Six Finger Satellite - C/D?

If you're interested, members have gone on to/been also in: Landed, Pleasurehorse, La Machine and probably more.

and i read an interview with him in Vice where he was talking about how he thought he was shooting up heroin, but was in fact shooting CRACK!

All of their albums are worth hearing. My favorite album is a toss up between "Severe Exposure" & "Law of Ruins".

I love how they incorporate these moonscapes off of the moog on "Sea of Tranquility", it is such a unique mix of these ambient synth sounds over those steel sharp tool and die sounds. Their sound built a whole new wing on the building that Big Black Tool built.

The only thing I have that isn't all that great is their first EP "Weapon", which is, the only thing I have heard by them that didn't get me going, as it is before the moogs and when they had a different lead singer. (The rumor about their first EP is that it was an orchestrated fake grunge demo. I'm not sure about that, but it doesn't sound like the later music as much.)

It appears that they are no more, which is a shame.

Machine Cuisine is a kind of silly Kraftwerk tribute - very different from their other guitar-heavy stuff. Don't forget the Live at the A.C.I. single (allegedly recorded at a prison), too...it screams. For some reason, Paranormalized didn't quite work as an album - if it were chopped up into two EPs with careful sequencing, I think it would've made a difference. Massive Cocaine Seizure makes good on its perfectly-fitting name.

Notice that they sometimes blatantly rip off popular tunes? Like, "Dark Companion" steals the riff from "I Just Want to Celebrate" by Rare Earth. And "Mistaken Street" cops "You Belong to the City"!

Whatever happened to Romania anyway? There was a great band.

Was there ever a better band on Sub Pop?

Two words: Cat Butt.

The impression I get from the above is that all their stuff has somethign to recomend it or are there any real duffers?

Apparently, they were at each other's throats all the time, which would account for all the tension in their music.

They got extra points from me for playing Travis Bean guitars *and* Moog Liberations.

J. Ryan was the Schneider of noise rock with that fuckin' stache.

Von Ryan's Express eventually mutated into Thee Hydrogen Terrors, whose album "Terror Diplomacy and Public Relations" is still one of the biggest, most swaggerin', hogginest rock records ever made. I got a plate in my head.

Reading about shit like this and remembering how unbelievable bands of the same era, like the 1985, went ignored yet would be absolutely huge today, upsets me.

i bet you his tiara didn't even fall one hair out of place.

(this is kind of a joke).

The same piece was in Interview Magazine a couple of years back, but John reveals that he was with Kurt Cobain at the time.

6FS are great. I got The 1985 record a couple of years ago, the one with the wizard post-card on the cover - not too bad, but I much prefer the VSS.

has there ever been a TS: Six Finger Satellite vs. Girls Vs Boys?

FIVE BAND ROBOT ROCK CAGE MATCH!

I must get Law of Ruins sometime.

I'll grant you the GvsB, but I can't easily defer when it comes to Brainiac or Polysics. Brainiac were an equally strong beast of their own.. and I'd have a hard time choosing.

I only know one Polysics album, and thats Neu from 2000. Based on that alone, there's mega rock happening there.

I don't kow the Causey Way, though. Where from/what do they sound like/now/then?

Well, nothing now. They broke up in 2001. They were a Gainseville, FL band that had released two albums on Alternative Tentacles.. the first one In Loving Arms or something like that, was very much a Modern Devo-esque classic, alongside the whole David Koresh/cult shtick they perfected. (They often successfully got audience members to donate dollars to them live, and wear the require all-white uniform)

The second album was eh. They did release some EPs, one song of which might be their best: "Science Has Made Me A Homo (Sapiens)"

I also saw GvB open for Jesus Lizard. They were also really good live show. I think they had a cool sound, but they completely ran out of things to do with that sound, as they had a fast song, a slow song and then a song with a big groove each one with a different kind of raspy talking vocals.

Both bands were pretty good, but neither one was as grand as 6FS.

OTM, and I like Braniac and GvsB (well, I used to, I put on one of their records the other day and it sounded terrible - but they were good live). 6FS are still classic in every way and way ahead of their time. I remember reading that they did a fake grunge demo that got them signed to Sub Pop.. a-ha, an old 6FS bio from an old Sub Pop page:

Formed out of necessity, nationalized via hoax, promulgated by agitation, and based on the will to power, Six Finger Satellite enters its tenth year as musical entity. Formed by J. Ryan and John MacLean, stabilized by Richard Pelletier, and updated by James Apt, Six Finger Satellite's history is one of triumph and tragedy.

Signing to Sub Pop Records in 1990 on the strength of a carefully executed demo tape hoax, Six Finger Satellite officially got its "foot in the door." The resulting Weapon EP earned the band barely a glance, critical or otherwise, but nonetheless the true victory had been earned, a lucrative contract with Sub Pop Records. Financially stable and creatively focused, Six Finger Satellite threw off its cloak of disguise and continues shedding bits and pieces of unneeded baggage to this day.

Six Finger Satellite is serious business. The business of doing pleasure. There is an integrity that not all can muster. There is an emotional level that not all can understand. There is a past and a future that only a handful really know.

Goldkicks Six Finger Satellite Post

I don't think any of the mp3 links are up any longer, though.

