About Missing Foundation

Chances are that if you spent any time in the East Village and/or Lower East Side during the late 80's and into the early 90's, you are probably familiar with the insignia pictured at right. The upended cocktail glass over three slashed tines could be frequently seen scrawled, splashed, sprayed and carved on innumerable walls and building facades, its message being that "the party is over." When those downtown streets were still considered urban badlands comparable to the lawless, remote terrains of Afghanistan, this cryptic symbol arguably came to represent the insurgency of the squatter and was used a means of scaring off real estate developers, landlords, yuppies and other would-be gentrifiers. Initially, however, the graffito served as the emblem of an amorphous, highly volatile and discordant industrial collective notorious for instigating chaos and destruction. The name of that band was Missing Foundation. Invariably more renowned (and reviled) for their deliberately frightening antics than for their actual music, Missing Foundation -- led by an enigmatic agitator named Peter Missing -- seemed to thrive on sensationalism. Swiftly blackballing themselves from venue after venue by routinely encouraging rampant property damage, it was pretty clear from the get-go that Missing Foundation wasn't going to be a conventional rock n' roll success story. The albums they did manage to release were initially cassette-only affairs and hard to track down (and arguably even harder to enjoy). Somewhat amazingly, however, then-successful California indie label Restless Records signed Missing Foundation and re-released their first three albums in 1990. I was writing for a tiny music mag at the time and hungrily snapped them up, my imagination fired by the band's already storied reputation. While the music in question wouldn't exactly go on to be kept in regular rotation on my sound system, I immediately cherished it for its utter lack of restraint and anything resembling compromise. Missing Foundation made resolutely ugly music. Easy listening this was not. The track I'm highlighting here is the opening cut from the band's album, Demise, and starts with recorded sounds from the infamous Tompkins Square Riot of early August 1989 (twenty-one years ago this week, kids!) For those not familiar with the music of Missing Foundation, "A Hunting We Will Go" gives a pretty solid taste of what they sounded like. It's basically six minutes and thirty-seven seconds of harrowing caterwaul. Bon appetit. Missing Foundation released a couple of more equally dissonant records after this before imploding. Missing himself, I gather, has since re-located to Germany. These days, Missing Foundation has its own MySpace page, which somewhat defangs its fearsome insurrectionist