+/- BUGSKULL

Preview to the 2009 PICA show:

In Portland’s hallowed history of rock, Bugskull is a shadowy influence. Born in 1991 as the bedroom four-track project of Sean Byrne, by the mid-90s the band had evolved into a three-piece rock ensemble—Byrne on guitar and vocals, Brendan Bell on bass, and James Yu on drums—weaving a spacy spell for the lucky attendees of their live shows, and releasing a handful of utterly unique albums incorporating elements of electronic music, raga, and alternately plaintive and poppy vocal work. Called Portland’s “sleeping giants” by Snipehunt magazine, the band reforms for an evening of soulful inner space travel. Be there when the giants awaken.

After landing its first album-length cassette Subversives in the Midst (Shrimper, 1992), Bugskull produced a slew of self-released cassettes and then a 10-inch self-titled EP (Quixotic, 1993). The band continued to redefine lo-fi experimentalism with Phantasies and Senseitions (Road Cone, 1994), Crock: The Original Motion Picture Soundtrack (Pop Secret, 1995), and Snakland (Scratch, 1995). Byrne continued producing work after the band’s dissolution in 1996, including Distracted Snowflake Volume One (Pop Secret, 1997), Distracted Snowflake Volume Two (Scratch, 1997), and Bugskull vs. The Big White Cloud (Scratch, 2002). Communication (Digitalis Recordings) will be released Fall 2009.

The performance is accompanied by a live mix of projected images by Portland filmmaker Steve Doughton’s collection of original and found films.

Bugskull breathe ingenuity like the rest of us mortals inhale oxygen.

Alternative Press

This bio appears in the online Trouser Press guide, but was originally published in Badaboom Gramaphone

Bügsküll’s progression from clumsy yet endearing indie-pop to puzzling electronic experimentation is quite amazing, but the seeds were there from the very beginning. Originating with the home recording efforts of Portland, Oregon singer/guitarist/organist Sean Byrne, Bügsküll followed a bunch of cassette releases with a three-song 10-inch. While it strays too close to the legions of Pavement and Galaxie 500 pretenders common at the time, it does manage to transcend these influences and stand as an unchallenging, yet thoroughly enjoyable, introduction.

Phantasies and Senseitions brings Bugskull (the umlauts didn’t last) beyond the realm of indie rock to embrace Brian Eno and Residents’ twisted take on pop music. Songs like “Concave Life” and “Almost Blue” are pop, but distorted and refracted through funhouse mirrors and prisms. It’s clear that Bugskull is preparing to stretch its awkward wings and fly away somewhere.

Bugskull not only flew off into the distance, but left the goddamn planet with their next release. Keep all the electronic noodling, tape loops and absurd humor from the group’s previous work, and toss away all the structure and songcraft that formerly came with it, and that’s Crock. Hallucinogenic and bizarre, Crock sounds like nothing else released that year.

Snakland sounds like a bunch of friends sitting around getting high in a basement while attempting to craft psychedelic epic with cheap keyboards and a sampler. It’s a disappointment, to be sure, but a retarded charm still shines through. These ramshackle songs sound held together by only a wad of gum and a prayer, but gems like “From the Skies” suggest a Magical Mystery Tour for the ’90s.

Pretty much pared back down to Byrne, Bugskull made Distracted Snowflake Volume One, supposedly the story of a small spotted gnome named Clearance Sale as she searches for the ocean. Byrne must have become enamored with current developments in electronica, since some of the backing tracks wouldn’t sound out of place on an Autechre album. Bugskull may continue to incorporate new influences into its mix, but the group still exists in its own little universe.

[Bill Cohen]

This piece was first published in Badaboom Gramophone #3.

The Portland Mercury Posted this blurb before the 2009 show for PICA

Portland’s “sleeping giants” (Snipehunt magazine) reawaken after a long hibernation with this eagerly anticipated reunion gig. Bugskull, largely the project of Sean Byrne, emerged in the early ’90s with relatively straightforward pop rock. But soon Byrne & Co. delved deep into the world of ambience and electronics with legendary albums like Phantasies and Senseitions and Distracted Snowflake Volume One, which explored the outer brainscapes of music, littered with found sound, squeaks, whistles, drones, and hallucinations. For all its freakiness, however, Bugskull’s music retained humanity and warmth, and its harsher tendencies were always tempered by soothing balms of sound that were dizzying in their beauty and musicality. With the largely folk and indie fonts of Portland music at their critical peak, the time has never been riper for the local music scene to rediscover Bugskull. Fans of avant-garde, Krautrock, noise, ambient, and psych will do well to turn their ears back to a sound whose time may, just now, finally be coming.

