Cock E.S.P. is an experimental music and performance art ensemble founded by Emil Hagstrom in Minneapolis in 1993. The group draws on the most transgressive and absurdist elements of both popular and experimental Twentieth Century music and performance art, realizing a diverse and energetic palette of abstract electronic music influenced by such styles as Japanese Noise, free jazz, punk rock, black metal and hardcore industrial. Rare among the group’s boundary-pushing peers, Cock E.S.P.'s canon includes a high degree of self-effacing humor, satire and unfiltered emotion; this not only makes the group more accessible to a general audience, but also directly challenges the antisocial "shock value" norms and elitist conformism common in underground music.. The roots of E.S.P. date back to 1984, when co-founder P.C. Hammeroids organized a noise ensemble called Grandpa Eats Goat Cheese in order to perform a show in Mankato, Minnesota. Over the next nine years Hammeroids recorded and performed under several names until finally joining forces with Hagstrom in 1993 to create Cock E.S.P. Hammeroids retired in 1996 and was replaced by Matt Bacon, who has remained a core member ever since. The current line-up consists of Hagstrom and Bacon along with Jason Wade (FAGGOT) and Nicole Rode (Riverbottom Suckerfish, Rape Door) as well as occasional appearances by Scott Burns (Sauce Party) and professional dominatrix Paige Flash. Cock E.S.P. concerts are short, chaotic vignettes which push their absurdist concept to an extreme level. Concentrating more on the performance aspect itself than on the sound, the group walks the path paved by such arts movements as Fluxus and Futurism by causing the audience to question the basic expectation of live recital itself. Whearas a modern experimental composer might explore a certain set of atonal sounds over the course of an hour-long work -- or as a punk band might play a dozen standard three-chord songs before ending their set by knocking over their equipment in a frenzy of feedback -- Cock E.S.P. condenses this action into cathartic five-minute long episodes, which are simultaniously confusing, amusing and intellectually confrontational. The group's recorded output has always sought to invoke the same themes and reactions as their live performances, but without the visual aspect there is a greater emphasis on the music itself. Using layers of cheap and broken electronics, sheet metal, distorted vocals and the occassional traditional instrument, Cock E.S.P. has transcended their early lo-fi experiments by producing some of the most powerful, inventive and purposely painful sounds in the harsh noise genre. |
Since 1994 Cock E.S.P. has given 220 live performances throughout the US and Europe, playing various rock and jazz clubs, punk houses, theatres, festival stages, art galleries, record stores and warehouse spaces including: 1000fryd (Ålborg), ABC No Rio (New York), Atwood Community Center (Madison), AZ-Conni (Dresden), Bedlam Theatre (Minneapolis), Blå (Oslo), The Church (Minneapolis), Churchill's (Miami), Dodorama (Rotterdam), Empty Bottle (Chicago), First Avenue (Minneapolis), Flor y Canto Community Center (LA), Knitting Factory (New York), L'usine (Geneva), Maine College of Art (Portland), Missouri University (Columbia), MIT (Cambridge), Room 710 (Austin), Samfundet (Trondheim), School of the Museum of Fine Arts (Boston), Soap Factory (Minneapolis), University of Chicago (Chicago), and the Walker Art Center (Minneapolis). In addition, the group has appeared on live bills with such artists as Acid Mothers Temple, Anal Cunt, Devendra Banhart, Black Dice, Bloodyminded, Borbetomagus, Boredoms, Caroliner Rainbow, Rhys Chatham, Dresden Dolls, Roky Erickson, The Flying Luttenbachers, Gang Wizard, Goodiepal, Hair Police, Harry Pussy, Impaler, The Jesus & Mary Chain, Edward Ka-Spel (Legendary Pink Dots), Steve Mackay (The Stooges), Melt-Banana, Melvins, Nihilist Spasm Band, Nine Inch Nails, Ovo, Sissy Wish, Stereolab, Steven Stapleton (Nurse with Wound), Sudden Infant, Thighpaulsandra, Tool, Wasteoid, Wolf Eyes and Z'ev (Psychic TV). Cock E.S.P.'s ever-tightening focus and sense of professionalism can be seen over the course of the group's 16 albums, 11 singles and numerous videos, compilation appearances and cassette tapes. Over the years they have collaborated with such noted underground noise artists as Aube, Burning Star Core, Costes, Crank Sturgeon, Dolores Dewberry, Rosemary Malign, Lasse Marhaug, Merzbow, Mr. Natural, K.K. Null, Diane Nelson, Panicsville, Richard Ramirez, Smell & Quim, To Live & Shave In LA, V/Vm and Violent Onsen Geisha. The group has also appeared on compilations alongside such diverse artists as Andrew W.K., Derek Bailey, Bomb20, Cattle Decapitation, Coil, Current 93, Jad Fair, Harvey Sid Fisher, Carlos Giffoni, Bruce Gilbert, Hijo Kaidan, His Name is Alive, Jansky Noise, The Locust, Macronympha, Masonna, Thurston Moore, John Oswald, Reynols, Gino Robair, Sockeye, Throbbing Gristle and Today is the Day. |
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E.W. Hagstrom, Jason Wade, Nicole Rode 2009 408x657 pixels |
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Matt Bacon, Jason Wade, Scott Burns, E.W. Hagstrom 2009 877x666 pixels |
