Andy Huxley
| Vile Imbeciles | |
|---|---|
| Origin | Brighton, England |
| Genres | Alternative rock, post-rock, experimental rock, funk rock, jazz rock, avant-garde jazz, free jazz, death jazz, post-funk, junk funk |
| Years active | 2005–present |
| Labels | White Heat Records, Tea Vee Eye Records, Cargo Records |
| Website | vileimbeciles |
| Members |
Andy Huxley Deen Lim Evan Reinhold |
| Past members | Caspian Rospigliosi Liam Dowling James Hair Rob "Bertie" Lean |
Vile Imbeciles (or VI) are an English alternative rock band from Brighton formed in 2005 by the ex-The Eighties Matchbox B-Line Disaster songwriter and guitarist Andy Huxley. The band consists of Huxley on guitar and vocals, Evan Reinhold on drums and Deen Lim on bass guitar and vocals.
VI combine funk, post-rock, metal and avant-garde, to make a new genre that has been described as "post-funk", although this has often been referred to as both "junk funk" and "death jazz" by music journalists (the latter owing to their previous concept album of the same name).
The band's work to date comprises four studio albums and three singles, all released on independent record labels.
The band was formed in 2005 following Huxley's departure from The Eighties Matchbox B-Line Disaster. The original line-up was Huxley, James Hair (lead bassist, formerly of Neils Children), and Rob "Bertie" Lean (drums and vocals). The debut album "...Ma", was released on 4 June 2007 on White Heat Records, and was shortly followed by the single "Slack Hands" on 18 June 2007. The album title was a dedication to longtime friend and supporter Dave Ma, who directed the video to "Slack Hands", and was also in part a tongue-in-cheek payment for the video. The album was recorded by Huxley in his bedroom in Hove on a Zoom 8-track and received considerable attention from the press, being reviewed in both NME and Kerrang! amongst others, the former giving it 2 out of 10 and the latter 4 out of 5. Owing to the album's often grating vocal delivery alongside a chaotic and untidy production quality and the obtuse songwriting style characteristic of the band's earlier work, the band received a mixed reception from previous fans of Huxley.
With the working title "Life Doesn't Get Any Better Than This. It Gets Worse" the band finished recording their follow-up to ...Ma in late 2007. The album was initially written by Huxley as material for a new project in response to a particularly unsuccessful gig in Brighton in which his guitar broke. Finally released under the name "Queenie Was A Blonde" on 14 July 2008 on Tea Vee Eye Records, the album included the addition of Caspian Rospigliosi on guitar and marked the start of Huxley's brief stint as purely a vocalist. The album title was taken from the opening line of the Joseph Moncure March poem The Wild Party. The first single from the album "Bad Ideas" was released on 18 August 2008, the promotional video being shot in the same room as the band's music video for "Slack Hands", and on the same day that Lean quit the group. The band went on to promote the album with new drummer Evan Reinhold, who had previously collaborated with Huxley in bohemian cabaret band The Dirty Cakes (featured on the BBC Three Reality TV Show Singing with the Enemy) which Huxley was a songwriter for.
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