Chrome

Chrome is the groundbreaking late 70’s era, Acid-Punk band whose experimentation in sound and raw energy have lead to them being considered the “Godfathers of what became the Industrial Rock movement” (Wikipedia) and whom “started a revolution in music” (Rockerilla Magazine Italy, 2011). One of the most influential bands of the past 3 decades of rock “their influence can be heard in everyone from Nine Inch Nails to the Flaming Lips” (UK Guardian 2007). “I hear so much influence from Chrome in so many bands” (rock critic Mark Prindle 2005). Chrome was way ahead of their time “a Cyber-Punk vision of the future that came a decade before the term was coined” (Julian Cope 2004).

The band was founded by Damon Edge in 1975 whose was highly influenced by punk pioneers such as the Stooges, but also the sound experimentation of John Cage. Replacing their original guitarist, Helios Creed joined Chrome in 1976, considered now as “one of the greatest guitarist of all rock music” as he “exploded the possibilities of what psychedelic, punk, new wave and industrial rock could sound like in his guitar work in Chrome” (Andrew Stecz Examinar.com 2012). He came in to record Chrome’s second album Alien Soundtracks, which became an instant underground hit and has remained a classic.

Of their next album, Half Machine Lip Moves, Julian Cope wrote in 2012, “nobody ever started an album with as much fire as Chrome did with the opening of Half Machine Lip Moves [it] remains my favorite beginning to any rock n’ roll record, surpassing even Iggy and the Stooges’ Raw Power". He lists in his top 25 of all time and Wired Magazine listed it in its top 100 albums that “set the world on fire while no one was listening”.

Creed and Edge comprised the main creative force behind the album as another founding member had left. It it they continued in the vein of the previous album’s Sci-Fi-Punk, avant-garde collage of various noises, sound bites and experiments with their equipment, but it was heavier with Creed’s feedback guitar to fore along with Edge’s powerful drumming including hitting pieces of scrap metal. “Good luck figuring out how to create all those noizes! But they don’t just fuck around with tapes, they RAWK! (Julian Cope 2012). “Helios Creed lays down badass heavy metal rhythm guitar riffs and berzerker psychedelic leads” (Julian Cope 2004). The album remains their best known work.

They were signed to the UK label Beggar’s Banquet for their fourth album Red Exposure and when Edge married french rockstar Fabienne Shine of Shaking Street, she collaborate on their next album Third From the Sun. Edge recorded with Chrome for a period without Creed at which time Helios Creed went on to established himself as a legendary solo act who toured extensively stateside and internationally. A prolific force he recorded another 21 albums and several singles as a solo artist. After Edge’s death in 1997 Creed again took the helm of Chrome to tour and record, including a posthumous collaboration with the late Damon Edge, Angel in the Clouds in 2002. Helios Creed is currently recording an album of new Chrome material as well as beginning to work on ‘The Lost Chrome Tracks’ from Chrome’s classic Half Machine Lip Moves/Red Exposure period of ‘79-80.

Joining Helios Creed, Chrome’s current line up includes keyboardist Tommy Grenas of Farflung in Chrome since '96 and heavy San Francisco-based drummer Aleph Omega in Chrome since ‘97; rhythm guitarist Lou Minatti (aka Keith Thompson), Anne Dromeda on backing vocals (performance/video artist & Monet Clark); Lux Vibratus on bass; and newcomer Steve Fishman on bass.