Bugskull followed, playing meandering, stoner rock that breezily sailed without causing too many ripples. Their music was at all times pleasantly hypnotic, even causing a few brief moments of transcendence. A new song and a Pink Floyd cover aside (“Fearless”), much of their old material was unfamiliar to the audience, a symptom of their being overlooked and on ice for so long. Indeed, Bugskull’s inactivity seemed obvious at a couple points, but if they become an ongoing concern again—and I hope they do—there is no reason why, with a bit more practice and tightness, they won’t quickly become one of the best bands in town. They played in front of a charming collection of stock footage, which ranged from instructional filmstrips to surf flicks to arty dance film to stop-motion animation. It was tough to look away.

All Music Guide Bio

Experimental pop group Bügsküll began its existence as the solo project of Portland, OR-based singer/composer Sean Byrne, and was launched in 1992 with the release of the Shrimper cassette Subversives in the Midst. While early releases like the cassettes Gargamelodies and Magic Tremelo consisted of Byrne’s fractured guitar pop fleshed out by tape loops and samples, by the time of a 1993 self-titled ten-inch for the Quixotic label, Bügsküll had become a true band with the additions of bassist Brendan Bell and drummer James Yu. Split singles with Sone and Quasi followed in 1994 prior to the release of the group’s first full-length effort, the excellent Phantasies & Senseitions; the follow-up, Crock–Original Motion Picture Soundrack, appeared in 1995. Following the release of 1997′s Distracted Snowflake, Volume 1, the steady flow of Bügsküll material trickled to a halt, prompting many to predict the band’s demise; 1999′s Distracted Snowflake, Volume 2 disproved the notion, although the contributions of both Bell and Yu were at best minimal, returning the project to its solo roots. Byrne and Yu also teamed in Big White Cloud.

Time is not our fried is a 2 CD set featuring remixed and remastered material from early bugskull cassette, vinyl and compilation releases- plus one unreleased track. Packaged in a brown paper bag.

Track Listing:

Vol 1.

1. I’ve got the dope
2. Death Comes Closer For Us All
3. Chains
4. Dope Smoking Son
5. Lewis
6. Fences
7. Space Shuttle
8. Muerange
9. Stand On Your Head
10. Not The Fall
11. Its Gonna Be Pretty Angular

Vol. 2

1. My Dream Is Of Destruction
2. All Members Please Rise
3. Disclaimer
4. Stiff As A Board
5. Mandroid
6. False Alarm
7. Next Wave
8. Sunny Day Song
9. The Bloat
10. Exit
11. Pure Love

The title comes from a phrase that someone had scratched into our porch when we all lived at 2041 NE 7th in Portland.

If you want a copy, its $10 post paid (U.S.) through PayPal.

For those in faraway places (Europe, etc) you can order with this button through paypal. CD is $8 plus $7 shipping.

The Second (and last) in the series of tribute cassettes on Eldest Son was a collection of Prince songs. This release features heavy hitters such as Refrigerator and Mark..  and thanks to my disorganization features 2 versions of the same song.

Track list:

Side One

Mark : Dirty Mind

Minnow (with Hilary) : Paisley Park

New Bad Things : Darling Nikki

Paste: The Ballad of Dorothy Parker

Habibi : When u were mine

Speed Bumps : I Could Never Take the Place of Your Man

Kurtz Project : Little Red Corvette

Side Two

Quasi: Take Me With You

Action Pussy : I would Die 4 u

Refrigerator : The Cross

Vehicle : I Could Never Take the Place of Your Man

Bugskull : The Beautiful Ones

Marnie : Seven

Tom, Carrie & Matthew : Nothing Compares 2 U

Bonus Track: Paste: Starfish & Coffee

Magic Tremelo is more exploration into found sounds, tape manipulation and other experimentation. It was (self)released in 1993 on cassette, again on Eldest Son Communications (ESBS7).

Track listing:

My Dream Is Of Destruction

The Mere Guppie

Meurange

The Demystification Of Mars

The Conquest And Subsequent Apportionment Of France

Beginning To End

Drill

The Slow Death Of President Mother Jesus

Gargamelodies was self-released on Eldest Son Communications in 1992 (ESBS6). It marks the first appearance of Brendan Bell as bassist and James Yu as drummer. These songs were recorded on cassette 4-track in the basement of the house that the band lived together in NorthEast Portland.

Track list:
It’s A Monster
Lewis
Space Shuttle
Fences
Eavesdropping
Not The Fall
Half Of It
You Don’t Know
Disclaimer
Dope Smokin’ Son
Someday Soon

Nice work BB. So now, let’s get some content on here.

Subversives in the midst was the first bugskull release. the music was created by Sean pretty much single handedly, and released on Shrimper (Catalog# SHR29)  in 1991.

also known as the muskgrove complex

The track listing is:

Welcome Jimmy
I’ve Got The Dope
Radio Seizure
Chains
Death Comes Closer For Us All
Where The Vultures Are Waiting
Sean + Jimmy
Paris 1 + 2