Celebrate Canada Day with Friendly Rich's salute to The Nihilist Spasm Band

Friendly Rich pays tribute to fellow Canuck outsiders London, Ontario's Nihilist Spasm Band on his new album out today!

Industry Tactics podcast with Friendly Rich & Nihilist Spasm 

The new episode of Industry Tactics podcast focuses on today's release of FRIENDLY RICH SINGS THE NIHILIST SPASM BAND. It features interviews with members of London, Ontario's legendaryNihilist Spasm Band, John Boyle, Aya Ohnishi and John Clement along with members of Friendly Rich's New Orleans noise band Nichol Robertson, Michael Ward-Bergeman and Klaas Hübner.  Listen via Soundcloud right here. 

Preview tracks from the album Friendly Rich Sings The Nihilist Spasm Band and get a copy via Bandcamp right here. Watch a Friendly Rich clip below. 

Friendly Rich joins forces with Nihilist Spasm Band @ The Tranzac, August 24

Friendly Rich suggests earplugs for his throwdown with London's Nihilist Spasm Band with Dinner Is Ruined opening. 

Celebrate 50 years of Canuck cacophony with the Nihilist Spasm Band @ The Garrison, Thursday

Sax great Joe McPhee joins London's finest who may reprise some of their No Record debut from '68.

Watch the Nihilist Spasm Band on Tamori's World Of Music in Tokyo, 1996

Reunion At The York: Ground Zero of a Canuck Cultural Revolt

The Nihilist Spasm Band at the York, 1968: Hugh McIntyre (bass), Art Pratten (Pratt-A-Various), Archie Leitch (slide clarinet), Murray Favro (guitar), John Clement (guitar), Bill Exley (theremin), John Boyle (kazoo), Greg Curnoe (drums).

Believe it or not, the York Hotel – a somewhat seedy neighborhood pub in London, Ontario – which regularly played host to traditional country and folk acts also spawned two of Canada's greatest contributions to the musical avant garde: the Nihilist Spasm Band and the London Experimental Jazz Quartet. The CFPL-TV documentary Reunion At The York, featuring insightful commentary from Eric Stach of the LEJQ intercut with brief flashes of brilliant archival footage, sheds light on London's strange cultural blip in the late 60s that would be heard around the world.

Destroy The Nihilist Picnic - London Experimental Jazz Quartet

Nihilist Spasm Band set to wreak havoc in Toronto

London, Ontario's venerable improvisational music collective The Nihilist Spasm Band – making a rare Toronto appearance with CxFx, PHOLD, Toddler Body and Boner Jerusalem at the Tranzac Club (292 Brunswick) on Wednesday (May 11) – may be considered little more than cult curio by mainstream media at home but outside of Canada they're revered for their wildly creative innovations in sound manipulation. Yamantaka Eye of Boredoms infamy has acknowledged The Nihilist Spasm Band as an important foundational influence on his own sonic assaults.
Check out the clip below from Tamori's World Of Music taped during the NSB's first tour of Japan in 1996 with original members Hugh McIntyre, John Boyle, Art Pratten, Bill Exley and John Clement who originally came together in 1965. Yep, 46 years and still skronking strong.