(Translated from my original Italian text by ChatGPT and Piero Scaruffi)
Richmond in Virginia was home during the 1980s to one of the quirkiest strands of instrumental rock.
The Alter Natives and Breadwinner, the two groups that achieved a minimum of notoriety, paved the way for bands like
Don Caballero.
The Breadwinner (who recorded only two all-instrumental singles) originated from the Honor Role. The Honor Role stood out for the “progressive” tempos of drummer Steve Schick and the cerebral solos of guitarist Pen Rollings. They recorded an EP in 1984, It Bled Like A Stuck Pig. Then, with the addition of singer Bob Schick, the drummer’s brother, the band matured and recorded a single in 1985 with the sarcastic rant of Anonymous Cave and the powerful boogie of Judgement Day. The greatest limitation of this phase was Rollings’ singing, practically reduced to modulated chatter.
With new bassist Chip Jones, the lineup pushed toward the sounds of British gothic, a phase opened by the single Purgatory, in the style of the Fall and PIL, and its B-side Jank, screamed over a driving beat. The album The Pretty Song (Eskimo), released in November 1986, wallowed in dark atmospheres, from the tribal and grim My Place to the bleak and lengthy agony of Six.
After Steve Schick’s departure and Seth Harris’s arrival on drums, the last act of the saga unfolded: the EP Craig Olive (Homestead, 1988), with the punk-rock of Lives Of The Saints, and the album Rictus (Homestead, 1989). This record, opened by the tense ballad Listening To Sally, driven by the martial and hypnotic Footprints, culminated in the experimental harmony of Salty Tears (with the Alter Natives) and the surreal instrumental Break The Ice, a sonata for flute, noises, and rock band. Album (Merge, 1997) collected the complete works of Honor Role.
Rollings then formed Butterglove, whose material was collected on The John Morano Sessions (Speed Kills, 1997), and Breadwinner. Bob Schick formed the Coral, who released the albums Pillow Talk and Altamont In Dub. The drummer of the last lineup, Seth Harris, went on to join
Kepone.
(Original English text by Piero Scaruffi)
There were other strands.
Breadwinner (Robert Donne, Chris Farmer, Pen Rollings) were an offshoot of Butterglove. They only recorded two EPs, collected on The Burner (Merge, 1994), that laid the foundation for post-rock. Breadwinner's Chris Farmer also released the solo album Getting Warm On The Trail Of Heat (Home Hop, 1997), an adventurous album of ambient collage music for sampling machine.
Breadwinner's guitarist Pen Rollings and fellow guitarist Tannon Penland formed Loincloth with Confessor's rhythm section (drummer Steve Shelton and bassist Cary Rowells). They debuted after many years (when Rollings had already quit) with the avant-metal instrumentals of Iron Balls Of Steel (Southern Lord, 2011).
Electronic musicians Tomas Phillips and Craig Hilton joined
Loincloth's guitarist Tannon Penland for Gauchiste, that debuted with the
digital glitch and droning music of Gauchiste (Little Black Cloud, 2012).
