
COCK E.S.P. / SUFFERING BASTARD - SPLIT 10-INCH
120g vinyl, 45rpm, $10 USA Media Mail / $13 USA
Priority Mail
Suffering
Bastard = Brutal grindcore featuring a dual-bass assault of
the highest gain and lowest frequency, complete with brain-rattling
vocal violence and remorseless drumkit abuse.
Cock
E.S.P. = Ugly and unlistenable shrieking noise overload inspired
by Duran Duran and a pure unadulterated hatred of humankind.
Together
at last, in a beautiful green and silver cardboard jacket.

COWARD
ELECTRONICS • COUNTRY CLASSICS
CDR, 15MIN, $5 USA / $6 INTERNATIONAL
Twelve
classic Country & Western tunes recreated in power-electronics
style by members of Cock E.S.P., Rotten Piece, Hagony and Rusted
Shut. This special edition CDR includes a second C.E. album
- the out of print "Coward Electronics for Kids" -
to make it the power-electronics two-fer of the year.

HAGONY
•
THE HIGH PRICE OF ASS
CDR, 21MIN, $5 USA / $6 INTERNATIONAL
Second full-length release from this soundtrack-noise project
featuring Jason Wade of Faggot, Attitude Problem and KillMoshFuckDestroy
along with Emil Hagstrom of Cock E.S.P. This is in-your-face
incidental music; extreme experimental music carefully crafted
and layered for lush orchestral effect.

COWARD
ELECTRONICS • DELIVERING THE GOODS
CDR, 14MIN, $5 USA / $6 INTERNATIONAL
The
latest 20-track offering from this power-electronics supergroup
featuring former and current members of Rotten Piece, Cock E.S.P.,
Rusted Shut, Hagony, Sad Pygmy and WRONG. For this release,
the duo turns inward for their songwriting themes, singing about
the hard life of power-electronics artists. Feeling misunderstood,
being forced to use dirty toilets on tour, having CD cover art
censored by the pressing plant, cutting up bondage magazines
to make flyers, eating at Dennys at 2am, taking hot baths after
particularly extreme shows, seeing a lone female at a noise
show, losing money, complaining about PAs and soundmen, contracting
STDs in Guam - everything is covered in an unflinching and ultra-realistic
manner. This is perhaps the definitive power-electronics release...
Features the hit singles "Guamorrhea" and "Sitar
Solo".

COWARD
ELECTRONICS • GUAMORRHEA MAXI-SINGLE
CDR, 9MIN, $6 USA / $8 INTERNATIONAL
The
first single from the above CDR, this limited edition maxi-single
features no less than 10 versions of the title track, plus the
b-side "Bar Girls". 10 of the 11 tracks are previously
unreleased, and the single is packaged in a European-style CD
single slimline case.

BASIC
•
JUST BASIC
CDR, 58MIN, $5 USA / $6 INTERNATIONAL
Specially-packaged
collection of studio and live jams from John Vance, Devin Matticks
and Jeremy Day. BASIC existed from 1996-1998 as a more focused
guitar/bass/drums based project by members of the Minneapolis
improv underground, also performing in such projects as WRONG.
Features a couple special guest appearances including Emil Hagstrom
(Cock E.S.P.) and noted Minneapolis provocateur Matt St-Germain,
who was taped talking to the band after a 1996 show at the Terminal
Bar. Special grocery-style packaging, because it doesn't get
more basic than food...

COWARD
ELECTRONICS • POWER ELECTRONICS FOR KIDS
Teddy-Bear-Shaped CDR, 9MIN, SOLD
OUT
A
very special collection of original and re-worked power electronics
anthems all scrubbed clean of profanity and adult situations,
emphasizing positive family-friendly themes such as politeness,
sharing, just saying no, fire safety and the innocent joy of
playing with toys. You'll learn to like it, sugar! You'll be
tucked into bed! Limited edition of 50 copies.
COCK E.S.P. • AMERICAN NOISE ROCKS!
DVD-R, 35MIN, NTSC, SOLD OUT
The
first new video release by Cock E.S.P. since 2004, "American
Noise Rocks" uses a fast-paced New Wave Cinema style to
document the on and off-stage highlights from three short tours
and two major festival appearances.
In
this film, Cock E.S.P. bring their unique and absurdist take
on experimental music and performance art to numerous venues
including the 2006 "Brainwaves" experimental music
festival in Boston. There they performed alongside such artists
as the Dresden Dolls, Thighpaulsandra, members of Nurse With
Wound and the Legendary Pink Dots, as well as other noted international
acts. A subsequent "warm-up" tour before the festival
included additional shows in New England and New Jersey.
The
video also follows the group joining infamous French performance
artist Jean-Louis Costes for the Midwestern leg of his 2007
US Tour. Their first dates with Costes occurred a mere two days
after his performance was raided by the Rapid City, South Dakota
police department responding to obscenity complaints - an event
which resulted in coverage from several newspapers and FoxNews.com,
as well as generated some death threats - all of which created
paranoid tension among those on the tour which often found it's
way to the stage performances.
"American
Noise Rocks" opens with Cock E.S.P. traveling to Oslo,
Norway to perform twice at the "Oya" international
rock music festival, with an announced attendance of nearly
60,000. There they were billed alongside such artists as Tool,
Nine Inch Nails, the Melvins, Lily Allen, Roky Erickson, Primal
Scream and the Jesus & Mary Chain. Following this event,
Cock E.S.P. went on to play several smaller shows in Denmark
and Germany, which are also documented on the video.
The
live footage itself is only part of the story told by this film,
with many behind-the-scenes moments demonstrating how each member's
personality feeds into the group's overall theme. Far from both
the numbing narcotic-fueled haze of many underground rock bands
on tour, and from the overly serious and elitist nature of many
experimental musicians, these unscripted moments give insight
into how the group's humanity shapes their art in both subtle
and obvious ways.
It
is worth noting that two headlining acts due to perform with
Cock E.S.P. at the aforementioned festivals canceled their shows
at the last minute, apparently en route to the airport in both
cases. Boyd Rice - the infamous industrial music pioneer with
a reputation for dabbling in fascist and satanic imagery - was
scheduled to play Brainwaves, while the troubled headline-making
pop singer Amy Winehouse was scheduled to play Oya. It is not
known whether Cock E.S.P.'s presence at either fest played a
part in these two artists respective decisions to cancel; however
Cock E.S.P.'s reputation for challenging and provoking the status
quo is well documented and some of their artistic peers have
felt threatened enough by this to avoid any association with
the ensemble.

