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In this edition of This Week In Dallas Music History, former Observer music writer Matt Weitz wrote a 1996 piece on the Vas Deferens Organization — an avant garde music collective that engineered recordings so strange, they made Ariel Pink sound like The Beatles.
Interestingly enough, though, it was because of an Ariel Pink recording in Dallas this year that we featured the Vas Deferens Organization in a story about Dennis, Aaron, and Stefan Gonzalez — a local jazz family that connected with Pink because of their relationship with members of the VDO.
Pink isn’t the only high profile artist with connection to VDO, though. This piece features an interesting story of how VDO members Eric Lumbleau and Matt Castille tricked members of Medicine and Mercury Rev into recording on a project called Transcontinental Conspiracy.
“We were essentially kidnapped,” [Mercury Rev’s] Jayson Russo says affably. “It was a
really strange incident… they plied us with alcohol, but it was a good
time.”
Check out the entire article after the jump.
Read the online version in the Observer archives.
