Neptune is a noise music

Noise music

Noise music is a term used to describe varieties of avant-garde music and sound art that may use elements such as cacophony, dissonance, atonality, noise, indeterminacy, and repetition in their realization. Noise music can feature distortion, various types of acoustically or electronically...

 band from 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...

, noted for having built their custom-made guitars and basses out of scrap metal. The band also plays custom-made percussion instrument

Percussion instrument

A percussion instrument is any object which produces a sound when hit with an implement or when it is shaken, rubbed, scraped, or otherwise acted upon in a way that sets the object into vibration...

s and electric lamellophone

Electric lamellophone

Electric lamellophones are lamellophones that have been electrified with an electro-magnetic pickup or contact piezo pickup.-Piezo pickup lamellophones:...

s.

Band history

Neptune's origins trace to a 1994 sculpture project by Boston artist/musician Jason Sanford, who created the band's guitars and drums from scrap steel and found objects. In 2007, they released their album Gong Lake 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, home to art heroes Tony Conrad

Tony Conrad

Tony Conrad is an American avant-garde video artist, experimental filmmaker, musician/composer, sound artist, teacher and writer...

, Rhys Chatham

Rhys Chatham

Rhys Chatham is an American composer, guitarist, and trumpet player, primarily active in avant-garde and minimalist music. He is best known for his "guitar orchestra" compositions...

 and Faust

Faust

Faust is the protagonist of a classic German legend; a highly successful scholar, but also dissatisfied with his life, and so makes a deal with the devil, exchanging his soul for unlimited knowledge and worldly pleasures. Faust's tale is the basis for many literary, artistic, cinematic, and musical...

. Neptune has performed with artists including The Ex, Mission of Burma

Mission of Burma

Mission of Burma is an American post-punk band formed in Boston, Massachusetts in 1979. The band was formed by Roger Miller , Clint Conley , Peter Prescott and Martin Swope...

, Ut

Ut (band)

Ut originated from New York City's downtown No Wave scene in December 1978. The inheritors of the fertile collision between rock, free jazz and the avant garde that first manifested itself in the Velvet Underground, Ut soon became a serious force within the New York music scene.- History :Ut's...

, Oneida

Oneida (band)

Oneida is a rock band from Brooklyn, New York. Their influences include psychedelic rock, krautrock, electronic, noise rock, and minimalism, but the overall structure and intent of their music cannot be easily traced to any of these styles...

, Lightning Bolt, 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...

, Blonde Redhead

Blonde Redhead

Blonde Redhead is an American alternative rock band composed of vocalist/rhythm guitarist Kazu Makino and twin brothers Simone and Amedeo Pace , which formed in New York City in 1993....

, Melt-Banana

Melt-Banana

Melt-Banana is a Japanese punk band that is known for playing extremely fast noise music mixed with experimental electronica and pop-based song structures. They have worked with artists as diverse as Merzbow, John Zorn, Mike Patton, and Discordance Axis...

, Charles Hayward

Charles Hayward

Sir Charles Hayward was the 25th mayor of Victoria, British Columbia, from 1900–1902. He had one of the more unusual professions: Starting off as a carpenter, he went into the business of making coffins and turned that into a very successful funeral business, one which remains today...

, Liars

Liars (band)

Liars is a three-piece band formed in 2000 consisting of Angus Andrew , Aaron Hemphill , and Julian Gross...

, Black Dice

Black Dice

Black Dice is an experimental electronic music group currently based in Brooklyn, New York, USA.-Early years:Black Dice formed in spring 1997 soon after guitarist Bjorn Copeland met drummer Hisham Bharoocha and bassist Sebastian Blanck when they were students at the Rhode Island School of Design...

, James Chance & the Contortions, Gang Gang Dance

Gang Gang Dance

Gang Gang Dance is an American experimental music band based in Manhattan, New York City. The band is known for its distinctive sound which features synthesized electronics and percussion, plus the varied vocal styles of singer Lizzi Bougatsos...

, The Dresden Dolls

The Dresden Dolls

The Dresden Dolls are an American musical duo from Boston, Massachusetts. Formed in 2000, the group consists of Amanda Palmer and Brian Viglione...

, Six Finger Satellite

Six Finger Satellite

Six 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...

