Shannon Selberg

Shannon Selberg is a noise/punk rock musician known for his unusual antics on stage. Formerly the frontman for the Minneapolis-based group The Cows, Selberg provided lead vocals, trumpet, bugle and hardcore guitar.allmusicguide |id=11:09fqxqq5ldse~T1 |label=The Cows] Robbins, Ira and Robin Edgerton. [http://www.trouserpress.com/entry.php?a=cows Cows] Trouser Press. Accessed October 4 2007.] After the dissolution of The Cows in 1998, Selberg, described by Pitchfork Media as "the Crispin Glover of the noise rock community", moved on to New York noise-rock band, Heroine Sheiks, where he has added keyboards to his repertoire.Reid, Brendan. (February 10 2003) [http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/article/record_review/18468-siamese-pipe?artist_title=18468-siamese-pipe Heroine Sheiks Siamese Pipe] Pitchfork Media. Accessed October 4 2007.]

Performance persona

In its biography of The Cows, Allmusic credits Selberg's "squealing, shrieking, and general lunacy" as "the bizarre, often engaging, focus" of the band. He is known for his "legendary" antics on stage, described by the Detroit Metro Times as a "demented roadside attraction".Metro Times staff. (October 20 2004. [http://www.metrotimes.com/editorial/story.asp?id=6861 Head cheese] . "Detroit Metro Times". Accessed October 4 2007.] His onstage behavior has included performing naked except for strategically placed shaving cream, performing with mousetraps "dangling from his ears",allmusicguide |id=11:gvfyxqekldhe~T1 |label=The Heroine Sheiks] wearing a business suit with stuffed animals at the crotch and a skin suit made from a love doll. In a 1992 review, "The New York Times" assessed Selberg's stage wear as a visual counterpart to the music of his then band, the Cows, "merging defiance, pain and dark comedy". [Pareles, Jon. (May 23 1992). [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9E0CE4DD1031F930A15756C0A964958260 Defiance and dark comedy] "The New York Times". Accessed October 4 2007.] Selberg's general presentation with The Cows was described as a mingling of "requisite menace and a disarmingly arch, lowbrow wit..., leveling both barrels at the oozing backalley/trailerpark underbelly of life.

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