Boyd Rice

Boyd Rice
Birth name Boyd Blake Rice
Also known as NON
Born (1956-12-16) December 16, 1956
Lemon Grove, California, United States
Origin Denver, Colorado, United States
Genres Experimental, noise, industrial, drone, neofolk
Occupation(s) Composer, author
Instruments Tape machines, turntables
Years active 1975–present
Labels Mute
Associated acts Fad Gadget, Daniel Miller, Scorpion Wind, Death in June, Rose McDowall, Current 93, Adam Parfrey, Albin Julius, Radio Werewolf
Website boydrice.com

Boyd Blake Rice (born December 16, 1956) is an American experimental sound/noise musician using the name of NON since the mid-1970s, archivist, actor, photographer, author, member of the Partridge Family Temple religious group, co-founder of the UNPOP art movement and current staff writer for Modern Drunkard magazine.[1]

Biography

Rice became widely known through his involvement in V. Vale's RE/Search books. He is profiled in RE/Search #6/7: Industrial Culture Handbook[2] and Pranks![3] In Pranks, Rice described his experience in 1976 when he tried to give President Ford's wife, Betty Ford, a skinned sheep's head on a silver platter. In this interview, he emphasized the consensus nature of reality and the havoc that can be wreaked by refusing to play by the collective rules that dictate most people's perception of the external world.

In the mid-1980s Rice became close friends with Anton LaVey, founder and High Priest of the Church of Satan, and was made a Priest, then later a Magister in the Council of Nine of the Church. The two admired much of the same music and shared a similar misanthropic outlook. Each had been inspired by Might Is Right in fashioning various works: LaVey in his seminal Satanic Bible and Rice in several recordings.

Boyd Rice's Social Darwinist outlook eventually led to him founding the Social Darwinist think tank called The Abraxas Foundation, along with co-founder Nikolas Schreck. The organization promotes authoritarianism, totalitarianism, misanthropism, and elitism, is antidemocratic, and has some philosophical overlap with the Church of Satan. During an interview with Christian talk show host Bob Larson, Rice described the basic philosophy of the foundation as being "The strong rule the weak, and the clever rule the strong".[4]

Rice has documented the writings of Charles Manson in his role as contributing editor of The Manson File. Rice was a featured guest on Talk Back, a radio program hosted by the Evangelical Christian Bob Larson.[5] In total, Rice made five appearances on Larson's program.

Although Rice was sometimes reported to possess the world's largest Barbie collection, he confessed in a 2003 interview with Brian M. Clark to owning only a few.[6]

In 2000, along with Tracy Twyman, editor of Dagobert's Revenge, Rice filmed a special on the Rennes-le-Chateau for the program In Search of... on Fox television. (The segment was later included in the 2002 version of In Search of... on the Sci Fi Channel.) Rice has done extensive research into Gnosticism as well as Grail legends and Merovingian lore, sharing this research in Dagobert's Revenge and The Vessel of God.[7]

Rice was involved in creating a Tiki bar called Tiki Boyd's at the East Coast Bar in Denver, Colorado. Rice decorated the entire establishment out of his own pocket due to his fondness of Tiki culture, asking an open tab at the bar in return. Boyd has long expressed a love of Tiki culture, in contrast to the other elements of his public persona.[8]

Tiki Boyd's was given its name in his honor.[9] Due to disagreements between Rice and the owners, Rice pulled out of the deal and reclaimed all of his Tiki decorations. The future of the bar as it remains now is uncertain. Rice plans to re-establish another Tiki Bar elsewhere in Denver.[8]

Music

Rice creates music under his own name, as well as under the moniker of NON and with contributors under various other project names.

Early sound experiments

Rice started creating experimental noise recordings in 1975, drawing on his interest in tape machines and bubblegum pop sung by female vocalists such as Little Peggy March and Ginny Arnell. One of his earliest efforts consisted entirely of a loop of every time Lesley Gore sang the word "cry". After initially creating recordings simply for his own listening, he later started to give performances, and eventually make records. His musical project NON grew out of these early experiments; he reportedly selected the name because "it implies everything and nothing".

