Years active 1981, 1987–1998 | Associated acts Heltir, EXP | |
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Labels Happiest Tapes on Earth, Dark Vinyl, Baader Meinhoff, Gymnastic, Triple XXX, Cleopatra, Malaise Music Past members Rozz Williams, Ron Athey, Chuck Collison, Lee Wildes | ||
Premature Ejaculation was an American industrial band from Pomona, California, formed in 1981 by Rozz Williams and Ron Athey and dissolved in less than one year. The band was reformed in 1987 by Williams and several other members, not including Athey. The group disbanded completely after the death of Rozz Williams in 1998.
Contents
Formation
Premature Ejaculation was originally formed in 1981 by Rozz Williams and Ron Athey. Williams went on to front several bands, such as Christian Death, Shadow Project and Heltir. Unlike the deathrock band Christian Death, Premature Ejaculation did not use standard "rock band" instruments; instead, sound was created using various objects, instruments and lo-fi devices. Early Premature Ejaculation recordings are rare since much of their original work was shared only among friends.
Premature Ejaculation played very few live performances, mostly because clubs refused to book them due to their controversial stage theatrics. One of their older acts included Athey eating a dead cat (the animal was roadkill), documentation of which can be seen in the book Hardcore California.
Rebirth
The band never completely dissolved and reformed in 1986. Williams was joined by Chuck Collison, and temporarily Lee Wildes and Kris Fuller. Already longtime friends, Gene Evans and Steve Messer began producing their live performances. The group's themes remained avant-garde throughout and focused on the bizarre and taboo. They used sound clips from crying babies to chainsaws along with their refined and overwhelming multimedia clips that often left their fans astonished. Collison played a big role in the reformed group, especially with regard to their higher quality sound. Collison started his own label 'The Happiest Place on Earth' to release Premature Ejaculation's recordings. The name was soon changed to 'The Happiest Tapes on Earth' in order to avoid potential legal problems with Disney.
The first two full-length records were released via Collison's label. At first, releases were only available in the cassette format until later releases on vinyl and CD. Death Cultures was the first to be released, followed by Blood Told in Spine and then Assertive Discipline in successive years. The reformed group released multiple recordings with Anesthesia on the German label Dark Vinyl Records being their most popular. The group also released recordings on Cleopatra, Triple XXX and numerous other record labels.
Premature Ejaculation, although not always Williams' most well-known project (see Shadow Project with Eva O), he remained active until his death in 1998, and left behind a prolific back catalog. The group's last record, Wound of Exit, was released posthumously.