Premature Ejaculation (band)

Premature Ejaculation
220px Left to right: Ron Athey, Rozz Williams
Background information
Origin	Los Angeles, United States
Genres	Industrial, dark ambient
Years active	1981, 1987–1998
Labels	Happiest Tapes on Earth, Dark Vinyl, Baader Meinhoff, Gymnastic, Triple XXX, Cleopatra, Malaise Music
Associated acts	Heltir, EXP
Past members	Rozz Williams, Ron Athey, Chuck Collison, Lee Wildes

Premature Ejaculation was an American industrial band from Pomona, California, formed in 1981 by Rozz Williams and Ron Athey and dissolved in less than one year. The band was reformed in 1987 by Williams and several other members, not including Athey. The group disbanded completely after the death of Rozz Williams in 1998.

History

Formation

Premature Ejaculation was originally formed in 1981 by Rozz Williams and Ron Athey. Williams went on to front several bands, such as Christian Death, Shadow Project and Heltir. Unlike the deathrock band Christian Death, Premature Ejaculation did not use standard "rock band" instruments; instead, sound was created using various objects, instruments and lo-fi devices. Premature Ejaculation recordings are rare and difficult to obtain. Much of their original work was only distributed to friends.

Premature Ejaculation played very few live performances because clubs refused to book them due to their controversial stage theatrics. One of the older acts included Athey eating a dead cat (the animal was roadkill), documentation of which can be seen in the book Hardcore California. Christian Death was reformed in the summer of 1981, yet Premature Ejaculation continued with Williams as a member. It was well-known that Williams's favorite project was performing with Premature Ejaculation.

Rebirth

The band never completely dissolved, and reformed in 1987, two years after vocalist and songwriter Rozz Williams permanently left Christian Death. He was joined by Lee Wildes, Chuck Collison, and Kris Fuller (temporarily). Already longtime friends, Gene Evans and Steve Messer became their producers when the band's reformation occurred in 1987. The installations and recordings improved as they evolved from a band and took a drastic turn toward performance art. The group's themes remained avant-garde throughout and focused on the bizarre and taboo. They would use sound clips from crying babies to chainsaws along with their refined multimedia clips that often left their fans astonished. In their early live shows, the group would sometimes throw meat and animal eyeballs into the crowd. Collison played a big part in the re-formed group, especially with regard to their higher quality electronic gear and better recording facilities that he added to their sound. Collison started his own label 'The Happiest Place on Earth' to release Premature Ejaculation's recordings. The name was soon changed to 'The Happiest Tapes on Earth' in order to avoid potential legal problems from Disney.

The first two full-length records were released via Collison's label. At first, releases were only available in the cassette format. Death Cultures was the first to be released in 1987, and this was followed by Blood Told in Spine and then Assertive Discipline in successive years. In total, the reformed group released seven recordings, Anesthesia being the most popular of which, and was released on the more professional German label Dark Vinyl Records. They also released on the Cleopatra and Triple XXX labels.

Premature Ejaculation, although not always Williams' most well-known project (see Shadow Project with Eva O), he remained active in some form or another right up until his death in 1998, and left behind a prolific back catalog of releases. The group's last record, Wound of Exit, was released posthumously.

Members

• Rozz Williams
• Ron Athey (1981-1982)
• Chuck Collison (1987–1998)
• Gene Evans (1987-1998)
• Stephen Messer (1987-1998)
• Lee Wildes (1987-1989)
• Paris Sadonis
• Ryan Wildstar
• Erik Christides

Discography

• PE – Pt.1 (1981)
• PE – Pt.2 (1981)
• A Little Hard to Swallow
• Living Monstrocities / Descent
• Body of a Crow (1986)
• Death Cultures (1987)
• Assertive Discipline (1988)
• Death Cultures III (1988)
• Night Sweats (1988)
• Blood Told in Spine (1991)
• Blue Honey / Pigface Show & Tell (1988)
• Anesthesia (1992)
• Necessary Discomforts (1993)
• Estimating the Time of Death (1994)
• Dead Horse Riddles (1994)
• Wound of Exit (1998)
• 6 (2001)

Video releases

• Death Cultures III (1988)
• Not the Real Criminal (1989)
• The End is Here (1989)

References

Template:Rozz Williams