The negative pressure ventilator, aka the iron lung, was a technological marvel that kept thousands of polio patients alive during the 1930s and '40s. The technology has been superseded and the gadget is little more than a historic curiosity since vaccines have essentially eliminated polio. However, the image of the iron lung still has enough resonance to inspire a trifecta of excellent noise.First up is Brutal Truth whose anomalously conjoined "Ironlung" was a mid-album noise pastiche to break up all the grinding on breakout album Need to Control.
The breathing apparatus also inspired British psycho punks Rudimentary Peni to get all noise collagey, closing out the (allegedly) semi-autobiographical freakazoid album Pope Adrian 37th Psychristiatic. Turn on, tune in, freak the fuck out.
Obviously the band Iron Lung took their name from the, duh, iron lung, but it also inspired their song "Iron Lung," another power violent tiptoe through the band's back catalog.
6 comments:
was it you who posted that iron lung (band)live stand up comedy thing a few years ago?
Haha I did. seeing them at the MDF preshow in '10 the drummer/singer kept making jokes and had a Zach Galafankakis kind of attitude. Love that band, one of the few PV bands that's creepy sounding
nice,that was an awesome post. i need to dl that again..
i just went to dl and realized that
the post i was thinking of was from karlo!
http://cephalochromoscope.blogspot.com/2009/11/iron-lung-usa-comedy-hour-live-2002.html
Ah, Need to Control is such a good album! I am in love with the track "Brain Trust" featuring the greatest whale-imitation vocals ever laid to tape. They get me every time ;)
That Iron Lung s/t is basically a concept album about the machine itself. The people who used them, created them, what the experience was like. If you can, read the lyrics sometime. IMO it's a fucking classic.
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