American experimental music group From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Wolf Eyes is an American experimental music group from Detroit, Michigan, formed in 1996 by Nate Young. Currently a duo, Wolf Eyes are a prominent act within contemporary noise music. They have collaborated with a variety of artists from different countries and art forms.
Wolf Eyes | |
|---|---|
Wolf Eyes in Glasgow in 2006 | |
| Background information | |
| Origin | Ann Arbor, Michigan, U.S. |
| Genres | |
| Years active | 1996–present |
| Labels | |
| Members | Nate Young John Olson |
| Past members | Aaron Dilloway (1999–2005) Mike Connelly (2005–2012) James Baljo (2013-2017) |
| Website | www |
Wolf Eyes began as a solo project of Nate Young. Aaron Dilloway joined in 1998 while also playing with John Olson in Universal Indians. Olson occasionally performed with Wolf Eyes under the moniker Spykes and joined Wolf Eyes in 2000 after Universal Indians disbanded.
In 2005, Dilloway left Wolf Eyes, uninterested in extensive touring. Mike Connelly (of Hair Police, Failing Lights and Clay Rendering) replaced Dilloway, first appearing on the 2006 album Human Animal. Dilloway did some production work on Human Animal.[1] He has since performed with them on at least two occasions.
It was announced in February 2013 that Connelly had left the group to concentrate on his solo work and Hair Police. He was replaced in the lineup by another Michigan musician, Jim Baljo.[2] Both Dilloway and Connelly appeared on the 2013 album No Answer: Lower Floors. Wolf Eyes is currently composed of Young and Olson; the latter described the band as a "morphed organism that expands and condenses as needed or not."[3] The pair describe their musical output as "psycho jazz".[4]
The group has released 297 recordings during its 20 years of activity. Official releases have appeared on labels including but not limited to Hanson Records, Bulb Records, American Tapes, Fusetron, De Stijl Records, Sub Pop, Third Man Records, Troubleman Unlimited, AA Records, Gods of Tundra and Freedom From. It has collaborated and performed with numerous artists, including Anthony Braxton, Merzbow, Sonic Youth, Black Dice, Dominick Fernow (also known as Prurient), Double Leopards, John Wiese, Mammal, FLUCT, MV Carbon, Twig Harper, Andrew W.K., Jaimie Branch, Emil Beaulieau, Richard Pinhas, and Smegma.[5]
Since 2013, Olson has run the Instagram account inzane_johnny, formerly wolf_eyes_psychojazz, which was initially used to promote Wolf Eyes but has now gained a large following through music-related memes.[6][4]
In an article for Spin Magazine, Henry Rollins named Olson's noise bands in a column about his five favorite bands, writing, "The guy has over 1,000 releases on his label, and I have almost 700 of them. I have a great deal of time for all of these noise terrorists—it's modern avant-meets-stoners in a basement".[7]
Fred Thomas of AllMusic observed
Their development since the earliest rumblings in 1997 (and further back than that for those with the energy to dig into pre-Wolf Eyes projects) has yielded some of the most staggering and genre-defining sounds of noise and sound art's dense, largely obscured history.[5]
Most Wolf Eyes recordings are self-released, following the DIY tradition of bands such as Smegma.
Wolf Eyes' first major release was the studio album Dread, released on the American Tapes and Hanson Records labels but distributed through Bulb Records. Other major releases include Dead Hills on Troubleman Unlimited as well as Burned Mind and Human Animal on Sub Pop. Most Wolf Eyes recordings are released as lathe cuts, cassettes, or CD-Rs.
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