Formed in 1982, Live Skull is considered by many aficionados to be the quintessential New York noise band. Together with Sonic Youth and Swans, Live Skull defined the term "noise rock" in the 1980s, spearheading the post-No Wave underground music scene in NYC with a series of legendary live performances and eight groundbreaking records released over the course of that decade. Often brutal and yet strangely seductive, each of these classic records creates hooks out of the most unlikely, seemingly disruptive elements, subverting traditional rock forms in previously unheard ways that became an undeniable (albeit often unacknowledged) influence on many of their contemporaries.
“Of the scowling noise-rockers peppering downtown Manhattan throughout the 80s, Live Skull was the leanest and meanest around." (VICE)
In his much-quoted review for The New York Times, Robert Palmer declared, "With each new record, New York's Live Skull delivers a more concentrated brand of emotional intensity, a more ferociously disciplined sonic assault. Live Skull's music – a high-wire act played for keeps, without a net – is as challenging, as spiritually corrosive, and ultimately as transcendent as Albert Ayler's mid-60's free jazz or the implacable drone-dance of the early Velvet Underground. It's one of the essential sounds of our time." And, writing for New Look magazine, Robert Palmer famously declared: “The most startlingly original array of guitar sounds and approaches since Jimi Hendrix. They make guitars do things you’ve never imagined."
After a 30-year break, Live Skull will be releasing a new album this fall, Saturday Night Massacre, via Bronson Recordings, featuring current members Mark C, Rich Hutchins, and Kent Heine, as well as former members Thalia Zadek and Marnie Greenholz.