HAGONY• IMPERSONAL LUBRICANT
CDR, 23MIN, SOLD OUT
HAGONY
is a new collaborative project between two of the most unique
personalities in the Minneapolis underground music scene: JASON
WADE and EMIL HAGSTROM.
HAGONY approaches experimental noise music in an intensely textured
manner, tightly layering different sounds on top and around
others, mixing electronic noise with amplified and acoustic
sound. Starkly contrasting this aural complexity, the duo employs
crass and often confrontational themes and performance techniques,
drawing comparisons with such visual artists as Jeff Koons and
the Fluxus Movement.
JASON WADE is an experimental filmmaker and punk rock musician
originally from Rapid City, South Dakota and currently based
in Minneapolis, Minnesota. He primarily works with 8mm, Super
8 and 16mm film; utilizing both narrative and abstract styles,
merging underground film and music in original and dynamic ways.
He often presents his work with a live musical accompaniment
– including his own bands FAGGOT, RESIN and KILLMOSHFUCKDESTROY
-- and is known for his expanded cinema presentations featuring
up to 13 simultaneous projections. He was awarded the 2005 MMAC
grant in the amount of $10,000 from the Jerome Foundation in
order to produce his next film “Stabber”.
EMIL HAGSTROM is an experimental musician and performance artist
based in Minneapolis, active in both local and international
arts scenes since 1991. Through projects such as COCK E.S.P.,
WRONG and ORIGAMI GENITALIA he has been noted for applying elements
of absurdity, humor and contradiction into his work; specific
examples include: approaching canonized avant-garde music with
a do-it-yourself punk-rock attitude, “Emperor has no clothes”
type satires on underground musician peers, as well as composing
and arranging music developed solely from the mistakes and unintended
sounds generated early in the creative process. Through such
methods, he provides measures of accessibility and universality
to even the most abrasive and extreme underground music, while
at the same time presenting the opportunity for other experimental
musicians to question their own ethos.

COWARD
ELECTRONICS • SIMPLEMINDED
CDR, 14MIN, SOLD OUT
Featuring
members of Cock E.S.P. and Rotten Piece, as well as guest appearances
by members of Concrete Violin and Faggot, the first Coward Electronics
release in four years is a tribute honoring two exceptional
musical groups.
Bloodyminded
is the godfather of comedic/absurdist noise who have, since
the early 1990's, neatly and brilliantly trimmed the irony and
extremism of power-electronics pioneers such as Whitehouse and
Consumer Electronics, leaving only a deliciously overblown minimalist
parody, impossible to take seriously.
Simple
Minds has cleverly sent up a series of rock genres over their
30 year history, from three-chord punk rock to mildly off-center
new wave to 80's pop stardom to, finally, christian contemporary
music - each time providing a brave and precise mockery of their
peers and themselves.
As
a study in both the similarities and differences between these
two approaches to parody, "Simpleminded" achieves
it's goal by presenting Simple Minds-inspired lyrics in a Bloodyminded
musical style. Such an approach truly realizes it's premise
as these two artistic groups share so much more in common than
the usual mix of genres - ragtime mash-ups of Eminem and black
metal versions of Britney Spears songs being two examples. A
wonderful achievement by Coward Electronics, an ensemble which
releases
albums far too infrequently.
COCK
E.S.P. / SOLYPSIS [SPLIT]
C14 CASSETTE, $3 USA / $4 INTERNATIONAL
SOLD
OUT