Destroy All Monsters

"An anti-rock band founded in direct reaction to the pretensions and complacency of 1970s pop music, the Detroit-based noise deconstructionists Destroy All Monsters earned their greatest notoriety at the peak of the punk era, thanks to a line-up which included alumni of the MC5 and the Stooges. Named after a cult-favorite Japanese monster movie, Destroy All Monsters was formed in 1973 by art students Niagara, Jim Shaw, Mike Kelley and Cary Loren; influenced by everything from underground comix to film noir to psychedelia, the highly visual group was experimental and abrasive, with Niagara's Betty Boop-vocals and squealing violin cresting atop waves of trance-like sonic dementia.
The original incarnation of Destroy All Monsters never widely released any official recordings, and by 1976 both Shaw and Kelley had exited to continue their graphic art careers, both later gaining considerable notoriety as underground talents. Niagara and Loren continued on, recruiting brothers Larry and Ben Miller (space guitar and saxophone, respectively); within six months, former Stooges guitarist Ron Asheton and onetime MC5 bassist Michael Davis had also signed on, pointing the group's sound in a more dynamic and energetic direction. Upon releasing their first-ever single, 1978's "You're Gonna Die," Destroy All Monsters became darlings of the British music press, based largely upon the connection to the Stooges' legacy; "You're Gonna Die" was soon set for UK release on the Cherry Red label, which licensed the record before ever even hearing it.
Even as a second single, "Meet the Creeper," was being readied for release, Destroy All Monsters was coming apart; tensions within the group had come to a head when Niagara left longtime boyfriend Loren to hook up with Asheton, and soon Loren, as well as the Miller brothers, left the band over creative differences. In response, Loren issued a 1979 live EP, "The Days of Diamonds"; a year later, he, the Millers, and drummer Rob King formed Xanadu, recording an EP, "Black-Out in the City", co-produced by Kelley and Shaw. Meanwhile, the remaining members of Destroy All Monsters carried on until 1985 before finally disbanding. In the wake of a 1994 box set, the original line-up occasionally reformed to play live and record new material." -- ALL MUSIC GUIDE
DAM:1974-1976 "this 3 cd collection, culled about 50% from cary loren's cassette recordings and the rest from mike kelley's reel-to-reels, and assembled in kelley's kitchen/studio, has struck a resonance with me. upon listening to this series of excerpts of recordings by whoever happened to be around at the time, i felt that there is hope for some of my own back catalog. the presence of niagara is relatively minimal, which keeps the annoyance factor down to a tolerable level. it was a great pleasure to see that mike kelley and jim shaw had reclaimed the destroy all monsters name from the relatively weak niagara/ron ashton faction who appropriated it.
mike kelley, jim shaw, niagara and cary loren were ann arbor based visual artists who also worked in graphic arts (destroy all monsters was also a 'zine), film and performance events. their approach was irreverent and iconoclastic. ultimately, kelly moved to los angeles, attended cal arts and made a name for himself circa 1976 (see review of his cal arts project the poetics critical inquiry in green, also in this issue). it appears here that destroy all monsters leads up to and complements the work of the poetics, especially in the retroactive manipulation of a nearly mythical legend of a project. there are now destroy all monsters videotapes, graphic collections and even newly recorded cds. i mean it as the very highest complement when i say that i found this set inspiring." ~Ear Peace
"Swamp Gas is simply not an album that fits into any of the holes that reviewers love to carve...DAM have been around forever or longer...They're almost like a state of mind rather than a musical group... I had strange visions of radiant thick smoke twisting in effervescing spirals and eerie paterns of ill colours with redeeming light bursting through in flashes in my mind just by listening to it..." --Broken Face NR.14
"DAM are still opening doors of psychedelic perception to release their personal horde of demons into the world." --Edwin Pouncy,Wire, issue 222
"What is DAM? Some people call them punk, others say anti-rock, art crap or unlistenable. DAM has sometimes been called the "worlds worst band." It is a difficult band to define and describe, and in the interest of balance and fairplay we at the Momus Alexander Morgus institute , the (M.A.M.I.) would like to present all sides, factions and legends in the international DAM wars. This is the world-wide muthafukah blender shaker of DAM. Maybe it's your mama's DAM too. Don't be fooled, "what could be more subtle then satanic suggestions that appear in your mind as your own ideas?" This is not an attempt or scam to gain your friendship ha-ha or sympathy, THIS is the official WAR ON WAR! What has begun once will never end. Freaks of the world-wide muck unite!" --KOPBF, Belgium 2005
Also see another history: A MANIFESTO OF IGNORANCE by DAM member Cary Loren
Stay tuned for more ass-Kracky freakout as it becomes available, in the meantime, scratch glass, turn blue and : BUY OR DIE! MERCH! MERCH! MERCH! NATIVE RITUALS! NAKED GURLZ! Note: THIS IS NOT A FAN SITE! Reserve your chuckle until you see how it works. This is not all fun and games. The Apocalypse is serious business. Possession and study of all Destroy All MonstersTM approved products may be the only known way to save your sanity and help cure humanity. Until then - Save yourselves! Run away! Don't end up like me! hahahaha!
