Live Skull is a

post-punk Post-punk (originally called new musick) is a broad genre of music that emerged in late 1977 in the wake of punk rock. Post-punk musicians departed from punk's fundamental elements and raw simplicity, instead adopting a broader, more experiment ...

experimental rock Experimental rock, also called avant-rock, is a subgenre of rock music that pushes the boundaries of common composition and performance technique or which experiments with the basic elements of the genre. Artists aim to liberate and innovate, wit ...

band from

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

, formed in 1982. In an overview of their abrasive

no wave No wave was an avant-garde music genre and visual art scene that emerged in the late 1970s in Downtown New York City. The term was a pun based on the rejection of commercial new wave music. Reacting against punk rock's recycling of rock and r ...

-influenced music, ''

Trouser Press ''Trouser Press'' was a rock and roll magazine started in New York in 1974 as a mimeographed fanzine by editor/publisher Ira Robbins, fellow fan of the Who, Dave Schulps, and Karen Rose under the name "Trans-Oceanic Trouser Press" (a reference ...

'' said, "As part of the same New York avant-noisy scene that spawned

Sonic Youth Sonic Youth were an American rock band formed in New York City in 1981. Founding members Kim Gordon (bass, vocals, guitar), Thurston Moore (lead guitar, vocals) and Lee Ranaldo (rhythm guitar, vocals) remained together for the entire history of ...

Lydia Lunch Lydia Lunch (born Lydia Anne Koch; June 2, 1959)Martin Charles Strong. ''The Great Indie Discography''. 2003, page 85 is an American singer, poet, writer, actress and self-empowerment speaker. Her career began during the 1970s New York City no ...

, and Swans, Live Skull records come complete with creepy lyrics, circular melodies and nod-out drum beats designed to lull you into their macabre world".

History

Live Skull formed in

downtown New York City Lower Manhattan, also known as Downtown Manhattan or Downtown New York City, is the southernmost part of the New York City borough of Manhattan. The neighborhood is the historical birthplace of New York City and for its first 225 years was the ...

in 1982, founded by tandem guitarists Mark C. and Tom Paine (birth name: Lance Goldenberg). Both had previously been members of San Francisco band ''Crop'' along with brothers Ivan and Andrew Nahem (later of Swans and ''

Ritual Tension Ritual Tension is an American experimental rock band that formed in 1983 in New York City. They have released three studio albums and an EP. During their first incarnation all records were recorded at Martin Bisi's BC Studio in Brooklyn, and a l ...

''), before moving to New York in 1980. Live Skull's earliest lineup included Julie Hair on vocals and Dan Braun (formerly of Spinal Root Gang and

Circus Mort Circus Mort was an American post-punk band from New York City. Formed in 1979, the band included future Swans singer Michael Gira on vocals, guitarist Rick Oller, bassist Dan Braun, Josh Braun on keyboards and Angelo Pudignano on drums. Jona ...

) on drums. They were soon joined by drummer James Lo and bassist Marnie Greenholz. With this lineup of the band, lead vocals were shared by Mark C., Greenholz and Paine. In 1984, Live Skull released their self-titled debut 12-inch EP on Massive Records. After signing to

Homestead Records Homestead Records was a Long Island, New York–based sublabel of music distributor Dutch East India Trading that operated from 1983 to 1996. While the record label was renowned for releasing work of artists such as Sonic Youth, Big Black, a ...

, they released their 1985 debut full-length, '' Bringing Home the Bait''. The follow-up, 1986's '' Cloud One'', featured slightly more accessible song structures. A live album titled '' Don't Get Any on You'' was recorded at

CBGB CBGB was a New York City music club opened in 1973 by Hilly Kristal in the East Village, Manhattan, East Village in Manhattan, New York City. The club was previously a biker bar and before that was a dive bar. The letters ''CBGB'' were for ''Cou ...

later that year, followed by the '' Pusherman'' 12-inch EP. Thalia Zedek joined the band as lead singer in 1987, taking over most of the vocal duties so that the other members could concentrate on their instruments. Zedek had previously played in the

Boston Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...

