Lubricated Goat

The following Lubricated Goat biography originally appeared at whammo.com.au (whose website is currently offline) and apart from a couple of minor corrections appears here in its original form. Thanks to Cousin Creep for providing this article.

LUBRICATED GOAT
Formed in: 1986.
Style: Rock.
Original line-up: Stu Spasm (real name Stuart Gray, vocals, guitar, synthesiser, bass; ex-Exhibit A, Zulu Rattle, Salamander Jim, Beasts of Bourbon, James Baker Experience, Death in Vegas, Hot Property), Martin Bland (drums, vocals; ex-Head On, Crawling Eye, Acid Drops, Bloodloss, Zulu Rattle, Salamander Jim, Primevils), Pete Hartley (bass, guitar; ex-Kryptonics), Brett Ford (drums; ex-Kryptonics).
Lubricated Goat albums: Plays the Devil's Music (Black Eye, 1987), Paddock of Love (Black Eye, 1988), Psychedelicatessen (Black Eye, 1990), Forces You Don't Understand (Independent, 1994).

       The driving force behind the anarchistic Lubricated Goat was one Stu Spasm, a musician not known for subtlety and restraint. As a member of a group of like-minded musicians (Tex Perkins, Lachlan McLeod, Martin Bland and Peter Read), Stu Spasm conceived Lubricated Goat as a subversive take on all things complacent and facile in rock music circa 1986.

       For the musicians involved, it was simply a chance to exist on the very edges of the Sydney rock scene, and to play out a sick joke for their own entertainment. John Foy at Red Eye Records liked the joke and formed the Black Eye label specifically as an outlet for the recorded works of this bunch of noise terrorists. The first batch of Black Eye records issued in July 1987 included Lubricated Goat's Plays the Devil's Music album, Thug's Mechanical Ape/Proud Idiots Parade album and the notorious "Dad" single, plus the Various Artists album Waste Sausage which had been compiled by McLeod. Plays the Devil's Music comprised recordings Spasm had made with Bland in Adelaide and with Pete Hartley and Brett Ford in Perth during September 1986. As such, the original Lubricated Goat line-up was a transient one at best. The consolidated line-up of Spasm, Hartley, Ford and Guy Maddison (bass) issued the album Paddock of Love (July 1988).

       Lubricated Goat will forever be remembered for its infamous appearance on the ABC-TV's late-night variety show Blah Blah Blah in late 1988. That particular episode dealt with the issue of censorship, and the band members performed the cacophonous "In the Raw" completely naked. The sight of the Goats' real (and imagined) body parts was enough to prompt scores of irate callers to jam the ABC's switchboard for 30 minutes, for the Daily Mirror to run a front-page exposé and for current affairs shows like the Midday Show, Hinch and Newsworld, plus radio commentators like Ron Casey, to call for an end to such moral depravity.

       The line-up of Spasm, Maddison, Charlie Tolnay (guitar; ex-Grong Grong, King Snake Roost) and Gene Ravet (drums; ex-Ragadoll, concurrently in Space Juniors) produced the 12-inch EP Schadenfreude (May 1989). That year, Lubricated Goat undertook a low-budget, two-month tour of the USA which saw the band supporting the likes of The Butthole Surfers and Killdozer. While in Seattle, Washington, Lubricated Goat issued a limited edition single for the Sub Pop label "Meeting My Head"/"20th Century Rake". The next line-up of Spasm, Renestair E.J. (guitar, sax; ex-Bloodloss, Primevils), Lachlan McLeod (bass, sampling; ex-Salamander Jim) and Martin Bland (drums, synth- esiser) issued the album Psychedelicatessen (August 1990). Psychedelicatessen featured a variety of styles (from noisy free-form jazz to noisier hard rock), with tortured guitars and raw vocals being the band's characteristic mode of operation.

       Lubricated Goat undertook a European tour in 1990 that came to an abrupt halt when Spasm was stabbed in a drug deal gone wrong in Berlin. Spasm relocated to New York where he married Babes in Toyland bassist Kat Bjelland. The pair formed Crunt with Jon Spencer Blues Explosion drummer Russell Simms. Crunt played grungy roots-rock fleshed out by violent, sex-obsessed lyrics. The band issued a self-titled album in 1994. That same year Spasm reactivated Lubricated Goat and recorded Forces You Don't Understand in New York with guest players from US bands like The Swans and Cop Shoot Cop. After that the band fell apart, as did Spasm's marriage. He fell deeper into the depths of heroin addiction, but by 1996 had again reactivated Lubricated Goat with new players.