Dear Friends,At Last...
The long wait is over!!
Please click this link below...
The trailer for ICONOCLAST (my Boyd Rice documentary) is now online.The World Premiere is at WWW.ICONOCLASTMOVIE.COMPlease let us know what you think of our little love child and please copy/post/distribute our banner to help spread the word!!All The Best,TorandLarry4Ever!!
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It is an Honor and an Extreme Pleasure to introduce you to my Dreamgirl...Tora!!I am Tora's husband and together we are known as 2 LionsI am an artist, writer and filmmaker and I'm currently shooting a documentary and writing a book about Boyd Rice.ICONOCLAST is going to be both a documentary and a book!! It all began when I received an email from Boyd Rice telling me that he was a big fan of my documentaries and that they were "more than just watching something, they were like experiencing A PHENOMENON!!" he continued, "What about doing a documentary about ME?". Needless to say I was thrilled about this opportunity and called Boyd and started shooting the Boyd Rice documentary in June 2004 and just wrapped up shooting in August 2007. I am now feverishly editing approx. 200 hours of interviews with Boyd Rice, Ray Dennis Steckler, Allison Anders, Tiffany Anders, Bob Larson, Jeffrey Vallance, Coop, Johanna Went, Adam Parfrey, Don Bolles, Blanche Barton, Z'EV Douglas Pearce, Vadge Moore, Beth Moore-Love, Jim Morton, Richard Wolstencroft, Matt Skiba, Steve Hitchcock a.k.a. Ferrara Brain Pan, Tom Griswold, Bob Ferbrache, Gidget Gein, Michael Uhlenkott (Monitor), Human Hands, Frederik Nilsen (B People), Brian Clark, Shaun Partridge, Giddle Partridge, Margaret Radnick, Dan Partridge, James "Papa Partridge" Fairley, Snow, Lorin Partridge, Stanton and Szandora LaVey, Ed Colver, Frank Rich, Johnny Strike, Little Fyodor, Martin McIntosh, Michael Sheppard, Rubber O Cement, and many others mastered to DVD and released by Summer/Fall 2008. Oh, did I mention Rodney Bingenheimer, Kitten Natividad, The Goddess Bunny, Suicide Girl DebraJean, Danny Taylor, Marmalade Partridge, Darcey Leonard, Eva, Casa Bonita, and Tiki Boyds ? They are also in this ICONOCLAST!! The documentary will be followed by a fat book of these interviews I did with Boyd and his friends that I will be putting together which is even more interviews and material that I didn't have room to squeeze onto the DVD!! Stay Tuned to WWW.ICONOCLASTMOVIE.COM for more developments as they come in!!Boyd Rice came from the very bosom of American society - a Southern California trailer park. Nurtured in infancy on the cult TV show Dark Shadows - "the wrongful influence on my life, according to my dad" - he dropped out of school in 10th Grade, in order to avoid the daily pounding from local jocks who were convinced he must be gay. Instead, the youthful Rice studied the art of subterfuge, subjecting his neighbours to a steady barrage of destabilizing pranks including impersonating an official from the Bureau Of Animal Control, and convincing a housewife that her son was harbouring poisonous snakes in her backyard. "To listen to this woman screaming at her kid and shaking him around and him squealing, &..39;Mom, I don't have any snakes,' made me realise that we'd sucked people into this alternate reality," he later recalled. "They were playing by our rules." It was an experience that would stand Rice in good stead for later life.Boyd had no ambitions for a nine to five life, surmising that he would probably grow up to become a thief. But a fascination with pop music would open up another avenue for voracious exploration. Whilst his peers smoked dope to Led Zeppelin, Rice was immersing himself in The Archies and The Shangri-La's, noting the extraordinarily manipulative powers of bubblegum music. "It had a directness and seemed like the real stuff," he noted. "It made you feel emotional and I think people find that really threatening, to have some sappy, sugary pop song make them happy or sad. They want to be in control of their emotions. They don't want to submit to something which is just good fun."When Boyd analysed what he liked about such music, he found it was the quality of the actual tones of the girl's voices. "I felt that if somebody could just take these piercing, harsh tones in the girl's voices and reduce them to a drone, that would be great. After a certain amount of time I realised that nobody was actually going to do that, and if I wanted music like that I would just have to figure out a way to create it myself." With no musical training whatsoever, Boyd pursued his vision with the acquisition of a number of tape recorders, collecting sounds from the streets which he would mix and match with sampled Easy Listening samples and run them in loops. "I wanted to do something myself and be in total control, and with a tape recorder that was very easy. You have a blank reel of tape one moment and the next something exists that never existed before. That