mystique just a wee bit. But I'm now seeing the graffito newly appearing on ATM machines, phone booths and brick walls. Inspired by same, I pulled out my old copies of MF releases like Demise and Ignore the White Culture (their best album, however '1933' remains seemingly unattainable on compact disc, despite long promised threats of a deluxe re-release) - and found them to be just as thrillingly (if disturbingly) unlistenable as they were back then. For a fleeting moment, Missing Foundation captured the neurosis-fueled imagination of the city when some newscaster cast the band as a Satanic cult of riot-starting squatters. While parts of that colorful mythology are rooted in fact (they did instigate the odd riot), I doubt Missing Foundation really posed that much of a viable threat to the fabric of society. I'm sure they'd bitterly disagree with me on that point. Perhaps to Missing's mind, his prophecies of the imminent collapse of the establishment are finally coming true. MF COMES FROM THE LOWER EAST SIDE OF N.Y.C. THE PROJECT WAS FOUNDED BY PETE MISSING IN HAMBURG IN 1984. TWO MEMBERS OF KMFDM AND FLORIAN LANGMAACK WERE THE LINE UP. THREE DRUMMERS WERE ADDED AND ONE PERFORMANCE AT THE KIR WHICH ENDED IN DAMAGE TO THE SPEAKER SYSTEM. SOON THE BAND DISBANDED AND PETE MOVED BACK TO THE LOWER EAST SIDE. THE BAND WAS REFORMED WITH CHRIS EGAN, P. MISSING, MARK ASHWILL AND VKP. THE BAND WAS MISUNDERSTOOD FROM DAY ONE BUT THROUGH MUCH OBSTICALS AND STRUGGLE TO CHANGE THE SOUND WAVES OF N.Y. THE BAND FINALLY BROKE THE SPACE BETWEEN INDUSTRIAL AND ROCK N' ROLL WHEN THEY BURNED C.B.G.B., THE ROCK N' ROLL CAPITAL. BANDS LIKE SONIC YOUTH AND SWANS RAN FOR THEIR LIVES FROM A SOUND THAT WAS AHEAD OF IT'S TIME AND WILL PROBABLY OUTLAST ALL UNDERGROUND STATIS IN THE TESTS OF TIME. STILL TO THIS DAY IT IS HARD TO FIND AN MF RECORD. AFTER 600 concerts IN AMERICA, EASTERN AND WESTERN EUROPE THE FIRST RECORD OF MF WAS RELEASED IN 1987 ON PURGE SOUND LEAGUE TITLE: MISSING FOUNDATION. THIS RECORD WAS REVEIWED IN COJUNCTION WITH EINSTÜRZENDE NEUBAUTEN AND BUTTHOLE SURFERS AS THE ONLY BANDS CHANGING THE STRUCTURE OR DESTRUCTURE OF MUSIC ON THIS RECORD THE OUTSTANDING TRACKS ARE 'PERVERSION' 'KILL THE HYPNOTIC BASTARDS' AND 'POSADA'. PROBABLY THE HEAVIEST SOUND TO HIT THE EAST COAST OF AMERICA IN TEN YEARS. BEYOND THE SEX PISTOLS MF BROUGHT THE THEMES OF FREEDOM AND ANARCHY TO A NEW LEVEL: TRIBAL MUSIC IN IT'S PUREST FORM. F.LANGMAACK CAME INTO NEW YORK FOR CONCERTS AND RECORDING. ADDING METAL PERCUSSION, DRUM SAMPLING AND SAXOPHONE TO THE MIX. THE FIRST SECURITY FORCE WAS ADDED TO THE LINE UP TO CONTROL THE CROWD: THEY WERE YOUNG PUERTO RICANS TRAINED IN MARTIAL ARTS SELF DEFENSE. CHRIS AND MARK, THE ORIGINAL DRUMMERS HAD A CHEMISTRY BEYOND THE STRUCTURES OF TRADITIONAL DRUMMING PUSHING