Destroy All Monsters (band)

They earned a measure of notoriety due to members of The Stooges and MC5 joining the band, and Sonic Youth singer/guitarist Thurston Moore compiling a three compact disc set of the group's music in 1994.

Their early music was influenced by Sun Ra, Velvet Underground, ESP-Disk, monster movies, beat culture and futurism.

At the time the instruments were two guitars with an echoplex and fuzz box, a drum kit played by Mission of Burma's Roger Miller, tape loops, a violin, a sax, a vacuum cleaner and a coffee can.

The group performed "guerilla style", setting up free at parties and playing for food along Ann Arbor's frat row.

Shortly thereafter, Ron asked drummer Rob King to join the band (replacing Roger Miller, who had filled the spot on a temp basis).

Niagara and Ron Asheton continued touring and recording with Michael Davis releasing a total of four 7" singles on the IDBI label.

The original lineup (Kelley, Loren, Niagara and Shaw) reformed for reunion shows in 1995 at the Magic Bag in Detroit, Spaceland in Los Angeles, and Bodies in San Diego.

Four VHS tapes of DAM films directed by Loren were also issued between 1995-1996; Grow Live Monsters, Clear Day, Shake a LIzard Tail or Rust Belt Rump and Strange Früt: Rock Apochrypha.

This exhibition was first shown at "I Rip You, You Rip Me" festival, a series of exhibitions, performances, symposiums, and workshops examining the radical subculture and music scene of Detroit in the late sixties and early seventies, and was held at the Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen in Rotterdam and Nighttown, curated by artists Ben Schot and Ronald Cornelissen.

In 2006, the Strange Früt exhibition and the band's archives traveled to the Magasin Center for Contemporary Art in Grenoble, France.

In 2009 the Printed Matter bookstore in NYC mounted the Destroy All Monsters exhibit Hungry for Death curated by James Hoff and Cary Loren featuring the group's collected work.

In 2011, the Boston University Art Gallery released the catalog Hungry for Death: Destroy All Monsters, with essays by Byron Coley and Branden Joseph.

This catalog included a detailed discography and a CD titled Get Out of My Bedroom of unreleased DAM music spanning over thirty years of band history.

Accompanying the exhibition was a catalog published by PRISM and PictureBox, edited by Mike Kelley and Dan Nadel with an essay by Nicole Rudick.