Mike Johnson (born 1952) is an American

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 ...

guitarist and composer, best known as the co-founder and member of the

Denver Denver ( ) is a List of municipalities in Colorado#Consolidated city and county, consolidated city and county, the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Colorado, most populous city of the U.S. state of ...

-based

avant-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 ...

group A group is a number of persons or things that are located, gathered, or classed together. Groups of people * Cultural group, a group whose members share the same cultural identity * Ethnic group, a group whose members share the same ethnic iden ...

Thinking Plague Thinking Plague is an American avant-garde progressive rock group founded in 1982 by guitarist/composer Mike Johnson and bass guitarist/drummer Bob Drake. Based in Denver, Colorado, the band has been active off and on since 1982, taking on a ...

. He has also been a member of

Hamster Theatre Hamster Theatre is an American avant-rock, experimental, and folk jazz music group based in Boulder, Colorado. It is led by composer and multi-instrumentalist Dave Willey. The band has released three albums and has performed at various festival ...

and The Science Group, and has collaborated with several musicians, including Bob Drake, Susanne Lewis and

Janet Feder Janet Feder is a Denver, Colorado–based composer and guitarist. She is a classically trained guitar player best known for her work in the prepared guitar genre. In addition, Janet Feder is: a lecturer at the University of Colorado Boulder, Univ ...

Biography

Mike Johnson played in his first band at the age of 13 and began writing music at 17. He studied classical and

electronic music Electronic music broadly is a group of music genres that employ electronic musical instruments, circuitry-based music technology and software, or general-purpose electronics (such as personal computers) in its creation. It includes both music ...

in college in

but taught himself the guitar and composition. While at college in 1978 Johnson answered an advertisement at a local music store requesting a guitar player "into

Henry Cow Henry Cow were an English experimental rock group, founded at the University of Cambridge in 1968 by multi-instrumentalists Fred Frith and Tim Hodgkinson. Henry Cow's personnel fluctuated over their decade together, but drummer Chris Cutler, b ...

Yes Yes or YES may refer to: * An affirmative particle in the English language; see yes and no Education * YES Prep Public Schools, Houston, Texas, US * Young Eisner Scholars, in Los Angeles, New York City, Chicago, and Appalachia, US * Young Ep ...

…"; . This put him in touch with bass guitarist and drummer Bob Drake. Johnson and Drake initially played in a few

cover band A cover band (or covers band) is a band that plays songs recorded by someone else, sometimes mimicking the original as accurately as possible, and sometimes re-interpreting or changing the original. These remade songs are known as cover songs. N ...

s but in 1980 they began experimenting with prepared guitars and tape machines, and recording material Johnson had written. "Our goal was to combine the harder edge of progressive rock, as in

Crimson Crimson is a rich, deep red color, inclining to purple. It originally meant the color of the kermes dye produced from a scale insect, '' Kermes vermilio'', but the name is now sometimes also used as a generic term for slightly bluish-red col ...

and Yes, with the more modern tonalities and experimental approach as reflected in the work of the

Art Bears Art Bears were an England, English avant-rock Musical ensemble, group formed during the disassembly of Henry Cow in 1978 by three of its members, Chris Cutler (percussion, texts), Fred Frith (guitar, bass guitar, violin, keyboards) and Dagmar Kr ...

, our major heroes at the time." By 1982 they had enough material to perform live and enlisted three other musicians for a brief tour of Denver. This band became the first incarnation of

Thinking Plague

Thinking Plague was active on and off between 1982 and 2019 and quickly achieved prominence in

circles. They made seven studio albums, and released one live album recorded at NEARfest in 2000. Johnson and Drake led the group until Drake left in the early 1990s after which Johnson took the helm. Most of Thinking Plague's material was composed by Johnson.

