Ed hall (band)
Encyclopedia
Ed Hall is an alternative rock
band formed in Austin, Texas
, USA in 1985
.
as "Austin's resident heirs to the Butthole Surfers
' weird-rock crown," Ed Hall was a trio not containing any member of that name; Gary Chester handled guitar duties, with Larry Strub on bass. Drumming was originally by John Buron, who was replaced by Kevin Whitley. The provenance of their namesake was never revealed, although multiple explanations were proferred by band members, media, and fans. The track "Who's Ed" on debut album Albert does little to dispel the mystery.
Ed Hall foraged for a hypnotic groove underneath a shit-rain of freestyle guitar insanity - a joyous noise, made all the more exciting by the band's stage theatrics. The trio covered themselves in flour for a while, until they realized the flour dust could ignite and go up like a miniature grain elevator. Eventually, they switched to fluorescent body paint, bathed the stage in black light, and played against a backdrop of bizarro film loops by Luke Savisky, or movable, larger-than-life marionettes of the band.
The band emerged from the music scene based in and around the Dong Huong, a Vietnamese restaurant-turned-punk club whose proprietor Phong encouraged and hosted loud, obnoxious bands too raw and/or unknown for established clubs. The Dong scene was documented on a cassette compilation called The Polyp Explodes (see Crust (band)
), which ultimately brought Ed Hall to the attention of Boner Records owner Tom Flynn and to the unwanted attention of Jim Adler (The Texas Hammer) when a class action lawsuit was filed for loss of hearing and mental anguish of many of the band's fans.
label in 1988
. Standout track "Candy House" was a taste of things to come on 1990's
similarly bizarre and humorous "Love Poke Here". The band was subsequently featured in Richard Linklater's
1991
indie film
masterpiece
Slacker
, and signed a contract with Butthole Surfer King Coffey's
Trance Syndicate
label and toured North America as the Butthole Surfers' support act.
With each song named after an individual that may or may not have ever existed, 1992's
Trance Syndicate debut "Gloryhole" marked a leap forward in the band's sound, whilst retaining much in the tradition of its two predecessors: open, loose backbeats overlaid with pop song structures, and plenty of Butthole Surfers-esque acid-damage. Production benefited gretly from the move to Butch Vig's
Smart Studios, and highlights included "Buster Enamel" and the jakob
-like instrumental "Bernie Sticky," along with a cello
-driven cover of Kiss's
"Beth"
(also released as a 7-inch single on Trance Syndicate)
1993's
Motherscratcher has been described as the most focused, least whimsical Ed Hall album issued during the trio's career. The opening "White House Girls," with its exaggerated backbeat and laughing chorus, is a near-perfect example of the prickly riffs and trebly, note-driven leads of Gary Chester's guitar-playing, and the solid foundation provided by the developing partnership between bass player Larry Strub and new drummer Lyman Hardy, who replaced Kevin Whitley prior to the Gloryhole tour. Texturally, Ed Hall, with this album, was beginning to resemble a more cryptic and nuanced, less abrasive version of Flipper
, one of the trio's most salient influences, and with whom they toured in 1994. Instrumental "Satori in Manhattan, Kansas" has been described as "strikingly beautiful" and "eclipsed by very little in rock music."
Ed Hall's final album, 1995's
La La Land was an extension of the ground covered on Motherscratcher - raunchy overdriven guitar scrapings underpinned by snaking bass lines and long-armed drumming, topped with vocals that testify and holler.
Ed Hall split in 1996. Rumors of an eventual appearance of their unreleased sixth album have not been fulfilled. Bassist Strub moved to Thailand and taught English for some years. Gary Chester spent time in Moist Fist and Gold (which was just Pong), and Lyman Hardy played in a number of bands, including the Goin Along Feelin Just Fines. All three now play in retro-futuristic cosmic dance-rock combo Pong. A reunion show in Austin, Texas in 2003 featured Chester, Strubb, Hardy, and Whitley, with Whitley and Hardy sharing drum duties.
