Monte Cazazza

The work of controversial performance artist Monte Cazazza has been sampled in numerous books, films, and recordings over the years. Hailing from Oakland, California, he spent the early '70s experimenting with his art, often indulging in such gross-out acts as burning a partially decomposed, maggot-infested cat, which would often shock his audience to the point of physical illness. Cazazza caught a break when members of industrial rock groundbreakers Throbbing Gristle came across an issue of the appropriately titled Vile Magazine in 1974, a Valentine's Day edition that featured Cazazza on the cover, holding up to the camera a bloody heart that was made to look as if it was torn out of his chest. The up-and-coming artist befriended the industrial rockers, and it was Cazazza who supposedly coined the band's now-trademark phrase, "Industrial Music for Industrial People." In 1977, Cazazza traveled to England, where he recorded several songs (which featured the sounds of roaring chainsaw, as well as hammers beating on the insides of a piano), including such titles as "Busted Kneecaps," "Hate," and "P.S. (Plastic Surgery)." He starred in several obscure films around this time as well (including one in which he and a young boy are electrocuted), and contributed to such books as Pranks, Modern Primitives, and The Industrial Culture Handbook, all of which explored his outlandish antics. In addition, Cazazza was an early member of the Throbbing Gristle offshoot group Psychic TV, and issued several full-length solo albums over the years, including the 1996 compilation The Worst of Monte Cazazza. He died on June 30, 2023; he was 68 years of age. ~ Greg Prato, Rovi