Other bands and collaborations

While Thinking Plague has dominated most of Johnson's musical career, he has also been a member of

since 1996 and The Science Group in 2003. He toured with the

5uu's The 5uu's were an American avant-rock group founded in Los Angeles, California in 1984 by drummer-composer Dave Kerman. The group released their first album in 1986 and recorded a second in 1988 with Motor Totemist Guild, a similar band from th ...

and

Hail Hail is a form of solid Precipitation (meteorology), precipitation. It is distinct from ice pellets (American English "sleet"), though the two are often confused. It consists of balls or irregular lumps of ice, each of which is called a hailsto ...

in the mid-1990s and has collaborated with a number of musicians, including Bob Drake, Susanne Lewis,

and

Fred Frith Jeremy Webster "Fred" Frith (born 17 February 1949) is an English multi-instrumentalist, composer, and improviser. Probably best known for his guitar work, Frith first came to attention as a founding member of the English avant-rock group Henry ...

Discography

;With

*''...A Thinking Plague'' (1984, LP, Endemic Music, US) *''Moonsongs'' (1987, LP, Dead Man's Curve Records, UK) *''Driving Me Backwards'' (compilation) (1987, LP, Dead Man's Curve Records, UK) *''In This Life'' (1989, CD,

Recommended Records Recommended Records (RēR) is a British independent record label and distribution network founded by Chris Cutler with Nick Hobbs in March 1978. RēR features largely "Rock in Opposition" and related music, but it also distributes selected musi ...

ReR, UK) *'' RēR Records Quarterly Vol.2 No.4'' (1989, LP,

, UK) *'' RēR Quarterly Vol.4 No.1'' (1994, CD,

, UK) *''In Extremis'' (1998, CD,

Cuneiform Records Cuneiform Records is a record label in Silver Spring, Maryland. Founded in 1984, the label releases a mixture of musical styles, all with a Rock in Opposition aesthetic, including progressive jazz, jazz fusion, the Canterbury scene, and electron ...

, US) *''A History of Madness'' (2003, CD,

, US) *''Upon Both Your Houses'' (live at NEARfest 2000) (2004, CD, NEARfest Records, US) *''Decline and Fall'' (2012, CD,

, US) *''Hoping Against Hope'' (2017, CD,

, US) ;With

*''Siege on Hamburger City'' (1998, CD,

Cricetus The European hamster (''Cricetus cricetus''), also known as the Eurasian hamster, black-bellied hamster or common hamster, is the only species of hamster in the genus ''Cricetus''. It is native to grassland and similar habitats in a large par ...

, US) *''Carnival Detournement'' (2001, CD,

, US) *''The Public Execution of Mr. Personality / Quasi Dayroom'' (2006, CD,

, US) (partially recorded at Progman Cometh) ;With

*''Turn of the Screw'' (1990, CD,

, US) ;With

*''Speak Puppet'' (2001, CD,

ReR, US) ;With

*'' Prints'' (2002, CD,

ReR, UK) ;With The Science Group *''Spoors'' (2003, CD,

ReR, UK) ;With Luciano Margorani *''My Favorite Strings'' (2004, CD, Isinaz, Italy) ;With

David Shamrock David (; , "beloved one") was a king of ancient Israel and Judah and the third king of the United Monarchy, according to the Hebrew Bible and Old Testament. The Tel Dan stele, an Aramaic-inscribed stone erected by a king of Aram-Damas ...

*''Thin Pillow'' (2004, CD, Pillowsounds, US) ;With

Yugen Japanese aesthetics comprise a set of ancient ideals that include '' wabi'' (transient and stark beauty), '' sabi'' (the beauty of natural patina and aging), and '' yūgen'' (profound grace and subtlety). These ideals, and others, underpin much of ...

*''Iridule'' (2010, CD, AltrOck, Italy) ;With Dave Willey *''Immeasurable Currents'' (2011, CD, AltrOck, Italy) ;With

*''Live at A.K.W. Würzburg, Germany April 8, 1995'' (2023, dig download,

, US)

References

External links