THE NIHILIST SPASM BAND

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Nihilist Spasm Band logo designed by John Boyle

Founded in 1965 in London, Ontario, Canada, the Nihilist Spasm Band is still playing today, after 44 years, with its original (surviving) members. While they are recognized by members of Noise Bands in Japan and elsewhere as the founders of that musical(?) idiom, they are not really a noise band. The NSB is unique and cannot be pigeon-holed in any musical category. No member of the band has had any musical training whatsoever, nor can any of them play a conventional musical instrument. They play instruments of their own design and construction. While some of these resemble conventional instruments and can for convenience be termed "electric guitar," "electric bass," or "amplified violin," the resemblance to the conventional instruments of those names, in appearance, sound, and playing technique, is only superficial.

The Nihilist Spasm Band came into being more or less unintentionally. In 1965, London, Ontario, artist Greg Curnoe wanted a soundtrack for a 16mm movie he had made. He gathered some of his friends together and they provided the film's "music" using 25-cent kazoos (see photo below). Curnoe and his merry band of non-musicians (see photo below) were having too much fun improvising their non-music to quit after completing the soundtrack. They designed and built larger kazoos and added a one-string acoustic bass and a mismatched set of drums. The next step was electrification, and by 1967 they had settled into what became their permanent instrumentation: electric guitars and bass, amplified kazoos, drums, and evolving versions of Art Pratten's electric violin, the Pratt-A-Various. Bill Exley briefly played a theremin, but for most of the NSB's career he has performed only vocals, occasionally also playing his "instrument": a noisemaker consisting of a cooking pot and marbles. Two new members joined the original six: John Clement, electric guitar (still with the band), and Archie Leitch, slide clarinet, who retired shortly after the band's trip to Europe in 1969.

Except for their first European tour, to Paris, France, and London, England, in 1969, the Nihilist Spasm Band labored in obscurity for many years, playing every Monday night, to comparatively small audiences and sometimes no audience at all, in bars and an art gallery in their home town of London, Ontario. Finally, after more than thirty years, they became an overnight success. They have played concerts and festivals in five of Canada's ten provinces and in several American cities including New York, Chicago, and Pittsburgh. They have toured Japan twice, and Europe three more times since their first visit in 1969, playing in England, France, Belgium, The Netherlands, Germany, and Switzerland. Even though two founding members have died (Greg Curnoe 1936-1992 and Hugh McIntyre 1936-2004), and all the remaining members are senior citizens, they show no sign of slowing down. They still play every Monday night in London, alternating between a bar and an art gallery. The NSB completed its fifth European tour in September and October, 2009, with performances in Austria, Poland, Germany, and France.

Among the Nihilist Spasm Band's fans are Thurston Moore, for whose band, Sonic Youth, they opened in Toronto, and R.E.M., two of whose members, Peter Buck and Mike Mills, sat in with the NSB at a London, Ontario bar one night in 2004.

The Nihilist Spasm Band has released several recordings, beginning with a vinyl single in 1967, followed over the next several years by four vinyl LPs. In the 1990s all of the vinyl recordings were reissued on CD by a Japanese label, Alchemy Records, which also released three CDs of new material. In 1998, 1999, and 2000, the No Music Festival was held in London, Ontario, featuring performances of the Nihilist Spasm Band along with noise bands and other "avant garde" musicians and groups from Canada, the United States, Europe, and Japan. Recordings made at these festivals were released in multiple-CD box sets. In 2000, American jazz saxophonist Joe McPhee visited London, Ontario, and played a concert with the Nihilist Spasm Band. Live recordings from that concert, together with studio recordings made the day before and the day after, were released in a 2-CD set called No Borders. All of the records and CDs mentioned in this paragraph are now out of print and have become collectors' items.