, and Wolf Eyes

Wolf Eyes

Wolf Eyes is a post-industrial/noise band from Detroit, Michigan, United States.-History:Wolf Eyes began as a solo project of former Nautical Almanac member Nate Young, with Aaron Dilloway joining in 1998, and John Olson in 2000...

. As of 2011, the lineup includes Sanford and longtime Neptune collaborator Mark Pearson as well as musicians/instrument inventors Kevin Micka and Farhad Ebrahimi.

Personnel

• Jason Sanford - baritone guitar, electric thumb piano, electronics, small electric spring, percussion, vocals
• Mark Pearson - baritone guitar, electronics, large electric spring, drums, percussion, vocals
• Kevin Micka - drums, electronics, vocals
• Farhad Ebrahimi

Albums/LPs

• "Studio Recordings, May MCMXCVII", Full Length CD/LP. (Archenemy Records, 1999)
• "The Ballet of Process", Full Length CD/LP. (Mister/100% Breakfast Records, 2002)
• "Intimate Lightning", Full Length CD/LP. (Mister/100% Breakfast Records, 2004)
• "Mice and Worms", 6 Song 12" LP. (Magnetism Crafts/Self-Release, 2005)
• "Patterns", Full Length CD/LP. (Self-Release (US)/Fortissimo Records
  Fortissimo Records
  Fortissimo Records is an independent record label and promoting collective from Milton Keynes, England run by Action Beats Don McLean.Taking their name from the Italian musical term for "very loud" , Fortissimo was formed in 2002, arranging gigs at Bletchley Youth Club, in Milton Keynes...
  
   (UK)/Les Potagers Natures (France), 2006)
• "Untitled Improvised LP", Full Length, LP only. (Golden lab records, 2007)
• "Gong Lake", Full Length CD/LP (Radium
  Radium
  Radium is a chemical element with atomic number 88, represented by the symbol Ra. Radium is an almost pure-white alkaline earth metal, but it readily oxidizes on exposure to air, becoming black in color. All isotopes of radium are highly radioactive, with the most stable isotope being radium-226,...
  
  /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...
  
  , February 2008)
• "18:40/19:19", Full length LP (Magnetism Crafts/Wrong Whole, 2010)
• "Silent Partner", Full length CD/LP/Digital (Northern Spy, 2011)

EPs

• "Knife Fight E.P.", 7". (self released, 1996)
• "Basement Recordings E.P.", 6 song CD. (Mister Records, 2001)
• "Green Cassette", 5 Song C30 Cassette. (Wrong Whole Records, 2005)
• "3" CDR", 5 song CDR. (Magnetism Crafts, 2005)
• "White Cassette", 4 Song C20 Cassette. (Magnetism Crafts, 2005)
• "3" Collage CDR", 2 Songs. (Magnetism Crafts / Self-Release, 2006)
• "Red Cassette", 6 Improvisations, C30 Cassette. (Magnetism Crafts, 2006)
• "3" CDR", 3 song 3" CDR. (Hiddenbirdhouse, 2006)
• "Paris Green", 5 track CDR with hand painted art. (Magnetism Crafts/Wrong Whole, 2007)
• "Roman Business", 4 songs, C20 cassette. (NO=FI, March 2009)
• "Cave Drawings", 6 songs, 10" colored vinyl. (Self-Release/Magnetism Crafts, January 2011)

Singles

• "Swang!/Poodle Walk", 7" single. (Anti-Social Records, 1996)
• "Your Company/Productivity is a Science", 7" Single. (Heliotrope Records, 2000)

Split Releases

"Split LP", Full length split w/ One Second Riot, LP only. (Distile Records, 2007)

Videos

• The Penetrating Gaze. Video by Bill T. Miller, recorded at the Middle East, Cambridge, MA, 12/29/2005.
• Live in Strasbourg France (Full Set, 11 Songs). Recorded live at Le Zanzibar, Strasbourg, France, 9/27/06. Video by Normaltv.org.

External links

• http://www.neptuneband.com
• http://www.myspace.com/neptuneandjupiter
• http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/article/record_review/49975-gong-lake
• http://billtmiller.com/neptune Photos and video of Neptune
• Pictures from Neptune / White Mice show - taken April 2006 at the Midway Cafe in Jamaica Plain.
• article in Spike magazine