THEMSELVES AND THE AUDIENCE INTO A STATE OF MESMERIZING TRANCE. THE 'PARTY'S OVER' SYMBOL WILL OUTLIVE THE BAND SPREADING AS FAR AWAY AS JAPAN AND SOUTH AFRICA. MANY PEOPLE WHO THINK THE WESTERN CAPITALIST WORLD IS IN THE LAW OF GRAVITY AND WILL ENEVITABLY COLLAPSE HAVE BEEN SPRAY PAINTING THE UPSIDE DOWN DRINKING GLASS ALL OVER THE WORLD. MF'S POLITICS CAME FROM THE LEFT THE HOUSING WAR AND THE RESISTANCE TO STOP GENTRIFICATION WHICH IN TURN KILLS ALL CULTURE IN THE YEARS THE BAND LIVED IN THE GHETTO IN SQUATS ON THE LOWER EAST SIDE. THE BAND PRACTICED WHAT THEY PREACHED WARNING AMERICA AND NEW YORK OF THE DRASTIC CONCEPT 'A NEW WORLD ORDER' BRINGING THE ALLTERNATIVE TO AN END, ROUNDING UP OF THE HOMELESS AND PUTTING THEM IN CAMPS BUILDING MORE PRISONS HIRING MORE COPS AND BASICALLY ANYONE WHO HAS THEIR OWN MIND WILL REALIZE THAT THEY ARE NOT FREE. AFTER 1000 REVEIWS THE CRITICS HAD THEIR FIELD DAY WITH MF TRASHING THEM ON A THREE DAY T.V. SPECIAL ON CBS CALLED THE CULT OF RAGE. AFTER THE F.B.I. AND THE POLICE INFILTRATED P. MISSING AND DAVE KELLY 'S HOUSE ON 6TH ST. THE SPECIAL TURNED OUT TO BE ONE LIE AFTER ANOTHER ESPECIALLY THE PART ABOUT HOW MF WAS RESPONSIBLE FOR ENCITING RIOTS IN NEW YORK. THE ENERGY OF MF WAS SO HIGH THAT THE AUDIENCES WENT CRAZY AND OUT OF THEIR BODIES THE FIRES CREATED BY MF CREATED PANIC AND THE REPETATIVE PRECISE DRUMMING COMBINED WITH TOTALSPECTACLE PUSHED THE BAND INTO A POWER OF IT'S OWN. MANY TIMES THE AUDIENCE TOOK ADVANTAGE OF MF FREEDOM FOR THEIR OWN FREEDOM DISRUPTING AND DESTROYING THE CLUBS TO GET THEIR ANGER OUT THIS EVENTUALLY PUSHED MF OFF THE CIRCUIT AND THEY WERE EVENTUALLY BANNED FROM EVERY CLUB IN N.Y. AND AMERICA. MF WAS NOT ABOUT DESTROYING CLUBS IT WAS A STATEMENT BEYOND DESTRUCTION WHICH IS ALSO A FORM OF CREATION. IT WAS A REBELLION AGAINST A GOVERNMENT WHO LOST SIGHT OF CULTURE AND HUMANITY. THE ALBUM THAT PUT THE BAND ON THE MAP WAS IN 1988 ENTITLED '1933 - YOUR HOUSE IS MINE' LISTED IN THE TIMES AS A CLASSIC MOOD MUSIC FOR URBAN CHAOS. OUTSTANDING TRACKS: 'MARTYR OF THE CITY'; 'JAMEELS TURMOIL'; '1933'; 'AT THE GATES'. THIS ALBUM WAS RESPONSIBLE FOR MANY OTHER BANDS POPPING UP AROUND THE GLOBE IN 1988 AFTER THE RELEASE MAJOR RIOTS BROKE OUT ON THE LOWER EAST SIDE. DECLARING 1988=1933 THIS IS GERMANY THE BANDS REASONING WAS THAT AMERICA 1988 WAS LOOKING LIKE GERMANY 1933 THE ALBUM'S EXPERIMENTAL VOCALS FROM PETE COMBINED WITH THE BANDS ARTISTIC EGDE MADE THIS RECORD TIMELESS. IN 1989 THE BAND STARTED IT'S OWN LABEL 'HUMANITY RECORDS' RELEASING THE TOTAL ABRASIVE INDUSTRIAL STRENGTH NOISE ALBUM OF THE DECADE SMASHING PIANOS METAL PIPES SLAMMED INTO FANS AND PERCUSSION THAT DELT WITH EVERY MATERIAL POSSIBLE INCLUDING CARDBOARD BOXES. RIOT SOUND TRACKS, CONDENSER MIKES LODGED IN THE THROAT, GHETTO BOXES AND SONY