In the annals of American underground music, few stories capture the collision between artistic vision and geographic reality as perfectly as Debris. This trio from Chickasha, Oklahoma - a town roughly 40 miles southwest of Oklahoma City - created "some of the most art-damaged outsider rock 'n' roll this side of MX-80 Sound" while facing what historians describe as "indifference, and even redneck hostility" in their home territory. Now, Superior Viaduct brings their legendary 1976 private press rarity back into circulation, offering contemporary listeners access to one of proto-punk's most uncompromising statements. Debris emerged from the ashes of previous musical experiments by Charles "Chuck Poison" Ivey and Oliver "Rectomo" Powers, who had spent years playing in local bands including The Cocktails and "Victoria Vein and the Thunderpunks (using the word punk years before it became the label of the genre)". In summer 1975, they approached drummer Johnny Gregg to form what would become their most radical musical statement yet.
The band's brief but spectacular existence consisted of only "4 live concerts before the band broke up", yet their impact on underground music proved immense. Their chaotic performance style and dark, experimental sound - influenced by The Velvet Underground, The Stooges, Captain Beefheart, and English glam rock - did not endear them to local audiences. The ultimate expression of this disconnect came at "a Battle of the Bands competition where 50 bands competed for a new sound system, Debris came in dead last while a cover band took home the prize" - a perfect metaphor for their relationship with conventional music culture. During two sessions at Benson Sound Studios in Oklahoma City in December 1975, Debris cut their only full length record. The band paid $1,590 for ten hours of recording time (only using six hours and 59 minutes) and a 1,000 LP pressing. Released in April 1976 - the same month as the Ramones' debut - their self-titled album (also known as Static Disposal) represented a radical fusion of garage punk energy with avant-garde experimentation.
What makes Debris so remarkable is its anticipation of sounds that wouldn't become widespread until years later. Enhanced by analog synthesizers and electronic effects, the album sounds like Eno-era Roxy Music or The Stooges' Fun House filtered through Oklahoma's red dirt and underground isolation. These "LSD-tinged tunes are a potent mix of Beefheart-ian controlled chaos and the genuinely weird avant-rock" that would later define industrial and post-punk movements. The band's reputation extended far beyond their geographic isolation. "Only a few months later, the record they had mailed all over the states bore fruit and they were approached to play at CBGB--it was their chance to make it big too late." Max's Kansas City also extended invitations, but the band never made it out of Oklahoma, adding to their mythological status.
In the decades following its release, "Static Disposal slowly became a legendary lost album over the next three decades and was highly prized by collectors. The album would be noted as inspiration for bands like Scream, Sonic Youth, Nurse With Wound and The Melvins." Its inclusion on the infamous NWW list cemented its status among experimental music's essential documents.
• Classic private-press proto-punk album, originally released in 1976
• Appears on the infamous NWW list
• Recommended for fans of Chrome, Pere Ubu and MX-80 Sound
• Original copies going for high collector prices
• Mastered from the original tapes
• No export restrictions