-area post-punk outfits White Women, Dangerous Birds and Uzi. The band also replaced Lo with ex-Ruin drummer Richard Hutchins. Zedek and Hutchins debuted on 1987's '' Dusted'', which spawned a

black-and-white Black-and-white (B&W or B/W) images combine black and white to produce a range of achromatic brightnesses of grey. It is also known as greyscale in technical settings. Media The history of various visual media began with black and white, ...

music video for the song "5-D". This video later appeared on the ''Twelve O'Clock High Volume 1'' (1989, Atavistic) video compilation. The group next signed to

Caroline Records Caroline Records is a record label that was founded in 1973. Founded in the United Kingdom to showcase British progressive rock groups, the label ceased releasing titles in 1976 and then re-emerged in the United States in 1986. The label rel ...

, which issued 1988's six-song ''Snuffer'' 12-inch EP. Greenholz subsequently left and was replaced by Sonda Andersson, a former member of Rat at Rat R and cousin of avant-garde composer

Glenn Branca Glenn Branca (October 6, 1948 – May 13, 2018) was an American avant-garde music, avant-garde composer, guitarist, and luthier. Known for his use of volume, scordatura, alternative guitar tunings, minimal music, repetition, drone (music), dronin ...

. Released in 1989, '' Positraction'' was a more accessible, song-oriented effort that continued their generally positive critical reaction. Live Skull disbanded in 1990 due to sustained lack of commercial success, with Paine deciding to focus on an alternate career.

Post-breakup and other activity

Mark C. was involved in various other New York music projects, including Spoiler; Int'l Shades (with ex-

drummer Bob Bert), which released the ''Hash Wednesday'' album in 2005 on Cass Records; and Outpost 13 (including Kent Heine of The Holy Ghost and Stuart Argabright of Ike Yard). Paine received a

Master of Fine Arts A Master of Fine Arts (MFA or M.F.A.) is a terminal degree in fine arts, including visual arts, creative writing, graphic design, photography, filmmaking, dance, theatre, other performing arts and in some cases, theatre management or arts admi ...

degree in film at the

University of South Florida The University of South Florida (USF) is a Public university, public research university with its main campus located in Tampa, Florida, Tampa, Florida, United States, and other campuses in St. Petersburg, Florida, St. Petersburg and Sarasota, ...

Tampa Tampa ( ) is a city on the Gulf Coast of the United States, Gulf Coast of the U.S. state of Florida. Tampa's borders include the north shore of Tampa Bay and the east shore of Old Tampa Bay. Tampa is the largest city in the Tampa Bay area and t ...

, and writes about world cinema. Braun later played with Swans (for a short time in 1982, and then again on their 1991 album '' Body to Body, Job to Job''), the Del-Byzanteens, Glenn Branca, Radio Firefight and Deep Six. Hair later played with 3 Teens Kill 4 and Bite Like a Kitty. Mark C. and Greenholz briefly reunited in the band Fuse, which released a double 7-inch EP, ''Dana's Room'', in 1992 on the PCP Entertainment label. Greenholz, under the name Marnie Jaffe, co-founded Fairmount Girls in

Cincinnati Cincinnati ( ; colloquially nicknamed Cincy) is a city in Hamilton County, Ohio, United States, and its county seat. Settled in 1788, the city is located on the northern side of the confluence of the Licking River (Kentucky), Licking and Ohio Ri ...

, Ohio, and played on their debut album, ''Eleven Minutes to Anywhere'', released on Deary Me Records in 1999. Lo later drummed for Wider and then for Chavez in the mid-1990s. Zedek moved back to Boston and fronted the blues-rock-oriented Come, who signed to

Matador Records Matador Records is an independent record label, with a roster of mainly indie rock, but also punk rock, experimental rock, alternative rock, and electronic acts. History Matador was created in 1989 by Chris Lombardi in his New York City ap ...

