The
Tuxedomoon band was formed in 1977 out of San Francisco, with original members
Steven Brown,
Blaine Reininger,
Peter Principle, and
Winston Tong establishing a sound and concept that to many listeners was just as much a part of the original Ralph records aesthetic as the much better-known
Residents band.
Tuxedomoon signed with Ralph and released the albums Half-Mute and
Desire in 1980 and 1981, respectively, during a period when the label was pumping a fortune into cryptic advertising in the type of mainstream periodicals previously off limits to indie labels. Soon thereafter,
Brown and company relocated to Europe in order to focus on purely avant-garde concerns, beginning with residencies in Rotterdam and Brussels. The group's subsequent output appeared on a grab-bag of labels, with the ambitious 1982 "Ghost Sonata" described as "an opera without words," remaining an opera without a release date for nearly a decade.
Reininger left the band in the spring of 1983, and the remaining members carried on with releases such as
Holy Wars,
Ship of Fools, and finally
You. In 1988,
Brown,
Reininger, and
Principle created a reunion version of the group, and since that time have performed and recorded as
Tuxedomoon whenever the mood suits them.
Brown began his solo career in 1983, starting with a series of excellent collaborations with
Benjamin Lew for the Crammed Discs label.
Music for Solo Piano was the first project that was totally the work of
Brown, and was released in 1984 by Crepuscule.
Brown's solo work is marked by a deep intellectual content, including dedications to the German film director Rainer Fassbinder and a score based on Edward Albee's play Zoo Story. Later compositions were inspired by the literature of Jean Genet and
William Burroughs and the sonnets of British poet
John Keats. In 1993,
Brown relocated to Mexico City where he has recorded with a new ensemble entitled
Nine Rain as well as continuing projects with
Tuxedomoon. ~ Eugene Chadbourne