Panicsville

HISTORY
    The conception & birthing process of Panicsville began in the Spring of 1992. The original lineup was David Forquer, Ryan Kohler & Andy Ortmann. The first year of existence would yield a handful of home recordings using primarily consumer electronics with little to no editing capabilities. We did not predetermine that we were a band, by any means, not until later. We eventually decided that we should have some sort of name to put on all these cassettes that littered my St.Louis apartment. While reading a copy of “Patty goes to Washington” by Frances Spatz Leighton, (an adaptation from the TV show Patty Duke), it hit me! The exclamation Patty used throughout the whole book, the word that could only describe the perilous adventure that she would embark….Panicsville!
    Sometime during 1993, Ryan was possessed & moved to a commune, thus removing himself from society, not to mention Panicsville. Now a duo, we continued recording, honing both skills & equipment. It seemed that we were unsatisfied merely as a recording project & yearned to take our work to a public level. Our first official Panicsville performance was to transpire Halloween 1993. This was a house party in Edwardsville, IL. Also on the bill was Chalk 22 (pre-Laddio Bolocko), Man Igno (pre-PHUT) and another band whose name slips my mind. This was a fantastic show, Chalk 22 opened with fire-breathing nuns & on stage copulation, a tough set to follow. Man Igno was upset because of some sort of party turbulence & ended up going back to St.Louis without playing, I believe it had something to do with a broken toilet. Panicsville was ready, armed with dry ice bombs & electronics and a garage full of drunk hicks & hipsters we were ready. All power was connected to high power lights which were powered up with an amazingly voluminous sound. These lights facing into the crowd was only antagonizing the people who were trying to find the source of the power to abort our performance. Dave had brought a couple computer keyboards filled with blood that he smashed during the cacophony which riled everyone into a frenzy. A successful debut which set the stage for Panicville in years to come.
    Sometime in 1994 Forquer quit the group to move to Minneapolis. A saddening period as our ideas were solidifying to a level of gratification, thus the following years saw the personnel i n a state of flux, consisting of about 10-15 different members. The first Panicsville record was released in 1996, appropriately titled “Four Notes in Search of a Tune”. This record was created by destroying piles of collected records, ranging from opera to rap to heavy metal, whatever we could find. These were smashed, then pieced back together in the shape of a 12” and in a fashion that would indeed play on a turntable. This anti-record was a painstaking edition of 100 copies, with unexpected reviews from newspapers from St.Louis to San Francisco, Four Notes… was merely the beginning.
    Later in 1996 we began recording a proper CD, Floccinaucinihilipification (meaning: to belittle others). The personnel on these recordings consisted of Aaron Smith, Drew St.Ivany, Dave Stone, Ben Armstrong & Andy Ortmann. Packaged in textured plexi-glass in an edition of 500 copies, (the first 75 being round whereas the remaining quantities were square) this was actually released after I had moved to Austin TX & Laddio Bolocko (Drew & Ben) had relocated to NY. While in Austin, The Last Compulsory Exercise CD was being developed through the mail. Released in 1997, in an edition of 500 hand engraved copies in steel plates The Last Compulsory Exercise was our shining moment. Also appeared in the Top 10 releases from Austin TX the same year.
    In the Spring of 1998, I fled back to the comfort & sanity of the midwest. During this period, the “Evil ?” CD was recorded with the assistance of Chris Smentkowski (Brain Transplant) & Jeremy Melsha. This was to be my final year in St.Louis before heading to Chicago. Also in this time the Brain Transplant/Panicsville 7” was released as well as the John Wiese/Panicsville 5”. After a year of planning it was time to head to Chicago, summer 1999. The first month was a bit of a tragedy. The suicide of David Forquer was the most intense of these incidents, one that fills me with sorrow to this day.
    The coming months brought forth hope with a handful of new releases. The Rubber-O-Cement/Panicsville 12” & the Panicsville/Inflatable Alterboys 12” (the debut of Fritz Noble of Strangulated Beaotoffs’ fame new project). I also managed to get roped into a tour with William Bennett (Whitehouse) and a slew of girls on the Extreme Music From Women tour in 2000. Needless to say that was a wonderful & enriching experience.
    The following year saw the public profile of Panicsville blossom propel to higher heights due to a featured interview in world-renowned noise annual Bananafish. This year also yielded a summer tour with Zipper Spy & a few nameless electro-deadbeats. My first car trip to the west coast; beautiful, painful yet necessary. The next year saw the development of the Panicsville sound with current member Jeremy Fisher (War Crimes Tribunal/I Live in LA). The Summer of 2002 saw Panicsville on a 3 week European tour with Metalux (Hanson).
    Since then, countless shows have been played throughout the US with lots of wonderful bands, you know who you are. Other records released in that time include the “Let the Excuses Begin!” LP on Thaglasz (Germany) featuring the talents of Carbon (Metalux), Zipper Spy, Thymme Jones (Cheer Accident), Coerl, Luftwaffe & Zeek Sheck. Also released were 2 collaborative singles with Vertonen & Sissy Spacek. A handful of current records & CDs are in the works for future release in 2003.