Alternative rock
Alternative rock is a genre of rock music and a term used to describe a diverse musical movement that emerged from the independent music underground of the 1980s and became widely popular by the 1990s...
band formed in Austin, Texas
Austin, Texas
Austin is the capital city of the U.S. state of :Texas and the seat of Travis County. Located in Central Texas on the eastern edge of the American Southwest, it is the fourth-largest city in Texas and the 14th most populous city in the United States. It was the third-fastest-growing large city in...
, USA in 1985
1985 in music
This is a list of notable events in music that took place in the year 1985.-January–March:*January 1 - The newest music video channel, VH-1, debuts on American cable. It is aimed at an older demographic than its sister station, MTV...
.
Members
- Gary Chester - guitarGuitarThe guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...
, vocalsSingingSinging is the act of producing musical sounds with the voice, and augments regular speech by the use of both tonality and rhythm. One who sings is called a singer or vocalist. Singers perform music known as songs that can be sung either with or without accompaniment by musical instruments... - Larry Strub - bass guitarBass guitarThe bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick....
, vocalsSingingSinging is the act of producing musical sounds with the voice, and augments regular speech by the use of both tonality and rhythm. One who sings is called a singer or vocalist. Singers perform music known as songs that can be sung either with or without accompaniment by musical instruments... - Lyman Hardy - drumsDrum kitA drum kit is a collection of drums, cymbals and often other percussion instruments, such as cowbells, wood blocks, triangles, chimes, or tambourines, arranged for convenient playing by a single person ....
, vocalsSingingSinging is the act of producing musical sounds with the voice, and augments regular speech by the use of both tonality and rhythm. One who sings is called a singer or vocalist. Singers perform music known as songs that can be sung either with or without accompaniment by musical instruments...
History
Described by Trouser PressTrouser 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 Who fan Dave Schulps and Karen Rose under the name "Trans-Oceanic Trouser Press" ...
as "Austin's resident heirs to the Butthole Surfers
Butthole Surfers
Butthole Surfers is an American alternative rock band formed by Gibby Haynes and Paul Leary in San Antonio, Texas in 1981. The band has had numerous personnel changes, but its core lineup of Haynes, Leary, and drummer King Coffey has been consistent since 1983. Teresa Nervosa served as second...
' weird-rock crown," Ed Hall was a trio not containing any member of that name; Gary Chester handled guitar duties, with Larry Strub on bass. Drumming was originally by John Buron, who was replaced by Kevin Whitley. The provenance of their namesake was never revealed, although multiple explanations were proferred by band members, media, and fans. The track "Who's Ed" on debut album Albert does little to dispel the mystery.
Ed Hall foraged for a hypnotic groove underneath a shit-rain of freestyle guitar insanity - a joyous noise, made all the more exciting by the band's stage theatrics. The trio covered themselves in flour for a while, until they realized the flour dust could ignite and go up like a miniature grain elevator. Eventually, they switched to fluorescent body paint, bathed the stage in black light, and played against a backdrop of bizarro film loops by Luke Savisky, or movable, larger-than-life marionettes of the band.
The band emerged from the music scene based in and around the Dong Huong, a Vietnamese restaurant-turned-punk club whose proprietor Phong encouraged and hosted loud, obnoxious bands too raw and/or unknown for established clubs. The Dong scene was documented on a cassette compilation called The Polyp Explodes (see Crust (band)
Crust (band)
Crust was a musical group from Austin, Texas that was active during the late-1980s and 1990s and was featured on Trance Syndicate Records, a record label run by King Coffey from the Butthole Surfers...
), which ultimately brought Ed Hall to the attention of Boner Records owner Tom Flynn and to the unwanted attention of Jim Adler (The Texas Hammer) when a class action lawsuit was filed for loss of hearing and mental anguish of many of the band's fans.
Albums
After releasing six songs on the Mind Drum Records compilation Charlie Manson Street, debut album Albert was released on the BonerBoner Records
Boner Records is a Berkeley, California based independent record label, run by Tom Flynn. They have released recordings by Fang , Verbal Abuse, MDC, Boneless Ones, Duh, Steel Pole Bath Tub, The Melvins, The Warlock Pinchers, Hell's Kitchen, and Superconductor, among others.-The Melvins:*Bullhead...
label in 1988
1988 in music
This is a list of notable events in music that took place in the year 1988.-January-March:* January 1 – André Rieu's Johann Strauss Orchestra plays its first concert....