really excited me."Locally, the responses to his work were somewhat belittling: "In the middle-70's no one was listening to this type of music," he recalled. "People thought I was insane. They thought that I was this creative, talented guy who was just wasting my time by pouring it into some kind of sociopathic attempt to inflict pain on people." His first record, which came to be known as Boyd Rice's 'Black Album' was initially restricted to 85 pressings, recorded at the end of 1975. On it, he took the functional aesthetic of Easy Listening to its furthest logical conclusion: "I think I created something that blanks out your brain, leaving a vacuum and allowing new thoughts to form. There is no area of modern life where you have room for undirected thought. Unless you're sitting on a toilet, there is always some intrusive information. I wanted to create something that would run all the thought out of people's heads."Luckily, Boyd was to find an ally whilst on a trip to London. Hawking copies of 'The Black Album' in the Rough Trade shop, he met Daniel Miller, who was quick to appreciate Rice's singular talents, and a deal with Mute ensued. For his first release, a joint single with Smegma entitled 'Soundtracks 1-3', released in 1980 Boyd decided to title himself NON. "The name implied everything and nothing. It was a time when they were throwing the term 'anti-' onto everything. It seemed to be so reactionary, they seemed so tied to what they were against. I wanted to have something that implied the opposite of that." Boyd was not impressed with punk's 'values'. "Punk was dead on arrival," he considered. "It became so codified, so fossilised so soon. It was just another form of the hippie movement." Rice was not content merely to experiment with frequencies and drones; his 'Pagan Muzak' (Gray Beat US import) single was designed to be played at any speed, and had several holes drilled into it (as did its predecessor) creating a multi-axis for endless playback possibilities. Mute released the 'Black Album' as 'Boyd Rice' in February 1981, and the NON man continued to amaze and annoy his audience in equal quantities with his live performances, although other people's perceptions of him were never top of the Rice agenda: "It's easy, very easy to express a whole range of things in such a way as to make an audience understand them," he told Charles Neal in his book Tape Delay. "It's far more of a challenge to do things exactly as you think they should be done and not care who understands and who doesn't. To tell the truth, it's not actually any challenge for me to do things this way because it simply would not occur to me to do them in any other way." Another single, 'Rise' was released by Mute in January 1982, on 12-inch only, while live material culled from various locations, including Hollywood, Berlin, Paris and London, was assembled for the April '82 album release of 'Physical Evidence'.Meanwhile, in his new San Franciscan base, Boyd was turning author, penning two volumes for Re/Search books; Pranks, a summary of his extra-curricular activities and Incredibly Strange Films, which was later to form the cribbed text for Jonathan Ross' TV series of the same name. Subsequently, he has also co-edited The Manson File, a selection of writings by and about Charles Manson, and contributed to Adam Parfrey's book of end-of-the-millennium essays Apocalypse Culture.Boyd's next Mute project was an album in collaboration with Frank Tovey (Fad Gadget) auspiciously titled 'Easy Listening For The Hard Of Hearing', which has recently been re-released on CD. The album had been recorded in 1981, after NON had supported Fad Gadget on an extensive European tour, but it took three and a half years for the two to agree upon the sleeve design! Made using a gas fire, water pipes and any furniture that happened to by lying around Blackwing studios as they made it as instruments, they fashioned a soundtrack on Boyd's tape recorder that was described by the NME as, "a tapalong collection of wit and invention."Further collaborations were in store for Boyd on 'Nightmare Culture' (Himalaya records) with Current 93 and A Sickness Of Snakes in 1985, before the Mute LP release of 'Blood And Flame' in 1987. This was an album that extended the possibilities for noise, processing cycles of broad rhythms and textures to stunning orchestral effect. Its functional qualities were noted by astute reviewers - "This is music to live by and isn't intended to be sat down and listened to, more to be used and abused as the participant sees fit," noted the NME. For those who hadn't noticed the hidden bubblegum/E-Z agenda under the NON noiseworks, Boyd made comprehension a little easier on 1989's 'Music, Martinis and Misanthropy', a largely acoustic collection made with Sol Invictus' Tony Wakeford, Death In June's Doug Pierce and Strawberry Switchblade's Rose McDowall. The title was a witty homage to Jackie Gleason's 'Music, Martinis and Memories'. "Jackie