Rapeman

Rapeman was an American rock music group founded in 1987 and disbanded in 1990.

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Personnel were:

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• Steve Albini (formerly of Big Black) on guitar and vocals
• David Wm. Sims (formerly of Scratch Acid) on bass
• Rey Washam (formerly of Scratch Acid and BIg Boys) on drums

In an interview, Albini reported that "Rapeman is the title character in a Japanese comic book that I had come across through a friend of mine. The comic book is just a total mind-bender. There's a whole genre of comics in Japan, rape stories where women are raped in really graphic detail for whatever reason, and it's an amazing thing that this is just an accepted part of their sort of normal popular culture."http://www.petdance.com/actionpark/bigblack/press/rocknames.php Albini and Washam became "sort of obsessed" with the comic, and named their new group after the titular antihero.

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Rapeman's performances would often be the target of protestors, who felt that the band was mocking or even encouraging rape and violence against women. Albini has described such criticisms as idiotic, arguing that punk culture is generally very sympathetic to feminism.

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The playing style at times was reminiscent of more traditional noise punk (as on "Up Beat"), at other times cranky art-rock (as on "Monobrow"), their sound gave centre stage to the virtuoso guitar capability of Albini.

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The band broke up for personal reasons; not, as has been rumoured, over a dispute relating to their name. Albini went on to form Shellac, Sims founded The Jesus Lizard.

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Rapeman: Discography ►



 

American: :This page disambiguates the many uses of American. For an article about those various uses, please see Use of the word American....

Rock music: Rock music is a genre of popular music that entered the mainstream in the 1950s. It has its roots in 1940s and 1950s rock and roll, rhythm and blues, country music and also drew on folk music, jazz and classical music. The sound of rock often revolves around the electric guitar, a back beat laid dow...

1987: 1987 is a common year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar....