Vampire Belt

photo by Bill T Miller
photo by Bill T Miller

photo by Bill T Miller

FEBRUARY 2019 SHOWS
Feb 21 at Jerry's Place, Philadelphia, PA
with Ken Brenninger/Emily Robb duo, Jeff Ziegler

Feb 22 at Shockoe Atelier, Richmond, VA
with Crazy Doberman

Feb 23 at Duke Coffee House, Durham, NC
with Long Hots, Desert Secrtary

Feb 24 at Tarantula Hill, Baltimore, MD

booking:
contact

ALBUM
Unfit Structures LP
Hermit Hut Records

BIOGRAPHY/DISCOGRAPHY

Formed in 2002 in western Massachusetts, Vampire Belt is Bill Nace (Body/Head, x.o.4, Ceylon Mange) on guitar & electronics and Chris Corsano (Paul Flaherty, Joe McPhee, Mette Rasmussen, Michael Flower) on drums & occasional electronics. Early on, they self-released a couple of CDRs of lo-fi blow-outs, something like a mangled car wreck at the intersection of hardcore and free jazz. Tours followed and then, in the early/mid 00's, Nace and Corsano phased partially out of Vampire Belt duo-mode in favor of collaborations with people like Jessica Rylan, Paul Flaherty, Steve Baczkowski, Okkyung Lee, Greg Kelley, Mats Gustafsson, Thurston Moore, Dredd Foole and Bill Orcutt. But in 2014 they made good on a 9 year-old promise to Ben Chasny to record a Vampire Belt album for his Hermit Hut label, resulting in the duo's first LP: Unfit Structures. It's not such a far cry from their obliterating early CDRs: improvised high-energy outbursts with spontaneously-structured forms imploding just as soon as they begin to solidify.


2003	2004	2007	2008	2010

2013	2013	2014	2015	2015

2015	2006/2017	2017	2018

* Vampire Belt - Dead Is OK CDR (Hot Cars Warp/Open Mouth, 2003) - audio: "Live In BP (for BC)" mp3 & "Snake Out" mp3
* Vampire Belt - Moth Lake CDR (Hot Cars Warp/Open Mouth, 2004) - audio: "Magic of Jojo" mp3
* Vampire Can't - Key Cutter LP/CD (Load Records, 2006) - audio: "False Teeth" mp3
* Vampire Belt - "Apple Cores" & "Big Chief" 7inch (Not Not Fun, 2008) split with Magik Markers.
* Chris Corsano-Mats Gustafsson-Thurston Moore-Bill Nace - Mother Groundhog LP (Open Mouth, 2010)
* Bill Orcutt-Bill Nace-Chris Corsano - "Live at Partners" 7inch (Open Mouth/Hot Cars Warp, 2013)
* Steve Baczkowski-Chris Corsano-Greg Kelley-Bill Nace - Live at Spectacle 12in45rpm (Open Mouth, 2013)
* Dredd Foole-Steve Baczkowski-Chris Corsano-Bill Nace-Paul Flaherty - Wrong Number LP (Open Mouth, 2014)
* Okkyung Lee-Chris Corsano-Bill Nace - Live at Stone LP (Open Mouth, 2015)
* Steve Baczkowski-Chris Corsano-Bill Nace - Stolen Car LP (Golden Lab , 2015)
* Vampire Belt - Unfit Structures LP (Hermit Hut, 2015)
* Dredd Foole & the Din - Ghost Rider/Frankie Teardrop Cassette (Open Mouth, 2006) / one-sided LP (Feeding Tube 2017)
* Bill Nace-Chris Corsano-Paul Flaherty - These LP (Open Mouth, 2017)
* Steve Baczkowski-Bill Nace-Chris Corsano - Mystic Beings LP (Open Mouth, 2018)

PRESS QUOTES

"...They’ve kept two things consistent until now; they have always played total improvisation, and they have never released an LP. Unfit Structures ends the latter streak in spectacular fashion; this record raises the bar for strings and skins improv combos so high that other people trying to clear it are going to get hurt. Its title is most likely a riff on Cecil Taylor’s great Unit Structures, but it might just as well be an acknowledgement of this music’s savage power...Nace’s guitar on “Lush Life” (which does not sound anything like Billy Strayhorn’s tune of the same name) sounds like Godzilla biting chunks out of a building....For as wild as this music is it, it isn’t blindly aggressive. There’s too much attentive cooperation in even the most brutal moments, and they are balanced by more reflective moments....This duo’s music submits to no laws save its own, but that personal code permits itself no indulgence. Time to pledge allegiance." – Bill Meyer, Dusted

"[Vampire Belt] was a fuzzed-out gutter explosion. Bill Nace's guitar techniques transcended space and time and broke the speed limit. Chris Corsano proved, once again, that even while fiddling with a two string bass with one hand, he is a better drummer than 99% of the drummers out there (study has a 1% margin of error)...At times Vampire Belt reminded me of the Dead C, but as a whole, I can honestly say there is no substitute for the Belt." S. Kobak, Tiny Mix Tapes

"Obliterating, really... I’m not one to tout the second coming but this surely feels like it. Haven’t felt this sweaty & curious since that Harry Pussy show @ Jacques’..." Keith Fullerton Whitman, Mimaroglu Music Sales

"…muscular drums/strings duo out for post-hardcore epiphanies in the wake of free jazz/improvisation’s revelatory approach to high-energy-as-conduit-for-spontaneous-self-regulating-structure...closest formal models for this kind of ranting cranked-to-the-max rock has gotta be the Nanjo Asahito/Tokyo axis of Musica Transonic, Mainliner and High Rise, psychedelic rock from a set of scalps who have learned many lessons yet remain beautifully unschooled. And who else can you say that about?" – Volcanic Tongue

"Seriously though, check out Vampire Belt - you will be a better person because of it." – Foxy Digitalis

PHOTOS

click for hi-res
Bill Nace - guitar

Photo credit: Natasha Pickowicz

click for hi-res Photo credit: Bill T Miller