Rapeman was an American
noise rock group founded
in 1987 and disbanded in 1989. It consisted of
Steve Albini (formerly of
Big Black) on
guitar and
vocals,
David
Wm. Sims (formerly of
Scratch Acid) on
bass, and
Rey Washam
(formerly of
Scratch Acid and
Big Boys) on
drums.
In an interview, Albini reported that '
Rapeman' is ... the title character in a
Japanese
comic book that I had come
across through a friend of mine. The comic book is just a total
mind-bender. There's a whole genre of
comics in
Japan,
rape stories where women are raped
in really graphic detail for whatever reason." Albini and Washam
became "sort of obsessed" with the comic, and named their new group
after the titular
antihero.
Rapeman's performances would often be the target of protestors, who
felt that the band was mocking the subject of rape or even
encouraging
rape and violence against women.
Albini has described such criticisms as idiotic, arguing that
punk ideology is generally very
sympathetic to
feminism.
The playing style at times was reminiscent of more traditional
noise punk (as on "Up Beat"), at other times cranky art-rock (as on
"Monobrow"), their sound gave centre stage to the signature guitar
style of Albini.
The band broke up for personal reasons, but not, as has been
rumoured, over a dispute relating to their name. Albini launched
his career as a recording engineer and played bass with
Flour before going on to form
Shellac. Sims reunited with ex-
Scratch Acid vocalist
David Yow to form
The
Jesus Lizard.
Discography
All originally released on
Touch
and Go Records in the US,
Blast
First! in the UK and
AuGoGo in Australia
unless otherwise indicated. Rapeman left Blast First! in 1990 after
Albini had an argument with the label over the release of a Big
Black record. Touch and Go started distributing in the UK in 1992,
and rereleased Rapeman's records.
References
- Lazell, Barry (1997) Indie Hits 1980 - 1989, Cherry
Red Books, ISBN 0-95172-069-4
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