Thee Gnostics

THEE GNOSTICS
R.I.P 1991-1996
"five fingers on the hand of cosmic man, six seeds of the pomegranate"
FROM THE LAND OF STEEL & SMOKESTACK LIGHTNING...HAMILTON
Garage-Prog music for Dr.Who Freaks. Electric Sugar Cube blues and cosmic fuzz. First formed in Hamilton, ON in 1991 from local Garage and Psychedelic groups The Chessmen, The Captives, The Bards, The Swinging Gurus and experimental group Sublimatus.
CASSETTE-OGRAPHY!
COSMOGNOSTICUS K7 1992-93
TANGLE K7 1994
GORGOLON K7 1995
MINDMELT 777 K7 1996
Teen Scene Canada (ON) Misty Lane Records 7" (ITALY)
First formed in Winter 1991 from local groups, The Chessmen, The Swinging Gurus and experimental group Sublimatus. Locally influential, yet obscured and unknown to but a few in the know outside Hamilton, much like their steeltown forefathers Simply Saucer (who's theremin they used, allegedly). immeasurably unfashionable in the age of grunge, slacker indie-pop and toque rock. Known and loved by area weirdies hairies, seekers of sounds and sugarcube freaks for their monolithic live shows, oblivion inducing dual fuzz-wah lead players, interstellar moog & theremin blasts, overly lengthly improvisations, wrenching wrong notes, nerve sharttering volumes and mindmelting lightshows. Some of their brotherhood learned to play their instruments in a trial by fire method, while on stage and their approach to music was to improvise unceasingly. (in other words they never bothered to practice).
The Gnostics played many shows and were favourites for parties, biker funerals (you guessed it BLUES THEME), quasi-occult gatherings, art expositions, pot-parties and other dubious events, one occasion had them playing on a shuffleboard deck opposite bikini-boxing and pumkin wrestling, at another they were forced to play instrumentally (red dungeon) because they'd forgotten the PA system... Thee Gnostics somehow miraculously secured a monday night residency at the X-Clubfor a spell. There is however a half-finished "movie" made in a sort of monster movie exploito style which captures Thee Gnostics at peak lunacy. Titled "The Gurus and the Grotesque" it featured a group of ridiculous teens (played by thee gnostics and their friends) being stalked by some sort of shape shifting henry moore style hawaiian moster who probably just needed some sort of loving. it featured possibly the worst fake acting, (not quite the so bad it's good kind) and even worse plot (warranting narration), but it features some live footage of the New York Group The Ultra 5, a hillarious non-too-subtle giant phallus attacking two girls shadowplay, and characters from their own personal mythology, Dr.Noxvomicus, Cleug Moins, Johnny Angel, and various swamis and gurus. Stills from the film can be seen in the pics section.
Some members lived communally in an old post office building they caled "The (Gnostic) Temple". Afterwards some went on to live with local Hare Krishnas, Mennonite farmers, Biodynamic farms, and in the Irish counryside.
Their most ambitious release "Gorgolon" was a science fiction concpet album about the planet of Gorgolon and was housed in an interesting black tube with panoramic collage artwork depicting the Gorgolonian landscape dreamed up by Dan Zen, who's moog mindscapes flowed throughout the recordings. A thinly veiled comsmo-gnostic allegory, or addled indulgence?
Known for recording their 4 homemade "cassette only" releases almost exclusively live on a hand held tape deck, and were distributed to freinds and fans at shows....also known to play in E for hours on end, and inducing nausea in the weak hearted. After disbanding in 1996 Tomas Monte & Gaven Dianda went on to play in a folk-jazz group called Eleutheria and The Fourth Way. Gaven played drums in The Double Feature Creatures (who were to thee Gnostics a sort of "little sister" band, check out their archival cd re-issue on Misty Lane Records! ), The Polyester Explosion, The Flashing Lights, and most recently as The Saffron Sect. Dan Zen is currently a Professor and is over here at www.danzen.com.
this page is intended to act as a sort of monolith in memory of Thee Gnostics, in retrospect they might have been rather popular today, now that freak-out psych and progressive bullshit is de rigeur for the indie-rock set...enjoy....
p.s. don't drink the tap water.