Techniques and implementations

From his earliest recordings, Rice has experimented with both sound and the medium through which that sound is conveyed. His methods of expanding upon the listening possibilities for recorded music were simple. On his second seven-inch, he had 2–4 extra holes punched into the record for "multi axial rotation".[10] Another early LP was titled Play at Any Speed. While working exclusively with vinyl, he employed locked grooves that allowed listeners to create their own music. He was one of the first artists, after John Cage, to treat turntables as instruments and developed various techniques for scratching. Rice has been treating sounds from vinyl recordings as early as 1975.[11]

NON

Under the name NON, originally with second member Robert Turman, Rice has recorded several seminal noise music albums, and collaborated with experimental music/dark folk artists like Current 93, Death in June and Rose McDowall. Most of his music has been released on the Mute Records label. Rice has also collaborated with Frank Tovey of Fad Gadget, Tony Wakeford of Sol Invictus and Michael Moynihan of Blood Axis. His later albums have often been explicitly conceptual.

On Might! (1995), Rice layers portions of "Ragnar Redbeard"'s Social Darwinist harangue, Might Is Right over sound beds of looped noise and manipulated frequencies. 1997's God and Beast explores the intersection in the soul of man's physical and spiritual natures over the course of an album that alternates abrasive soundscapes with passages of tranquility.

In 2006, Rice returned to the studio to record raw vocal sound sources for a collaboration with Industrial, modern primitive percussionist/ethnomusicologist Z'EV. In addition, he and long-time friend of twenty years Giddle Partridge planned an album titled LOVE/LOVE-BANG/BANG!, under the band name of Giddle & Boyd. After the limited edition release of a bubblegum pink, heart-shaped vinyl E.P. titled, Going Steady With Peggy Moffitt. In early 2010, Rice announced that he and Giddle Partridge would focus on solo projects/albums for the time being.

Crowd control

Early NON performances were designed to offer choice to audience members who might otherwise expect only a prefabricated and totally passive entertainment experience. Rice has stated that he considers his performances to be "de-indoctrination rites". Rice has performed using a shoe polisher, the "rotoguitar" (an electric guitar with an electric fan on it), and other homemade instruments. He has also used found sounds, played at a volume just below the threshold of pain, to entice his audiences to endure his high decibel sound experiments.

Rice coupled his aural assaults with psychological torture on audiences in Den Haag, the Netherlands, by shining in their faces exceedingly bright lights that were deliberately placed just out of reach. As their frustration mounted, Rice states that he:

...continued to be friendly to the audience, which made them even madder, because they were so mad and I didn't care! They were shaking their fists at me, and I thought that at any minute there'd be a riot. So I took it as far as I thought I could, and then thanked them and left.[2]

Art

After dropping out of high school at the age of 17, Rice began an in-depth study of early 20th-century art movements, producing his own abstract black and white paintings and experimental photographs. Early on, he met European art historian and gallery owner, Arturo Schwarz, with whom he began a long correspondence. Schwarz, a biographer of Duchamp and Man Ray, encouraged Rice to pursue his art, no matter what. And he did. Though he would later shift his focus to sound, he has never stopped creating visual art and has given a number of one man shows over the years.[12]

Photography

In the mid-1970s Rice devoted a great deal of time to experimental photography, developing a process by which he could produce "photographs of things which don't exist".[13] He had a one-man show of the photos in the early 1980s at Richard Peterson's Pink & Pearl Gallery in San Diego, which was documented in the local press, the San Diego Union and Evening Tribune. He has never revealed the means by which he made these photos, and has stated publicly that the secret will go to the grave with him. Some of these photos can be seen in his book Standing in Two Circles (Creation Press, 2008).

Writings

Over the years, Boyd Rice's writings have been translated into at least six languages.[14] His collected writings were published in 2008 by Creation Press. A French language edition followed on Camion Noir.

