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" i am a child of the late 20th Century (b. 1949) i remember that life
was fine w/out TV, that the Russians were gonna flatten us all, that Kennedy
was shot when i was In 9th Period typing class, that Bo Diddley sounded best
late at night thru a cheap transistor radio under the covers, that pot was
fun until it wasn't, that if i hadn't ducked The Ohio National Guard would
have shot me too at Kent State, that NYC In the early '80's was wonderful,
that female singers are a pain In the ass, that i am a European who
unfortunately was born In America... and that i cannot draw a straight line." | ||
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Chris Butler grew up in Chagrin Falls / Cleveland / Akron, Ohio.
This guy is a cultural anthropologist. He majored in sociology at Kent State University (was among the crowd of students fired on by the Ohio National Guard on May 4, 1970). He specializes in fringe trends. He was the first person we knew to pick up on the Church of the SubGenius, Chaos Theory, MIT Media Lab... it's a real long list. |  | |
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This guy is a musician. Song writer. Producer. Writer. He's been playing in blues funk rock&roll rock new wave whatever surf bands since the Summer of Love. He's played in a bunch of bands. Always interesting. His biggest project to date, The Waitresses (Polygram), was an early 80s band that helped explore the new wave genre. Chris led the band and wrote the songs (e.g., "I Know What Boys Like," "No Guilt," "Christmas Wrapping," "I Could Rule the World, If I Could Only Get the Parts,"and the theme song for the TV Sitcom "Square Pegs"). If you're a Waitresses fan than you'll want to visit John Warlow's Waitresses web site - he's got band history, band member info, and streaming videos of the Waitresses performing on BBC TV!
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What's Chris up to? About 150 things. He lives in Hoboken, NJ with his wife Morgan and their son Liam. He runs Future Fossil Music and Future Fossil Records. In 1995 he released a 45: <"The Wilderness Years - Volume 1" (on Future Fossil Music) with the songs "A Hole in the Sky"/"Davey's Sister's Home from College." Dig this, it was recorded without electricity or microphones on 100-year-old wax cylinders using a hand-cranked Edison "Spring Motor" phonograph (c.1898). This from one of the most tech-savvy guys we know. Volume 3 is out now: "The Man in the Razor Suit/The Bottom of a Workingman's Beer" (1995, Future Fossil Music). Recorded on a World War II navy surplus stainless steel wire recorder using crystal microphones.
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Chris holds the Guinness Book of World Records for the longest recorded pop song in history - a 69-minute song, "THE DEVIL GLITCH"(1996, Future Fossil Music) You can listen to a one-minute audio clip and learn more about this song at Future Fossil Music. There's also a terrific "Devil Glitch" interview with Chris in Consumable, an online music magazine.
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In 1997, Chris released his first full-length CD on Future Fossil Music, "I Feel A Bit Normal Today." This is an inspired collection of eleven songs featuring some of Chris's best studio work in years.
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Wanna get your hands on all this musical shareware? It's at the store - "wherever weird records are sold." Or order by mail through Future Fossil Music. | |
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Did we mention that Chris is also a conceptual artist? Door-to-door Bio-Care Sales Kitsİ. Whiff cigarettes. Vertical swimming pools... for apartments. New York Wood Day. The Migratory Habits of Inanimate Objects. Chris co-organized the 1999 "KLONDIKE: International Fluxus Group Show at CalArts". He's been an active participant in FLUXUS Midwest since 1981 (check out his Air Oars contribution to the Fluxus Indian Museum).  Photo of Chris demonstrating the air oars on a sidewalk in Brooklyn, New York, in 1985. |  |
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Chris Butler... is hard to put in a box. Because he's always walking on the edges. Fast. If the world ever catches up to him, there'll probably be an explosion. Or one of those gigantic black-hole sucking things. We wanna be there. |  |
