The Nihilist Spasm Band (NSB) is a Canadian

noise band Noise music is a genre of music that is characterised by the expressive use of noise within a musical context. This type of music tends to challenge the distinction that is made in conventional musical practices between musical and non-musical ...

formed in 1965 in

London, Ontario London (pronounced ) is a city in southwestern Ontario, Canada, along the Quebec City–Windsor Corridor. The city had a population of 422,324 according to the 2021 Canadian census. London is at the confluence of the Thames River, approximate ...

. The band was founded by Hugh McIntyre, John Clement, John Boyle, Bill Exley, Murray Favro, Archie Leitch, Art Pratten, and Greg Curnoe. Leitch has since retired, Curnoe was killed in a bicycle accident in 1992, and McIntyre died of heart failure in 2004. The band members are mostly local artists. They were one of the artists named on the Nurse with Wound list The term " spasm band" refers to a band that uses homemade instruments. Most of the NSB's instruments are modifications of other instruments, or wholly invented by the members. In addition to the homemade instruments, members are encouraged to improvise. The range of the improvisation is such that instruments are not tuned to each other, tempos and time signatures are not imposed, and the members push the ranges of their instrumentation by engaging in constant innovation and ever-increasing volume over the course of a performance.

Zev Asher Zev Asher (May 9, 1963 – August 7, 2013) was a Canadian experimental musician and documentary film maker. Biography Born in Montreal, Quebec, to a Jewish family. His father Stanley was an compulsive collector of popular cultural artefacts. A mo ...

's documentary film ''What About Me: The Rise of The Nihilist Spasm Band'' premiered at the

Toronto International Film Festival The Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF, often stylized as tiff) is one of the largest publicly attended film festivals in the world, attracting over 480,000 people annually. Since its founding in 1976, TIFF has grown to become a perman ...

in 2000. Drawing from the inspiration of finding a copy of the Nihilist Spasm Band's first L.P. ''No Canada'' in the pile of 1970's ephemera in his family's basement; the documentary explores the legacy of the NSB as Canadian noise music pioneers.

Discography

* ''The Sweetest Country This Side of Heaven'' (vinyl single, 1967; reissued on CD, 1996), Arts Canada * ''No Record'' (vinyl LP, 1968; reissued on CD, 1996; reissued on vinyl, 2000), Allied Record Corporation * ''Vol. 2'' (vinyl LP, 1979; reissued on CD, 1996), Music Gallery Editions * ''1984'' (audiocassette, 1984; reissued on CD, 1999), Chimik Communications * ''¬x~x=x'' (vinyl lp, 1985; reissued on CD, 1996),

United Dairies United Dairies is a former United Kingdom-based creamery, milk bottling and distribution company. The company was formed in 1915 and merged to form Unigate in 1959. During World War I, there were dire shortages of men, horses and vehicles com ...

Records * ''What About Me'' (CD, 1992), Alchemy Records * ''Live in Japan'' (CD, 1997), Alchemy Records * ''Every Monday Night'' (CD, 1999), Alchemy Records * ''No Borders'' with Joe McPhee (2xCD, 2001), Non Musica Rex * ''NSB Live at Western Front'' (CD, 2006), NSB * ''No Nihilist Spasm Band in Mulhouse'' (vinyl LP, 2007), Les Mondes Mental * ''No Borders to No Borders'' with Reynols (CD, 2007),

Disques Hushush Disques Hushush Inc. (also known as Disques Hushush or more simply as Hushush) is an independent record label created by Dimitri della Faille (aka recording artist Szkieve) in Montreal (Quebec), Canada in 1998. Hushush mainly releases experiment ...

* ''Live In Geneve, Switzerland October 2006'' with Fossils (cassette, 2007), Wintage Records & Tapes * ''theBESTweCANdo'' (best-of compilation) (CD, 2008), NSB * ''Nothing is Forever'' (LP, 2013), Wintage Records & Tapes, WRT-99 * ''Breaking Wind'' (LP, 2013), Rekem Records, Rekem 04 * ''No Record'' (vinyl LP re-re-release, 2014), Pacemaker Entertainment, Ltd., LION LP-136 * ''Fluxus'' (vinyl Split-LP with

Kommissar Hjuler Kommissar Hjuler (born Detlev Hjuler; 1967) works as a sound recordist in the field of Noise and Post-industrial music, visual artist, film maker and police officer at Flensburg, a town on the German border with Denmark. He often works together wit ...

, 2015), Psych. kg * ''Last Concert in Japan'' (CD, 2016), Alchemy Records, TECH-24486

Appears on

* ''No Music Box'' — No Music Festival 1998 (6-CD box set, 1998), Entartete Kunst Recordings * ''no99'' — No Music Festival 1999 (5-CD box set, 1999), Entartete Kunst Recordings * ''No Nothing'' — No Music Festival (6-CD box set, 2000), Non Musica Rex

Members

*John Clement –

guitar The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected strin ...

bass guitar The bass guitar, electric bass or simply bass (), is the lowest-pitched member of the string family. It is a plucked string instrument similar in appearance and construction to an electric or an acoustic guitar, but with a longer neck and ...

, drums *John Boyle –

kazoo The kazoo is an American musical instrument that adds a "buzzing" timbral quality to a player's voice when the player vocalizes into it. It is a type of '' mirliton'' (which itself is a membranophone), one of a class of instruments which modifie ...

thumb piano Mbira ( ) are a family of musical instruments, traditional to the Shona people of Zimbabwe. They consist of a wooden board (often fitted with a resonator) with attached staggered metal tines, played by holding the instrument in the hands and ...

, drums *Bill Exley –

vocals Singing is the act of creating musical sounds with the voice. A person who sings is called a singer, artist or vocalist (in jazz and/or popular music). Singers perform music (arias, recitatives, songs, etc.) that can be sung with or withou ...

, cooking pot * Murray Favro – guitar *Art Pratten – "pratt-a-various," water-pipe

Guest performers

*Aya Onishi – drums, kazoo, "constant guest performer" since 1999 *Owen Curnoe - Drums *Mark Favro - Casio keyboard *Galen Curnoe - guitar *Tim Glasgow

Previous members

*Hugh McIntyre – bass guitar (1965–2004) *Archie Leitch – slide clarinet (1965–?) * Greg Curnoe – kazoo, drums (1965–92)

References

External links

20centsMUSIC — Record label of the Nihilist Spasm Band

Official Nihilist Spasm Band website
* Nihilist Spasm Band allmusic entry {{DEFAULTSORT:Nihilist Spasm Band Musical groups established in 1965 Musical groups from London, Ontario Canadian experimental musical groups Free improvisation ensembles Canadian art rock groups Noise musical groups 1965 establishments in Ontario