Events . Chrome and Hex Hollow at Spirit

Chrome and Hex Hollow at Spirit

postpunk industrial legends from SF
Concert
Spirit 242 51st Street Pittsburgh
21+ $0 / $16

Sat May 26 6 pm doors (early!) $16 adv/$20 door 21+ show
Spirit Lodge 242 51st St Lawrenceville

first Pittsburgh appearance ever!
CHROME postpunk industrial legends from SF, since 1975!
now on Cleopatra Records
https://chromemusic.bandcamp.com/album/techromancy
with special guests Hex Hollow https://www.facebook.com/biologicalradio

Advance tickets on sale (starting April 10) at
https://chromepittsburgh.brownpapertickets.com
and (starting April 17) in stores at Juke Records (Bloomfield), Caliban Books (Oakland), Jerry's Records (Squirrel Hill) and Dave's Music Mine (South Side).

CHROME

Chrome is an American rock band founded in San Francisco, California in 1975.

The sound of the group is often coarse and features heavy elements of feedback and distortion. Their experiments in mixing synthesized noise with rock instrumentation, marking them as part of the post-punk movement, have been cited as a forerunner of industrial rock music. During the 1970s, Chrome's music did not fit into any particular music scene in America.

Chrome was formed in 1975 by Damon Edge (real name Thomas Wisse: drums, vocals, synths, production) and Gary Spain (bass guitar, violin) in San Francisco. Chrome took part of their inspiration for their rough and sometimes chaotic music from punk pioneers like the Stooges. They recorded and released their first album, The Visitation. After the recording of the first album, singer Mike Low left the band, to be replaced by new guitarist Helios Creed.

Chrome's commercial and artistic breakthrough came in 1977 with their second album, Alien Soundtracks. During recording, Chrome, aided by Creed's input, largely abandoned conventional rock compositions, instead employing cut-up and collage techniques and heavily processed sound to create a sci-fi punk style. The album was given 4 out of 5 stars in the UK music paper Sounds, and Chrome began gradually to gain a cult reputation in the UK and in Europe.

Their third studio album, Half Machine Lip Moves, was released in 1979, continuing in the vein of the previous album, but heavier, with Creed's feedback guitar more to the fore. Edge's rough and ready drumming on this album included hitting pieces of scrap metal. Half Machine Lip Moves remains their best-known work. It was listed at No. 62 in The Wire list of "100 Records That Set the World on Fire (While No One Was Listening)", and was cited as the "beginning of industrial rock".

Half Machine Lip Moves and their 1979 EP Read Only Memory cemented the band's growing reputation in the UK and led to the band being signed to Beggars Banquet Records for their fourth album, Red Exposure. By this time Chrome consisted solely of Edge and Creed. The album marked a move away from the more frenetic style of the two previous albums, with more use of drum machines and synthesizers.

In 1983, Edge moved to Paris and a new lineup of Chrome was formed. Edge continued to release albums with various (mainly Europe-based) musicians under the Chrome moniker over the next decade. Meanwhile, Creed had launched a successful solo career, releasing on labels such as Sub Pop, Amphetamine Reptile and Cleopatra.

In August 1995, Edge was found dead in his Redondo Beach apartment in California; the cause of death was heart failure. Edge had been in contact with Creed and talked about reforming Chrome.

A Creed-led version of Chrome that featured previous members John and Hilary Stench released a series of albums and toured between 1997 and 2001. Creed later reactivated the Chrome name again, issuing a new album, Feel It Like a Scientist, in 2014.
The group's next album, Techromancy, was released on Cleopatra Records in 2017, followed by a US tour.

Related Entities: Spirit
Tags: Experimental Industrial Post-punk