ArtistInfo

Phineas Narco

*1960 US

Phineas Narco (aka 'Phinny') was born in the 1960's in the US' mid-west region, during the very last few weeks in which Baby Boomers were born. He considers himself a 'Barely Boomer'. Narco spent much of the 1970's capturing media from TV, movies and radio using tape cassette cassette recorders, making mix tapes as a hobby, and as presents to friends and family. He also enjoyed putting together scale models and puzzles. An older friend, who worked at radio station KEAR at the time, let Narco hang out at the station where he developed an interest in broadcasting. Phineas toured Europe with a high-school sponsored chorus and band at the age of 14. In 1982, Phinny was impressed by the maniacally improvised, late-night surreal weirdness of Berkeley, CA radio station KPFA's "The Subgenius Show" (aka 'More Than an Hour Less than a Show' aka 'The Puzzling Evidence Show). (recordings of 'The Show' from this era is available here. Inspiration was also found in the live sonic wizardry of Negativland's late-night sound-collage show "Over the Edge" (OTE), also on KPFA. Phinny soon after began calling up the two shows to talk and insert audio material into the live on-air mixes, eventually becoming an in-studio guest on several occasions, starting in 1987, creating live sound collage mixes with the show's hosts and sometimes other guests. He has done at least 2 dozen such shows since that time. Narco has performed, with most of the members of Negativland as well as TradeMarkG of the Evolution Control Committee, solo artist Wobbly, Otis Fodder of The Bran Flakes, Janor Hypercleats (aka Mr. TV), cartoonist and pefromer Hal Robins, UNIVAC, Ivan Stang, and members of Big City Orchestra. Phineas has also written two books: 'The Hawk Flew South" (a novel) and 'Seasons Black and Red' (a book of poetry) and has written for various zines during the eighties, including Trevor Blake's OVO and Boiled Angel edited by underground cartoonist Mike Diana. Phinny has been a (double!) card-carrying member of the Church of the Subgenius since the early 1990's, and was an attendee of the original Subgenius X-Day celebration on July 5th, 1998 in Brushwood, NY, as well as the 1998 Burning Man Festival. Around this time too, he had a running correspondence with the iconic comedian and actor George Carlin, who expressed tremendous enthusiasm for Narco's work and the social commentary therein. Phineas never got to meet Carlin in person, but credits Carlin's endorsement with giving him the confidence to launch his artistic career. Mainstream influences for Phinny include the progressive rock groups Pink Floyd, Genesis, various New Wave bands such as Oingo Boingo and Devo as well as the solo work of Roger Waters, the music of Trent Reznor, and the work of the late Frank Zappa.

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