Neptune (American band)


Neptune is an experimental / industrial noise rock band originally hailing from Boston, Massachusetts. Throughout its 30+ year history, the band has largely operated as a collective, not only by employing a rotating membership, but also often collaborating with other musicians and artists both live and on record. They are noted for having built their custom-made instruments out of scrap steel and other found-object and recycled materials. The instruments themselves can be heavy and foreboding "self-made from antiquated machines and scrap metal, forged at extreme angles like props from a German expressionist film." A reviewer once said of the band: "Neptune really do accurately approximate in their music the tragic and violent desolation of the auto graveyards from which they draw their raw materials." While another wrote: "Neptune's closest comparison could only be themselves."
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Band history

Neptune's origins trace to 1994 as a sculpture project by Boston artist/musician Jason Sanford, who forged the band's haphazard guitars and reluctant drums from scrap steel and found objects. Over the years the instruments have evolved to incorporate oscillators and other electronic devices as band "have integrated some really smart looking industrial class synthesizer gear" into their noise-making arsenal. Twelve lineups, Thirty-three releases and hundreds of instruments later, the band continues to wrench its sound spatter on self-built instruments to often confounded audiences around the world. As of 2024, the band has played over 700 shows, with a recent US tour in June 2023.
Having toured extensively, Neptune has shared stages with "a variety of artists such as The Ex, Mission of Burma, Ut, Oneida, Lightning Bolt, The Flaming Lips, Blonde Redhead, Melt-Banana, Charles Hayward, Liars, Black Dice, James Chance & the Contortions, Gang Gang Dance, Six Finger Satellite, Wolf Eyes.", Enon, Deerhunter, Erase Errata, Arab on Radar and Parts & Labor.
As of 2020, Neptune again consists of Sanford along with long-time Neptune collaborators Mark William Pearson and Daniel Paul Boucher.

Personnel

Current members
  • Jason Sidney Sanford – guitar, baritone guitar, bass, violin, gas can ukulele, electric thumb piano, electronics, foot-controlled synthesizer, bass lamellophone, spring harp, percussion, feedback organ, tupperphone, radios, vocals
  • Mark William Pearson – guitar, baritone guitar, 4-string slide, bass, electronics, large electric spring, percussion, amplified drums, tape machine, tape manipulation, push-button telephone, vocals
  • Daniel Paul Boucher – drums, amplified metal toms, found object percussion, saw blade xylophone, oscillators, electronics, violin, gas can ukulele, washboard, vocals
Past members / frequent collaborators
  • Darryl Blood - drums, violin, backing vocals
  • Doug Last - percussion, empties, backing vocals
  • Carl Wieting- bass, guitar, ukulele, backing vocals
  • Gregory Kenney - guitar, vocals, drums
  • Malcolm Felder - drums
  • Jessica Rylan - bass, vocals, electronics
  • Kevin Micka – recording engineer, live sound engineer, drums, guitar, electronics, backing vocals
  • Adrienne Jorge - live projections / films, documentarian
  • Adam Scotto - drums
  • Joel Hamburger - bass
  • Christopher Huggins - guitar, vocals, bass
  • John Douglas Manson - drums, percussion, vocals
  • Justin Kaiden - bass
  • David Gerhard Utzinger - live sound engineer, percussion
  • Kenneth Wagner Linehan - homemade synthesizer
  • Regina Greene - vocals, booking
  • Mary Staubitz - electronics, tone generator, feedback
  • Martina Rossi - guitar
  • Farhad Ebrihimi - drums, electronics
  • Justin Earl Kipp - percussion, bowed cable, electronics
  • Jesse Gallagher - percussion, bowed cable, electronics

Discography

Studio albumsStudio Recordings, May MCMXCVII The Ballet of Process Intimate Lightning Patterns / Fortissimo Records / Les Potagers Natures Neptune Gong Lake 18:40/19:19 Silent Partner Msg rcvd Mother of Millions Green White Red
Live albumsLive on Pipeline, WMBR 03.16.04 Live at SCSI Cell 11.20.2004 Live at The Ugly House 12.18.94
Mini-albumsMice and Worms Cave Drawings
EPsKnife Fight E.P., 7-inch Neptune., 3-song cassette Basement Recordings E.P., 6-song CD Green Cassette, 5-song C30 cassette 3" CDR, 5-song CD-R White Cassette, 4-song C20 cassette 3" Collage CDR, 2 songs Red Cassette, 6 improvisations, C30 cassette 3" CDR, 3-song 3" CD-R Tell My People to Go Home, 4-song EP, split release w/ One Second Riot, LP only Paris Green, 5-track CD-R Roman Business, 4 songs, C20 cassette
Singles
  • "Swang!/Poodle Walk", 7-inch single
  • "Your Company/Productivity Is a Science", 7-inch single
  • "At the Pink Pony/A Car Is a Weapon", Live 7-inch single
  • "#39 | #40", Lathe 7-inch single

Videos

  • Equestrian Phantasy. Video by Zea Barker, 2006.
  • Silver Pool. Video by Mike Piso, 2008.
  • Grey Shallows. Video by Zea Barker, 2008.
  • Copper Green. Video by Jonathan Schwartz, 2008.
  • Blue Glass. Video by JB Sapienza, 2008.
  • Gentleman Caller. Video by Zea Barker, 2021.

Live Videos

  • Thorns. Video by Bill T Miller, recorded at the Paradise, Boston, MA, 8/3/2006.
  • The Penetrating Gaze. Video by Bill T Miller, recorded at the Middle East, Cambridge, MA, 12/29/2005.
  • Live in Strasbourg France. Recorded live at Le Zanzibar, Strasbourg, France, 9/27/06. Video by Normaltv.org.