WALKMANS CREATED A LOAD NOISE OR DIN AT OUR KINGSLAND STUDIO IN BROOKLYN. CRACKED WALLS WAS A COMMON OCCURENCE. AFTER HOURS OF SPRAY PAINTING AND POLITICAL POSTERING THE BAND USUALLY MET AT THE 'INTERNATIONAL BAR' ON 2ND AV. TO DISCUSS NEW IDEAS FOR MUSIC OR HOW TO VISUALLY TRANCEND THE STAGE. AFTER MUCH HYPE AND HYSTERIA THE BAND EVENTAULLY WAS SIGNED TO RESTLESS RECORDS THEY RELEASED 5 CD'S WITH VERY LITTLE ADVERTIZING AND NEVER SEEING THE BAND LIVE. HERE IS THE MF DISCOGRAPHY IN 1990 THE BAND HAD REACHED IT'S POINT WITH 'IGNORE THE WHITE CULTURE' THEIR MOST MEMORABLE RECORDINGS TO DATE. HERE THE LYRICS WERE INCLUDED. MF WAS NOT ABOUT HATE BUT ACCUALLY LOOKING FOR SOLUTONS TO SAVE THE PLANET AND NOT PUT ALL OUR FAITH IN THE MULTINATIONAL CORPORATIONS. 'AUDIT THE U.S.' WAS THE LAST LINE ON THE LYRIC SHEET ( IMAGINE WHAT THEY WOULD FIND, ESPECIALLY CORRUPTION, AND HOW FAR IT'S GONE.) WHEN I MET MF BACK STAGE I ALSO REALIZED THEY WERE NOT JUST A BUNCH OF MADMEN ALTHOUGH INTELLIGENT THEY COULD BE DANGEROUS IF YOU HIT THE WRONG BUTTON WITH THEM. THEY WERE ALL AS STRONG AS THE MUSIC THEY INVENTED. TRACKS TO LOOK FOR HERE WOULD BE 'TERRORISM' WITH FLORIANS INCREDIBLE SAX PLAYING AND DAVES TIBETAN BELLS -'SHINING PATH' WITH ARABIC STYLE VOCALS AND A BASELINE FROM ADAM THAT CROSSED THE COMMERCIAL LINE WITH A HEAVY MESSAGE. THE TITLE CUT 'IGNORE THE WHITE CULTURE' CREATED SOME CONFUSION AS TO WHO THE WHITE CULTURE IS. I THINK IF WE PAINTED THE WHITE HOUSE BLUE THE PEOPLE THEY SPEAK ABOUT WOULD STILL BE INSIDE ANY GROUP OF PEOPLE WHO PUSH BLACKS AND MINORITIES OUT OF NEIBORHOOD'S WOULD BE CONSIDERED THE WHITE CULTURE. THE BAND STUCK TO THE RAW ENERGY IGNORING SOUND QUALITY AND A SINCERE HATRED FOR ROCK MUSIC WITH GUITARS. IT WAS VERY SELDOM THEY WOULD INVITE A GUITAR TO THE STUDIO; FLORIAN WAS GOOD AT SAWING THEM IN HALF AT THE CONCERTS. LATER HE SHOWED A SQAURE GUITAR IN A BERLIN EXHIBITION. THE METAL BANGING OF MF WAS NEVER RANDOM. FLORIAN CHRIS AND MARK COULD PLAY IT WITH BLOOD, SWEAT AND ACCURACY. WHEN THE BAND FINISHED THEIR 1989 EURO TOUR IT WAS OBVIOUS AT THIS TIME THAT MF WAS IN A CATAGORY OF THEIR OWN. AFTER MOST OF THEIR SHOWS THE AUDIENCE WAS LEFT DAZED AND CONFUSED. AND THE WRITTEN FLYERS THROWN INTO THE CROWD WAS AS THOUGHT PROVOKING AS THE SINGER HIMSELF COMING UP WITH ALL NEW SLOGANS THAT ARE NOW FOUND IN 30 MUSEUMS AROUND THE WORLD IN THE 'YOUR HOUSE IS MINE' BOOK, INCLUDING THE N.Y. LIBRARY. THE BOOK PROJECT INCLUDED 100 ARTISTS 'PUBLIC ENEMY'+'COP SHOOT COP' WERE TWO OF MANY WHO HAD THEIR SAY IN THE WORLD AROUND THEM. BULLET SPACE - 292 EAST 3RD ST. N.Y.C. 10009 LOWER EAST SIDE. THEN THE 91' 'ANTI GULF EUROTOUR' WITH 5 LITERS OF PETRO BURNED AT EVERY SHOW. HEAVY BURNING OIL DRUMS FLYING OFF THE STAGE AND A PIT THAT MADE AMERICA PITIFUL IN COMPARISON. AMERICAN