Strange Früt: Rock Apocrypha is a DAM installation and consists of a video and four mural-sized images painted on canvas in the manner of classic freak-show banners. See the complete banners online as they appeared in the great hall at the Detroit Institute of Art's exhibition: DAM COLLECTIVE: ARTISTS TAKE ON DETROIT Book the DAM Strange Früt train-wreck for your next party!
Enter the OPTICAL VORTEX of INSANITY!!!
"This isn’t a zine, but a collection of visually generous work done for the Destroy All Monsters magazine printed from 1975-1979. It features early collaborative works by artists Mike Kelley and Jim Shaw along with fellow musicians Niagara and Cary Loren. Very cool artwork along with hordes of strange monsters, weirdos, and familiar looking women.
Cary Loren says in his Manifesto of Ingnorance; Destroy All Monsters, “ Destroy all monsters began as an anti-rock band. Our menagerie of words, images and sounds were an attempt to thumb our noses at the circus of rock star bullshit and musical emptiness that filled the air waves during the mid-1970’s. Images that moved us then were a combination of film-noir, monster movies, psychedelia, thrift shop values and the relentless drone of a crazed popular culture.”
This freaked out magazine is a psychoactive overdose of left field images, strange gothic photographs and mind-melting collages. After just a few minutes, it had my eyeballs bleeding and my brains almost falling outta my head. Get yourself one before its too late! This wacko zine collection is the best!" ~Art Zine Distro Geisha This!
"I discovered her in an article in Punk Magazine about her band of Detroit art/music terrorists, Destroy All Monsters and black and white photos had never ever been as seductive before. She was everything that I liked about Bridgit Bardot but was of course much more menacing and therefore appealing. She was catlike, mysterious and deliberately dangerous: equal parts Ronnie Spector and Lizzie Borden with a barbarella twist. What was her story? What fuckin' planet did she come from? Where'd she get that name? What would it take to con her into having my illegitimate children?" --long gone john, 2004
"Next was another single and a Cherry Red supported UK tour by Destroy all Monsters. Singer Niagara, who had looked so brilliant in photographs looked completely lost on stage, and couldn't sing really. The NME headline over the review of the first gig at Dingwalls just about summed it up; 'Niagara Fails' it had jestfully exclaimed." --Iain McNay, "The Cherry Red Story"
"In a large space at the Whitney, a white-haired man is standing, looking up at Detroit collective Destroy All Monsters’ four-paneled mural, Strange Fruit: Rock Apocrypha, and with such keen interest that it seems he knows the figures in the panels (who include John Sinclair, Soupy Sales, Captain Jolly and Lester Bangs, to mention only a few of the Detroit luminaries depicted). With irony I ask him who these guys are, and he turns and says, “These are the heroes of one of the most interesting communities you can imagine — and I knew them.” He pauses and continues, “These are figures from a nutty, productive time in Detroit in the ’60s and ’70s, and I was there making art. The critics all said this was a bad show, but I’ve really been amazed by the inventiveness I’ve seen, from the top floor down.”
I finally recognize the speaker as Steve Foust, one of the most brilliant and inventive formalist artists of the Detroit Cass Corridor art community. Here at the Whitney, the murals of Destroy All Monsters (Mike Kelly, Cary Loren and Jim Shaw) somehow have a transcendent quality that celebrates the micronarrative of Detroit cultural production at a moment when artists still had the power to engage the culture on their own terms." --Metrotimes 5/12/2002