Artist: Julian Cope Genre(s):
Rock
Discography:
Autogeddon Year: 1994
Tracks: 8
Peggy Suicide Year: 1991
Tracks: 18
Musician, writer, historiographer, and cosmic shaman Julian Cope was born in October 1957 in Deri, South Glamorgan, Wales. He was embossed in Tamworth, England, and care many a youth artist, suffered through academia as a perpetual outsider. In 1976, upon attendance college in Liverpool, Cope plant himself portion of a biotic community of musicians -- and kindred souls -- including Ian McCulloch, Pete Burns, and Pete Wylie. After versatile incarnations and non so amicable departures (McCulloch went on to fame with Echo & the Bunnymen), the Teardrop Explodes were formed. One of the more influential bands of the late '70s, the chemical group delivered a fickle meld of neo-psychedelic careen and electro-pop. As the band's achiever grew, so did Cope's reputation for debauch, resulting in temperamental, drug-addled stage demeanor that from time to time lED to bloodletting. In 1983, after legion lineup changes and fabled feuds between Cope and Zoo Records figurehead Bill Drummond, the band ceased trading operations.
By 1984, Cope's love of hallucinogenics -- as well as a toy car collection that occupied nigh an entire year of his life sentence -- was at an all-time heights. Despite his altered commonwealth, he released
World Shut You Mouth, his solo debut on Mercury Records. An graceful collecting of chamber pop and Teardrop-fueled electricity, the album shared out critics and fans alike, especially upon the release of theater director David Bailey's macabre telecasting for the low individual, "Sunlight Playroom." Not to be deterred, Cope retreated to Cambridge and recorded the followup,
Deep-fried, a temperature reduction chronicle of self-oblivion that included continue artistry of the artist in a sandpit wearing zippo only a mammoth turtle shell. It was a try-on figure of speech, as Cope -- despite getting matrimonial -- worn out the following twelvemonth in give tongue to privateness, half-heartedly laying down tracks of Syd Barrett-inspired acoustic indulgence for what would eventually become 1989's
Skellington LP.
In 1986 Cope gestural with Island Records and released his most successful record to date,
Saint Julian. The album's crisp production and modern rock sensibilities brought the artist out of his shell -- so to speak -- resulting in an thorough tour and legion television system appearances, including a memorable gig on
The Tonight Show that plant the isaac Merrit Singer becoming quite intimate with his patented jungle gym mike point of view. The dissatisfactory
My Nation Underground followed in 1988, resulting in trey years of supplemental releases that included a collection of Teardrop Explodes B-sides, the aforementioned
Skellington, and the highly collectable
Droolian -- the latter was released in Austin, TX, as share of a safari to release Thirteenth Floor Elevator Roky Erickson from gaol.
In 1991 Cope released the ambitious double-LP
Peggy Suicide. Inspired by a visual sensation the creative person had of Mother Earth throwing herself cancelled a drop to her expiry, the record came as a revelation to many. Gone were the slick arrangements of his premature Island releases, replaced hither by the brooding funk, soul, family line, and cosmic service department careen that would follow him into the young millennium. His refusal to submit to more than one outspoken claim, the comprehension of Michael "Mooneye" Watts on guitar, and the raw production/organ/bass provided by longtime confederate Donald Ross Skinner became the bedrock on which his subsequent work depended. Cope's obsessions with Krautrock and pleasure seeker history -- only briefly hinted at on
Peggy Suicide -- were brought to the head on 1992's
Jehovahkill, some other creative prevail that unfortunately failed to connect with the public at large, resulting in his forced "difference" from the label.
He released his next deuce recordings, the angular and cautionary ecologic rave-up
Autogeddon (1994) and the fatherhood-inspired
20 Mothers (1995) on the Echo judge in the U.K. and on American in the States. Cope spent a gravid deal of this period purge himself of his ostensibly endless creative get-up-and-go through side projects on his mail-order-only judge Ma-Gog, a originative wall plug that finally morphed into the website/community/record label Head Heritage. He released
Interpreter in 1996, a return to toss off form that saw the self-described "Arch Drude" tackling both environmental and social issues with renewed vigor. His nigh recent see is Brain Donor, a four-piece, face-painted, triple double-neck guitar-playing service department rock\punk kit that released its debut,
Love, Peace & Fuck on Head Heritage in 2001, followed by
Overly Freud to Rock 'n' Roll, Too Jung to Die in 2003. 2005 sawing machine the exit of
Citizen Cain'd and
Dark Orgasm, both of which relied on two discs of sonic rage and pop havoc.
Cope had been compiling his memoirs into playscript descriptor throughout the '90s; Head On, a account of his life up to the demise of the Teardrop Explodes, was published in 1993, followed by its continuation, Repossessed, in 2000. He too trudged all over the nation in search of rock circles patch researching his thoroughgoing coffee tree table rule book, The Modern Antiquarian: A Pre-Millennial Odyssey Through Megalithic Britain, and wrote Krautrock Sampler, a critically acclaimed guide to German space john Rock. He has spoken at legion festivals, museums, and universities on both topics.
