Night Boat To Garbage Island

Catching Up With Athens' Long-Running Improv Beast

originally published July 25, 2007

How did Garbage Island - a loose collective of Athens-based improvisation musicians who never write proper songs, record studio albums or play a single premeditated note - cultivate a hometown following that outnumbers that of so many of the younger, hipper, more commercially viable, more career-oriented rock bands that have formed in this city? And what makes Garbage Island's blend of queasy-listening ambience and frenetic, jazz-flecked skronk palatable to folks who wouldn't normally stand within screeching distance of a clamorous free-rock unit?

"I think the reason [that people] might like it," muses chief Garbage Island guitarist and local avant-garde icon Craig Lieske, "is that we don't do all that pandering-to-the-audience crap that so many bands are doing and have done over the years. We do what we do, and people are free to like it or hate it, and it won't bother any of us at all. I also think that the fact that anything might happen at any given time during any show is another reason people come back."

Indeed, Garbage Island's cavalier attitude and sense of spontaneity distinguish the band in an age in which even rock's most extreme tactics - Merzbow-ian synthesizer squelches, Blue Cheer-damaged guitar walls and Derek Bailey-derived angularity - have become codified. And the group members' high-caliber musicianship and telepathic rapport distance their work from that of more amateurish noiseniks. "We do what we do pretty well," says Lieske.

In fact, Garbage Island's concerts are more rewarding now than they have been at any other point in the band's six-year history. "After years of playing together, we know what each other might do at any given moment, so that leads to our being comfortable with each other, which produces good results musically, for the most part," says Lieske. Although Garbage Island's lineup has never been set in stone, its core membership - Lieske, Tony Evans, Clem Adams, Chris Herron, Jeramy Lamanno, Steve Miller, Jason Calhoun, Jim Wilson and Mark Kaczmarek (who currently lives in France, but still collaborates with the band when he's back in the States) - has remained relatively stable, allowing the players to gel and grow together.

Kaczmarek will be on hand for a pair of shows at the end of this summer, including a special event titled "Every Man Is an Island," in which any and everyone is invited to play in Garbage Island for the night. "It's a response to so many people asking to sit in with us," explains Lieske. He hopes that this open invitation will "get enough people in the audience to give back a little to Nuçi's Space," to which the show's proceeds will be donated. If you'd like to contribute your talents and money, make plans now to head out to the 40 Watt on Thursday, Aug. 23.

Lieske also promises that Garbage Island's finest hours will see a CD release. "Chris and I have been going through gig tapes for a long time," he says, "and we are trying to do a live 'best of,' but the time we have available to do this is hard to find, so things are going slowly. It'll happen though." Listeners who impatiently await that album's arrival are advised to check out the recently released Deeded to Itself, a compilation of Athens experimental music on the Thor's Rubber Hammer label that features an inspired excerpt from a 2006 Garbage Island concert.

As always, bandmembers have devoted themselves to a wide array of other projects. Lieske supplies an exhaustive list of everyone's latest exploits: "Chris Herron has been recording on his own, which features his thumb-piano orchestra, among other things. Clem owns Feral Skateshop and has a new baby girl, so that takes up most of his time. Clem and Chris and Clem's wife Loretta also have a band on the side, but with the kid, it'll take a while to get that to happen. Jason Calhoun has recorded an album, which will make him the next Marc Bolan if he ever gets it released. Jason and Chris also play with the Would-Be Farmers from time to time. Jim Wilson also plays with Mother Jackson, Don Chambers, and 15 other fucking bands I can't remember or don't know about yet. Steve stays busy with Venice Is Sinking and Ginger Envelope, and I've just completed my first film score, for a movie called Fail Better Farm by Boston filmmaker Miranda Elmorsi. I also have Echo Canyon and Diet Rock Star, and I'm putting together another project called Bear Meat Cabin."

Phillip Buchan

WHO: Garbage Island, Mothguts, Toothe
WHERE: 40 Watt Club
WHEN: Tuesday, July 31
HOW MUCH: $5