Cornog is an American songwriter, singer, self-taught musician, and home-recordist who records under the name East River Pipe.

[2] After high school, Cornog worked a series of menial jobs before succumbing to alcoholism, drug abuse, mental illness, and eventual homelessness, ending up in the Hoboken train station.

[3] During this time he met Astoria, Queens-resident Barbara Powers, and with Powers' support and label (Hell Gate), Cornog released some home-recorded cassettes and 7" singles under the name East River Pipe, which he chose after observing a sewage pipe spewing out raw waste into the East River.

A year later, he found a more permanent home on Merge Records, the Chapel Hill-based indie run by Mac McCaughan and Laura Ballance.

Merge released Poor Fricky (1995), Mel (1996), The Gasoline Age (1999), Shining Hours In A Can (2002;reissue), Garbageheads On Endless Stun (2003), What Are You On?