- Red Krayola
Infobox Musical artist
Name =The Red Krayola
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Alias =The Red Crayola
Origin =Houston, Texas , USA
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Years_active =1966-present
Label =Rough Trade Records ,International Artists ,Celluloid Records ,Leiterwagen Records ,Radar Records ,Sordide Sentimental
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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 fromHouston, Texas , formed by art students at theUniversity of St. Thomas (Texas) in 1966. The band was led by singer/guitarist and visual artistMayo Thompson , along with drummerFrederick Barthelme (brother of novelistDonald Barthelme ) and Steve Cunningham. Their work prefigured punk and theno wave scene in 1980sNew 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 aDIY -punk fashion, an approach that presaged thelo-fi aesthetic of many 1990s USindie 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-rockersThe 13th Floor Elevators that was run byLelan Rogers (brother ofcountry music ianKenny 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 atape loop of electronic sounds withmusical improvisation s 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 ofatonal "One-Second Pieces" forpiano ,trumpet andpercussion . The album did not see release until 1995. During this period, the band performed a concert inBerkeley, California where they attached acontact microphone to a sheet ofaluminium 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 onelectric guitar , bass and drums (interspersed with occasionala cappella harmonies andpiano 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 earlycountry rock not dissimilar to the contemporary work ofGram Parsons and theFlying 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 theConceptual Art collectiveArt & Language for three LPs: 1976's "Corrected Slogans", 1981's "Kangaroo?" (also featuringThe Raincoats 'Gina Birch ,Lora Logic andSwell 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 forDerek Jarman . Throughout this time he was prolific as a producer for many other seminal experimental andalternative 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 andPrimal Scream .1990s–present
The 1990s found The Red Krayola with a new audience, who came to the group via musicians associated with
Chicago 'sPost Rock scene and in particular theDrag 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 andDavid Grubbs ofGastr del Sol , thepost-Conceptual visual artistStephen Prina , German painterAlbert Oehlen ,George Hurley (formerly of Minutemen andfIREHOSE ), Tom Watson ofSlovenly , and John McEntire ofTortoise . 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 inEdinburgh ,Scotland , and inCalifornia , where he teaches at the Pasadena Art Center College of Design.Covers
Houston ,Texas hardcore punk bandReally Red recorded a cover of "Just the Facts, Ma'am" for theirRest in Pain LP from1984 .
BritishSpace Rock groupSpacemen 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 outfitInner City Unit ,UK deathrock groupAlien Sex Fiend in 1986 and by Scottish actFuture Pilot AKA in 1996, as well as by ultra violent punkrockers,The Dwarves . Also covering "Hurricane Fighter Plane" wasNew Zealand post-punk band,The Pin Group , led by future solo performer,Roy Montgomery . Boston-based indie outfitGalaxie 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
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