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Nihilist Spasm Band
Also known as
NSB
Origin
London, Ontario, Canada
Genres
Noise
free improvisation
Years active
1965 (1965)–present
Labels
Alchemy
Members
John Clement John Boyle Bill Exley Murray Favro Art Pratten
Past members
Archie Leitch Greg Curnoe Hugh McIntyre
Website
www.nonsb.ca
The Nihilist Spasm Band (NSB) is a Canadian noise band formed in 1965[1] in London, Ontario. The band was founded by Hugh McIntyre, John Clement, John Boyle, Bill Exley, Murray Favro, Archie Leitch, Art Pratten, and Greg Curnoe. Leitch has since retired, Curnoe was struck and killed by a pickup truck while cycling in 1992, and McIntyre died of heart failure in 2004. The band members are mostly local artists. They were one of the artists named on the Nurse with Wound list.[2] They have also been cited as an influence on Sonic Youth, Negativland and Einstürzende Neubauten.[3]
The term "spasm band" refers to a band that uses homemade instruments.[4] Most of the NSB's instruments are modifications of other instruments, or wholly invented by the members.[citation needed] In addition to the homemade instruments, members are encouraged to improvise. The range of the improvisation is such that instruments are not tuned to each other, tempos and time signatures are not imposed, and the members push the ranges of their instrumentation by engaging in constant innovation and ever-increasing volume over the course of a performance.[5]
Zev Asher's documentary film What About Me: The Rise of The Nihilist Spasm Band premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2000. Drawing from the inspiration of finding a copy of the Nihilist Spasm Band's first L.P. No Canada in the pile of 1970's ephemera in his family's basement; the documentary explores the legacy of the NSB as Canadian noise music pioneers.
^Pareles, Jon (August 28, 1997). "A Really Old Noise Band Makes a New York Debut: For three decades, mixing nihilism and a kazoo". The New York Times. ProQuest 109778484.
^"Notes for Music Collector Geeks". nwwlist.konshak.org. Archived from the original on 2013-07-01.
^Rathbone, Oregano (February 25, 2015). "No Record: Nihilist Spasm Band". Record Collector. Retrieved 2023-05-04.
^Gold, Robert S. (1975). Jazz Talk. Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill Company, Inc. pp. 255–256. ISBN 0672520931.
^Freedman, Adele (8 February 1978). "Music of Cruelty: The Nihilist Spasm Band wants the audience to suffer". The Globe and Mail : page A4. ProQuest 1238312217.
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