Contributed by band member Dead Joe:

Writing about these guys and their music is like trying to nail blobs of mercury to a wall. Due to sloth and paranoia they have been, 'til now, a little heard phenomenon rising out of the subterranean southlands. In daring to endure their five releases, at one time I found myself crossing a sonic terrain made up of sounds from just a few moments ago to rumblings that seemed from the beginning of time. What's all this got to do with Pynchon? Well, at least one member of the band is a hardcore Pynchon fan (ever contemplating ripping the lyrics right out of the books instead of subtle allusions encoded within the music). Another member is rumored to be a son o' Slothrop. A A A And Guido may be Lyle Bland's bastard (spawned after Lyle's passing over). Beyond that my personal bandwidth tends to stretch across the wave spectrum, and I tend towards entropy.
Forked Yew is:
Guido Satyr (voc. keys and some lyric) more than man son o' pan. A priapic giant of a being who lives in a cave, emerging only to feed his lusts. So averse to technology that he must psychically implant his bits onto the tapes.
Seanmac 10 (gits and cetera) a Louisiana leprechaun and high order electro imp who can only be found at the end of Gravity's Rainbow.
Mark Crimes (keys, word and knob twirl) last seen firing at passersby from his front porch. Approach with caution.
Dead Joe (gits, vocs, samples, and other crap) bastard son of all that may as well have never existed at all 'cause it ain't here now.
Guest musicians frequently include the spirits of assorted dead and the living spirits of a select few who are at present unaware that they ever had involvement with Forked Yew.
Forked Yew's latest release is Avant Guardian Angels. Previous releases include: Hardcore Dementia, Origin of the Feces, Drive a Better Deal, History's Mysteries. Also available: Random Hits Package -- 90 minutes of varied sounds from the vaults. Cover same each tape different. Purchase all five releases and get a free CD whenever it comes out. Each tape made by dub elves and as lovingly handcrafted as a unibomb.

Main Web Site: http://www.forkedyew.com

Tapes are: $10.00 each (US); $15.00 (International)
Tapes can be ordered from:
Bangin' Pots Music
P.O. Box 5650
Bossier City LA, 71171
USA

 

Anderson, Laurie. Famous New York performance artist Laurie Anderson dedicated a song to Pynchon on her Mister Heartbreak album.	Benatar, Pat. Believe it or not, she named a final album Gravity's Rainbow.
Benny Profane. English hard rockers from Liverpool, they took their name from a character in V.	Blowtorch, Eric Reggae influenced artist putting Pynchon's lyrics to music.
Cassiber. An avant garde German group used Gravity's Rainbow to tell a different tale.	Corey, Prof. Irwin. The man who was the infamous stand-in for Thomas Ruggles Pynchon.
Dangtrippers. They recorded Maxwell's Demon Box on their album, Days Between Stations.	Einhorn, Richard. Another rendition of music devoted to the Demon, and much more.
Fariña, Richard. An long-time friend of Pynchon, this folkie named an instrumental work after a Pynchon novel.	Favorite Color, The. A New Jersey band sets a selection from V. to music on their album Color Out of Space (1996).
Fool, The. Surely not Slothrop's band, this was a short lived group which did, in fact, have a harmonica player.	Forked Yew. Independent, highly experimental rockers and Pynchon fans from the American South.
Frith & Kaiser. An instrumental pair with a piece called The Kirghiz Light.	Hall, Ed. An early 90's band influenced by Pynchon, they named a song Roger Mexico.
Insect Trust. This jazzy, psychedelic group mined V. for lyrics to The Eyes of a New York Woman.	Jazz Butcher. AKA Pat Fish, who named a track Looking for Lot 49 on his Fishcoteque album.
Jones, Spike. Pynchon himself wrote the liner notes for Spiked!	Knopfler, Mark. The Sultan of Swing sails to Philadelphia!
Koron, Barry. Weilding the Sjambok never felt so good!	Lot 49 (Ontario). This now retired hardcore outfit hailed from the hometown of Spermatikos Logos' own Laurence Daw.
Lot 49 (NYC). Indie NYC rockers named after Pynchon's second novel.	Lotion. A New York group whose liner notes were penned by the Man himself.
Maas. A visit to San Narciso.	Nirvana. Was the famous tune Smells Like Teen Spirit acutally inspired by a song from Gravity's Rainbow?
Nova Mob. A "Rock Opera" filled with references to Gravity's Rainbow.	Ocker, David. Musical meditations on Eight Facts About Thomas Pynchon.
Okasek, Ric. Ride The Rocket with the former frontman of The Cars.
Pere Ubu. David Thomas' legendary, seminal band shows some Pynchon influences.	PopCanon. These literate Indies hail from Flordia, and have a song about Wanda Tinasky which is highly recomm-ended!
Poster Children. This group from Champaign, Illinois, covers a lot of Pynchon ground!	Radiohead. English art-rockers who incorporate many Pynchon motifs into their work.
Rapoon. An offshoot of Zoviet France, Robin Storey's group named Rapoon released an album called The Kirghiz Light.	Sauter & Dietrich, Moore. More liner notes written by Pynchon !!
Six Finger Satellite. Indie electro-rock futurists Six Finger Satellite make a reference to Gravity's Rainbow.	Soft Machine. Seminal "proggies," they recorded a full-scale work called Esther's Nose Job in 1969.
Spock's Beard. In memory of "the evil Spock," they do homage to V.	Time in Malta. A California metal group with a name taken from V.
Ware, Tim. Pynchon scholar, Web master, and MIDI Musician.	Whole Sick Crew, The. Purveyors of pirate folk-punk, truly a gang like their Pynchon namesakes.
XXX Atomic Toejam. F. Thorendal, from praised thrash-heroes Meshuggah, gets one in for the Vikings.	Yo La Tengo. Making music indebted to The Crying of Lot 49.
Yoyodyne. Related to New York's Lot 49, ths Florida group also takes their name from Pynchon's work.	Zevon, Warren. He recently released an album containing work inspired by Pynchon.

--Dr Larry Daw
& A. Ruch
21 May 2000