The Bride Stripped Bare was a band and a phenomenon
that was definitely ahead of its time. Mixing post-punk, noise, synthpop,
and prog rock seemed natural enough to us, but in an era of stricter
styles than today, this was certainly not the norm. Throw in a perverse
sense of humour, "whiny, nasty vocals" and mixed-media elements
(including 16 mm film) and there was definitely something unique about
the band.
Formed in 1986 in
Victoria by Steve Gibson, Will Bauer and Andreas Kitzmann, the original
incarnation of the band played strictly improvised experimental music
and was heavily influenced by Einstürzende Neubauten, Test Department
and Glenn Branca. Playing on the dadaist roots of the band's name, many
of the original instruments used by the Bride were found objects, such
as heating ducts or sheet metal played with a cello bow.
Moving to Vancouver
in 1987 the band added percussionist/keyboardist Nick Apivor and Andreas
Kitzmann left for Montreal to continue his studies. Filmmaker and occasional
vocalist Reg Harkema and multi-instrumentalist/vocalist Mark Critchley
also became part-time members. This incarnation of the band was much
more accessible and stylistically diverse than the original band. Influenced
by Sonic Youth, King Crimson, The Birthday Party, Einstürzende
Neubauten, Gang of Four, The Residents, and early Yello, the band churned
out a series of noisy, semi-funky tracks, including a sinister cover
of the filthy Maurice Chevalier track Thank Heaven (for little girls),
and Sonic Youth's Schizophrenia, which became a minor college
radio hit.
The band played several
live gigs, mostly notably a show at the Old Princess Ballroom on June
4th, 1988 with Vancouver-based prog rock band Excited First Daughter.
The Bride Stripped Bare were a pretty intense live show and
more than a bit of chaos characterized our live events. The Bride recorded
one demo tape (somewhat) amusingly entitled We've Got a Duct and
We're Gonna Hit It. This was mixed on a crap 4-track Portastudio,
so don't expect hi-fi when you go to the SOUNDS page.