One of the more interesting untold stories of the ‘90s underground rock explosion was the existence of a midwestern micro-genre so obstinately difficult and obscure that it never even got a name. It was, at its base, metallic post-hardcore, of which there was plenty around at the time, but this stuff was distinguished by unrelenting whiplash time signature changes and an aura of bottomless menace. The sound was typified by St. Louis’ Dazzling Killmen and Cleveland’s Craw (early work by Pittsburgh’s Don Caballero fit the mold as well, but on becoming well known they got lumped into “Post-Rock” by writers who had no better ideas on how to categorize them), and while it would eventually have an impact via the somewhat better fortunes of Keelhaul, in their time those bands steadfastly toiled away at mind-blowing, innovative, uncompromising music only to encounter the indifference of a scene that just didn’t want to take things as far as metal-as-test-of-mettle. Craw are lately experiencing an Internet-era disinterment complete with a retrospective box set and a one-and-done weekend of reunion shows this month. (Disclosure: a band I play in is opening one of those shows.) I’m unaware of anyone talking very much about the Killmen anymore, which is too bad, as their Face of Collapse deserves a close, critical listen by anyone interested in extreme hard rock and its construction.
In 1997, Killmen drummer Blake Fleming (who has also served stints in Zeni Geva and the Mars Volta) and sometime Craw saxophonist Marcus DeGrazia formed the jazz-damaged and heroically weird Laddio Bolocko with bassist Ben Armstrong and guitarist Drew St. Ivany, both veterans of Chicago’s revolving-door noise collective Panicsville. Fueled by This Heat, krautrock, and Downtown skronk, the quartet lived communally in Brooklyn, NYC’s pre-gentrification arts enclave Dumbo, literally playing together all the time, and so they grew a close musical kinship uncommonly quickly, releasing the first of their three self-released EPs Strange Warmings of Laddio Bolocko on their own Hungarian imprint within months of finalizing their lineup and adopting their name. Per Fleming:
Living in our practice was all part of the design of Laddio. There was no separation between “life” and the band—it truly was our life. We would listen to records, have philosophical discussions, and then improvise for hours being completely inspired and fueled by each other. We existed in a vacuum the way the best gangs do. We would improvise every day for hours a day and an ESP developed. Strange Warmings came about from these improvisations and from everyone bringing in snippets to more fully formed ideas. Despite all of the free form improvisation, we were all still enamored with pop music as well. “Goat Lips”, the opening track from Strange Warmings, as funny as it may sound to some, was our version of “pop.” We thought we were a fucking pop band sometimes! That’s just how out we were. The whole process of Strange Warmings was over and done with product in hand within a couple months of starting. We were doing it all ourselves and it was a very concentrated time.
“Laddio Bolocko” is the name of an actual man from my hometown of Alton, Illinois, an old Greek guy who owned a popular restaurant in the 70’s and 80’s called “Lotteo’s”. His name was Lotteo Balaco, so I took his name and changed the spelling—I knew that was one band name that would not be taken.
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