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Cock E.S.P. is a Twin Cities-based experimental music and performance art ensemble founded by Emil Hagstrom in 1993. The group draws on the most transgressive and absurdist elements of both popular and experimental Twentieth Century music and performance art, realizing a diverse and energetic palette of abstract electronic music influenced by such styles as Japanese Noise, free jazz, punk rock, death metal and hardcore industrial. Rare among the group’s boundary-pushing peers, Cock E.S.P.'s canon includes a high degree of self-effacing humor, satire and unfiltered emotion; not only making the group more accessible to a general audience, but also directly challenging the antisocial "shock value" norms and elitist conformism common in underground music.
The group's concerts are brief and chaotic vignettes which push their absurdist concept to an extreme level. Concentrating on the performance aspect itself rather than on the sound, the group follows such arts movements as Fluxus by causing the audience to question the basic expectation of live recital itself. A modern experimental composer might explore a certain set of atonal sounds over the course of an hour-long work. A hardcore punk band might play a dozen standard three-chord songs before ending their set by knocking over their equipment in a frenzy of feedback. Cock E.S.P., however, attempts to condense such action into a short, cathartic episode which is simultaniously confusing, amusing and intellectually confrontational. Cock E.S.P.'s recorded output has been incredibly prolific, beginning with distorted lo-fi experimentation and evolving over the years into a powerful yet intricate assemblage of cheap and/or broken electronics, sheet metal, distorted vocals and the occassional traditional instrument. The group's ever-tightening focus and attention to detail can be seen over the course of the group's 17 albums, 12 singles and hundreds of videos, compilation appearances and cassette tapes. |
Since 1994 the group has given more than 220 live performances throughout the US and Europe, playing various rock and jazz clubs, punk houses, theatres, festival stages, art galleries, record stores and warehouse spaces including: 1000fryd (Ålborg), ABC No Rio (New York), AZ-Conni (Dresden), Bedlam Theatre (Minneapolis), Blå (Oslo), The Church (Minneapolis), Churchill's (Miami), Dodorama (Rotterdam), Empty Bottle (Chicago), First Avenue (Minneapolis), Knitting Factory (New York), L'usine (Geneva), Maine College of Art (Portland), Missouri University (Columbia), MIT (Cambridge), Room 710 (Austin), Samfundet (Trondheim), School of the Museum of Fine Arts (Boston), Soap Factory (Minneapolis), University of Chicago (Chicago), and the Walker Art Center (Minneapolis). In addition, they have appeared on live bills with such artists as Acid Mothers Temple, Anal Cunt, Black Dice, Bloodyminded, Borbetomagus, Boredoms, Rhys Chatham, Dresden Dolls, Roky Erickson, The Flying Luttenbachers, Gang Wizard, Goodiepal, Hair Police, Harry Pussy, Impaler, The Jesus & Mary Chain, Edward Ka-Spel (Legendary Pink Dots), Steve Mackay (The Stooges), Melt-Banana, Melvins, Nihilist Spasm Band, Nine Inch Nails, Ovo, Sissy Wish, Stereolab, Steven Stapleton (Nurse with Wound), Sudden Infant, Thighpaulsandra, Tool, Wasteoid, Wolf Eyes and Z'ev (Psychic TV).
Cock E.S.P. has collaborated on recordings with such noted underground noise artists as Aube, Costes, Lasse Marhaug, Merzbow, K.K. Null, Smell & Quim, To Live & Shave In LA, V/Vm and Violent Onsen Geisha. The group has also appeared on compilations alongside such diverse artists as Andrew W.K., Derek Bailey, Coil, Current 93, Jad Fair, Bruce Gilbert, Hijo Kaidan, His Name is Alive, The Locust, Masonna, Thurston Moore, John Oswald, Sockeye, Throbbing Gristle and Today is the Day. Current members include Hagstrom, Jason Wade (FAGGOT, Attitude Problem), and Nicole Rode (Rape Door) as well as frequent appearances by Matt Bacon, Paige Flash, John Vance, Scott Burns, Tim Carroll, C. Lavender, Jaime Carrera and others. |
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Jason Wade, Emil Hagstrom, Nicole Rode 2010 1200 x 800 pixels Photo by Alas Vera |
Jason Wade, John Vance, Jaime Carrera, Emil Hagstrom 2011 1024 x 820 pixels Photo by Alas Vera |
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Jason Wade, Emil Hagstrom, Nicole Rode 2010 450 x 665 pixels Photo by Alas Vera |
John Vance, Emil Hagstrom, Jason Wade, Jaime Carrera 2011 1024 x 625 pixels Photo by Alas Vera |
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Emil Hagstrom 2007 640 x 276 pixels Photo by Richard Ostrom |
Matt Bacon, Jason Wade, Scott Burns, Emil Hagstrom 2009 877 x 666 pixels Photo by Darren Cole |
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Matt Bacon, Emil Hagstrom 2000 640 x 276 pixels Photo by Richard Ostrom |
Emil Hagstrom, Elyse Perez, Matt Bacon 2005 420 x 420 pixels Photo by Richard Ostrom |