All seven of the NSB's Alchemy CDs are scheduled for reissue on the Band's new label, 20centsMUSIC. We have also obtained the last remaining new, sealed copies of the out-of-print multi-disc box sets of the 1999 and 2000 No Music Festivals (the 1998 box set is now sold out), and of the 2-CD No Borders set with Joe McPhee, and they are offered for sale here: Nihilist Spasm Band CDs

The Nihilist Spasm Band in 1966, before acquiring electric instruments. From left, Bill Exley, vocalist, shouting into his giant megaphone; John Boyle, kazoo; Greg Curnoe, kazoo; Murray Favro, drums;  Hugh McIntyre with his one-string acoustic bass. Left foreground, Art Pratten with his door-stop "Thing."  Photo: Don Vincent, taken in Greg Curnoe's studio. From the cover of REGION Issue No. 8
The Nihilist Spasm Band in 1968, posing against the back wall of the York Hotel, the pub in which they played every Monday night for many years in the 1960s and '70s. From left, Hugh McIntyre (bass), Art Pratten (Pratt-A-Various), Archie Leitch (slide clarinet), Murray Favro (guitar, drums), John Clement (guitar), Bill Exley (vocals, theremin), John Boyle (kazoo), Greg Curnoe (kazoo, drums).                                   Photo: Ian MacEachern
	"Canada's Official Music Team" In 1969 The Nihilist Spasm Band was chosen by the government of Canada to represent Canada at the Sixth Biennale des Jeunes in Paris, France. The somewhat bemused musicians, wearing red and black jackets they had designed bearing the logo "Canada's Official Music Team," were flown across the Atlantic at government expense. In Paris they were put up at a fine hotel and treated to a lavish reception at the palatial residence of the Canadian ambassador to France. After playing in Paris, on the way home they stopped over in England and gave a performance in London. Meanwhile back in their own London (Ontario), the only media attention their trip received was a cover story in 20 Cents Magazine (three of whose founders—Curnoe, Pratten, and McIntyre—were NSB members), and popular morning radio talk show host John Dickins, who in the same issue of 20 Cents told the story of how he was summarily fired shortly after playing selections from the NSB's first album on his show. Pictured on the 20 Cents cover are (top row, from left) Greg Curnoe, Archie Leitch, Murray Favro, Bill Exley, and (bottom row) John Boyle, Hugh McIntyre, Art Pratten. Photo credits: Bob McKenzie (Curnoe, Leitch, Favro, Boyle);  Bill McGrath (Exley, McIntyre); The London Free Press (Pratten).  © 1969 The Twenty Cents Publishing Company
An original 1965 Nihilist Spasm Band kazoo	The Art Pratten-designed large double-membrane kazoo played by Bob McKenzie at the York Hotel in the 1970s (with Jim Falconbridge and Melissa Hahn) Photo: Ian MacEachern, SITE Sound, October 1990
The Nihilist Spasm Band in 1998, with their instruments. From left, Hugh McIntyre, 3½-string electric bass; John Clement, electric guitar; John Boyle, amplified kazoo; Bill Exley, vocals, cooking pot with marbles; Murray Favro, electric guitar; Art Pratten, Pratt-A-Various (a sort of electric violin). Clement and Favro double on drums.
The Nihilist Spasm Band performing at a festival in Meaford, Ontario, in August 2007. From left, Murray Favro, Bill Exley, Art Pratten, John Boyle. NSB members Clement, Pratten, Exley, Favro, and Boyle pose in front of London's Dissent nightclub with "constant guest performer" Aya Onishi. Who are these guys? Anyone who knows the Nihilist Spasm Band only from its unconventional non-music might be forgiven for assuming, as did David Keenan in the June 2008 issue of The Wire magazine, that its members are "freaks." Well, the most freakish thing about the NSB members is that despite the weirdness of their performances, they themselves are anything but freaks.  