Tuxedomoon

Tuxedomoon is an experimental, post-punk, new wave band from San Francisco, California, United States.

Pulling influence from punk and electronic music, the group, originally consisting of Steven Brown (born Steven Allan Brown on August 23, 1952, in Chicago, Illinois) and Blaine L. Reininger, used electronic violins, guitars, screaming vocals and synthesizers to develop a unique "cabaret no-wave" sound.

[2] Eventually, Reininger left the group, and Tuxedomoon relocated to Europe, signing to Crammed Discs and releasing Holy Wars in 1985.

In 1977, Tuxedomoon formed out of The Angels of Light, an artist collective and commune, a group in which Steven Brown was involved.

He also created tools for the band, including a "Treatment Mountain" – a pyramid made of plywood, which held all of Reininger's effects pedals.

[3] The vocals were screaming and inspired by punk rock, and the band used any instruments they had around, including saxophone, violin and a polymoog synthesizer.

Bassist Peter Principle, performance artist Winston Tong and Bruce Geduldig, a filmmaker, joined the band during concerts.

[4] after spending some months in Rotterdam, playing in Arena, Hal 4 and returned in 1988 to Lantaren/Venster, where they contributed to the Bob Visser movie Plan Delta.

Trumpet player Luc van Lieshout joined the band, followed shortly after by Ivan Georgiev.

Reininger's voice, which was compared to David Bowie's during Tuxedomoon's early career, has been described as evolving into "Tom Waits" and a wolf from Tex Avery's "Baron Brown", by music critic Rod Smith.

[11] Various Tuxedomoon members have extensively collaborated with the UK band Cult With No Name, and as a group Tuxedomoon collaborated to produce the joint soundtrack album "Blue Velvet Revisited," (the documentary of which will appear as a feature on the Criterion Collection's DVD and Blu-ray Special Edition of Blue Velvet).

[20] Scooter's "My Eyes Are Dry" from their album Mind The Gap is a cover version of "No Tears" with additional sections.

Steven Brown cites the band's early influences as "Eno, Bowie, John Cage, Bernard Herrmann, Nino Rota, Igor Stravinsky and Ennio Morricone".

[11] Later and current influences include Radiohead, Claude Debussy, Miles Davis, Michael Nyman and the Velvet Underground.