Bang on the Can
Industrial music emerged — like punk rock’s smarter, meaner, less popular fraternal twin — from the same seminal landscape of shuttered factories, crumbling council blocks, labor strikes, and fetterless youth. The founding members of Throbbing Gristle, who coined the genre’s name with their label Industrial Records, got together in 1972. By the time they had settled into their name, they were proclaimed “wreckers of civilization” by conservative politicians riding the wave of Thatcherism. But they were not alone: Monte Cazazza, Boyd Rice, and Z’EV in the U.S., SPK in Australia, and Cabaret Voltaire (also in England) were channeling discordant philosophers, experimental writers, art, electronics, and raw noise into a sound that would eventually spawn stadium fillers like Nine Inch Nails and Rammstein. Surprisingly, Industrial Music for Urban Decay is the first documentary to take a look at the music’s history. We regret that brilliant second-wave bands like Einstürzende Neubauten, Ministry, and The Young Gods are not included but there is no shortage of genius here. RE/Search’s V. Vale, publisher of the 1983 Industrial Culture Handbook, will be on-hand for a Q&A.
415-978-2787