was a big inspiration," confirmed Boyd. "Another album he put out called 'Lover's Portfolio' had recipes included for 'sippin', dancin' and romancin',' just as our album includes recipes for fun."A collection of NON's '80's output was selected for the 1991 Mute release 'Music For Iron Youth: The Best Of NON', a record which the Chicago Tribune suggested was, "not recommended for anyone whose perch on the mental balance beam is at all precarious." Rice's next NON offering, 1992's 'In The Shadow Of The Sword' debated Social Darwinist issues to the swing of martial rhythm and abstract melody, and it creator posited the question, "Were the founders of the United States stupid enough to believe that all men are created equal? Or was it some sort of Machiavellian con game that they were playing on the populace?" Meanwhile, Boyd's association with Anton LaVey's Church Of Satan brought him to the attention of America's Witchfinder General, the radio evangelist Bob Larson, who, in the course of an on-air debate, bestowed upon Rice the accolade, "You are Satan!" Boyd has since become somewhat of a Larson regular, and has even invited him round for dinner, an event the Pay To Pray minister has made much of ever since. A signed photograph of perhaps his greatest PR man hangs proudly from the walls of Rice's Denver home.In 1993, Boyd resumed working with Rose McDowall, this time for an album's worth of lost 60's classics that would become Spell's 'Seasons In The Sun' LP and 'Big Red Balloon' single, the video for which was made by Ray Dennis Steckler, acclaimed mondo movie director of such class trash as Rat Pfink A Boo Boo. 'Seasons In The Sun' was a haunting collection of Boyd and Roses' favourite downside pop, from Dolly Parton's 'Going Down To Dover' to Nancy Sinatra and Lee Hazlewood's 'Big Red Balloon', and the Terry Jacks does Jaques Brel's suicide tract of the title song, rendered with ghostly strings and mournful pedal steel. True to the ambiguous intent of the originals, Spell were as far removed from the current Cheezy Listening fad as it is possible to get.But it was back to business with NON for 1995's 'Might!', an album based on Ragnar Redbeard's book Might Is Right, a little known tract which is considered to be the definitive exposition of Darwinian Law as it applies to man, his world and nature. Although the exact identity of Redbeard has never been fully proved, it is believed to be the alias of explorer/writer Jack London. "It's like a lost masterpiece that I felt most people would never come into contact with, so I thought it would be nice to do a musical treatment of it," explained Boyd. "And it amuses me to think that if people take issue with any of Redbeard's ideas they'll just have to grin and bear it. It's hard to argue with a dead man."'Might!' deliberately took a different tack from previous NON recordings in its use of spoken word, challenging standard Western notions of decency and morality head on to an infernal symphony of atonal overload. "I feel lucky," Boyd considered. "I have the perfect forum to exorcise all my innate misanthropy. Instead of giving every idiot who tries my patience a punch on the nose, I can go into a recording studio and vent my rage. Not every person has that luxury. There was a guy in the news here who got really pissed off and stole a tank from the National Guard Armoury and went on a rampage through the suburbs, destroying everything in his path. He smashed into houses, crushed parked cars, and just kept going 'til they killed him. I don't know if making a record would have helped this guy, but it's sure kept me out of the headlines."NON played two shows at Club Disobey in October 1995, in Manchester's Haienda and London's LA2. Since then, Rice has contributed to Jim and Debbie Goad's Answer Me! magazine (which, when it appeared in book form was seized by UK customs), as well as interviewing exotica pioneer Martin Denny for Seconds magazine and continuing work on his own "secret book project." He has also been working with acclaimed film director Allison Anders (Gas, Food, Lodging, Four Rooms) on a new movie and spinning discs at a lounge club in Denver. .. GOD AND BEAST marks Rice's first collaboration with a producer, veteran Ken Thomas (David Bowie, Slade, Paul McCartney, Laibach, etc). Thomas applying his Spectoresque techniques to barbaric vignettes like "Between Venus and Mars" and "The Law." God and Beast also includes the only studio versions of NON classics "Out Out Out" and "Total War." Rice was made aware of their longstanding impact during last year's tour of Europe. "After I'd finish, people would chant, 'Total war!' and drag my kettledrum onstage, pounding out the rhythm with their fists." "This world was ever, is now, and ever shall be an ever-living fire, with measures of its kindling and measures going out" - Heraclitus"Boyd Rice is a black pimp."
-- Charles Manson"Boyd was my mentor."
-- Marilyn Manson"Boyd is an iconoclast!"