All five of the surviving members are senior citizens, ranging in age, as of their 2009 birthdays, from 66 to 70. Four of the five have been married to their original wives for over forty years, and have from two to four adult children. Greg Curnoe was also married, with three children, and had he not been killed in a road accident in 1992 would almost certainly have also celebrated his fortieth wedding anniversary. The exceptions were the late Hugh McIntyre, who never married, and John Boyle, whose 25-year marriage to his first wife, with whom he has one daughter, ended in divorce. He is now married to the NSB's "constant guest performer," Aya Onishi. In terms of marriage, then, the NSB members have certainly beaten the statistics, as nearly 40% of Canadian marriages end in divorce. Archie Leitch, during the few years he was with the band, was also married, with three children. Looking at employment, three band members, Curnoe, Boyle, and Favro, are among the most respected of contemporary Canadian artists. The other band members are now retired from "conventional" jobs: John Clement was a family physician, Art Pratten was an employee of the London, Ontario newspaper, Bill Exley was a secondary school teacher, Hugh McIntyre was a librarian, and Archie Leitch was an accountant during his brief tenure with the band. All but one band member are homeowners (including former member Leitch, and deceased members Curnoe and McIntyre), and even the single exception, John Boyle, formerly owned his own home and studio for many years. In 1965, the same year the Nihilist Spasm Band got started, its members, along with a number of other people who "hung out" at Greg Curnoe's studio, realized they missed the church picnics they had enjoyed as children, so they decided to start a family picnic of their own. Most of the people were then not yet married. Those who were brought their spouses and children; others brought their parents, and even, in at least one case, grandparents. The picnic, with its races and box lunches, has been held continuously ever since, on the first Sunday after Labour Day. The earliest picnics were held in Port Stanley, on Lake Erie about 30 miles south of London. With only two exceptions, all subsequent picnics have been held at the current venue, the park in Poplar Hill, a village about 16 miles west of London. September 2009 marked the 45th consecutive family picnic of "The Nihilist Party of Canada," to which now the participants bring not only their children, but also their grandchildren.  Photos of NSB members at the Fifth Annual Picnic of the Nihilist Party of Canada, 1969 Links to comments & reviews Nihilist Spasm Band entry at All Music Guide Article & photos in THE WIRE magazine (June 2008)   You can buy the print version of this issue on line. Bob McKenzie's response to David Keenan's article in THE WIRE Bruce Lee Gallanter Review of the 25th Annual International Festival Musique Actuelle Victoriaville (May 2008) Europe awaits Nihilist noise — James Reaney, London Free Press, April 2008 The godfathers of noise: NSB members Boyle, Pratten, and Favro interviewed by Rui Eduardo Paes (March 2007) "Princes of Chaos": Interview with Murray Favro, John Boyle, and Aya Onishi — Libération (France), October 2006 Article by Stewart Mason, Amplifier magazine (May 2006) Montreal Mirror (April 2006) Simon Thibaudeau's photos of the NSB playing at La Sala Rossa, Montreal (April 2006) Review of NSB's performance at Western Front in Vancouver (October 2005) You'll have to scroll way down to find it. Photos by Martin Bowman and Alison Orr of the NSB performing in Hasselt, Belgium (2004) THE INCAPACITANTS + AUBE: "a tribute of sorts to the Nihilist Spasm Band" (March 2003) George Bowering — poet, novelist, baseball fan, winner of two Governor-General's Awards, member of the Order of Canada, and Canada's first Poet Laureate — lived in London, Ontario briefly in the 1960s. Interviewed in 2003 by the student newspaper of Simon Fraser University (where he taught from 1972 to 2001), Bowering was asked to name his favourite band. His reply: "The Nihilist Spasm Band of London, Ontario. They've been going since the mid-sixties. They're a noise band."  — Interview by Sarom Bahk, The Peak, Simon Fraser University's Independent Student Newspaper, February 17, 2003. Robert Fulford's column about the Nihilist Spasm Band — National Post (Sept. 12, 2000) Review of the NSB's performance at the Knitting Factory, New York City — New York Times (August 28, 1997) The Nihilist Spasm Band on Japanese television during their first tour of Japan in 1996. From left, Hugh McIntyre, John Boyle, Art Pratten, Bill Exley, John Clement.    CLICK HERE to see the video.   Carleen Knowlton's review of a Montreal performance by the Nihilist Spasm Band (April, 1989) If you know of any other articles or reviews of the NSB we should link to please let us know by email. Thanks.
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To learn more about the Nihilist Spasm Band visit the Official Website of THE NIHILIST SPASM BAND	For information about current and future CD releases Email to 20centsMUSIC