Destroy All Monsters
Hot Box 1974-1994
Destroy All Monsters are known by some for their role as bastion of resistance of Detroit's rock; for being, during their second period, the band in which Ron Asheton would reappear. For others, they are a pivotal reference point in the copious but relatively unknown avant-garde underground from the same city, after Thurston Moore and Byron Coley dug up their first recordings in 1996 and the original line-up reunited. Destroy All Monsters comprises two complementary and interconnected poles throughout the saga of the Motor City's music scene, from the University of Michigan's Cooperative Studio for Electronic Music to The Stooges, through to the White Panther Party. In its two incarnations, the experimental - led by Cary Loren, Jim Shaw and Mike Kelley - and the high energy one - with Asheton and Michael Davis from MC5 -, both featuring the phantasmagorical Niagara in the role of doped-up priestess, Destroy All Monsters are the object of one of the most devotional cults of America's cultural underground, as testified by their abundant artistic and record production. "Hot Box 1974-1994" is the first anthology to bring together the best outcome of those two hemispheres, including much unreleased material.