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The Nihilist Spasm Band
No Record
Allied - 1968
Michael Panontin
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Taking their cue from the spasm bands of early New Orleans, which were essentially motley collections of musicians performing on found objects, London, Ontario's Nihilist Spasm Band are a fine example of both music and paradox at their most extreme.
NSB were initially founded by local artist Greg Curnoe as a kazoo chorus for an experimental film. In 1965, the collective started unleashing some of the world's most abrasive and uncompromising cacophony while remaining comfortably ensconced in one of the more reserved places in the English-speaking world. They played their first gig in 1966, and performed every Monday night for decades, holding residency at several local venues: first at the York Hotel, where they gigged for free drinks, followed by the Victoria Tavern and then moving on to the Forest City Gallery when it opened in 1973. All the while, the group managed to hold down such prosaic day jobs as teacher (vocalist Bill Exley), doctor (guitarist John Clement) and librarian (bass player Hugh McIntyre).
Revered by the likes of Merzbow, Nurse with Wound and Thurston Moore, to name but a few, NSB issued their first record, 'The Sweetest Country This Side of Heaven', as part of a split flexi-disc (with John Chambers' 'Fire' on the flip) included with the Aug/Sept '67 edition of Arts Canada magazine. (Which, for those looking for a search challenge, also featured a lengthy article, with photos, on the group.) They followed that with their debut proper, the full-length No Record, released with little to no fanfare on Jack Boswell's tiny Allied label in 1968.
From the opening shrieks on 'Destroy the Nations' ("England is dead! / Destroy America!.../ Sheuggghhhh on Canada!"), you realize that No Record is going to be one hell of a tough listen. 'When in London' and 'The Byron Bog' reveal the band's free jazz influences, with skronking and screeching horns battling out, the whole mess carrying on for eleven minutes or so. The somewhat more laconic 'Oh Brian Dibb' (though that may be overstating things a bit here) nudges John Boyles kazoo into the limelight before devolving into the usual bedlam of homemade instruments. What's even more surprising is that No Record beat out Captain Beefheart's Trout Mask Replica by a full year, and almost makes the latter seem like top 40 radio - no mean feat, that.
NSB would not issue its second piece of wax until 1979's Vol. 2, which was a recording of a February 4th, 1978 live show the group did at Toronto's Music Gallery space. By then, with the outer fringes of the punk movement - Throbbing Gristle and Boyd Rice's NON just a couple of examples - making noise music more acceptable, a middle-aged NSB saw its star rise considerably in Europe and Asia. Those freaky Japanese - bless them! - actually brought the band over in 1996 for a several city tour and a TV appearance on popular celebrity Tamori's The World of Music. Go figure.
Nihilist Spasm Band marked their 50th anniversary in 2015 with a series of live shows in London, nearby Guelph and Toronto with American jazz musician Joe McPhee. And in 2017, they finally ventured south of the border, playing their first US show ever at the Empty Bottle bar on Chicago's west side.
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