Jim Sclavunos | |
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 Sclavunos performing with Teenage Jesus and the Jerks in 2008. | |
| Background information | |
| Genres | Post-punk,alternative rock,garage rock |
| Instruments |
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| Years active | 1978–present |
| Labels | Mute |
| Member of | |
| Formerly of | |
| Website | jimsclavunos |
James Sclavunos is an American multi-instrumentalist, record producer and writer. He is best known for his work as a drummer, having been a member of two seminalno wave groups in the late 1970s,Teenage Jesus & the Jerks and8 Eyed Spy, both alongsideLydia Lunch. He is also noted for stints inSonic Youth andthe Cramps, and has been a member ofNick Cave and the Bad Seeds since 1994. Sclavunos has led his own groupthe Vanity Set since 2000 and was a founding member of the Bad Seeds spinoff bandGrinderman.
Sclavunos, a half-Greek and half-Italian fromBrooklyn, New York (known for his exceptional height at 6'7"), was memorably described in the pages ofThe Wire as an "infamous elegant degenerate". He has long been a prime mover in New York City's vibrant underground music scene, helping to kick-start the vital no wave movement in the late 1970s withTeenage Jesus & the Jerks and8 Eyed Spy (both withLydia Lunch), before playing with Sonic Youth and the Cramps. He has also recorded albums withGrinderman,Sonic Youth,Tav Falco's Panther Burns andCongo Norvell as well as recording sessions with many artists includingMarianne Faithfull,Iggy Pop,Beth Orton, andSeasick Steve. He has also toured with Lunch,Alex Chilton andWreckless Eric.
A key member of the Bad Seeds since 1994 and a founding member of the Bad Seeds offshootGrinderman, he also formed his own New York-based musical ensembleThe Vanity Set in 2000, releasing two studio albums to date.
Further to his work as a musician, Sclavunos has produced a wide range of bands includingGogol Bordello,the Horrors,the Jim Jones Revue, Black Moth, and Teenage Mothers (Lead guitarist and co-vocalist Raph Brous has dedicated his upcoming novel,Empire of Ants, to him).
He has done several remixes, both on his own and as one half of Silver Alert (along with Vanity Set bandmate Peter Mavrogeorgis). In 2012, Silver Alert performed "Faustian Pact" at thePerth International Arts Festival inWestern Australia, a live adaptation ofFW Murnau's filmFaust, produced in collaboration with director/choreographer Micki Pellerano.
In 2012, Sclavunos began an ongoing collaboration with Australian performance artist/musician Michaela Davies on a composition titled "FM-2030" (named for thetranshumanist philosopherFereidoun M. Esfandiary) utilizing programmedelectro-muscular stimulation of classical string players to generate involuntary playing movements. The composition premiered at the 2013 Sonica Festival inGlasgow.
While attendingNYU School of Arts, Jim Sclavunos co-foundedNo Magazine, an underground fanzine devoted to coverage ofNY punk rock and the burgeoningNo Wave movement.[1] He briefly fronted his own band Mimi And The Dreamboats,[2] before joiningNo Wave bands Red Transistor, andThe Gynecologists with avant-garde composerRhys Chatham and Nina Canal to play drums.[3] Around the time the Gynecologists were disbanding, Sclavunos joinedLydia Lunch’s bandTeenage Jesus and the Jerks as bass guitarist, releasing both an EPBaby Doll (1979) and a compilation mini-album on pink vinyl on Lust/Unlust.[4] A short-lived side-project with Lunch called Beirut Slump featured Sclavunos’ first recorded work as drummer on the group's single "Try Me / Staircase" (1979) on Migraine.[5] Following their European tour in June 1979,Teenage Jesus and the Jerks broke up, and Lydia and Sclavunos joined8 Eyed Spy.[6]
In 1980, Sclavunos and Lunch formed a short-lived live blues project, The Devil Dogs.[7] In 1981, following the death of bass player George Scott,8 Eyed Spy released a self-titled album on Fetish.[8] Sclavunos designed the covers for both theROIR 8 Eyed Spy release and forSuicide’sHalf Alive album (1981).[9] Sclavunos ended up moving to Memphis and joining Alex Chilton's side-projectTav Falco's Panther Burns,[10] ultimately releasing an EPBlow Your Top (1982).[11] The same year he briefly joinedSonic Youth and recorded drums parts for their debut album,Confusion Is Sex, but quit before the sessions were over.[12] He moved on to co-founding Trigger & the Thrill Kings with Dutch singer Truus DeGroot, with the group touring extensively throughout the Netherlands and Germany with various line-ups including Jim Duckworth on guitar and Annene Kaye on keyboards.[13]
Sclavunos recorded withKid Congo Powers’ bandCongo Norvell releasingLullabies (1992, Fiasco).[14] His recording sessions withThe Cramps produced albumsLook Mom No Head! (1991, Restless) and EPBlues Fix (1992, Big Beat).[15][16] In the fall of 1991 Sclavunos left Los Angeles to be reunited with Lydia Lunch, touring Europe with her and Rowland S. Howard under the band name Shotgun Wedding. Live recordings were later released under various titles, includingShotgun Wedding Live in Siberia.[17] Sclavunos both lived in and toured Europe withWreckless Eric andTav Falco's Panther Burns in the period 1992 – 1994. While living in Vienna, Austria, he played drums on, and arranged Panther Burns’Shadow Dancer album in 1992 (released on Intercord in 1995).[18]
Following working withNick Cave and the Bad Seeds memberMick Harvey in a project Harvey was producing, Sclavunos joined the band on the 1994 Let Love In European tour as organist/ percussionist.[19] Sclavunos stayed on for their US Lollapalooza tour and became a permanent member that same year.[20]
With the Bad Seeds, Sclavunos generally plays a variety of auxiliary percussion (e.g.vibraphone,maracas,cowbell,tubular bells), whileThomas Wydler plays a standarddrum kit. Sclavunos has also played standard drums, keyboards and other instruments for the Bad Seeds as needed.