. Standout track "Candy House" was a taste of things to come on 1990's
1990 in music
This is a list of notable events in music that took place in the year 1990.-Events:*January 21 – MTV's Unplugged premieres on cable television with British band Squeeze...
similarly bizarre and humorous "Love Poke Here". The band was subsequently featured in Richard Linklater's
Richard Linklater
-Early life:Linklater was born in Houston, Texas. He studied at Sam Houston State University and left midway through his stint in college to work on an off-shore oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico. While working on the rig he read a lot of literature, but on land he developed a love of film through...
1991
1991 in film
The year 1991 in film involved some significant events.-Events:*April 28 - Bonnie Raitt marries actor Michael O'Keefe in New York* Terminator 2: Judgment Day, became one of the landmarks for science fiction action films with its groundbreaking visual effects from Industrial Light & Magic.*November...
indie film
Film
A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects...
masterpiece
Masterpiece
Masterpiece in modern usage refers to a creation that has been given much critical praise, especially one that is considered the greatest work of a person's career or to a work of outstanding creativity, skill or workmanship....
Slacker
Slacker
The term "slacker" is used to refer to a person who habitually avoids work. Slackers may be regarded as belonging to an antimaterialistic counterculture, though in some cases their behavior may be due to other causes ....
, and signed a contract with Butthole Surfer King Coffey's
King Coffey
King Coffey is an American drummer, best known for being the drummer of the psychedelic/noise rock band the Butthole Surfers. He began drumming in a Fort Worth hardcore punk band called The Hugh Beaumont Experience. Around that same time he published a fanzine called Throbbing Cattle...
Trance Syndicate
Trance Syndicate
Trance Syndicate was an independent record label founded in 1990 by King Coffey, drummer of Austin, TX band the Butthole Surfers.. Its first release was Crust's The Sacred Heart of Crust EP...
label and toured North America as the Butthole Surfers' support act.
With each song named after an individual that may or may not have ever existed, 1992's
1992 in music
This is a list of notable events in music that took place in the year 1992.-January–February:*January 11**Nirvana's Nevermind album goes to #1 in the US Billboard 200 chart, establishing the widespread popularity of the Grunge movement of the 1990s....
Trance Syndicate debut "Gloryhole" marked a leap forward in the band's sound, whilst retaining much in the tradition of its two predecessors: open, loose backbeats overlaid with pop song structures, and plenty of Butthole Surfers-esque acid-damage. Production benefited gretly from the move to Butch Vig's
Butch Vig
Butch Vig is an American musician and record producer, best known internationally as the drummer of the Madison, Wisconsin-based alternative rock band Garbage and the producer of multi-platinum selling album Nevermind by Nirvana....
Smart Studios, and highlights included "Buster Enamel" and the jakob
Jakob
Jakob may be:* A variant of "Jacob ".People* Anund Jakob , a.k.a. Anund Jacob of Sweden* Ludwig Heinrich von Jakob , German economist* Joseph Jakob , American diver...
-like instrumental "Bernie Sticky," along with a cello
Cello
The cello is a bowed string instrument with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is a member of the violin family of musical instruments, which also includes the violin, viola, and double bass. Old forms of the instrument in the Baroque era are baryton and viol .A person who plays a cello is...
-driven cover of Kiss's
KISS (band)
Kiss is an American rock band formed in New York City in January 1973. Well-known for its members' face paint and flamboyant stage outfits, the group rose to prominence in the mid to late 1970s on the basis of their elaborate live performances, which featured fire breathing, blood spitting,...
"Beth"
Beth (song)
"Beth" is a song by Kiss, originally released on their 1976 album, Destroyer. To date, it is their highest-charting single, reaching #7 on Billboard's American charts. It is one of only two Gold selling singles for the band , and their first of two Top Ten singles...
