Green Magnet School
Encyclopedia
Overview and Biography
Green Magnet School was an experimental rockExperimental rock
Experimental rock or avant-garde rock is a type of music based on rock which experiments with the basic elements of the genre, or which pushes the boundaries of common composition and performance technique....
band formed in Massachusetts
Massachusetts
The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. It is bordered by Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north; at its east lies the Atlantic Ocean. As of the 2010...
in 1987. The founding members included Tim Shea on guitar and vocals, Rob Hamilton on drums, Can Keskin on guitar and bass, Steve Rzucidlo on bass, and Chris Pearson on guitar and vocals. Later the line-up would change to feature Jeff Iwanicki on bass and Greg Gilmartin on drums.
The band defied easy categorization, but the 3-guitar cacophony of its music was often referred to in the sub-genres of noise rock
Noise rock
Noise rock describes a style of post-punk rock music that became prominent in the 1980s. Noise rock makes use of the traditional instrumentation and iconography of rock, but incorporates atonality and especially dissonance, and also frequently discards usual songwriting conventions.-Style:Noise...
, post punk, no wave
No Wave
No Wave was a short-lived but influential underground music, film, performance art, video, and contemporary art scene that had its beginnings during the mid-1970s in New York City. The term No Wave is in part satirical word play rejecting the commercial elements of the then-popular New Wave genre...
, and even industrial music
Industrial music
Industrial music is a style of experimental music that draws on transgressive and provocative themes. The term was coined in the mid-1970s with the founding of Industrial Records by the band Throbbing Gristle, and the creation of the slogan "industrial music for industrial people". In general, the...
. After releasing a string of indie
Indie (music)
In music, independent music, often shortened to indie music or "indie" is a term used to describe independence from major commercial record labels or their subsidiaries, and an autonomous, Do-It-Yourself approach to recording and publishing....
singles, the band briefly signed with Sub Pop
Sub Pop
Sub Pop is a record label founded in 1986 by Bruce Pavitt and Jonathan Poneman in Seattle, Washington. Sub Pop achieved fame in the late 1980s for first signing Nirvana, Soundgarden, Mudhoney and many other bands from the Seattle music scene...
records in 1992 and released their debut CD Blood Music, named after a science fiction
Science fiction
Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...
novel of the same title by author Greg Bear
Greg Bear
Gregory Dale Bear is an American science fiction and mainstream author. His work has covered themes of galactic conflict , artificial universes , consciousness and cultural practices , and accelerated evolution...
. The album was critically acclaimed, and the bleak, dystopian nature of both the lyrics and music were compared by UK
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
music journalists to such groups as Killing Joke
Killing Joke
Killing Joke are an English post-punk band formed in October 1978 in Notting Hill, London, England; other sources report the band formed in early 1979.Related news articles: Founding members Jaz Coleman and Geordie Walker have been the only constant members.A key influence on industrial rock,...
, Live Skull
Live Skull
-Overview:Live Skull created abrasive no wave music not unlike their 1980s contemporaries Sonic Youth, Swans, Rat at Rat R, The Chameleons, Mars, Teenage Jesus and the Jerks and Band of Susans. Their music featured angular guitar parts interspersed with bleak, quieter passages, for a haunting...
, Gang of Four
Gang of Four (band)
Gang of Four are an English post-punk group from Leeds. Original personnel were singer Jon King, guitarist Andy Gill, bass guitarist Dave Allen and drummer Hugo Burnham. They were fully active from 1977 to 1984, and then re-emerged twice in the 1990s with King and Gill...
, and early Sonic Youth
Sonic Youth
Sonic Youth is an American alternative rock band from New York City, formed in 1981. The current lineup consists of Thurston Moore , Kim Gordon , Lee Ranaldo , Steve Shelley , and Mark Ibold .In their early career, Sonic Youth was associated with the No Wave art and music scene in New York City...
.
After playing and touring extensively with both Boston
Boston
Boston is the capital of and largest city in Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England" for its economic and cultural impact on the entire New England region. The city proper had...
-based and national acts such as The Lemonheads
The Lemonheads
The Lemonheads are an American alternative rock band first formed in 1986 by Evan Dando, Ben Deily and Jesse Peretz. Dando has remained the band's only constant member....
, Come
Come (US band)
Come was an American alternative rock band from 1990-2001. Come was formed in Boston by Thalia Zedek , Chris Brokaw , Arthur Johnson , and Sean O'Brien .-Band history:...
, Galaxie 500
Galaxie 500
Galaxie 500 was an American alternative rock band that formed in 1987 and split up in 1991 after releasing three albums.-History:Guitarist Dean Wareham, drummer Damon Krukowski and bassist Naomi Yang had met at the Dalton School in New York City in 1981, but began playing together during their time...
