Trash Strata is a free-improv collective from Birmingham, Alabama.
Their core belief being that anyone can play music, the group ranges
from two to twelve players and includes neighbors, stragglers and
animals in the band. The initial goal of transcending the cultural void
of turn-of the-centruy Alabama motivated them to channel the far-flung
influences of spiritual jazz, noise, psych-rock and folk musics from various
places and eras. Their sound oscillates between caterwauling group
singing to junkyard gamelan to swamp garbage to fried country-blues.
Early on, the group was based out of a house in Southside known as
the AC Temple. Located next door to the former Trans Museq headquarters
of improv legends Davey Williams & LaDonna Smith, this next generation of
noise-makers put on shows for artists from across the entire spectrum of the
American underground including locals Arthur Doyle, Rodger Stella, Hollow
Bush, Guhts and Yakuza Dance Mob, along with touring acts like Leslie Keffer,
Buck Gooter, Magik Markers, Temple of Bon Matin, Sejayno, Pony Bones,
Mugu Guymen, Mars Killed Mary, Social Junk, Noise Nomads, Cabo Ladies,
Zack Kouns, Russian Tsarlag and many more.
Their first major tour was undertaken without any setlist, each show a
total improvisation with various mixtures of equipment. Filling up a
Toyota Camry to the fucking brim with drums, guitars? banjos, and scrap
metal, they played gigs with kindred spirits Acid Mothers Temple, MV & EE,
Horse Lords, Faun and a Pan Flute, Charalambides, Raccoo-oo-oon,
Blues Control, D. Charles Speer & the Helix and others across the lands
east of the Mississippi.
Following the path of their Trans Museq predecessors, Trash Strata's
music explores "the stark reality & essence of rural Alabama eccentricity."
To this end, they've gone through periods of: refusing to use electricity,
wearing only one color at a time, and never wearing shoes onstage. At
some point, camouflage became the preferred fashion of the group, a
visual style that embodied a sacred, metaphorical and hidden purpose
in their art. "Use your beliefs as camouflage for your thoughts," sang their
buddy Tripp Norris, his folk-psalm chanted poignantly by the group on
their album The Crimson Cried.
After moving locations several times (to Montevallo, to Tuscaloosa, to the
Cuckoo's Nest), the group disintegrated & reformed into various iterations
in the process. Core players splintered off with projects like Flesh Circuit,
Vernal Scuzz, Mother Harmony, Minerals, Pure Enchantment, Burning Moon
and Sorry Y'all. Their musical vision continues presently in the collective
activities of Sweet Wreath at the base of Ruffner Mountain.
Their core belief being that anyone can play music, the group ranges
from two to twelve players and includes neighbors, stragglers and
animals in the band. The initial goal of transcending the cultural void
of turn-of the-centruy Alabama motivated them to channel the far-flung
influences of spiritual jazz, noise, psych-rock and folk musics from various
places and eras. Their sound oscillates between caterwauling group
singing to junkyard gamelan to swamp garbage to fried country-blues.
Early on, the group was based out of a house in Southside known as
the AC Temple. Located next door to the former Trans Museq headquarters
of improv legends Davey Williams & LaDonna Smith, this next generation of
noise-makers put on shows for artists from across the entire spectrum of the
American underground including locals Arthur Doyle, Rodger Stella, Hollow
Bush, Guhts and Yakuza Dance Mob, along with touring acts like Leslie Keffer,
Buck Gooter, Magik Markers, Temple of Bon Matin, Sejayno, Pony Bones,
Mugu Guymen, Mars Killed Mary, Social Junk, Noise Nomads, Cabo Ladies,
Zack Kouns, Russian Tsarlag and many more.
Their first major tour was undertaken without any setlist, each show a
total improvisation with various mixtures of equipment. Filling up a
Toyota Camry to the fucking brim with drums, guitars? banjos, and scrap
metal, they played gigs with kindred spirits Acid Mothers Temple, MV & EE,
Horse Lords, Faun and a Pan Flute, Charalambides, Raccoo-oo-oon,
Blues Control, D. Charles Speer & the Helix and others across the lands
east of the Mississippi.
Following the path of their Trans Museq predecessors, Trash Strata's
music explores "the stark reality & essence of rural Alabama eccentricity."
To this end, they've gone through periods of: refusing to use electricity,
wearing only one color at a time, and never wearing shoes onstage. At
some point, camouflage became the preferred fashion of the group, a
visual style that embodied a sacred, metaphorical and hidden purpose
in their art. "Use your beliefs as camouflage for your thoughts," sang their
buddy Tripp Norris, his folk-psalm chanted poignantly by the group on
their album The Crimson Cried.
After moving locations several times (to Montevallo, to Tuscaloosa, to the
Cuckoo's Nest), the group disintegrated & reformed into various iterations
in the process. Core players splintered off with projects like Flesh Circuit,
Vernal Scuzz, Mother Harmony, Minerals, Pure Enchantment, Burning Moon
and Sorry Y'all. Their musical vision continues presently in the collective
activities of Sweet Wreath at the base of Ruffner Mountain.
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