. She has released several solo albums since Come's 2001 demise. Hutchins performed for several years in Of Cabbages and Kings, Phideaux and Digitalis. The latter band featured John Meyers (another former Rat at Rat R member) and Reverb Motherfuckers guitarist Skinny John, as well as early Live Skull member Hair. Digitalis split up around 1998, and Hair and Hutchins married in 2000. The couple were both members of Hungry March Band for many years. In the late 2000s, Hutchins was also a member of

Lubricated Goat Lubricated Goat are an Australian noise rock band which originally formed in 1986 by multi-instrumentalist Stu Spasm. They achieved brief notoriety in November 1988 for appearing nude on the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, ABC TV program ' ...

and Lubricated Goat frontman Stu Spasm's side project LoveStruck. Hutchins currently performs in the Art Gray Noizz Quintet and Isolation Society which also features Julie Hair, and Ian Wilson formerly in Star Spangles.

Reunion

On January 16, 2016, Mark C., Jaffe and Hutchins reunited as Live Skull to perform and record several new songs at

Martin Bisi Martin Bisi (born 1961) is an American producer and songwriter. He is known for recording records by Sonic Youth, Swans, John Zorn, Material, Bill Laswell, Helmet, Unsane, The Dresden Dolls, Cop Shoot Cop, White Zombie, Boredoms, Angels of L ...

's B.C. Studio, as part of the studio's semi-private, 35th anniversary "Recording of the Century" event. In November 2019, the band released their album ''Saturday Night Massacre'', followed by ''Dangerous Visions'' in 2020. The band's current core consists of Mark C., Rich Hutchins, Kent Heine and Dave Hollinghurst. Thalia Zedek and Marnie Greenholz occasionally join them in studio and live shows.

Band members

; Current members *Mark C. –

guitar The guitar is a stringed musical instrument that is usually fretted (with Fretless guitar, some exceptions) and typically has six or Twelve-string guitar, twelve strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming ...

vocals Singing is the art of creating music with the voice. It is the oldest form of musical expression, and the human voice can be considered the first musical instrument. The definition of singing varies across sources. Some sources define sing ...

synth A synthesizer (also synthesiser or synth) is an electronic musical instrument that generates audio signals. Synthesizers typically create sounds by generating waveforms through methods including subtractive synthesis, additive synthesis a ...

harmonica The harmonica, also known as a French harp or mouth organ, is a free reed wind instrument used worldwide in many musical genres, notably in blues, American folk music, classical music, jazz, country, and rock. The many types of harmonica incl ...

(1982–1990, 2016–present) *Richard Hutchins –

drums The drum is a member of the percussion instrument, percussion group of musical instruments. In the Hornbostel–Sachs classification system, it is a membranophones, membranophone. Drums consist of at least one Acoustic membrane, membrane, c ...

(1987–1990, 2016–present) *Dave Hollinghurst -

(2019–present) *Colyn Hunt -

bass Bass or Basses may refer to: Fish * Bass (fish), various saltwater and freshwater species Wood * Bass or basswood, the wood of the tilia americana tree Music * Bass (sound), describing low-frequency sound or one of several instruments in th ...

(2024–present) ; Former members *Tom Paine – guitar, vocals (1982–1990) * Marnie Greenholz – bass, vocals (1982–1988, 2016–2018) *James Lo – drums (1982–1987) * Thalia Zedek – vocals, guitar, harmonica,

clarinet The clarinet is a Single-reed instrument, single-reed musical instrument in the woodwind family, with a nearly cylindrical bore (wind instruments), bore and a flared bell. Clarinets comprise a Family (musical instruments), family of instrume ...

