MX-80 Sound
| MX-80 | |
|---|---|
Back cover Out of the Tunnel (1980)
Photo by Kim Torgerson |
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| Background information | |
| Origin | Bloomington, Indiana, USA |
| Genres | Experimental rock, art punk, new wave, industrial rock, post-punk |
| Years active | 1974–present |
| Labels | Bar-B-Q Records, Island, Ralph, Gulcher Records, Atavistic, Family Vineyard, a&r/ENT, Quadruped |
| Associated acts | Shellac, Pere Ubu, O-Type, The Gizzards, Negativland, The Mutants |
| Website | www |
| Members | Bruce Anderson Dale Sophiea Rich Stim Jim Hrabetin Marc Weinstein |
| Past members | Dave Mahoney Jeff Armour |
MX-80 (also known as MX-80 Sound) is an American eclectic art-rock band founded in 1974 in Bloomington, Indiana by guitarist Bruce Anderson. Considered “one of the most out of step but prescient bands of its time," MX-80’s signature sound consisted of breakneck metallic guitar combined with atonal chord structure, cross-rhythmic percussion and dispassionate vocals. Notoriously difficult to categorize—the band has been labeled noise rock,post-punk, acid punk, and heavy-metal—MX-80’s sonic melange set the stage for bands such as Swans, Sonic Youth,Codeine, and Shellac.
Originally named MX-80 Sound, MX-80 was formed in 1974 by Bruce Anderson (guitar) and Dale Sophiea (bass). Sophiea and Anderson, former members of Bloomington’s Screaming Gypsy Bandits, shared an interest in modern classical composers as well as in avant rockers like Captain Beefheart and the Hampton Grease Band. They soon added two drummers, Jeff Armour, and Kevin Teare in 1975, and the quartet contributed the instrumental composition, Spoonfight, to Bloomington I (Bar-B-Q records 1976). Rich Stim (vocals, guitar, and sax) and Dave Mahoney (drums), both formerly of Chinaboise, joined MX-80 in 1976 and Teare left the band to pursue a full-time art career. Anderson and Stim emerged as the band's primary songwriters, with occasional lyric writing by Andrea Ross (aka Angel Corpus Christi).
Unable to obtain gigs in most local music venues, MX-80 performed a regular series of Sunday concerts at the Monroe County public library (tracks of which were later compiled on CD). The band’s first studio release was the EP, Big Hits: Hard Pop From The Hoosiers (Bar-B-Q Records 1976), recorded at Gilfoy Studios, produced by Mark Bingham and engineered by Mark Hood. A review of Big Hits in the British music magazine Sounds by Caroline Coon, spurred Island Records A&R man Howard Thompson to license the band’s second recording, their debut LP, Hard Attack (1977).
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