Thoughts of Ionesco

Thoughts of Ionesco was a Detroit-based post-hardcore band extant from 1996-1999 and known for detuned guitars, screamed vocals, complex arrangements, improvisational sections inspired by free jazz, and their destructive live performances.

Formed in 1996, the band was briefly a five-piece named Building featuring members of the melodic hardcore band Empathy in addition to founding members Sean Madigan Hoen, Brian Repa, and Nathan Miller. After reducing the line-up to a three-piece, they recorded a demo and played a house show in Ypsilanti, MI under the name Triptych; the show was stopped by local police after the band finished their first song. Their demo tape displayed influences of My War-era Black Flag mixed with then contemporary hardcore groups like Deadguy and Universal Order of Armageddon; the band's sound was further complicated by the metal-influenced double-bass drumming by Repa. Prior to an early show opening for Washington D.C.'s Damnation A.D., the band renamed themselves Thoughts of Ionesco (referencing the absurdist playwright Eugene Ionesce), a decision motivated by their desire for an additional guitarist and what they perceived as constraint in a moniker signifying a set of three. The band, however, would never find an appropriate second guitar-player.

Two songs culled from their Triptych demo tape were released as a 7" on Cascade Records in late 1996. Hoen and Repa were in high school at the time, limiting their performances to weekend excursions around the Midwest. In December 1996, they recorded what would become their album ...And Then There Was Motion. In early 1997, Michigan hardcore label Conquer the World Records offered to release their latest recording, but the band offered instead a remixed version of their demo tape, which was released as The Triptych Session. The album was well received in hardcore fanzines. Thoughts of Ionesco toured North America in the summer of 1997, frequently with their friends Wallside.

Their second album, ...And Then There Was Motion, was released later in 1997 by Kalamazoo Michigan label Makoto Records. The recording revealed a heavier sound and more complex arrangements and was described by Alternative Press Magazine as "an ultimate realization of pain-through-sound." Throughout 1997 TOI performed shows with North American hardcore bands Converge, Coalesce, Dropdead, His Hero is Gone, Botch, as well as numerous punk and hardcore festivals. A split 7" with Detroit band Cromwell was released later that year.

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