| Label: | Table of the Elements, Northern Spy Records, Wrong Way Archival Bureau, Magnetism Crafts, Golden Lab, 100% Breakfast, Mister Records, Hiddenbirdhouse, Distile, Archenemy Record Company| associated_acts = | website = | current_members = Jason Sidney Sanford
Mark William Pearson
Daniel Paul Boucher| past_members = Gregory Kenney
Douglas Last
Darryl Blood
Carl Wieting
Jessica Rylan
Malcolm Felder
Adrianne Jorge
Adam Scotto
Christopher Huggins
Joel Hamburger
Justin Kaiden
John Douglas Manson
Mary Staubitz
Farhad Ebrihimi
Kevin Emil Micka
Martina Rossi
Jesse Gallagher
Justin Earl Kipp
David Gerhard Utzinger
Regina Greene
}}Neptune is an experimental / industrial noise rock band originally hailing from Boston, Massachusetts. Throughout its 30 year history, the band has largely operated as a collective, not only by employing a rotating membership, but also often collaborating with other musicians and artists both live and on record. They are noted for having built their custom-made instruments out of scrap steel and other found-object and recycled materials. The instruments themselves can be heavy and foreboding "self-made from antiquated machines and scrap metal, forged at extreme angles like props from a German expressionist film."[1] A reviewer once said of the band: "Neptune really do accurately approximate in their music the tragic and violent desolation of the auto graveyards from which they draw their raw materials."[2] While another wrote: "Neptune’s closest comparison could only be themselves."[3]
Band history
Neptune's origins trace to 1994[4] as a sculpture project by Boston artist/musician Jason Sanford, who forged the band's haphazard guitars and reluctant drums from scrap steel and found objects. Over the years the instruments have evolved to incorporate oscillators and other electronic devices as band "have integrated some really smart looking industrial class synthesizer gear"[5] into their noise-making arsenal. Nine (+) lineups, Thirty-three releases[6] and hundreds of instruments later, the band continues to wrench its sound spatter on self-built instruments to often confounded audiences around the world. As of 2024, the band has played over 700 shows,[7] with a recent US tour in June 2023.[8]
Having toured extensively, Neptune has shared stages with "a variety of artists such as The Ex, Mission of Burma, Ut, Oneida, Lightning Bolt, The Flaming Lips, Blonde Redhead, Melt-Banana, Charles Hayward, Liars, Black Dice, James Chance & the Contortions, Gang Gang Dance, Six Finger Satellite, Wolf Eyes.", Enon, Erase Errata, Arab on Radar and Parts & Labor.[9]
As of 2020, Neptune consists of Sanford along with long-time Neptune collaborators Mark William Pearson and Daniel Paul Boucher.
Personnel
Current members
- Jason Sidney Sanford – guitar, baritone guitar, bass, violin, gas can ukulele, electric thumb piano, electronics, foot-controlled synthesizer, bass lamellophone, spring harp, percussion, feedback organ, tupperphone, radios, vocals
- Mark William Pearson – guitar, baritone guitar, 4-string slide, bass, electronics, large electric spring, percussion, amplified drums, tape machine, tape manipulation, push-button telephone, vocals
- Daniel Paul Boucher – drums, amplified metal toms, found object percussion, saw blade xylophone, oscillators, electronics, violin, gas can ukulele, washboard, vocals
Rotating members
- Kevin Micka – recording engineer, live sound engineer, drums, guitar, electronics, backing vocals
Past members
- Darryl Blood - drums, violin, backing vocals
- Doug Last - percussion, empties, backing vocals
- Carl Wieting- bass, guitar, ukulele, backing vocals
- Gregory Kenney - guitar, vocals, drums
- Malcolm Felder - drums
- Jessica Rylan - bass, vocals, electronics
- Adrienne Jorge - live projections / films, documentarian
- Adam Scotto - drums
- Joel Hamburger - bass
- Christopher Huggins - guitar, vocals, bass
- John Douglas Manson - drums, percussion, vocals
- Justin Kaiden - bass
- David Gerhard Utzinger - live sound engineer, percussion
- Regina Greene - vocals (obscenities), booking
- Mary Staubitz - electronics, tone generator, feedback
- Martina Rossi - guitar (live)
- Farhad Ebrihimi - drums, electronics
- Justin Earl Kipp - percussion, bowed cable, electronics
- Jesse Gallagher - percussion, bowed cable, electronics
Discography
Studio albums
- "Studio Recordings, May MCMXCVII", full-length CD/LP.
- "The Ballet of Process", full-length CD/LP.
- "Intimate Lightning", full-length CD/LP.
- "Mice and Worms", 6-song mini-album 12-inch LP
- "Patterns", full-length CD/LP.
- "Neptune", full-length, LP only.
- "Gong Lake", full-length CD/LP
- "18:40/19:19", full-length LP
- "Cave Drawings", 7 song mini-album 10-inch colored LP + digital counterpart/Digital
- "Silent Partner", full-length CD/LP/Digital
- "msg rcvd", full-length CD/LP/Digital
- "Mother of Millions", full-length Cassette/Digital
- "Green White Red", full-length Digital Reissue
EPs
- "Knife Fight E.P.", 7-inch.
- “Neptune.”, 3-song cassette.
- "Basement Recordings E.P.", 6-song CD.
- "Green Cassette", 5-song C30 Cassette.
- "3" CDR", 5-song CDR.
- "White Cassette", 4-song C20 Cassette.
- "3" Collage CDR", 2 songs.
- "Red Cassette", 6 improvisations, C30 Cassette.
- "3" CDR", 3-song 3" CDR.
- "Tell My People To Go Home", 4-song EP, split release w/ One Second Riot, LP only.
- "Paris Green", 5-track CDR with hand painted art.
- "Roman Business", 4 songs, C20 cassette.
Singles
- "Swang!/Poodle Walk", 7-inch single.
- "Your Company/Productivity is a Science", 7-inch single.
- "At the Pink Pony/A Car Is A Weapon", Live 7-inch Single.
Live albums
- "Live on Pipeline, WMBR 03.16.04"
- "Live at SCSI Cell 11.20.2004"
Videos
- Equestrian Phantasy. Video by Zea Barker, 2006. (from Patterns)
- Silver Pool. Video by Mike Piso, 2008. (from Gong Lake)
- Grey Shallows. Video by Zea Barker, 2008. (from Gong Lake)
- Copper Green. Video by Jonathan Schwartz, 2008. (from Gong Lake)
- Gentleman Caller. Video by Zea Barker, 2021. (from Mother of Millions)
Live Videos
- Thorns. Video by Bill T Miller, recorded at the Paradise, Boston, MA, 8/3/2006. (from Neptune)
- The Penetrating Gaze. Video by Bill T Miller, recorded at the Middle East, Cambridge, MA, 12/29/2005. (from Patterns)
- Live in Strasbourg France (full set, 11 songs). Recorded live at Le Zanzibar, Strasbourg, France, 9/27/06. Video by Normaltv.org.
References
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