Destroy All Monsters
Bored

THE REVIEW

"When the legend becomes fact, print the legend!" (from "The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance," John Ford, 1962)

Ann Arbor 1976, Michigan. Larry Miller is a fairly well-known jazz guitarist along with his saxophonist brother Ron, but in the city of the Stooges and MC5 everyone is craving ROCK, including the two of them. So they join a strange and whimsical band with a name stolen from a Japanese film in the Godzilla series. A bunch of wacky graphic artists active since 1973 called Destroy All Monsters and led by a sort of charming singer/dancer/performer continually scantily clad, who took the name Niagara from the Marilyn Monroe film, and her guitarist boyfriend Cary Loren. They play a kind of very intellectual psychedelic jazz at Bookie's Club 870.

The turn towards the legend happens when the guitar hero of the Stooges, Ron Asheton, returns to Ann Arbor, furious after the bad end met by his New Order in Los Angeles, "the best unsigned band on the planet." At the same time, the bassist of MC5, Mike Davis, has just been released from jail, and thus the new formation of Destroy All Monsters is a done deal.

In 1977, at the height of the punk explosion, Ron wants to play hard and the Destroy All Monsters change course, the legend is born. A series of fiery gigs opening for the Ramones, Devo, and Pere Ubu bring them to the attention of industry insiders. After all, putting a former Stooges and a former MC5 in any band, even I Cugini di Campagna, doesn't just change the sound but makes you known even in Bombay. And the sound changes, it hardens, splattered by Asheton's metallic solos and the strange input of the younger Miller's sax on a rhythm base with a double dose of methadone. Over everything, Niagara's decadent voice that goes on the attack.

But what is it? Psychedelic free jazz? Art-punk-garage? Listen to their series of singles contained in this brief collection released by the English Cherry Red, seven pearls steeped in the spirit of the era: depression, violence, boredom, no future. "Bored" is the most beautiful track, the Stooges-like intro is made strange by Niagara's bored voice which then gets furious supported by Ron's piercing guitar solos and the free counterpoint of the sax. You'll realize that Sonic Youth's "Daydream Nation" isn't so far off and maybe they came to do a bit of shopping in this little shop.

It goes without saying that the presence of bad prison thugs like Ron Asheton and Mike Davis in the span of a few years led the group to collapse. Founder Cary Loren left DAM because Niagara got involved with Ron and even the Miller brothers could no longer stand the hard vein added by the two sonic terrorists to the original sound.

Destroy All Monsters never recorded a full album, but what remains is the legend published on a mid-priced CD.