Gastr del Sol
Encyclopedia
Gastr del Sol was a Chicago
band consisting, for most of their career, of David Grubbs
and Jim O'Rourke
. Between 1993 and 1998 they put out seven albums ranging in genre from post-rock
(the scene they were most associated with) to musique concrète
.
and Bastro
, formed the band in Chicago
in 1991. They released their first album, The Serpentine Similar
, in 1993. This early lineup saw Grubbs joined by Bundy K. Brown
and John McEntire
, both members of Bastro's final incarnation, on bass guitar
and drums
respectively. In 1994 Brown and McEntire left to join Tortoise
and guitarist, composer and producer Jim O'Rourke
joined.
Most releases by this lineup were on Chicago's Drag City
, beginning with the acoustic guitar-based Crookt, Crackt, or Fly
in 1994. "Work From Smoke", the centerpiece of this album, fused Grubbs and O'Rourke's penchant for atonal guitar interplay with bass clarinet
and Grubbs's increasingly surreal
lyrics.
A pair of releases followed quickly in 1995. The Mirror Repair EP added elements of electronic music
. The Harp Factory on Lake Street
, released on the Table of the Elements
label, was their most experimental work, a piece for chamber orchestra with only occasional voice and piano from Grubbs. Also in 1995, the band contributed the song "Quietly Approaching" to the AIDS
benefit album Red Hot + Bothered
produced by the Red Hot Organization
.
1996's Upgrade & Afterlife
included a would-be film score by O'Rourke, "Our Exquisite Replica of 'Eternity'", and an extended interpretation of the John Fahey
piece "Dry Bones in the Valley" featuring guest Tony Conrad
on violin.
With the release of Camoufleur
in 1998, Gastr del Sol progressed further into the realm of conventional melodies and chamber pop, creating their most accessible and popular album. Its chord patterns, melodies, and flugelhorn
and string-heavy arrangements prefigure O'Rourke's future pop releases. The album was co-written with Markus Popp, of the pioneering German glitch
group Oval
, who contributed to the electronic aspects of the album.
After Camoufleur the band split up. Grubbs and O'Rourke have both continued to release albums under their own names in the fields of rock, pop, and experimental music.
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
band consisting, for most of their career, of David Grubbs
David Grubbs
David Grubbs , guitarist, pianist, and vocalist, was a founding member of Squirrel Bait, Bastro, and Gastr del Sol. He has also played in Codeine, The Red Krayola, Bitch Magnet and The Wingdale Community Singers....
and Jim O'Rourke
Jim O'Rourke (musician)
Jim O'Rourke is an Irish-American musician and record producer. He was long associated with the Chicago experimental and improv scene...
. Between 1993 and 1998 they put out seven albums ranging in genre from post-rock
Post-rock
Post-rock is a subgenre of rock music characterized by the influence and use of instruments commonly associated with rock, but using rhythms and "guitars as facilitators of timbre and textures" not traditionally found in rock...
(the scene they were most associated with) to musique concrète
Musique concrète
Musique concrète is a form of electroacoustic music that utilises acousmatic sound as a compositional resource. The compositional material is not restricted to the inclusion of sounds derived from musical instruments or voices, nor to elements traditionally thought of as "musical"...
.
Early lineup
Grubbs, a former member of Squirrel BaitSquirrel Bait
Squirrel Bait was an American punk band from Louisville, Kentucky. They were in existence from 1983 to 1988. Squirrel Bait's dense, moody, melodic hardcore sound, featuring pronounced tempo shifts, foreshadowed the grunge sound of the late 1980s as well as math rock...
and Bastro
Bastro
Bastro was an American post-hardcore band in the late 1980s and early 1990s. The band's main line-up consisted of David Grubbs on guitar, Clark Johnson on bass guitar, and John McEntire on drums.-History:...
, formed the band in Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
in 1991. They released their first album, The Serpentine Similar
The Serpentine Similar
The Serpentine Similar is the 1993 debut album by Gastr del Sol, released on Drag City.Originally released in 1993 on Teen Beat Records. Later reissued by Drag City.-Track listing:# "A Watery Kentucky"# "Easy Company"...
, in 1993. This early lineup saw Grubbs joined by Bundy K. Brown
Bundy K. Brown
Bundy K. Brown is an American musician and recording engineer. He is best known for being a founding member of Tortoise and his production, engineering and remixes in the Chicago Post Rock scene....
and John McEntire
John McEntire
John McEntire is an American recording engineer, drummer and multi-instrumentalist. He is best-known for being in Tortoise and The Sea and Cake, as well as being a highly in-demand producer and engineer....
