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Bunnydrums.
Three boneheads and an autistic drummer. Make that three
members of The Boneheads and one member of The Autistics,
both early entries in Philadelphia's fledgling punk rock
scene of the late Seventies. When singer David Goerk called
drummer Joe Ankenbrand about the possibility of his providing
the propulsion for a new band, it set the stage for the
birth of one of the more progressive, interesting, and odd
creations of the 1980's.
The Bunnydrums sound first
began to emerge and evolve on January 20, 1980, when Goerk,
Ankenbrand, bassist Greg Davis and guitarist Frank Marr
first rehearsed. Over the next seven years Bunnydrums mutated
through several configurations and voyaged through numerous
musical phases - but consistently created astounding music
that even today sounds uniquely like nothing else. |
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band's first public appearance was a July 1980 opening slot
on a Pere Ubu bill at Philadelphia's notorious Starlite
Ballroom, a decaying hulk of an auditorium located squarely
in the center of an area where arriving and departing in
one piece was something of a small victory. But the stage
performances that Bunnydrums began to present were only
the public face of a private metamorphosis. |
"The coagulation of aggressive punk,
fragmented funk circa early A Certain Ration and a n
obious admiration of PIL and Killing Joke have given
the Drums quite a unique sounds. Still wholeheartedly
accessible, the pumping dance music that spirals from
'PKD' is essential listening and bodes well for the
future."
Sounds
Magazine
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Ankenbrand
brought more to the band than formidable percussion talents
- he also brought a ravenous appetite for the works of science
fiction master Philip K. Dick. The Dick outlook merged with
assorted natural and artificial stimulants, with the experimentation
being conducted at the psychedelic/psychotic warehouse playground
known as Funk Dungeon. As more people became drawn into
the Funk Dungeon vortex, something of an odd society began
following an erratic and artistic orbit - with Bunnydrums
at its core.
The band tried to do things
differently both in creating a forward-and-outward looking
scene and in its music, which generally took form after
hours and hours of intense daily jamming. With Davis and
Ankenbrand forming a bedrock foundation, Marr's impenetrable
guitar work spun warped layers of sonic exploration that
matched Goerk's visionary lyrics and man-possessed vocals.
It was a sound that had much in common with Dick's work,
for the best description of Bunnydrums' music is a two-word
phrase - science fiction. |
"...avant pop danceability... a slowly
unfolding phase shifting trip through a psychedelic
death clock...Highly Recommended."
OP
Magazine
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By
1981 the sound of Bunnydrums began to expand beyond the
Philadelphia region with shows in New York and Washington
DC. Local promoter Lee Paris, an early supporter of the
band, released the first Bunnydrums vinyl on his Meta Meta
label and the single reached the Rockpool trade paper charts
as well as garnering rave reviews in an assortment of publications. |
The
relationship with Paris soured as a business venture and,
after a year of sporadic shows and frustration with waiting
to release new material, the band itself unleashed Feathers
Web upon the world in early 1983. The four song EP's fierce
visions got the band a strong review in Billboard Magazine
and is still the favorite recording of the majority of the
band.
Later that year, Bunnydrums
entered into an agreement with Richard Jordan's Red Records,
and most importantly established a relationship with the
highly-respected studio owners Phil and Joe Nicolo of Philadelphia's
Studio 4. The result was the release of the first Bunnydrums
album PKD, which contained much of Feather Web with some
newer work. |
| Despite
being selected to appear in the book Trouser Press Best
of the American Underground, Bunnydrums still wasn't touring
or even gigging with any regularity. Instead, the creative
process swept onward in the confines of Funk Dungeon. |
"New
York does not have a monopoly on no-wave funk: they
can play that music in Philly too, and Bunnydrums does
it as well as anybody...they know its not enough just
to make artsy dissonant sounds. You also have to be
musical as well. And they are.
Billboard
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The
next vinyl appearance was the five track On The Surface
which, like its predecessor, was pressed in Holland and
sold in the US as an import due to Richard Jordans' European
connections. More positive press greeted the release of
the latest EP and, after a show with noted artist Howard
Finster at Philadelphia Art Alliance, Bunnydrums embarked
on its first tour - a lengthy trek across the US with
actual shows being few and far between.
Back home at last, with
finances at an all-time low, Bunnydrums immediately retreated
to the studio to begin sessions for the Holy Moly album.
Trying out new studio techniques while recording under
a tight deadline due to Jordan's finances and his demands
for material with greater chart potential, Bunnydrums
suffered through a hectic, disconnected studio experience
that still yielded a strong album when it was released
in 1984.
Coinciding
with Holy Moly's release was the first international Bunnydrums
sojourn, a six-week aural adventure that included shows
in Belgium, France, and Holland.
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"The
quartet has managed a difficult feat: dark - toned,
moody music that is none the less exhilarating, witty
stuff..."
Philadelphia
Inquirer/Ken Tucker
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Upon
returning to America, the strain of keeping full-time jobs
and creative differences between the band members and Richard
Jordan led to the first Bunnydrums rift. Ankenbrand, who
had done recording stints with Alex Chilton and the Sic
Kidz while still in Bunnydrums, left the band following
on last home-town show at Filly's in November of 1984. Coincidentally,
Frank Blank - guitarist with hardcore band Informed Sources,
future member of Bunnydrums, and author of these very words
- joined the band for the encore of that show, a raucous
version of Link Wray's "Switchblade." |
Bobby
Williams was selected as Joe's replacement, and his more
aggressive style changed the band's energy as Bunnydrums
kicked off a three week US tour in the spring of 1985.
In June of 1985 a large-format
Bunnydrums, augmented by Blank and two female singers, performed
at Philadelphia haunt The Kennel Club and New York's Peppermint
Lounge. The band's lineup stabilized once again as the girls
were shed and Blank was brought into the fold. With Goerk
now adding solid guitar melody and Blank's punk heritage
anchoring Marr's forays into the unknown, Bunnydrums' live
shows became a three-guitar juggernaut of massive aural
proportions.
The final trip to the studio
for Bunnydrums was a 1985 re-vamping of Holy Moly's title
track for a compilation released by the UK's Food Records.
Several forceful warm-up gigs
in Philadelphia readied he band for an anticipated year-end
European tour, but the ambitious thirty show trip was canceled
when Goerk had a final blow-up with Jordan, who promptly
turned the Bunnydrums tour into a Butthole Surfers tour.
Disillusioned with the entire messy business, Goerk's feelings
spread through the band and Bunnydrums officially dissolved
after a New Year's Eve show rang in 1986 at The Kennel Club.
Twice more Bunnydrums has
taken the stage in the intervening time - a memorial concert
for the late Lee Paris in May of 1986 (with drummer Richie
Wrench of Ruin and Live Skull) and again with Williams on
drums at a benefit for University of Pennsylvania radio
station WXPN on April Fool's Day of 1987.
The list of bands Bunnydrums
played with during its brief history - including Pere Ubu,
REM, Bauhaus, Colin Newman, Tuxedomoon, Gang of Four, The
Cult, Alan Vega, Pylon - reads like a who's who of modern
rock. But the Bunnydrums sound differed from all of them,
still existing in its own unique space.
The sounds collected here
come from the 1984 Holy Moly European tour, and present
the original Bunnydrums lineup at their most intense and
obtuse - sounds so strange, entrancing, and powerful that
they made me want to join the band in their creation of
this glorious noise.
Enjoy the ride.
Frank Blank
Philadelphia City Paper
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