, Dinosaur Jr., The Afghan Whigs
The Afghan Whigs
The Afghan Whigs were a soul-influenced American rock band from Cincinnati, Ohio. PopMatters described the band as "beyond simple genre categorization, and though lauded by the music press, never got their just due."-Band history:...
, The Flaming Lips
The Flaming Lips
The Flaming Lips are an American alternative rock band, formed in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma in 1983.Melodically, their sound contains lush, multi-layered, psychedelic rock arrangements, but lyrically their compositions show elements of space rock, including unusual song and album titles—such as "What...
and The Jesus Lizard
The Jesus Lizard
The Jesus Lizard was an American alternative rock and noise rock band formed in 1987 in Austin, Texas. They were "a leading noise rock band in the American independent underground…[who] turned out a series of independent records filled with scathing, disembowelling, guitar-driven pseudo-industrial...
, the group released a CD EP
Extended play
An EP is a musical recording which contains more music than a single, but is too short to qualify as a full album or LP. The term EP originally referred only to specific types of vinyl records other than 78 rpm standard play records and LP records, but it is now applied to mid-length Compact...
titled Revisionist in 1993, and what would be their final CD, Illuminatus in 1995. After several line-up changes, GMS finally disbanded in 1997. Now regarded as a highly underrated, influential band ahead of its time, Green Magnet School is considered one of the seminal indie rock
Indie rock
Indie rock is a genre of alternative rock that originated in the United Kingdom and the United States in the 1980s. Indie rock is extremely diverse, with sub-genres that include lo-fi, post-rock, math rock, indie pop, dream pop, noise rock, space rock, sadcore, riot grrrl and emo, among others...
groups that sprouted from the fertile, post-grunge
Grunge
Grunge is a subgenre of alternative rock that emerged during the mid-1980s in the American state of Washington, particularly in the Seattle area. Inspired by hardcore punk, heavy metal, and indie rock, grunge is generally characterized by heavily distorted electric guitars, contrasting song...
Boston music community of the late 1980s-early 1990s.
The band reunited for one night on October 7, 2004 to play a sold-out benefit/memorial show at The Middle East nightclub in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Post-breakup activity
Several former members of the band remain currently active in ongoing musical projects including Black HelicopterBlack Helicopter
Black Helicopter is a United States Boston, Massachusetts based hard rock band on Thurston Moore's Ecstatic Peace! independent record label. The band performed at North East Sticks Together in 2005 and 2006....
, Ekranoplan, Low-Country Messiahs
Low-Country Messiahs
The Low-Country Messiahs are an ambient blues ensemble from Lowell, Massachusetts, active since 2003. The group was founded by former Sub Pop recording artist Green Magnet School drummer Robert Hamilton and guitarist Brian Watkins. The music features home-made cigar box guitars and primitive,...
and Teleffonic (see External Links below.)
Notable live shows
- 1993 or (Friday, February 11, 1994?) at Brownies (NYC)
CMJ New Music Marathon (with Babe the Blue Ox and Godplow)
7" singles
- "CO" split with God's Acre (Toxic Shock Records) 1990
- "White People" (Sonic Bubblegum Records) 1991
- "White People" split with Six Finger Satellite (Hippy Knight Records, Australia) 1991
- "Singed" (Sub Pop Records Single-of-the-Month Club, Dec. 1991)
- "Blind in My Mouth" (Hippy Knight Records, Australia) 1992
- "Declaration of Techno-Colonial Independence" 2x7" with Six Finger SatelliteSix Finger SatelliteSix Finger Satellite are an American synthesizer-based post-hardcore band, based in Providence, Rhode Island.- History :The band formed in 1990 around a line-up of J. Ryan , John MacLean , Peter Phillips , Chris Dixon , and Rick Pelletier...
(Sub Pop Records) 1993
CD's
- "Blood Music" (Sub Pop/Genius Records) 1992
- "Revisionist" (Sonic Bubblegum Records) 1993
- "Illuminatus" (Sonic Bubblegum Records) 1995
Miscellaneous
- "Windshield" on "Where's Stanton Park?"-LP (Stanton Park Records) 1989
- "Blood Music"-LP (Sub Pop/Glitterhouse Records Germany) 1992
- "Throb" on "Revolution Come and Gone"-CD (Sub Pop Europe) 1993
- "Blind in My Mouth" on "Self Mutilation"-CD (Hippy Knight Records, Australia) 1994
- "Slipper" on "Pipeline!"-CD (Kimchee Records) 1996
External links
Post-Green Magnet School related music sites:
- Black Helicopter website
- Low-Country MessiahsLow-Country MessiahsThe Low-Country Messiahs are an ambient blues ensemble from Lowell, Massachusetts, active since 2003. The group was founded by former Sub Pop recording artist Green Magnet School drummer Robert Hamilton and guitarist Brian Watkins. The music features home-made cigar box guitars and primitive,...
website