Neptune is an experimental / industrial noise rock band originally hailing from Boston, Massachusetts. Throughout its 30 year history, the band has largely operated as a collective, not only by employing a rotating membership, but also often collaborating with other musicians and artists both live and on record. They are noted for having built their custom-made instruments out of scrap steel and other found-object and recycled materials. The instruments themselves can be heavy and foreboding "self-made from antiquated machines and scrap metal, forged at extreme angles like props from a German expressionist film."[1] A reviewer once said of the band: "Neptune really do accurately approximate in their music the tragic and violent desolation of the auto graveyards from which they draw their raw materials."[2] While another wrote: "Neptune’s closest comparison could only be themselves."[3]
Band history
Neptune live at the Midway Cafe, Boston, MA, June 24, 2023. Photo by Ben Stas / Noise Floor.
Neptune's origins trace to 1994[4] as a sculpture project by Boston artist/musician Jason Sanford, who forged the band's haphazard guitars and reluctant drums from scrap steel and found objects. Over the years the instruments have evolved to incorporate oscillators and other electronic devices as band "have integrated some really smart looking industrial class synthesizer gear"[5] into their noise-making arsenal. Nine (+) lineups, Thirty-three releases[6] and hundreds of instruments later, the band continues to wrench its sound spatter on self-built instruments to often confounded audiences around the world. As of 2024, the band has played over 680 shows,[7] with a recent US tour in June 2023.[8]
As of 2020, Neptune consists of Sanford along with long-time Neptune collaborators Mark William Pearson and Daniel Paul Boucher.
Personnel
Current members
Jason Sidney Sanford – guitar, baritone guitar, bass, violin, gas can ukulele, electric thumb piano, electronics, foot-controlled synthesizer, bass lamellophone, spring harp, percussion, feedback organ, tupperphone, radios, vocals (1994 - present)
Mark William Pearson – guitar, baritone guitar, 4-string slide, bass, electronics, large electric spring, percussion, amplified drums, tape machine, tape manipulation, push-button telephone, vocals (2002 - 2015, 2020 - present)
Daniel Paul Boucher – drums, amplified metal toms, found object percussion, saw blade xylophone, oscillators, electronics, violin, gas can ukulele, washboard, vocals (2000 - 2010, 2015, 2020 - Present)
Rotating members
Kevin Micka – recording engineer, live sound engineer (1997 - present), drums, guitar, electronics, backing vocals (2006 - 2016)
^Stas, Ben (7 July 2023). "Neptune Played The Midway - 6/24". Noise Floor. Yardhawk. Retrieved July 7, 2023.
^Strunk, Christoper (9 August 2023). "Seminal Boston Noise Rock Band, Neptune, Returns". Boston Compass. Boston Compass Newspaper. Retrieved 29 June 2024.
^Torrone, Phillip. "Neptune – Scrap Metal Instruments". Make. makezine.com. Retrieved April 3, 2006.
^"Neptune Discography". Discogs. Retrieved 29 June 2024.
^Boucher, Daniel Paul. "Neptune Show Archive". Neptune Band Website. Neptune. Retrieved 1 July 2024.
^"Neptune at The Apohadion Theater - June 25, 2023". Portland Old Port. Retrieved 1 July 2024.
^"Spy Music Festival: Rhys Chatham, Extra Life, Neptune". Issue Project Room. Retrieved 29 June 2024.
