It all began in the Summer of '88 in his hot, cramped Hell's Kitchen apartment. Living off of coffee, popcorn and beer, Tom Five compiled left-over, unused White Zombie riffs, arrangements and writings about alien worms destroying the human race. A couple of bad (yet enlightening)acid trips and paranoid desciptions scrawled into a sweat-stained notebook labeled ony "writings" Angel Rot was conceived.
By the Summer of '89 the first Angel Rot line-up to stick and actually play was Five, Steve Kleiner on drums and Mike Davis playing bass. Their first show was at the Pyramid opening up for Antiseen and The Thing. A-Rot's first single "Screw-Drive" backed with "Monkey Rape" was followed by the "Necro-Strangle" single with a rocking yet poorly recorded version of "Stayin' Alive" on the B-side. Buzz from the Melvins put the latter single out on his own "Fuck Records". These singles should be destoyed on sight by any self-respecting person that stumbles upon them.Some time in the early 90's Tom, Steve and Mike started recording what would later be known as the "Unlistenable Hymns of Indulgent Damnage" - the 'unlistenable' being their music and the 'indulgent damnage' being their collective life-style and lack of social skills.
Before the completion of "the Hymns" Steve left the band for reasons of over-indulgence in the obvious muse of all recognized and celebrated musicians. Tom and Mike continued to work on their 'opus' until their friend and owner of the studio Ira spent a prolonged vacation in a federal prison. At this time the studio, soundboard, mastertapes were moved out of the space in Manhattan and stored in various places through out Westchester county. Only after corresponding with Ira and finding the location to the tapes, Five and Davis were able to track down and collect the mastertapes for the Unlistenable Hymns in a dingy pile of cardboard boxes, located in a storage room on the backside of the Nanuet Mall!Angel Rot also collected talent from Gobblehoof/ Dinosaur Jr. drummer George Berz and continued playing NYC a year later.Jump to 1998- the band has not played for two years. Man's Ruin gets hold of a mix of the Hymns and wants to release it. Gyda Gash steps up to play bass and they start jamming with ex-drummer Steve. The band decides to tour the states with the release of Unlistenable Hymns in 1999.Drummer Scott Sanfranetello joins band in the Fall of 1999 and they tour the South and Mid-west several times. Finally, Tony Mann (or Tony Wolfman) is recruited to play drums. Angel Rot record the unreleased "Rotten Noise form All the Dead Things in the Universe" at Beaten Back to Pure's guitarist' Vince's studio in Virginia.
Gyda and Tony currently play with "The She-Wolves" with Cycle-Sluts singer Donna. Tom Five is currently living in Los Angeles and is working on a project loosely referred to as "SONIC MEDUSA" with Gregg Rogers (The Obsessed/ Goatsnake) Steve Darrow (ex-Hollywood Rose) and Scott Renner (ex-SourVein / Brickbat) . Steve and Tom also sometimes perform in "Rat Salad" an early Black Sabbath Tribute!
Watch Tom Jamming with Ivan D e Prume at Scum of the Earth recording studio! Ivan turns into Metal Sanaz midway! Not bad.
