Free glam
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 |
The quality of this article or section may be compromised by wording which promotes the subject in a subjective manner without imparting real information. You can help Wikipedia by removing peacock terms or finding content which backs the claims. |
 |
Free glam was the guiding idea behind To Live and Shave in L.A. 2, created to free noise music from what was viewed as the tedious, studious formula of bands like Merzbow and Nihilist Spasm Band. It was created by Weasel Walter, Misty Martinez (the alter-ego of Liz Armstrong) and Rat Bastard, leading them to leave To Live and Shave in L.A. 1 and TLASILA founding member Tom Smith. The group incorporated everything noise music supposedly wasn't --glamour, fashion, obnoxious rock star attitudes, gossipy Fleetwood Mac-infighting, etc. Through doing, they showed that glamour itself and persona itself could be fragmented, freeform, abrasive, artistic and conceptual -- making the performer him or herself the equivalent of noise music as much as the sounds produced.
The three left TLASILA at the height of its prominence, when Tom Smith was being interviewed about the group's new approach to noise music by publications like The New York Times and The Wire. By quitting and leaving in the loudest way possible, writing a manifesto explaining why the first TLASILA wasn't fitting their needs, then naming their group TLASILA2, the offshoot defined its approach to noise music politics as essential to the music itself. This dedication to gossipy rivalries and loud posturing defined TLASILA2 before they ever played a note.
Free glam's emphasis on drama and personality owes much to Lisa Crystal Carver's contribution's to noise music and influence on the members, particularly Liz Armstrong.
Though the band has not played formally in a while, members Weasel Walter, Misty Martinez and Rat Bastard still hold true to this aesthetic in their solo work.
An alternative view holds that free glam was created (or inspired) by Tom Smith, and later co-opted by Walter, synthesizing only the most overt of its elements for use in TLASILA2. Smith was well known as a proponent of ambiguity, while Walter preferred a more comic, parodic stance. TLASILA's 2000 personnel schism reflected this philosophical split. While Walter recycled old TLASILA radio broadcasts, repackaging them as "original" TLASILA2 recordings (political gestures that embodied the antic spirit of his free glam manifesto), Smith emerged in 2002 with The Wigmaker in Eighteenth-Century Williamsburg, an album that landed atop many critcs' best-of lists. Tom Smith and Rat Bastard reunited in 2003 to reform TLASILA, adding the third original member, Ben Wolcott, and Smith associates Don Fleming, Mark Morgan, Andrew W.K., and Thurston Moore later in 2004. Weasel Walter continues as the leader of The Flying Luttenbachers.