Sclavunos recorded his first album as full band member in 1996 withMurder Ballads.[21]Murder Ballads was followed byThe Boatman's Call and a tour, before the Bad Seeds entered a hiatus period.
Sclavunos’ first solo albumThe Vanity Set is released in 2000 on Naked Spur Productions/Hitchyke,[22] while the same year saw him joinThe Gunga Din as drummer, touring and playing on their 2nd albumGlitterati (2000, Jetset).[23] The following year,No More Shall We Part, Scalvunos' third studio recording withNick Cave and the Bad Seeds, is released on Mute Records in April 2001.[24]
Sclavunos produced his second solo album,Little Stabs of Happiness (2003, Cargo) under the banner ofThe Vanity Set.[25]Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds releasedNocturama (2003, Anti) andAbattoir Blues / The Lyre of Orpheus (2004, Anti).[26][27] Throughout this period, Sclavunos toured extensively, drumming with bothNick Cave and the Bad Seeds and inNick Cave’s solo performances in the stripped-down line-up that would eventually becomeGrinderman. The same line-up of musicians also recorded several tracks withMarianne Faithfull for her albumBefore The Poison (2005).[28] Sclavunos played drums and percussion onNick Cave’s score for the Icelandic theatre company Vesturport’s production ofWoyzeck, performed at theBarbican Theatre in London in 2005, as well as a cover version ofJ.B. Lenoir’s "I Feel So Good" for Wim Wenders’Martin Scorsese Presents The Blues – The Soul of a Man.[29]
In 2007,Grinderman, with Sclavunos on drums, released their first self-titled album and debut in the headline slot atAll Tomorrow's Parties in April of that year.[30][31] Sclavunos drummed on Cave's score for the 2007 soundtrack,The Assassination of Jesse James by The Coward Robert Ford, and the following year[32]Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds released their 14th studio albumDig, Lazarus, Dig!!! (Anti), which won the MOJO Honours List Award for Best Album 2008.[33][34]Grinderman headlined major European festival dates includingRoskilde Festival,Latitude Festival, andSummercase. Sclavunos played drums on "Just Like a King", a duet withSeasick Steve andNick Cave which appeared on Seasick Steve's 2008 albumI Started Out with Nothin and I Still Got Most of It Left.[35]Grinderman 2 was released in 2010 and Grinderman toured extensively throughout North America, Europe and Australia.[36] On Valentine's Day 2012 Sclavunos presented Faustian Pact, a multi-media film and live magic ritual performance and musical improvisation piece atThe Perth Arts Festival with Micki Pellerano.[37] He co-wrote and contributed vocals and synth to the track "Lost American" from the solo albumOn the Mat and Off by fellow Bad SeedThomas Wydler.[38]
In February 2013Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds releasedPush the Sky Away (Bad Seed Ltd) and toured the album extensively around the world.[39] At the end of their North American stint, a stripped-down version of the band (including Sclavunos on drums) recorded the albumLive from KCRW, which was released that same year.[40] Sclavunos begins his collaboration with Australian musician and performance artist Michaela Davies on a composition utilizingEMS to create involuntary movement in performing musicians. The piece entitled "FM-2030" (and dedicated to the Futurist philosopher of the same name) premiered at the Sydney Opera House in 2013.[41] In 2014Axels & Sockets (The Jeffrey Lee Pierce Sessions Project) is released with the featured track "Nobody’s City" mixed by Sclavunos, a duet with Iggy Pop and Nick Cave, with guitar byThurston Moore.[42] More touring ensued for Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds.[43]
2016 saw the release of theNick Cave and the Bad Seeds documentaryOne More Time with Feeling, as well as the band’s 16th studio albumSkeleton Tree.[44] Sclavunos is reunited with Truus DeGroot (recording as Plus Instruments) recording drums for 3 tracks on her 2016Signal Through the Waves album while on tour with her in São Paulo, Brazil.[45] Extensive international touring withNick Cave and the Bad Seeds followed the 2017 release of theirLovely Creatures: The Best of Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, culminating in the release ofDistant Sky (Live in Copenhagen), both the concert film and the EP of the same name featuring excerpts from the film.[46][47]Ghosteen, a double album fromNick Cave and the Bad Seeds released in October 2019.[48]
Following theCOVID-19 pandemic, Sclavunos has released multiple singles, starting in January 2021 with "Holiday Song", and continuing in April 2022 with a cover ofBob Dylan's "Lay Down Your Weary Tune".[49][50] He also confirmed that he was working on a solo album prior to the pandemic, and that it would be coming soon.[50] Also in the works is a collaborative album with Nicole Atkins; a lead single, "A Man Like Me" was released in 2019, with the album tentatively being released in 2023.[51]
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