, both members of Bastro's final incarnation, on bass guitar
Bass guitar
The bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick....
and drums
Drum kit
A 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 ....
respectively. In 1994 Brown and McEntire left to join Tortoise
Tortoise (band)
Tortoise is an American post-rock band formed in Chicago, Illinois, in 1990.-Music:Tortoise's almost entirely instrumental music defies easy categorization, and the group gained significant attention from their early career. The members have roots in Chicago's fertile music scene, playing in...
and guitarist, composer and producer Jim O'Rourke
Jim O'Rourke (musician)
Jim O'Rourke is an Irish-American musician and record producer. He was long associated with the Chicago experimental and improv scene...
joined.
Duo lineup
At this point Gastr del Sol became mainly a collaboration between Grubbs and O'Rourke, joined by an ever-changing collection of guests. Though McEntire was no longer a full member, he continued contributing to many Gastr del Sol recordings and concerts.Most releases by this lineup were on Chicago's Drag City
Drag City (record label)
Drag City is a Chicago-based independent record label. It was established with a Royal Trux release in 1990 in Chicago, Illinois by Dan Koretzky and Dan Osborn.Drag City specializes in experimental indie rock acts...
, beginning with the acoustic guitar-based Crookt, Crackt, or Fly
Crookt, Crackt, or Fly
Crookt, Crackt, or Fly is a 1994 album by Gastr del Sol released on Drag City. The album was written and performed by David Grubbs and Jim O'Rourke, with John McEntire , Steve Butters and Gene Coleman also contributing...
in 1994. "Work From Smoke", the centerpiece of this album, fused Grubbs and O'Rourke's penchant for atonal guitar interplay with bass clarinet
Bass clarinet
The bass clarinet is a musical instrument of the clarinet family. Like the more common soprano B clarinet, it is usually pitched in B , but it plays notes an octave below the soprano B clarinet...
and Grubbs's increasingly surreal
Surrealism
Surrealism is a cultural movement that began in the early 1920s, and is best known for the visual artworks and writings of the group members....
lyrics.
A pair of releases followed quickly in 1995. The Mirror Repair EP added elements of electronic music
Electronic music
Electronic music is music that employs electronic musical instruments and electronic music technology in its production. In general a distinction can be made between sound produced using electromechanical means and that produced using electronic technology. Examples of electromechanical sound...
. The Harp Factory on Lake Street
The Harp Factory on Lake Street
The Harp Factory on Lake Street is a 1995 recording by Gastr del Sol released on Table of the Elements. It is likely named for Lyon & Healy's harp factory at the corner of Lake Street and Ogden Avenue in Chicago.-Track listing:...
, released on the Table of the Elements
Table of the Elements
Table of the Elements is an American record label. It concentrates on re-released and specially recorded experimental music, including many of the great avant garde musicians of the 20th and 21st centuries — John Cale, Tony Conrad and La Monte Young, for instance — as well as...
label, was their most experimental work, a piece for chamber orchestra with only occasional voice and piano from Grubbs. Also in 1995, the band contributed the song "Quietly Approaching" to the AIDS
AIDS
Acquired immune deficiency syndrome or acquired immunodeficiency syndrome is a disease of the human immune system caused by the human immunodeficiency virus...
benefit album Red Hot + Bothered
Red Hot + Bothered
Red Hot + Bothered is an anthology of the indie rock scene from the 1990s produced by Paul Heck. It was released as part of the Red Hot AIDS Benefit Series....
produced by the Red Hot Organization
Red Hot Organization
Red Hot Organization is a not-for-profit, 501 3, international organization dedicated to fighting AIDS through pop culture.Since its inception in 1989, over 400 artists, producers and directors have contributed to over 15 compilation albums, related television programs and media events to raise...
.
1996's Upgrade & Afterlife
Upgrade & Afterlife
Upgrade & Afterlife is a 1996 album by Gastr del Sol.The album cover is Wasserstiefel by Swiss artist Roman Signer.-Track listing:# "Our Exquisite Replica of "Eternity":" –8:26# "Rebecca Sylvester" – 3:53...
included a would-be film score by O'Rourke, "Our Exquisite Replica of 'Eternity'", and an extended interpretation of the John Fahey
John Fahey (musician)
John Fahey was an American fingerstyle guitarist and composer who pioneered the steel-string acoustic guitar as a solo instrument. His style has been greatly influential and has been described as the foundation of American Primitivism, a term borrowed from painting and referring mainly to the...
piece "Dry Bones in the Valley" featuring guest Tony Conrad
Tony Conrad
Tony Conrad is an American avant-garde video artist, experimental filmmaker, musician/composer, sound artist, teacher and writer...
on violin.
