THE VANISHING was formed in 2001 in San Francisco by Jessie Evans and Brian Hock. Shortly afterward they recruited Sadie Shaw on keyboards. Their original sound was dark and melodic mania, screeching vocals, fuzzed out bass like being stuck in a washing machine. The music was like a sci fi horror film, lyrics reached toward beauty in dreamlike sequences. But always seen behind the eyes of a glass which might be filled with some poison. Their first EP explored the themes of a society which had become invisible. People who had become like ghosts walking inside their own skin, this theme and similar, of vacancy and the sadness and emptiness that it created, permeated throughout their music.
The second single “Get in the car” was released as a split 7” with Memphis’ LOST SOUNDS. This romantic love song to a girl found on the side of the road hitchhiking, written from the perspective of her killer behind the wheel, was intended to be disco, but for some reason turned out much more morose!
Their second album “Songs for psychotic children” was written as a musical book of fairy tales for demented children. This was written with Jessie’s younger brother Anders (Otto Nervous) in mind. Anders was 4 at the time and had been telling everyone in sight that he hated them and would cut their head off and flush it down the toilet, or that he would throw them in the sewer. Again the lyrics strived towards encapsulating some kind of setting where love was reached for but there was so many horrible obstacles in the way.
Soon after this release Sadie Shaw left the band and was replaced by Billy Bates on Moog. Several more split records ensued, including a split 12” with SIXTEENS, which contained the tracks “Still lifes are failing’ and “Victim Card”. “Still lifes’ was written as an anti love song to the idea of the still life painting, a painting in which the ideal of beauty is placed in a very predictable pose (usually using fruit or flowers) and is one is forced to copy it to the best of their technical ability. But with metaphorical arrows pointing toward the industry, and how the media had messed up several generations of minds with its constant barrage of imagery aimed at glamorizing youth, beauty, and the ridiculous strive toward fame, this song said “no no no, we don’t need you, we don’t want to be part of your system, and we reject your ideals! We would rather remain underground and free !” Another great single that came out of that period was a split 12” with VON IVA which contained the track “Idle Eyes”.
In this lineup The Vanishing toured the US several times and arrived in Europe. On the streets of Brooklyn Jessie slept in their van “Otto “ to guard it against burglars, listening to Tangerine Dream on her boombox, as the rain poured down. That year they played shows with Get Hustle, The Gossip, Lovelife, Gravy Train, Quintron, The Phantom Limbs, Glass Candy, and many other great bands. It was a beautiful time, in which a frenzied violent feeling could conjure up the most honesty. The show became way more improvised and chaotic. With the addition of Billy into the band, Jessie was playing saxophone instead of bass, and Billy’s industrial /wave-hall influence was pushing them into a much harsher sound. Eventually Jessie and Brian decided to move to Berlin, having visited there on tour and fallen in love with it. With the friendship of HANIN ELIAS (Atari Teenage Riot) who had offered to put out their new album in Germany, they jumped on the plane and arrived in Berlin on 8.18.2004.
Their final album “Still lifes are failing” was released the next month, just in time for both labels to belly-flop. But the album received great reviews in Germany, and they continued to tour successfully in Europe throughout the next year, building a close bond with Bettina Köster (MALARIA!) who they invited on tour with them, and traveling all over Italy, Spain, Germany, France, Hungary, Switzerland, and to Istanbul. The first track on the record “Lovesick” became a big underground hit.
“This song was truly the beginning of something new for me. Before that I was always thinking a lot about what I was writing, with lots of intention and plot behind it… When I first started singing and writing lyrics I had so much to get off my chest, that I tried to say a world in every song, so everything was so long-winded. With lovesick it just came out very simply, these words, ‘lovesick lovesick lovesick oh, lovesick in my heart, oh no…’ like a little cry in the dark from a broken heart, but then it goes to a darker placeI just realized if I let it out naturally then anything is ok, and anything goes, I don’t need to worry about the lyrics so much, as the strongest emotion can be contained inside one word. More importantly, I realized that it was ok to write about love, which actually I had been writing about all along, but covered in so many layers of pretense for fear of being sappy”
The Vanishing broke up in May 2005, playing their last show in Los Angeles at the dud Silverlake Lounge. It was a sad show, but the two had grown apart creatively and needed to move on to explore other sounds and worlds on their own.
Jessie Evans stayed in Berlin, in 2006 releasing an album with Bettina Köster under the name AUTONERVOUS, and in 2007–10 playing over 100 shows worldwide with TOBY DAMMIT (Iggy Pop, Swans) on drums. Her first solo album “Is it Fire?” has just been released on her label :
FANTOMETTE RECORDS.
Brian Hock moved back to San Francisco to begin his project C.L.A.W.S. in which he has released several 12” and remixes, as well as continuing ZONETECH with Billy, DJing, and doing WAR VS SLEEP.
I edited my profile with Thomas' Myspace Editor V4.4