In 2009, his book NO was published by Heartworm Press. This was widely regarded as a book defining Rice's personal philosophy. Rice defined the book as merely a "laundry list" of things he didn't believe in. He later stated in an interview with WFMU's Beware of the Blog, "sometimes the things you don't believe are more important than what you do believe".

In October 2011, Heartworm Press published Rice's Twilight Man, a noir memoir about his life in 1980's San Francisco.

Controversy

In 1989, Rice and Bob Heick of the American Front were photographed for Sassy Magazine wearing uniforms and brandishing knives. While Rice would later recall it as a prank, the photo has caused boycotts and protests at many of Rice's appearances. When asked if he regrets the photo, Rice stated, "I don't care. I don't think I ever made a wrong move. The bad stuff is just good. America loves its villains".[15]

This photograph was additionally published in the book Blood in the Face: The Ku Klux Klan, Aryan Nations, Nazi Skinheads, and the Rise of a New White Culture by James Ridgeway.[16]

More controversy has resulted because of Rice's appearance on Race and Reason,[17] a public-access television cable TV show hosted by white nationalist Tom Metzger. Rice has claimed not to be a Nazi in numerous interviews[18] whilst his friend Rose McDowall has claimed he has never said anything racist nor endorsed Nazism to her.[19] However Stewart Home has claimed that Rice is a supporter of Nazism.[20] Boyd Rice is associated with Church of Satan founder Anton LaVey [21] and has collaborated with Adam Parfrey[22] who is Jewish.[23]

On August 8, 1988, Boyd Rice was among the performers at 8/8/88 at the Strand Theater in San Francisco, which was locally heavily advertised and sold out, billed as "An Evening of Apocalyptic Delight". Rice appeared with the band Radio Werewolf as well as Zeena Lavey (then High Priestess of the Church of Satan), Adam Parfrey and Secret Chiefs 3. Rice reports that, "Minutes after they took the stage in their Teutonic garb, the audience fled in droves" though others present that night did not see anyone leaving. [24]

Discography

Year Title Under
1976[25] The Black Album Boyd Rice
1977 Mode of Infection/Knife Ladder – 7" NON
1978 Pagan Muzak – 7" with multiple locked grooves NON
1982 Rise – 12" NON
1982 (rec. 1977–82) Physical Evidence NON
1983 Sickness of Snakes / Nightmare Culture Boyd Rice & COIL / Boyd Rice & Current 93
1984 (rec. 1981) Easy Listening for the Hard of Hearing Boyd Rice and Frank Tovey
1985 Sick Tour – Live in Holland NON
1987 (rec. 1983) Blood and Flame NON
1990 Music, Martinis and Misanthropy Boyd Rice and Friends
1991 Easy Listening for Iron Youth – The Best of NON NON
1992 In the Shadow of the Sword NON
1993 I'm Just Like You The Tards (8" single by Boyd Rice & Adam Parfrey)
1993 Ragnarok Rune Boyd Rice
1993 Seasons in the Sun Spell
1994 The Monopoly Queen – 7" The Monopoly Queen (w/ Mary Ellen Carver & Combustible Edison)
1995 Might! NON
1995 Hatesville The Boyd Rice Experience
1996 Heaven Sent Scorpion Wind (w/ Douglas P. & John Murphy)
1996 Ralph Gean: A Star Unborn Boyd Rice Presents
1996 Death's Gladsome Wedding: Hymns and Marches from Transylvania's Notorious Legionari Movement Boyd Rice Presents
1997 God & Beast NON
1999 Receive the Flame NON
1999 Pagan Muzak – 7" with multiple locked grooves Rerelease NON
2000 The Way I Feel Boyd Rice
2000 Solitude – 7" with locked grooves on B-side NON
2001 Wolf Pact Boyd Rice and Fiends
2002 Children of the Black Sun NON
2002 The Registered Three Boyd Rice & Friends (C.D. Single)
2002 Music for Pussycats: Girl Groups Boyd Rice Presents
2004 Baptism By Fire (Live) Boyd Rice and Fiends
2004 Terra Incognita: Ambient Works 1975 to Present Boyd Rice/NON
2004 Alarm Agents Death in June & Boyd Rice
2005 The Very Best of Little Fyodor's Greatest Hits! Boyd Rice Presents
2008 Boyd Rice and Z'EV Boyd Rice and Z'EV
2008 Going Steady With Peggy Moffitt Giddle & Boyd
2012 Back to Mono[26] NON