-- Anton LaVey
Church of Satan"Boyd Rice has crossed over into the realm of being a pop icon, not unlike Andy Warhol, Tiny Tim, or Charles Manson. His face is like a corporate logo synonymous with a specific type of worldview. When you see Boyd it's as though you're gazing upon the Golden Arches or the Swastika. Or both."
-- Shaun Partridge
The Partridge Family Temple"Like all Satanists, terrorists, public enemies and the like, [Boyd Rice] is one of the nicest people you could wish to meet."
-- Marc Almond
Soft Cell"Boyd Rice is a free mind in a world of shackled brains."
-- Beth Love
UNPOP ART"Boyd Rice is one of the few people that has managed to perfectly combine his Art and Reality in his day to day Life. He is Magick in Theory and Practice and it's been an absolute Joy to be able to call this Inspirational Genius a steadfast Friend and Colleague for so many years. To The Summers In The Sky! Heilige Leben!"
-- Douglas P.
DEATH IN JUNE"Boyd Rice is a perennially interesting conversationalist, actor-impersonator, comedian, artist, book and record collector and philosopher."
-- V. Vale
RE/Search Publications"There are a few people around you could steal horses with, but Boyd Rice is the only person you could try to steal Mussolini's brain with."
-- Albin Julius
Der Blutharsch"Boyd is the most hilarious person I have ever known and I can always count on him to slip something brilliant through the smallest crack in my willful brain and inspire me with it against my defenses, like 'Magic' by Olivia Newton John."
-- Allison Anders
Director, professor, Macarthur fellow, etc."Nothing - and I mean NOTHING - during my probation on this revolving mudball has been so troubling a subject to my allies and detractors as my friendship with BOYD RICE. Boyd is not the problem. Emphatically not. He's always a joy to be around. The problem always seems to be with assholes who invoke Joe McCarthy-ite guity-by-association techniques. At any public event, there will invariably be some lout who acts like the Grand Inquisitor, grilling me: "Aren't you friends with Boyd Rice?" How can you support a stinking Nazi?"Well, I'll tell you how. It's based on a rule of personal conduct important to me. It's not so much what people say as what they do that is important. Boyd and I have been friends for at least ten years. It's hard to imagine someone treating this Hebe with more generosity and respect. More to the point, we seem to share a similar take on the world, and loathe its stinking, degenerate pool of professional victims equally. The word is out that Boyd enjoys certain aspects of Hitler (oooh, yes, bad, bad BAD man!), but what about Boyd's Barbie fetish? Perhaps a line should be drawn somewhere.Quite simply, Boyd is interested in things that push emotional buttons - things that make people scream. It's amusing to watch. I remember one time a Jewish girlfriend went off on him: "So, you like Hitler, huh? Hitler!? So, you wanna exterminate me, too? Huh? Huh? Huh? What 'bout it?"Then there was the time Diamanda Galas spent a lot of energy trying to have Boyd booted from the Mute Records label. There were a couple of difficult weeks when Boyd was forced to write some sort of apologia for his misanthropy. Typical to form, however, Boyd did not back down one iota from his philosophy, and his records are to this day issued by Mute.Boyd's recordings for Mute under the nom-de-guerre NON are legendary. Less well known, perhaps, is Boyd's recording for World Serpent under the title Hatesville! and for New European Recordings under the titular Boyd Rice & Friends (recorded with Death In June's Douglas P. and Blood Axis' Michael Moynihan). The least best-kept secret about Boyd is that he continues to be a fountain of ideas and inspiration for culture mavens. For example, it was Boyd's inspiration and ideas that fostered the publication of RE/Search's Incredibly Strange Films and Pranks!. It was Boyd who came up with the name Feral House, my own company. You would need a flow chart to document Boyd's influence in the underground culture praxis."
-- Adam Parfrey
Feral House Books.The films I have directed include: TAUROBOLIUM, CARNY TALK, SUGAR & SPICE, ULTRAMEGALOPOLIS, TATTOO DELUXE, SEX DEATH AND THE HOLLYWOOD MYSTIQUE, SONG DEMO FOR A HELEN KELLER WORLD, HOLLYWOOD HEAD BASH, THE BOGEY MAN, LUST FOR KNIFE and LIP-STICK LIZ. I am a member of the UNPOP Art Movement.WWW.UNPOPART.ORG MY ARTWORK AND FILMS CAN BE SEEN AT: WWW.UNPOPART.ORG NOV SHMOZ KAPOP? WWW.UNPOPART.ORG
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