Mayo Thompson, Albert Oehlen
Past_members =Frederick Barthelme, Lora Logic, Allen Ravenstein, David Thomas
Notable_instruments =

The Red Krayola (formerly "The Red Crayola") was a psychedelic, avant-garde rock band from Houston, Texas, formed by art students at the University of St. Thomas (Texas) in 1966. The band was led by singer/guitarist and visual artist Mayo Thompson, along with drummer Frederick Barthelme (brother of novelist Donald Barthelme) and Steve Cunningham. Their work prefigured punk and the no wave scene in 1980s New York City.

Thompson has continued using the name, in its legally required permutation The Red Krayola, for his musical projects since.

They make noise rock, psychedelia and occasionally folk/country songs and instrumentals in a DIY-punk fashion, an approach that presaged the lo-fi aesthetic of many 1990s US indie rock groups. Reviewing the band has produced conflicted results- in an extremely positive review from Pitchfork Media, critic Alex Lindhardt wrote "It's a band that has no idea how to play its instruments. In fact, they don't even know what instruments are, or if the guitarist has the ability to remain conscious long enough to play whatever it is a 'note' might be." [ [http://pitchforkmedia.com/article/record_review/21284/The_Red_Krayola_The_Parable_of_Arable_Land_God_Bless_The_Red_Kra The Parable of Arable Land / God Bless The Red Krayola and All Who Sail with It | Pitchfork ] ] He added, "This is a band that was paid ten dollars to stop a performance in Berkeley. If Berkeley's not having it, you know you're in for rough sledding."

History

1960s

In 1966 the band signed to International Artists, home label to fellow psych-rockers The 13th Floor Elevators that was run by Lelan Rogers (brother of country musician Kenny Rogers). In 1967 the label released the psychedelic album, "Parable of Arable Land", featuring six songs by the original three members interwoven with a cacophony generated by approximately 100 anonymous followers known as "The Familiar Ugly" who appear on a number of noise tracks called "Free-Form Freak-Outs". The album's title track was a tape loop of electronic sounds with musical improvisations layered on top of it, a sound that foreshadowed the Red Krayola's second recording.

The minimalist music album "Coconut Hotel" was recorded in 1967 but rejected by International Artists for its lack of commercial potential because of its complete departure from the full-sounding guitar/bass/drums/vocals rock sound of the Red Krayola's first album. "Coconut Hotel" featured such self-described tracks as "Organ Buildup", "Free Guitar" and a series of atonal "One-Second Pieces" for piano, trumpet and percussion. The album did not see release until 1995. During this period, the band performed a concert in Berkeley, California where they attached a contact microphone to a sheet of aluminium foil that was set under a block of melting ice. The Red Krayola also performed with guitarist John Fahey and recorded an entire studio album of music in collaboration with him, but label head Lelan Rogers demanded possession of the tapes and recorded documentation of those sessions has been missing ever since.

The band's second album to see release (and the first to be released with the new "Krayola" spelling) was 1968's "God Bless The Red Krayola And All Who Sail With It". "God Bless" presented a middle ground between "Parable of Arable Land" and "Coconut Hotel", having veered away from the cacophonous psychedelic approach of their first album, but performing short, minimalist songs on electric guitar, bass and drums (interspersed with occasional a cappella harmonies and piano interludes) to achieve some surprisingly melodic results and even more surprisingly off-kilter lyrics. Hints of the as-of-yet unheard music on "Coconut Hotel" also revealed themselves (the track "Listen To This" is a one-second piece with spoken introduction). The album was not as well received as the band's first release and the Red Krayola's original lineup disbanded.

In 1969, Thompson recorded a solo album called "Corky's Debt to His Father" for a small label called Texas Revolution. The album, which has come to be regarded by many as the unheralded jewel of the Krayola catalogue, is devoid of Thompson's usual avant-garde indulgences, and consists instead of ten lyrically dense but warm-hearted pop songs, in various styles - Dylan-inspired blues-rock, Tex-Mex pop-rock with psychedelic touches, and early country rock not dissimilar to the contemporary work of Gram Parsons and the Flying Burrito Brothers. Thompson was backed by studio musicians on the album and none of his usual Krayola (or 13th Floor Elevators) cohorts appear.

1970s–80s

Mayo Thompson continued to make music, both under his own name and as The Red Crayola (reverting to the original name for Europe). He teamed up with American drummer Jesse Chamberlain and recorded the single 'Wives in Orbit' and the album "Soldier Talk" both of which could be seen as musical responses to punk rock. His collaborations in the 1970s and 1980s read like a roll call of the avant-garde and experimental artists and musicians of the era. The Red Crayola teamed up with the Conceptual Art collective Art & Language for three LPs: 1976's "Corrected Slogans", 1981's "Kangaroo?" (also featuring The Raincoats' Gina Birch, Lora Logic and Swell Maps' Epic Soundtracks) and 1983's "Black Snakes". Thompson joined Pere Ubu for a period in the early 1980s, performing on a couple releases, and provided soundtrack music for Derek Jarman. Throughout this time he was prolific as a producer for many other seminal experimental and alternative rock acts, including The Fall (1980's "Grotesque (After the Gramme)"), The Raincoats, Scritti Politti, Blue Orchids, Cabaret Voltaire, Stiff Little Fingers, Kleenex, The Chills and Primal Scream.