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"Somewhere between repellent, hilarious and just plain ridiculously stupid." "Is this guerrilla performance art? Am I on a hidden-camera TV show? Am I just stupid for not 'getting it'? Are you fucking kidding me? These are all normal reactions and seemingly a part of the grand concept that the E.S.P.-ers have been pimping for a decade." "Minneapolis' Cock E.S.P. sound a bit like Radiohead - if Radiohead played an amplified cement mixer and forced Thom Yorke to shriek indecipherable obscenities in a donkey outfit while attacking his bandmates." "Paving the way for Wolf Eyes to make noise safe and fashionable for the MySpace generation." "Minneapolis' Cock E.S.P.might be called underground or performance art, but is more likely a joke." "A borderline-beautiful display of human wreckage." "Det kunstneriske understrekes også med kyllingdrakter, blod, toppløse maskerte damer og annet performancetull. Så får du heller låne hørselsvernet til naermeste baby imens." "Musik die wie ein Faustschlag voll in den Magen geht." "På dét punkt er Cock E.S.P. sandelig grænseoverskridende: En hysterisk eksplosion af dårlig smag og dårligere manerer, der ikke kan undgå at få én til at reagere!" "Horridly obnoxious sounding." "There are folks spending a lot of money to convince us that the logical endpoint of indie rock is a market glut of plodding, vaguely tormented riff rockers. But in small dumpy rooms everywhere, the idiom is getting a real Viking funeral from noise artists chewing up the music and joyfully spitting back the debris. Cock E.S.P. crams smutty, snotty manifestos into nasty, brutish, short sets. I recommend safety goggles, ear plugs and punctuality." "No one had seen anything like Cock E.S.P. Their shows rarely exceeded five minutes. Often, they lasted only three. By the end, the stage was a catastrophe of overturned amps, smashed props, stripped costume pieces, and sprawled, nude bodies, the audience a daze of numbed ears." "These longtime Minneapolis noise merchants dress up in ridiculous costumes, make sounds that will automatically loosen your stool and throw household appliances at each other." "If Extreme Championship Wrestling were a noise band, it would be Cock E.S.P." "Harsh electronics, grating noises, and spookily inhabited wastelands of sonic detritus." "The group's wretchedly kinky performance-art antics make Cock E.S.P. shows antagonistic to eyes and ears alike." "Sonic hurricanes." "Cock E.S.P. sounds like these guys want to be like Masonna but can't make it." "Just as confrontational and extreme and aggressive as anyone else who grew up preening to Godbullies records." "I really expected to hate this album with all my heart, but after a closer inspection and listening to it, I can’t help but respect and adore what Cock E.S.P. has done here." "A mixed bag of lunacy!" |
"Cock E.S.P. makes creative use of sounds that would be rejected by other musicians as equipment failure, as if to point out that seeming disasters can become art as well as humor." "As Cock E.S.P. has eloquently proved throughout their career, it's hard to take anything too seriously when it includes someone in a donkey mask humping an amplifier." "Splattering digital distortion and synapse-cauterizing electrospasms across your frontal lobe like some psychotic Jackson Pollock, Cock E.S.P. isn't the kind of band your mom wants you to like." "Fairly enjoyable audio pain." "Self-destructs in as little as 30 seconds." "U.S. circus noise semi-legends." "If melody, hooks and poignant lyrics are your cup of tea, then Cock E.S.P. are the cigarette butts you Nashville Scene "Absurd, abrupt, chaotic and some may say even pointless." "Dain-bramaged." "I did not feel safe as these costumed crusaders began hurling large chunks of metal at the audience. The effect they had upon people was comparable to a natural-disaster." "Cock E.S.P. kick up a racket that never sticks around long enough to irritate and after the first few tracks shows the kind of irreverent illogic that only a man in a donkey suit could really deliver." "There really is some talent required to make such an overwhelming clamor. It's hard to offend virtually everyone, but Cock E.S.P. manages to do so, from their name to the title of the albums to the guitar squelch codas to the live show audience members yelling, they manage to rub me the wrong way in just that right way. Right now, I'm listening to them on my portable CD player with the headphones lying on the desk, and you know what? It's still remarkably unpleasant! Destroy all music indeed." "Likely to appeal to heavy drinking idiots." "Unbearable and tedious." "Funny enough the first couple times, but tends to get boring rather quickly." "An interesting listen." "May not fit into most people's idea of 'music' and you sure as hell can't fuck to it." "Confrontational and potentially dangerous, not only to an unsuspecting audience, but to themselves." "A two-man noise comedy performed at ground zero during a bombing run." "Squirming ugliness." "There is never a boring moment." "Semen-encrusted fun for the whole family." |
