Uneasy Listening For Angst-Afflicted Moderns: Tuxedomoon Celebrates 30 Years of Languid Despair
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Track:No Tears - (Original)
Their brand of post-punk experimentalism came with impossibly wide parameters: no-wave, classical, jazz, funk, tango all heartily consumed and combined into a cerebral mix that gained the band an immediate cult following. The band gained a larger level of recognition in 1978 when they opened for Devo.'No Tears'Founding members were multi-instrumentalists Blaine L. Reininger and Steven Brown who were soon joined by Peter Principle (bass), Winston Tong (vocals) and filmmaker/visual artist Bruce Geduldig.'Jinx'Tuxedomoon pioneered a multi-media blend of cabaret and moody synth-pop they called "loungezak”, often married to performance art shows. Their second release, an EP released in 1978, included the song "No Tears", which has remained a club classic to this day. In 1979, the group signed to The Residents' Ralph Records, with whom they recorded two seminal albums, Half Mute in 1980 and Desire in 1981, after which the band relocated to Rotterdam and then Brussels, believing their sound better fit the electronic scene in Europe.
They laced their songs with melancholy saxophone, shivery violin, cool-as-ice synth and dry drum machine rhythms. World-weary songs like "What Use?" and "7 Years" offered a sort of jaded nihilism; a languid version of despair. Their schtick could best be described as uneasy-listening for angst-afflicted moderns.
The band soon created the score for a ballet by Maurice Bejart, which was released in 1982 as Divine. In 1983 Reininger left the group in order to pursue a solo career, and trumpeter Luc Van Lieshout joined. In 1985 Tuxedomoon had its largest success commercially with the international release of Holy Wars. Tong left the group soon after its release, leaving Brown and Principle the only remaining San Francisco members.
'In a Manner of Speaking'After releasing a string of albums on CramBoy (the imprint they set up with Brussels-based label Crammed), the band stopped recording together in 1988, and the various members pursued solo careers, becoming as disparate geographically as sonically, with Steven Brown living in Mexico, Peter Principle in New York, Blaine Reininger in Greece, and Dutch trumpet player Luc Van Lieshout (who had joined the band in 83) in Brussels. Although they remained inactive through most of the 1990s, they never technically broke up.
In 2004, a re-born Tuxedomoon, consisting of Steven Brown, Blaine Reininger, Peter Principle, and Luc Van Lieshout released a new studio album, Cabin in the Sky. They continue to work and tour together (on occasion with DJ Hell) and have since released an album, Bardo Hotel Soundtrack in 2006, with upcoming projects coinciding with the group's 30th year anniversary in the Fall of 2007.
Excerpts from various tracks from the 'Seismic Riffs dvd' Though their ability to crystallize a certain dark and romantic zeitgeist quickly turned them into one of the most influential bands around, Tuxedomoon's music transcended all genres. They were futuristic and lyrical, electronic and acoustic. They used drum machines, saxophones, wailing violins and haunted vocals. They weren't a prototype of today's synthesizer dance bands, although they anticipated many of them. Their work seemed to be soundtracks for non-existent film-noirs. Sometimes they sounded distant and alien, sometimes they created melodies of great warmth and sophistication. But whatever they did it was always intelligent, beautiful and provocative.This post ripped and snorted from the following sources:Andy Warhol's Interview magazine, 1982Melody Maker, UK, '85"Tuxedomoon's website":http://www.tuxedomoon.org/home.html"Crammed Records Tuxedomoon page":http://www.crammed.be/tuxedomoon/"Blaine Reininger's website":http://www.mundoblaineo.com/tauxmopage.html"Wiki":http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tuxedomoon"Tuxedomoon's Myspace page":http://www.myspace.com/tuxedomoon
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