1990s–present

The 1990s found The Red Krayola with a new audience, who came to the group via musicians associated with Chicago's Post Rock scene and in particular the Drag City label, who had joined the band's ever-shifting line-up for a number of releases including the LPs "Hazel" (1996) and "Fingerpainting" (1999). These were, amongst others, Jim O'Rourke and David Grubbs of Gastr del Sol, the post-Conceptual visual artist Stephen Prina, German painter Albert Oehlen, George Hurley (formerly of Minutemen and fIREHOSE), Tom Watson of Slovenly, and John McEntire of Tortoise. In 2006 the group issued an album, "Introduction" and an EP, "Red Gold".

In 1995, Drag City released 1967's "Coconut Hotel" LP and in 1998 issued "The Red Krayola Live 1967" with material from the Angry Arts Festival and Berkeley Folk Music Festival including their live collaboration with John Fahey.

Thompson is active as an art critic and currently lives in Edinburgh, Scotland, and in California, where he teaches at the Pasadena Art Center College of Design.

Covers

Houston, Texas hardcore punk band Really Red recorded a cover of "Just the Facts, Ma'am" for their Rest in Pain LP from 1984.
British Space Rock group Spacemen 3 recorded a version of "Transparent Radiation" from the Red Krayola's "Parable of Arable Land", and the same album's lead track "Hurricane Fighter Plane" was covered by Nik Turner's Ladbroke Grove-based post-Hawkwind outfit Inner City Unit, UK deathrock group Alien Sex Fiend in 1986 and by Scottish act Future Pilot AKA in 1996, as well as by ultra violent punkrockers, The Dwarves. Also covering "Hurricane Fighter Plane" was New Zealand post-punk band, The Pin Group, led by future solo performer, Roy Montgomery. Boston-based indie outfit Galaxie 500 also covered "Victory Garden" from the Red Krayola's second album.

ee also

* Mayo Thompson
* Rough Trade Records
* Houston Noise Bands

References

External links

* [http://www.discogs.com/artist/Red+Krayola The Red Krayola on Discogs]
*Allmusicguide|id=11:3pfoxqt5ldfe|label=The Red Krayola
* [http://white-rose.net/redcrayola/ Thorough discography]
* [http://www.dragcity.com/bands/rk.html The Red Krayola on Drag City]
* [http://www.newyorknighttrain.com/zine/liverecs/200608/0802.html Piece Red Krayola's importance] from NewYorkNightTrain.com


Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Поможем сделать НИР

Look at other dictionaries:

  • Red Krayola — en concert Red Crayola (transformé en Red Krayola après 1968 pour des raisons légales vis à vis de la société de fournitures de dessin) était un groupe de rock expérimental et psychédélique texan, qui débuta dans les années 1960, formé autour de… …   Wikipédia en Français

  • The Red Krayola — Red Krayola Red Krayola en concert Red Crayola (transformé en Red Krayola après 1968 pour des raisons légales vis à vis de la société de fournitures de dessin) était un groupe de rock expérimental et psychédélique texan, qui débuta dans les… …   Wikipédia en Français

  • Red Crayola — Red Krayola Red Krayola en concert Red Crayola (transformé en Red Krayola après 1968 pour des raisons légales vis à vis de la société de fournitures de dessin) était un groupe de rock expérimental et psychédélique texan, qui débuta dans les… …   Wikipédia en Français

  • The Red Crayola — Red Krayola Red Krayola en concert Red Crayola (transformé en Red Krayola après 1968 pour des raisons légales vis à vis de la société de fournitures de dessin) était un groupe de rock expérimental et psychédélique texan, qui débuta dans les… …   Wikipédia en Français

  • Mayo Thompson — bei einem Konzert mit Red Krayola (Münster, 5. Mai 2005) Mayo Thompson (* 26. Februar 1944 in Houston, Texas) ist ein US amerikanischer Musiker und Bildender Künstler. 1966 gründete er zusammen mit Frederick Barthelme und Steve Cunningham die… …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • Mayo Thompson — live with The Red Krayola (Münster, 05/05/05) Background information Born 26 February 1944 Origin …   Wikipedia

  • Parable of Arable Land — Infobox Album | Name = The Parable of Arable Land Type = Album Artist = The Red Crayola (with the Familiar Ugly) Released = 1967 Recorded = Andrus Studio, Texas, March 1967 Genre = experimental rock, psychedelic rock, avant garde Label =… …   Wikipedia

  • Pere Ubu — For other uses, see Pere Ubu (disambiguation). Pere Ubu Pere Ubu performing in Vienna, 2009. Background information Origin Clevela …   Wikipedia

  • Epic Soundtracks — (* 23. März 1959 in Croydon, Surrey; † 5. November 1997[1] in London), geboren als Kevin Paul Godfrey, war ein britischer Musiker und Künstler. Inhaltsverzeichnis 1 Leben 2 Diskographie (Auswahl) …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • Nurse with Wound list — The Nurse With Wound list The Nurse with Wound list is a list of 291[1] musicians and bands that accompanied Chance Meeting on a Dissecting Table of a Sewing Machine and an Umbrella (1979), the first album by Nurse With Wound. The list was… …   Wikipedia

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”