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INFORMATION ARCHIVE
Past Actions- ?/?/01,Big Red House,Buffalo w/Sia Felicia, ?/?/02,Big Red House,Buffalo w/Sia Felicia,Fiesel,GregGreg and others, 9/26/02,Big Red House,Buffalo w/Ripit,Sia Felicia,GregGreg and DSC, 12/11/02,Mohawk Place,Buffalo w/Sia Felicia,and DSC, 12/22/02,Mohawk Place,Buffalo w/W-Vibe,and Mechanik, 02/01/03,The Basement,Fredonia w/Sound Asleep,Sia Felicia, and DSC, 03/31/03,Katabar,Paris w/Lordz Shitterz and Clone, 04/03/03,Squat,Ghent w/others, 04/04/03,JH Paenhuys,Hoegaarten w/Marx and Spencers,Pyromantics and others, 04/06/03,De Kloemp,Bunsbeek w/Dead Husbands,PiDiPi,Crank Sturgeon and Permanent Death, 04/10/03,Poortgebouw,Rotterdam w/Dead Husbands,PiDiPi,Crank Sturgeon, 04/11/03,Occi,Amsterdam w/Dead Husbands,PiDiPi,Crank Sturgeon and 1 other, 04/12/03,Extrapool,Nijmegen w/Dead Husbands,PiDiPi,Crank Sturgeon, 04/18/03,Squat,Berlin w/ Coctail Lytique,Low File and Micha Barthel, 04/19/03,Deutsch Evangelical Jugendwerk,Wurzburg, 04/20/03,Rotten Flora,Hamburg w/Totstellen and Low File, 04/21/03,Basement Party,Jena, 04/23/03,Zoro,Leipzig w/Crank Sturgeon,Nansen,Clone and The Nautilus Deconstruction, 04/26/03,Cultural Swimming Pool,Kranj w/Crank Sturgeon, 04/28/03,Kumulator,Domzale w/Crank Sturgeon and Sushi Park, 04/30/03,Gromki,Ljubljana w/Crank Sturgeon and Minimal Bastard, 05/07/03,Cueva No Art Gallery,Milano w/Crank Sturgeon and Ventolin Orchestra, 07/05/03,Tudor Lounge,Buffalo w/The Next Syphillis,Makeshift Letterbox,Rehab Sluts,GregGreg,Ski-Mask and Burn Like Nero, 10/10/03,Mohawk Place,Buffalo w/Crank Sturgeon,Ski-Mask and The Next Syphillis, 10/24/03,Detroit Contemporary,Detroit w/Sangsara,Vertonen,Sonic Disturbance,LSDudes,Ski-Mask 10/21/04,Adam Mickiewicz Library(Polish Cultural Center),Buffalo w/The Ida Sessions,GregGreg,Digital Geist,D.S.C.
REVIEWS of TOTE STADT material and live actions
Aversion Online(USA):
Nicely packaged… I hated to open this one for fear of ruining the presentation. The entire case is wrapped in cassette tape, which is secured in place by black electrical tape and two nails. The inside cover is just plain paper that has wilted flower petals pressed into it, and there's one slender full color insert with an interesting presentation of band information. The cassette itself is painted black with paper collaged over it, and I actually had to fuck with the shape of my copy to get it to play out of both channels! Tote Stadt (formerly Praying for Oblivion) takes side A, and this direction, while similar, is more creative. It's lo-fi experimental noise, but it's not generic. There's a definite sense of atmosphere (especially in "The Abandoned City", with subtle synth melodies amidst hissy distorted textures). "Your Silence is Convenient" uses vocals subtly in the distance, "Watch it Burn" utilizes almost percussive low tones with Godflesh-like hums and whirrs far off in the background, "Surveillance (Film at Eleven)" is similar to "The Abandoned City" with a more death industrial type of vibe, and "Willkommen!" closes things out on an ambient note with some (Programmed?) drums and slight melody. Not bad at all.....
Gecko 22 Newsletter(Germany):
What once used to be praying for oblivion now is tote stadt and it is more dark and somber than it used to be. imagine metropolis full of mutants, cyborgs and zombies waiting for the final day. mostly distorted dark drones with a bit of screaming and a touch of old-school industrial. the 5th song reminds me a bit of noisy mixture of butthole surfers and especially blurred jesus and mary chain. pretty fresh reduction of song ideas repeated ad infinitum creates monotonous moods, but i tend to like it, becuz access is pretty direct this way.....
Phosphor Magazine(Germany):
....The album starts off quite furious with screaming female vocals reminiscent of Atari Teenage Riot. The next track, "Abandoned City" breaths an ambient noise atmosphere....Quite harsh,well controlled layers of noise and emotional, sort of screaming punk vocals have been put together in a well thought out way. The result is a deconstructive wall of blasting noise, but well enjoyable and slightly reminding of the good-old noise cassette releases of the 1980's.....
Scabies Magazine(USA):
Decayed sound structures stretch out their darkened limbs and prey upon the listener with distorted synths and disharmonic soundscapes....Starting off you are greeted with harsh hiss and distorted beats with either guitar or synth, moving into the next piece, which is more reminiscent of Tribes of Neurot. The track is very trance like and the distortion is more texture than tearing away at the feel of the track. The material is well executed and continues with distorted tones and beats.....
Degenerate! Magazine(Finland):
I was very positively surprised by Tote Stadt, who deliver very massive and intense industrial noise. Each track contains a different atmosphere. They do talented combinations of harsh-noise to nearly melodic sequencer pieces, screaming voice, rhythms etc. Well, it's hard to say what is different from the usual here, but Tote Stadt manages to create something of their own.....
PortlandPhoenix.com(USA):
.....What's great about these two (Tote Stadt) is that they actually know what the hell they're doing. I'm blown away by the fact that this is their third time over [to Europe].....Armed with a list of Goodwill findings (Casio keyboards,neglected drum machines,radio shack microphones) the two of them build great(Glacial!)stacks of distorted loops and layers, frosted on top with howls of vocal stylings, switching off with the microphone.....It's gotta be hard sometimes, travelling and creating with your significant other, and yet it makes for a very complex and interesting stage presence.....the visuals are supplemented by the intensity of their relationship.....Experimental music, especially the noisier factions, would appear to be almost entirely a guy thing. Witnessing Lacy shriek like 10,000 banshees is not only refreshing(if not outright incredible) it can put an audience of boys in black metal T-shirts in their appropriate place.....