(also released as a 7-inch single on Trance Syndicate)
1993's
1993 in music
This is a summary of significant events in music in 1993.-January–February:*January 8 – The U.S. Postal Service issues an Elvis Presley stamp. The design was voted on in February 1992....
Motherscratcher has been described as the most focused, least whimsical Ed Hall album issued during the trio's career. The opening "White House Girls," with its exaggerated backbeat and laughing chorus, is a near-perfect example of the prickly riffs and trebly, note-driven leads of Gary Chester's guitar-playing, and the solid foundation provided by the developing partnership between bass player Larry Strub and new drummer Lyman Hardy, who replaced Kevin Whitley prior to the Gloryhole tour. Texturally, Ed Hall, with this album, was beginning to resemble a more cryptic and nuanced, less abrasive version of Flipper
Flipper (band)
Flipper is a punk band formed in San Francisco, California in 1979, continuing in often erratic fashion until the mid-1990s, then reuniting in 2005. The band influenced a number of grunge,, punk rock and noise rock bands...
, one of the trio's most salient influences, and with whom they toured in 1994. Instrumental "Satori in Manhattan, Kansas" has been described as "strikingly beautiful" and "eclipsed by very little in rock music."
Ed Hall's final album, 1995's
1995 in music
This is a list of notable events in music that took place in the year 1995.- January–February :*January 18 – Jerry Garcia crashes his rented BMW into a guard rail near Mill Valley, California, USA, but is not injured in the accident....
La La Land was an extension of the ground covered on Motherscratcher - raunchy overdriven guitar scrapings underpinned by snaking bass lines and long-armed drumming, topped with vocals that testify and holler.
Ed Hall split in 1996. Rumors of an eventual appearance of their unreleased sixth album have not been fulfilled. Bassist Strub moved to Thailand and taught English for some years. Gary Chester spent time in Moist Fist and Gold (which was just Pong), and Lyman Hardy played in a number of bands, including the Goin Along Feelin Just Fines. All three now play in retro-futuristic cosmic dance-rock combo Pong. A reunion show in Austin, Texas in 2003 featured Chester, Strubb, Hardy, and Whitley, with Whitley and Hardy sharing drum duties.
Albums
- AlbertAlbert (album)Albert is the debut studio album of the Texas noise rock band Ed Hall, released in 1988 through Boner Records.-Track listing:-Personnel:*Gary Chester – guitar, vocals*Larry Strub – bass guitar, vocals*Kevin Whitley – drums, vocals...
(1988, Boner) - Love Poke HereLove Poke HereLove Poke Here is the second album of the Texas noise rock band Ed Hall, released in 1990 through Boner Records.-Track listing:-Personnel:Ed Hall*Gary Chester – guitar, vocals*Larry Strub – bass guitar, vocals...
(1990, Boner) - GloryholeGloryholeLove Poke Here is the third album of the Texas noise rock band Ed Hall, released in 1991 through Trance Syndicate Records.-Track listing:-Personnel:Ed Hall*Gary Chester – guitar, vocals*Larry Strub – bass guitar, vocals...
(1992, Trance Syndicate) - MotherscratcherMotherscratcherLove Poke Here is the fourth album of the Texas noise rock band Ed Hall, released in 1993 through Trance Syndicate Records.-Track listing:-Personnel:Ed Hall*Gary Chester – guitar, vocals*Lyman Hardy – drums, vocals...
(1993, Trance Syndicate) - La La LandLa La Land (Ed Hall album)La La Land is the fifth and final album of the Texas noise rock band Ed Hall, released in 1995 through Trance Syndicate Records.-Track listing:-Personnel:Ed Hall*Gary Chester – guitar, vocals*Lyman Hardy – drums, vocals...
(1995, Trance Syndicate)
Compilations
- The Polyp Explodes
- Charlie Manson Street Comp (1988, Mind Drum Records)
- Love and Napalm Volume 1 (1990, Trance Syndicate)
- Love and Napalm Volume 2 (1991, Trance Syndicate)
- Love and Napalm, The Album (1993, Trance Syndicate)