FLAGS WERE BURNED AS FOUR DRUMMERS AND BASE WITH PETE ON MEGAPHONE PAINTED A PICTURE TOO REAL WHICH IN TURN GOT THE PEOPLE TO EITHER RUN AWAY OR JUMP INTO THE MIX. PETES VOCALS HAVE ELEMENTS OF PRIMAL SCREAM THERAPY RESEMBLING JOHN LENNON FOR EXAMPLE MIXED WITH HIS ARTISTIC APPROACH TO IN HIS OPPINION THE GREATEST INSTRUMENT OF ALL 'THE VOCAL CORD' IF THE WORLD HAD TIME TO REALLY LISTEN TO PETES VOCALS THEY WOULD SEE THE GENIUS IN HIS WORK. AFTER THIS EXPLOSIVE TOUR WITH 'MUTOID WASTE' IN AMSTERDAM AND A GIG IN BUDAPEST THAT LEFT THE AUDIENCE FREE TO TAKE OVER THE STAGE AND START PLAYING THE BANDS EQUIPMENT, SMOKE BILLOWING FROM THE STAGES YOU WERE FORCED TO SUBMIT YOUR INNER SPIRIT TO THE DRUM N' BASS WITH A RANGE FROM THE VOCALIST THAT CUT DEEP WITH INTENSE ENERGY AND STAGE PRESENCE. THEY ARE INFAMOUS AND A LIVING LEGEND IN THE HISTORY OF RADICAL PERFORMERS AND TO THE WORLD WHO HAVE SEEN THEM THEY ARE ALSO A MYSTERY. THE NEW YORK POST CALLED THEM A SHADOWY ORGANIZATION THE NEW YORK TIMES CLAIMED THE BAND WAS RESPONSIBLE FOR A DROP IN REALESTATE. THE BANDS SYMBOL WAS USED FOR WHATEVER SINCE IT WAS EVERYWHERE AND IN PUBLIC DOMAINE. BAND MEMBERS WERE ARRESTED A NUMBER OF TIMES BUT MOSTLY FOR CIVIL AND HOUSING RIGHTS. WITH THIS BAND POLITICS AND MUSIC WAS A DEADLY MIXTURE. FEW WOULD RISK THEIR REPUTATIONS TO BREAK BOUNDRIES IN THE LINES OF 'FREEDOM OF SPEECH' OR APPROACHING MUSIC FROM AN IMPROVISATIONAL PATTERN. ONE CONCERT IN THIS VAIN WAS AT 'THE KNITTING FACTORY' WITH JOHN ZORN P.MISSING AND MARK RIBOT. AT THIS CONCERT ALL LAWS WERE BROKEN FLOWING LIKE A CLOCK OUT OF CONTROL. THE ATMOSPHERIC MUSIC FROZE EVERYONE AND IT COMMANDED ATTENTION. IN 1992 THE BAND RELEASED 'GO INTO EXILE' AND KICKED IT OFF WITH A EURO TOUR OF EAST AND WEST. ON THIS TOUR THE SINGER TURNED TO A SPIRITUAL ATMOSPHERE: INCENSE SMOKE AND FIREWORKS WERE ALLWAYS ON HAND TAKING NOISE TO INDUCE TRANCE OR CHANGE THE BRAINS WAVE LENGTHS. THE BAND WAS RUMORED TO BE USING SONIC DECEPTION TAPES ON TOUR AND IN THEIR RECORDS. PRESENTLY PETE IS MAKING INSTALLATIONS, FLORIAN IS WORKING AS AN ARTIST AND PRODUCTIONDESIGNER IN HAMBURG, CHRIS IS PHOTO JOURNALIST IN N.Y.C., MARK WAS IN A BAND CALLED 'THE SPITTERS' HE DIED 2000. written by Luis Romeris L.E.S. I can't think of one single band who could/can follow Missing Foundation...It would be pointless to enter any stage after MF... MF exposed the whole concept of "entertainment" to the facts of what it really is : a ridiculous, shallow, empty feeding ground for bloodsucking parasites and drunk idiots... Thank you Pete - I am eternally grateful for being a part of all that, and I look forward to doing more dirty work with you...!! Kill the hypnotic bastards! ADAM SCHWARTZ - COPENHAGEN "After electronic music, banging on rocks will sound more interesting" P. Missing