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E.W. Hagstrom 2007 640x276 pixels |
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E.W. Hagstrom, Matt Bacon 2002 2000x1353 pixels |
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"Somewhere between repellent, hilarious and just plain ridiculously stupid." "Is this guerrilla performance art? Am I on a hidden-camera TV show? Am I just stupid for not 'getting it'? Are you fucking kidding me? These are all normal reactions and seemingly a part of the grand concept that the E.S.P.-ers have been pimping for a decade." "Minneapolis' Cock E.S.P. sound a bit like Radiohead - if Radiohead played an amplified cement mixer and forced Thom Yorke to shriek indecipherable obscenities in a donkey outfit while attacking his bandmates." "Paving the way for Wolf Eyes to make noise safe and fashionable for the MySpace generation." "Minneapolis' Cock E.S.P.might be called underground or performance art, but is more likely a joke." "A borderline-beautiful display of human wreckage." "Det kunstneriske understrekes også med kyllingdrakter, blod, toppløse maskerte damer og annet performancetull. Så får du heller låne hørselsvernet til naermeste baby imens." ""Musik die wie ein Faustschlag voll in den Magen geht." "På dét punkt er Cock E.S.P. sandelig grænseoverskridende: En hysterisk eksplosion af dårlig smag og dårligere manerer, der ikke kan undgå at få én til at reagere!" "Horridly obnoxious sounding." "There are folks spending a lot of money to convince us that the logical endpoint of indie rock is a market glut of plodding, vaguely tormented riff rockers. But in small dumpy rooms everywhere, the idiom is getting a real Viking funeral from noise artists chewing up the music and joyfully spitting back the debris. Cock E.S.P. crams smutty, snotty manifestos into nasty, brutish, short sets. I recommend safety goggles, ear plugs and punctuality." "No one had seen anything like Cock E.S.P. Their shows rarely exceeded five minutes. Often, they lasted only three. By the end, the stage was a catastrophe of overturned amps, smashed props, stripped costume pieces, and sprawled, nude bodies, the audience a daze of numbed ears." "These longtime Minneapolis noise merchants dress up in ridiculous costumes, make sounds that will automatically loosen your stool and throw household appliances at each other." "If Extreme Championship Wrestling were a noise band, it would be Cock E.S.P." "Harsh electronics, grating noises, and spookily inhabited wastelands of sonic detritus." "The group's wretchedly kinky performance-art antics make Cock E.S.P. shows antagonistic to eyes and ears alike." "Sonic hurricanes." "Cock E.S.P. sounds like these guys want to be like Masonna but can't make it." "Just as confrontational and extreme and aggressive as anyone else who grew up preening to Godbullies records." |
"Cock E.S.P. makes creative use of sounds that would be rejected by other musicians as equipment failure, as if to point out that seeming disasters can become art as well as humor." "As Cock E.S.P. has eloquently proved throughout their career, it's hard to take anything too seriously when it includes someone in a donkey mask humping an amplifier." "Splattering digital distortion and synapse-cauterizing electrospasms across your frontal lobe like some psychotic Jackson Pollock, Cock E.S.P. isn't the kind of band your mom wants you to like." "Fairly enjoyable audio pain." "Self-destructs in as little as 30 seconds." "U.S. circus noise semi-legends." "If melody, hooks and poignant lyrics are your cup of tea, then Cock E.S.P. are the cigarette butts you discovered too late in your beer can." "Dain-bramaged." "I did not feel safe as these costumed crusaders began hurling large chunks of metal at the audience. The effect they had upon people was comparable to a natural-disaster." "Cock E.S.P. kick up a racket that never sticks around long enough to irritate and after the first few tracks shows the kind of irreverent illogic that only a man in a donkey suit could really deliver." "There really is some talent required to make such an overwhelming clamor. It's hard to offend virtually everyone, but Cock E.S.P. manages to do so, from their name to the title of the albums to the guitar squelch codas to the live show audience members yelling, they manage to rub me the wrong way in just that right way. Right now, I'm listening to them on my portable CD player with the headphones lying on the desk, and you know what? It's still remarkably unpleasant! Destroy all music indeed." "Likely to appeal to heavy drinking idiots." "Unbearable and tedious." "Funny enough the first couple times, but tends to get boring rather quickly." "An interesting listen." "May not fit into most people's idea of 'music' and you sure as hell can't fuck to it." "Confrontational and potentially dangerous, not only to an unsuspecting audience, but to themselves." "A two-man noise comedy performed at ground zero during a bombing run." "Squirming ugliness." "There is never a boring moment." "Semen-encrusted fun for the whole family." |
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