With the release of Camoufleur
Camoufleur
Camoufleur is a 1998 album by Gastr del Sol released on Drag City. The album was written and performed by David Grubbs, Jim O'Rourke and Markus Popp, with an array of other musicians including John McEntire , Rob Mazurek and Darin Gray...
in 1998, Gastr del Sol progressed further into the realm of conventional melodies and chamber pop, creating their most accessible and popular album. Its chord patterns, melodies, and flugelhorn
Flugelhorn
The flugelhorn is a brass instrument resembling a trumpet but with a wider, conical bore. Some consider it to be a member of the saxhorn family developed by Adolphe Sax ; however, other historians assert that it derives from the valve bugle designed by Michael Saurle , Munich 1832 , thus...
and string-heavy arrangements prefigure O'Rourke's future pop releases. The album was co-written with Markus Popp, of the pioneering German glitch
Glitch (music)
Glitch is a term used to describe a genre of electronic music that emerged in the mid to late 1990s. The glitch aesthetic is characterized by a deliberate use of glitch based sonic artifacts that would normally be viewed as unwanted disturbances reducing the overall sound quality and are thus...
group Oval
Oval (band)
- Work history :The band's original members were Markus Popp, Sebastian Oschatz, and Frank Metzger, although Oschatz and Metzger left the group in 1995. All three are regarded as pioneers of glitch, a genre of music that embraces the sound of damaged audio produced by the failure of digital...
, who contributed to the electronic aspects of the album.
After Camoufleur the band split up. Grubbs and O'Rourke have both continued to release albums under their own names in the fields of rock, pop, and experimental music.
Partial discography
- The Serpentine SimilarThe Serpentine SimilarThe Serpentine Similar is the 1993 debut album by Gastr del Sol, released on Drag City.Originally released in 1993 on Teen Beat Records. Later reissued by Drag City.-Track listing:# "A Watery Kentucky"# "Easy Company"...
(Teenbeat/Drag CityDrag City (record label)Drag City is a Chicago-based independent record label. It was established with a Royal Trux release in 1990 in Chicago, Illinois by Dan Koretzky and Dan Osborn.Drag City specializes in experimental indie rock acts...
1993) - Twenty Songs Less (Teenbeat 1993)
- Crookt, Crackt, or FlyCrookt, Crackt, or FlyCrookt, Crackt, or Fly is a 1994 album by Gastr del Sol released on Drag City. The album was written and performed by David Grubbs and Jim O'Rourke, with John McEntire , Steve Butters and Gene Coleman also contributing...
(Drag CityDrag City (record label)Drag City is a Chicago-based independent record label. It was established with a Royal Trux release in 1990 in Chicago, Illinois by Dan Koretzky and Dan Osborn.Drag City specializes in experimental indie rock acts...
1994) - Mirror Repair (Drag City 1995)
- The Harp Factory on Lake StreetThe Harp Factory on Lake StreetThe Harp Factory on Lake Street is a 1995 recording by Gastr del Sol released on Table of the Elements. It is likely named for Lyon & Healy's harp factory at the corner of Lake Street and Ogden Avenue in Chicago.-Track listing:...
(Table of the ElementsTable of the ElementsTable of the Elements is an American record label. It concentrates on re-released and specially recorded experimental music, including many of the great avant garde musicians of the 20th and 21st centuries — John Cale, Tony Conrad and La Monte Young, for instance — as well as...
1995) - Upgrade & AfterlifeUpgrade & AfterlifeUpgrade & Afterlife is a 1996 album by Gastr del Sol.The album cover is Wasserstiefel by Swiss artist Roman Signer.-Track listing:# "Our Exquisite Replica of "Eternity":" –8:26# "Rebecca Sylvester" – 3:53...
(Drag CityDrag City (record label)Drag City is a Chicago-based independent record label. It was established with a Royal Trux release in 1990 in Chicago, Illinois by Dan Koretzky and Dan Osborn.Drag City specializes in experimental indie rock acts...
1996) - CamoufleurCamoufleurCamoufleur is a 1998 album by Gastr del Sol released on Drag City. The album was written and performed by David Grubbs, Jim O'Rourke and Markus Popp, with an array of other musicians including John McEntire , Rob Mazurek and Darin Gray...
(Drag CityDrag City (record label)Drag City is a Chicago-based independent record label. It was established with a Royal Trux release in 1990 in Chicago, Illinois by Dan Koretzky and Dan Osborn.Drag City specializes in experimental indie rock acts...
1998)
External links
- Work from Smoke: A Gastr del Sol Resource
- Jim O'Rourke discography with details on other Gastr del Sol recordings