Artist description Music for Transients Only

Music Style Puke-a-billy

Musical Influences Andrew Bird, Bobby Conn, Handsome Family, Nick Cave, Iggy

Similar Artists bad Elvis impersonators

Artist History The Nathan Payne Memorial Service is a musical group from the quaint, intolerant town of Smut Eye, Alabama. The members have never met outside the hospital. Most of the material was written and performed in a cloud of flies; the members are sometimes forced to wear facemasks to prevent themselves from accidentally swallowing the flies. Each recording contains some white noise produced by the flies.

Group Members Nathan Payne Memorial Service, "Angels On Fire," By Katherine Raz...... Finally, a band comes along that sounds like they know what the bathroom floor of a Greyhound Bus station looks like. How do I know this? Because the eight tracks on the Nathan Payne Memorial Service's album Angels on Fire sounds like the band has been, well, as the title suggests, to Hell and back. The EP's format is the oft-used but hardly perfected mix of garage rock and blues. The Nathan Payne Memorial Service does it perfect. It's depressing, but harsh. It's sad, but it rocks. It gives those of us who prefer our whiskey "straight up" both a drinking buddy and a live band to entertain us. The four live tracks on the EP translate well, and are ? in all actuality ? the best songs on the album. Payne's punk vocals seem to work better with a live audience, and the sound of the cymbals and bass echo better within the dank, musty walls of a smoke-filled club than in a recording studio. This band belongs on the streets, especially with lyrics that drunkenly circle around smoke, regrets, "tramps and cheap hotels." Take the best of the MC5 and the Doors (I'm talking about Morrison Hotel here), throw in a little Morphine and the Damned, and you've got the Nathan Payne experience. And if this band couldn't get any cooler, Alan Scalpone, the guitarist/organist (every good blues/garage band needs an organ), also plays the Theremin. That's right folks, the Theremin. Don't know what a Theremin is? There's a reason to go check out the Nathan Payne Memorial Service live. Trust me, you won't be disappointed.

Albums Angels on Fire E.P. (2000); Breakfast at Cuneo's Drive-In (2001); California Death Trip E.P. (2002); All The Diamonds You Can Eat (2002); Sex Drugs & Easy Listening (2003)

Press Reviews "Dramatic, bluesy musings from a man who seems to have emerged from the gothic subculture with a head full of literal references and set them to infectious melodies, a rustic and creepy folkish backline, and a voice so hypnotizing that all your attention is solely focused on...hey, what's for lunch??" --LISTEN.COM ......................"horrible, devoid of any semblance of musical talent, downright painful to listen to" --Lame Records ....................... "In a bitter struggle of jazz verses the blues, Nathan Payne fired his bass player Pablo Smog but retains some song writing credits for the jazzercising jigging on the bean bass plucker, Pablo. This live concoction recorded from '98-2000 at Quarters Rock'n Roll Palace in Milwaukee, WI shows off the dark and somber soul searching love gone lost songs of Nathan Payne Memorial Service accompanied by the bartender on back ups, an ex-girlfriend on keyboards a la Ray Manzerek, and a ghost drummer which unbelieveably is a drum machine. Pablo Smog plucks the bass violin and may have played the trombone before he tore out Nathan Payne's bluesey soul." --Rainy Day Records.net ....................... "The deeper you submerge yourself in the surreal, grotesque world of the Nathan Payne Memorial Service, the more you recognize the signs of mental illness and fragility all around: in the lyrics, in the music, in the fans..." --Silverlake Press .................................. "Whoever told you that you can sing should be lynched and set on fire. Come to your senses and find your rightful place behind your local Burger King counter" --a satisfied customer ........................ "'California Death Trip' is a dark and brooding journey through a creepy gothic landscape. 'Don't Wake Me Up' [is a] great fucking song" --Shut Eye Records ............... "I don't know much about Mr. Payne. My impression is that he is as crazy as he is talented; and he can be fucking crazy. He is one of those characters that become legends one way or the other." --Wolf Schmidt, Vine Street Melodies ................................ "Sounds like Jello Biafra smoking crack with Hank Williams Sr." --L.A. Xpress ..................... "Nathan Payne's voice sounds eerily like Dave Vanian's of the Damned. I'm not saying it tries to sound like the Damned, it just happens. The songs have a dark edge, but not in the Damned's vampiric way. Each of the tunes displays a knack for successful songwriting, as did the sixty-five seconds of him playing live that I heard recently (hey, I was late). Definitely worth the price of admission." --Illinois Entertainer ........... "Nathan Payne is the David Lynch of Hillbilly Punk" --Destroy All Monthly .................... "Oozing with muse, Pablo Smog is a force on the streets. Champion of all Transients gritting out the crunch, Pablo is out there getting the REAL drop." --Girthzine ................. "You're an evil genius" --DJ Pandora ........................ "You're completely mad" --Jan King

Location Los Angeles, CA - USA

Copyright notice. All material on MP3.com is protected by copyright law and by international treaties. You may download this material and make reasonable number of copies of this material only for your own personal use. You may not otherwise reproduce, distribute, publicly perform, publicly display, or create derivative works of this material, unless authorized by the appropriate copyright owner(s).