It all began around the spring of 1983, Tim Sommer would play bass melodies in Mimi Goese’s loft. Mimi and her two roommates at the time would dance and sing while Tim played. Around that time the four had talks of creating a performance based unit and so the embryo that would later form Hugo Largo began.
In the fall of '83, Tim Sommer met Greg Letson while they were both playing with Glenn Branca . During this time Tim told Greg of his notion of a two-bass band, and when the Branca tour ended in late November '83, Tim joined Greg at his 3rd street apartment and put sound to tape. The sounds created by Tim and Greg became the first Hugo Largo material. Tim was fairly certain he had in his mind the idea that Mimi would be the vocalist, but this wasn’t made formal until around March when Tim realised that if a gig was booked they would be forced to actually make the theoretical band real. Tim asked some of his musician friends (a group led by his college dorm friend, Rick Rubin ) if they could open a show for them at Maxwells in April of '84, and with that booked, Mimi, Greg and Tim rehearsed four songs, and played a successful show.
A Few successful shows later and January of 1984 brought the sudden announcement of Gregs departure to pursue other things. Greg was replaced by Adam Peacock (Mimi’s boyfriend at the time) and soon after Hahn Rowe joined as Violinist.
In 1988 Hugo Largo now fully formed released their first offering, the E.P Drum , some of which produced by Michael Stipe of R.E.M (Michael also sung on two of the tracks). This was later reissued as an album with additional material on Brian Eno 's label, Opal Records . Their second album, Mettle , was released in 1989, first on Opal, then on All Saints Records .
Soon after the release of Mettle, Hugo Largo disbanded to pursue other musical careers, with a brief reunion in 1990. During this reunion Bill Stair played bass in place of Tim Sommer. An albums worth of material was recorded (one of which can be heard here 'Unclear') and gigs were played in New York. Sadly only a year later, Hugo Largo disbanded for the last time.
The Legacy is a beautiful one.
Here's some videos