Thinking Plague

Thinking Plague
Thinking Plague in 1998 From the left: Dave Kerman, Dave Willey, Deborah Perry, Mark Harris, Shane Hotle, Mike Johnson.
Background information
Origin	United States
Genres	Avant-garde progressive rock
Years active	1982–present
Labels	Recommended, Cuneiform
Associated acts	5uu's, Hamster Theatre, Hail, The Science Group, Polyethylene Pet
Website	Thinking Plague homepage
Members	Mike Johnson Mark Harris Dave Willey Elaine Difalco Bill Pohl Robin Chestnut
Past members	Bob Drake Sharon Bradford Harry Fleishman Rick Arsenault Mark Fuller Susanne Lewis Eric Moon Lawrence Haugseth Shane Hotle Maria Moran Dave Kerman Deborah Perry Matt Mitchell David Shamrock Kimara Sajn

Thinking Plague is a United States avant-garde progressive rock group founded in 1982 by guitarist/composer Mike Johnson and bass guitarist/drummer Bob Drake. Based in Denver, Colorado, the band has been active off and on since 1982, taking on a number of musicians over the years. They have made six studio albums between 1984 and 2012, and released one live album recorded at NEARfest in 2000.

Their music is a mix of rock, folk, jazz and 20th-century classical music. Music.com remarked that "...Thinking Plague stand out as a shining example of avant-garde music blended with just enough rock for it to be called progressive rock..."

While never directly related to Rock in Opposition (RIO), Thinking Plague was strongly influenced by this late-1970s movement, particularly Henry Cow and Art Bears. In spite of Johnson's dislike of the term, the band has often been categorized as a "RIO" band.

Mike Johnson and Bob Drake first met in 1978 and played in several cover bands. They began experimenting with basement recordings in 1980 and by 1982 they had enough song material to attempt a few live performances. For these shows they enlisted the services of classically trained vocalist Sharon Bradford, luthier Harry Fleishman on keyboards, and Rick Arsenault on drums. This ensemble became the first incarnation of Thinking Plague. They played at a few venues around Denver in 1983 but their complicated music was not well received and Johnson and Drake decided to make an album of their material instead.

With Bradford, Fleishman and Mark Fuller on drums the band worked on and off for almost a year recording their songs at a crude 8-track recording facility in the basement of an old slaughterhouse called the Packing House Studios. Having limited funds they did all the tracking and mixing themselves, and released the album, ...A Thinking Plague in 1984 on their own Endemic label. Only 500 LPs were pressed with each cover hand painted by Drake with spray-paint and a stencil. In spite of the small scale, low-tech quality of the release, a number of distributors, including Recommended Records and Wayside Music (Cuneiform Records) agreed to sell the album and it was well received by some critics.

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Wikipedia