Cul de Sac

CURRENT BIO: Cul de Sac, a band whose name was taken from a Roman Polanski film, is Boston's original post rock granddaddy. (Many cite Simon Reynolds as the instigator of this term, coined for Cul de Sac back in 1991 in an issue of Melody Maker.) Formed in 1989, the band has toured or played with such luminaries as Sonic Youth, The Boredoms, Yo La Tengo and Faust. The band is currently comprised of Glenn Jones on guitar, bouzuki and electric saz, Robin Amos on synth, Jonathan LaMaster on bass, violin, and occasional vocals, and Gavin McCarthy on drums. Since the year 2000, the band has recorded 4 albums for their current label (Strange Attractors Audio House), appeared on numerous compilations (with one of those tracks appearing here on our MySpace player, a blend of two Franco Battiato compositions that appeared on the recent Italian comp. "What's Your Function" for Silly Boy Entertainment), composed the soundtrack to the Roger Corman film The Stranglers Wife, and made numerous appearances in other films including a documentary about performance artist David Blaine by filmaker Harmony Korrine, and the Warp Records soundtrack to the Scotish indie film Dead Mans Shoes". The band has aggressively toured nationally and (more prominently) internationally in recent years, sometimes backing legendary Damo Suzuki, ex-vocalist for the early 70's version of german band "Can". Cul de Sac's most recent album, Abhayamudra, is a live double cd with Damo on vocals (culled from over 50 performances spanning 4 tours of Europe, the US, and Canada), a track from which also appears here on our MySpace player. Pulsing with air-raid analog synth, sweltering art-surf guitar and agro jazz-rock drumming Guitar Player magazine.



THE ORIGINS OF CUL DE SAC, AS WRITTEN BY NICK KEMPER FOR ALL MUSIC GUIDE:

"Shunning the burgeoning alternative rock movement, Cul de Sac intertwined elements of surf rock, Krautrock, Middle Eastern trance and folk music, post-rock psychedelia, and avant-garde to create a unique blend that garnered immediate critical attention. Formed in the early '90s by guitarist Glenn Jones, multi-instrumentalist Robin Amos, formerly of the Girls, and Bullet La Volta drummer Chris Guttmacher, Cul de Sac released their first LP, Ecim, on the independent Northeastern label. Bassist and filmmaker Chris Fujiwara played on the release as well and became a permanent member of the band. In addition, steel guitarist and fiddler Ed Yazijian and tape manipulator/ collagist Phil Milstein performed on Ecim. Dredd Foole guested on vocals, but most of Cul de Sac's material on this and later releases was instrumental. According to Jones, Yazijian left the band because they were "too loud"; he later joined Kustomized.



Early live shows were enhanced by the experimental films of Fujiwara and A.S. Hamrah, adding to the band's eclectic mystique. After a series of singles, a compilation of rehearsal jams was packaged and released as a second LP in 1995 as I Don't Want to Go to Bed, an interesting low-fi collection. Cul de Sac collaborated with the legendary John Fahey on 1996's The Epiphany of Glenn Jones. Three years later the group released the full-length Crashes to Light, Minutes to Its Fall. The members of Cul de Sac steadfastly oppose categorization. Their original compositions and recordings have been enhanced by instruments of their own creation, including the Contraption and the Incantor."