Total Shutdown

The crazed experimental rock of San Francisco's Total Shutdown first saw the light of day at a gig on February 14, 2000. Vocalist Bob Linder, bassist Nate Denver, guitarist Paul Costuros, drummer Pete Nguyen, and saxophonist Matt Hartman all play a variety of instruments besides their main ones and, individually, have been involved in everything from performance art to death metal. There first release came as a split 7" with Boxleitner on Thin the Herd Records and it earned a spot on Byron Coley's Top Ten singles of 2001 in the Village Voice. Compilation appearances and limited-edition CD-Rs followed before the one-sided 12" "Reflections" came out on blood-red vinyl and with silk-screened covers in 2002. Also that year saw the release of a 6 song 7" on the death grind label Life is Abuse. It was enough to draw the attention of the usually electronic-leaning label Tigerbeat6 and heavy noise label Load Records who co-issued the band's debut album in 2003 simple called The Album. In 2006 Thurston Moore and Byron Coley's Ecstatic Yod label released a live album with hand stenciled assembled and silkscreen covers simply called Total Shutdown Live.

Total Shutdown's sound is like the Boredoms, Naked City, and Brutal Truth all in a mad race for the finish line. Hard jazz, thrash, and hardcore slap you in the face from the start with only short breaks for avant noodling and naïve melodies played on tinker-toy keyboards. Vocals are either Cookie Monster-styled growls or the screams and yelps that Eye from the Boredoms spits out. It would be easy to think John Zorn is their spiritual leader, but there's more of a party atmosphere than the rather serious saxophonist has ever attempted.