(1987–1990, 2018) *Sonda Andersson – bass (1988–1990) *Julie Hair – vocals (1982) * Dan Braun – drums (1982) *Kent Heine -

(2018–2024) *Hannah Moorhead – bass (2021; touring member)

Discography

Studio albums

*'' Bringing Home the Bait'' (1985,

) *'' Cloud One'' (1986, Homestead Records) *'' Dusted'' (1987, Homestead Records) *'' Positraction'' (1989,

/What Goes On Records) *''Saturday Night Massacre'' (2019, Bronson Recordings) *''Dangerous Visions'' (2020, Bronson Recordings) *''Party Zero'' (2023, Bronson Recordings)

EPs

*'' Live Skull'' (1984, Massive Records) *''Pusherman'' (1986, Homestead Records) *'' Snuffer'' (1988, Caroline Records/What Goes On Records)

Live albums

*'' Don't Get Any on You'' (1987, Homestead Records)

Live videos

*''Live Skull'' (1988, Atavistic/Jettisoundz) *''Live Skull Live'' (1989, Videophile)

Compilation appearances

*''Untitled'' on ''Bang Zoom Issue #6'' cassette (1983, Bang Zoom) *''Corpse'' on ''Tellus #1'' cassette (1983,

Tellus Audio Cassette Magazine ''Tellus Audio Cassette Magazine'' was an audio cassette magazine publication on cassette active from 1983 to 1993. Originally intended as a subscription bimonthly, it was launched on the Lower East Side of Manhattan to create an avant-guard med ...

) *''Common Cruelty'' on ''Terminal!'' 8" flexi (1984, ''Terminal'' fanzine issue No.18) *''I Was Wrong'' on ''Speed Trials'' (1985, Homestead Records) *''Pulverized by Gratitude'' on ''Tellus #8 USA/Germany'' cassette (1985, Tellus Audio Cassette Magazine) *''Bad Hospital'' on ''Tellus #10 - All Guitars!'' cassette (1985,

) *''Flake Out'' on ''Plow!'' (1985, Organik) *''Mr. Evil'' on ''Here's Your Meat (Vol. 1) Take Home Treats From I.L.A.'' cassette (1986, Independent Label Alliance) *''Fort Belvedere'' on ''The Wailing Ultimate - The Homestead Records Compilation'' (1986, Homestead Records) *''Alive Again'' on ''Human Music'' (1988, Homestead Records) *''Paul Revere's Bush (Tree Girl)'' on ''Sounds and Shigaku Limited Present: Beautiful Happiness'' (1988, Sounds and Shigaku Limited) *''5·D'' video on ''Mouthful of Sweat: The Chemical Imbalance Video Compilation'' (1988, Atavistic Video) *''5·D'' video on ''Twelve O'Clock High'' (1989, Atavistic Video) *''Safe From Me'' on ''Pushing the Limits of Standard Chaos (Sampler NMS '89)'' cassette (1989, Caroline Records) *''Tri-Power'' on ''Like a Girl, I Want You to Keep Coming'' (1989, Giorno Poetry Systems) *''Details of the Madness'' on ''BC 35 / The 35 Year Anniversary of BC Studio'' (2018, Sleeping Giant Glossolalia/Bronson Recordings) *''Up Against the Wall'' on ''BC 35 Volume Two / The 35 Year Anniversary of BC Studio'' (2019, Bronson Recordings) *''Off the Runway'' & ''Debbie's Headache (Live)'' on ''Quarantine Tales from the Red Desert'' (2020, Bronson Recordings)

References

External links

Live Skull
on

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Live Skull
on

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Bandcamp Bandcamp is an American online music distribution platform founded in 2008 by Oddpost co-founder Ethan Diamond and programmers Shawn Grunberger, Joe Holt and Neal Tucker, with an office and record store in Oakland, California. Acquired by Epic ...

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Live Skull recording of ''Corpse''
on ''

'' #1
''Bad Hospital''
on ''

'' #10: All Guitars! cassette (1985)
''Pulverized by Gratitude'' on ''USA/Germany'' cassette
(1985) ''

'' #8 {{Authority control Indie rock musical groups from New York (state) American noise rock music groups American experimental rock groups Musical groups established in 1982 Musical groups disestablished in 1990 Homestead Records artists Caroline Records artists Musical groups from New York City 1982 establishments in New York City No wave groups de:Schramm (Film)