I saw them in Nashville on the Paranormalized tour - '96. They were a well-oiled rock/noise machine, stunning. I peppered their set with shouted requests for "Gates of Steel" and "Girluwant" which went unheeded. After that tour, two key members left the band (the drummer and guitarist).

J. Ryan tried to keep the body alive for several years. I saw the reformed 6FS in 1999 or 2000 playing with Lightning Bolt at Fort Thunder in Providence. They were very good with a really overloaded/saturated sound, coming off like a cross between Amon Duul II's Live In London and The Birthday Party's Junkyard. They ended their set with a cover of "Gimmie Gimmie Gimmie" and as the last squeal of gtr died out, Lightning Bolt thundered from the back of the room and the entire crowd stampeded towards them. A great moment in musical history.

Saw them again a couple months later at the Columbus Theatre in Providence with Arab On Radar. After AOR left the stage, a lot of people left, and a lot more drifted out during 6FS' set. It was kind of lackluster. I think J. Ryan's had a hard time keeping good players in the group and keeping the energy level up. Which is understandable if you're shooting up a lot of crack.

It's a damn shame about Fort Thunder - I drove past the shopping center erected in its stead for the first time a couple weeks ago. Seems like places like Redrum and May-n-Kevin's are keeping the scene alive but I don't think any place will ever hold a candle to the weird wonderland that was the Fort.

wouldn't it be great if these guys got a really good reissue, seems like a lot of singles and what have you that weren't on the albums.

someone mentioned them way up thread and i have been wondering about this...

The word you're looking for is disregarded.

I really love all their stuff, but "Law of Ruins" I think is my favorite

Law of Ruins is probably the best, or at least the most diverse, as it dives in krautrock territory.

New album in spring '08 says their myspace page. WTF!

wouldn't it be great if these guys got a really good reissue

Isn't Load reissuing their records sometime soon? That's what their advert in the back of The Wire says, anywho.

Machine Cuisine and the companion cassette.

what! no way, i love this band

one of the best!

Where's this Myspace page, I can only find a fan site that's not been touched for moths

that's been touched by moths, I meant to say

It's http://www.myspace.com/6fs

SO PSYCHED

SO PSYCHED

I think this was the first ilx thread I posted on

picked up half control for a buck in a close out bin...

this is pretty raging!

odd production, the drums sound super brittle and digital but listening more i wonder if this is supposed to be some weird purposeful harsh brutalist upper mid range thing

I love all the classic-era SFS albums but haven't gotten around to Half Control or that other new one. Saw 'em live last year in a small warehouse with like 30 people there, lots of wild projection work and huge echo-y sound -- CLASSIC.

man this is really good!

RRRRRRRAWRRRRRRRRRRRRRR

this is some o.g. tuff guy shit man i'm sayin'

man i went from being "this is pretty good" wrt to "half control" to being totally pimpnotized by these dudes...

good word

been listening to Pigeon; that's a helluva record...really great!!!

that's the only one i've never been able to find on CD; still haven't heard it :(

love the hell outta Paranormalized the most i think

they're all good though!

anyone know how the "reunion" records are? i've seen Half Control a few times used but keep passing it up.. don't wanna mess w/ the flawless legacy, y'know?

m@tt seems to think that Half Control is "pimpnotic"

everytime I hear the opening to this

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hN1bJqU50iA

it reminds me of this opening to this

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fyRrGZZUJeE

I started this thread btw (I was Famous Athlete), and it's weird, cause just this last week when I read about Taco Bell phasing out the Mexican Pizza, I thought about the dude who burned me the 6FS mix in 2003, cause after one of the first times we hung out in high school we cruised through the Taco Bell to get some 11PM dinner but he was broke and asked me to get him a Mexican Pizza (the most expensive thing on the menu at the time) and I did and he never paid me back and I brought it up CONSTANTLY over the last 20 years

No idea how I never saw these guys in all the Boston shows I went to in the 90s. Devo meets Big Black, so great!

you fucked up

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gel398s0SYo

Huh, missed the 30th anniversary reissue of Severe Exposure.

https://www.subpop.com/news/2025/07/17/sub_pop_to_release_six_finger_satellites_severe_exposure_deluxe_edition_an_expanded_30th_anniversary_version_of_the_landmark_album_worldwide_on_september_12th_2025

1. Bad Comrade
2. Parlour Games
3. White Queen to Black Night
4. Pulling a Train
5. Simian Fever
6. Cock Fight
7. Dark Companion
8. Where Humans Go
9. Rabies (Baby’s Got The)
10. Board the Bus
11. Love (Via Machine)
12. Blue Melodica
13. The Magic Bus
14. Hans Pocketwatch
15. The Well-Tempered Monkey
16. Like to Get to Know You
17. The Greek Arts
18. White Temples
19. Untitled Instrumental*
20. Fisher of Men*
21. 2MuchKungFu*
22. EV365a*
23. kgbg*
24. Rabies (Baby’s Got The) dub*
25. Mistaken Street*
26. Swing Alone*
27. Spooks/So Lonely*
28. Shadows Moving*
29. Trigger Mac*
30. Man Behind the Glasses*
31. War Crimes*
32. Dark Companion (7” Version)*
33. If I Tried*
34. Massive Cocaine Seizure*
35. Human Operator*

The bonus material is surprisingly great, it gets under your skin like the best of their stuff