Executive Crazemas - for MrDave

MrDave is a longtime Frenz of NSS. 

He always imparts intelligent opinions in all his comments (or just says, sounds good, thanks...you know how it goes). I know from past conversations we've had that his collection of musick is vast. I know also that I have at times provided music that he didn't already have. I'm hoping I can hit a homer here. 

 

In the winter of 1981, Executive Slacks, founder by Philadelphia College of Art students Matt Marello & John Young (joined shortly thereafter by Albert Ganss), fused the proto-industrialisms of early Cabaret Voltaire to the archly gloomy funk of Tuxedomoon along with the primitive, slashing guitars of No-Wave for an art-school Dadaist lark.

They used sound like a painter would use color & a brush. They combined tape loops & found sounds or anything lying around their house that would emit a sound. Kind of like Pop Art banality. Originally more sound collage, over time as they began to perform live & created more  structured songs in a more traditional way, but with the spirit of sound collage always at the heart of their style. 

The name Executive Slacks fell within the realm of the banal, the pop-art aesthetic. The name was taken from a magazine advertisement for mail-order pants: 3 for $9.99. They liked the dichotomy between the idea of the executive & the pathetic cheapness of the product. Also, the two words created an internal contradiction with “slacks” as meaning “lazy.” & they liked the contraction of Executive Slacks to Ex Slacks, the chocolate laxative.

Let's start at the beginning. Come with me now to the distant past. It was 1983... 

 

Executive Slacks - Executive Slacks 12" 45rpm EP, Red Music EP005, 1983.
all decryption codes in comments

Side 1 -
The Bus
Thirty Years

Side 2 -
Cinema
So Mote it Be

 

 

 

 

Their first full-length came out two years later. It was produced by Killing Joke founding member Youth (Martin Glover).

 

 

Executive Slacks - Nausea, Fundamental SAVE 4, 1985.

Side A -

In & Out    
Spiders    
Nausea    
Magot    
Smoking Man

Side B -

Electric Blues    
Ecce Homo    
Sisyphus    
Cold    
The Park

 

 

 

By the end of the 80s the band was gone. They reformed later with different personnel but were never the same. Although their sound was kind of a mixture of Cabaret Voltaire, early D.A.F., & Chrome, a sound that served as an influence on electro-industrial bands to come, that evolved into a genre that made stars of Ministry & Nine Inch Nails, Ex Slacks never garnered the fame they deserved. Most of their material has been post-humously released & a entirely new set of fans have arisen. In 2016 they released a set containing early band recordings, many previously unreleased, on Dark Entries.

 

 

Executive Slacks - Seams Ruff, Dark Entries DE-128, 2016

Side A -

I Don't Know What to Do
Radiation Baby
Boring
Semi-Boring
30 Years (original version)
Inside/Out

Side B -

Filet Mignon
Join the Army, Johnny
Who am I?
Bang My Head (Against the Wall)
They Read
I'm Coming (Bedroom Version)
        
bonus Flexi Disc -    
I'm Coming (Live on WXPN)

 

 

Put on those party pants,
NØ