Films

Performance

Print

References

  1. ↑ Modern Drunkard Magazine Online staff writer list Archived October 11, 2007, at the Wayback Machine.
  2. 1 2 Vale, V. Juno, Andrea. Re/Search #6/7: Industrial Culture Handbook (1983) ISBN 0-940642-07-7
  3. ↑ Juno, Andrea (Editor), Ballard, J. G. (Editor), Re/Search #11: Pranks (1987) ISBN 0-940642-10-7
  4. ↑ "Boyd Rice debates with Bob Larson 3/5". YouTube. June 21, 2010. Retrieved April 1, 2012.
  5. ↑ "My Dinner with Bob Larson" Archived October 14, 2004, at the Wayback Machine., Snake Oil magazine (1994)
  6. ↑ From The Black Pimp Speaks, 2003 interview with Boyd Rice appearing in Rated Rookie magazine No. 6, 2004. Viewable online: "Archived copy". Archived from the original on October 21, 2004. Retrieved 2004-09-28.
  7. ↑ "An Introduction to the Grail Research & Esoteric Writings of Boyd Rice". The Vessel of God. Boyd Rice. Retrieved July 26, 2012.
  8. 1 2 "Tiki Boyd's – Denver's Newest & Only Tiki Bar". Boydrice.com. Retrieved April 1, 2012.
  9. ↑ "Tiki Boyd's". Tiki Boyd's. DISCRIMINATE MEDIA. Retrieved July 26, 2012.
  10. ↑ "Laugh til it hurts". The Wire magazine (256).
  11. ↑ Blood Book "Boyd Rice Interview" 2010
  12. ↑ Press release from Mitchell Algus Gallery (NYC) for Rice's one man show of paintings.
  13. ↑ Standing in Two Circles
  14. ↑ Biography of "No", Heartworm Press
  15. ↑ "With Pity Towards None (interview)". Tangents. 1997.
  16. ↑ Ridgeway, James. Blood in the Face: The Ku Klux Klan, Aryan Nations, Nazi Skinheads, and the Rise of a New White Culture. New York: Thunder's Mouth Press, 1990. ISBN 978-1-56025-003-6
  17. ↑ "Boyd Rice's Race and Reason interview causes controversy" Side-line.com
  18. ↑ "Boyd Rice". Boyd Rice. Retrieved April 1, 2012.
  19. ↑ "He's never said anything racist to me. I've talked to him about it and he's said he now has to be careful about things he says because people will misconstrue things. I'm sure he did wear swastikas when he was a punk, a lot of punks did" – Rose McDowall, more quotes like this in the interview also. Strawberryswitchblade.net
  20. ↑ "Tony Wakeford, Sol Invictus, Above The Ruins, fascism, Boyd Rice". Stewarthomesociety.org. Retrieved April 1, 2012.
  21. ↑ Photo of Boyd and LaVey: Boydrice.com
  22. ↑ Hatesville at Boyd Rice and Friends's discography
  23. ↑ "Boyd Rice on Race and Reason". Los Angeles. 1986.
  24. ↑ "No Other Radio Network September 22 Broadcast". San Francisco. September 22, 1988.
  25. ↑ Boydrice.com
  26. ↑ "Boyd Rice Interview – Back to Mono". YouTube. June 21, 2011. Retrieved April 1, 2012.

Further Reading

Chad Hensley. "Non Sense: An Interview with Boyd Rice". Esoterra: The Journal of Extreme Culture 9 ((Fall/Winter 2000), pp. 12-17.

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