Neptune (American band)

Neptune is an experimental / industrial noise rock band originally hailing from Boston, Massachusetts. Throughout its 30 year history, the band has largely operated as a collective, not only by employing a rotating membership, but also often collaborating with other musicians and artists both live and on record. They are noted for having built their custom-made instruments out of scrap steel and other found-object and recycled materials. The instruments themselves can be heavy and foreboding "self-made from antiquated machines and scrap metal, forged at extreme angles like props from a German expressionist film." A reviewer once said of the band: "Neptune really do accurately approximate in their music the tragic and violent desolation of the auto graveyards from which they draw their raw materials." While another wrote: "Neptune’s closest comparison could only be themselves."

Band history
Neptune's origins trace to 1994 as a sculpture project by Boston artist/musician Jason Sanford, who forged the band's haphazard guitars and reluctant drums from scrap steel and found objects. Over the years the instruments have evolved to incorporate oscillators and other electronic devices as band "have integrated some really smart looking industrial class synthesizer gear" into their noise-making arsenal. Nine (+) lineups, Thirty-three releases and hundreds of instruments later, the band continues to wrench its sound spatter on self-built instruments to often confounded audiences around the world. As of 2024, the band has played over 680 shows, with a recent US tour in June 2023.

Having toured extensively, Neptune has shared stages with "a variety of artists such as The Ex, Mission of Burma, Ut, Oneida, Lightning Bolt, The Flaming Lips, Blonde Redhead, Melt-Banana, Charles Hayward, Liars, Black Dice, James Chance & the Contortions, Gang Gang Dance, Six Finger Satellite, Wolf Eyes.", Enon, Erase Errata, Arab on Radar and Parts & Labor.

As of 2020, Neptune consists of Sanford along with long-time Neptune collaborators Mark William Pearson and Daniel Paul Boucher.

Personnel
Current members
 * Jason Sidney Sanford – guitar, baritone guitar, bass, violin, gas can ukulele, electric thumb piano, electronics, foot-controlled synthesizer, bass lamellophone, spring harp, percussion, feedback organ, tupperphone, radios, vocals (1994 - present)
 * Mark William Pearson – guitar, baritone guitar, 4-string slide, bass, electronics, large electric spring, percussion, amplified drums, tape machine, tape manipulation, push-button telephone, vocals (2002 - 2015, 2020 - present)
 * Daniel Paul Boucher – drums, amplified metal toms, found object percussion, saw blade xylophone, oscillators, electronics, violin, gas can ukulele, washboard, vocals (2000 - 2010, 2015, 2020 - Present)

Rotating members
 * Kevin Micka – recording engineer, live sound engineer (1997 - present), drums, guitar, electronics, backing vocals (2006 - 2016)

Past members
 * Darryl Blood - drums, violin, backing vocals (1994 - 1997)
 * Doug Last - percussion, empties (empty glass bottles shattered on a cinderblock with attached microphone), backing vocals (1994 - 1997)
 * Carl Wieting- bass, guitar, ukulele, backing vocals (1994 - 1997)
 * Gregory Kenney - guitar, vocals, drums (1994 - 1998)
 * Malcolm Felder - drums (1997 - 1998)
 * Jessica Rylan - bass, vocals, electronics (1997-1999, 2001, 2006-2007)
 * Adrienne Jorge - live projections / films, documentarian (1998 - 1999, 2002 - 2005)
 * Adam Scotto - drums (1999)
 * Joel Hamburger - bass (2000)
 * Christopher Huggins - guitar, vocals, bass (2000 - 2002)
 * John Douglas Manson - drums, percussion, vocals (2000 - 2004)
 * Justin Kaiden - bass (2001)
 * David Gerhard Utzinger - live sound engineer (2005), percussion (2008)
 * Regina Greene - obscenities, booking (2005 - 2013)
 * Mary Staubitz - electronics, tone generator, feedback (2006 - 2007)
 * Martina Rossi - guitar (live) (2009)
 * Farhad Ebrihimi - drums, electronics (2010 - 2011)
 * Justin Earl Kipp - percussion, bowed cable, electronics (2016)
 * Jesse Gallagher - percussion, bowed cable, electronics (2016)

Discography
Studio albums
 * "Studio Recordings, May MCMXCVII", full-length CD/LP. (Archenemy Records, 1999)
 * "The Ballet of Process", full-length CD/LP. (Mister/100% Breakfast Records, 2002)
 * "Intimate Lightning", full-length CD/LP. (Mister/100% Breakfast Records, 2004)
 * "Mice and Worms", 6-song 12-inch LP mini-album. (Magnetism Crafts/Self-Release, 2005)
 * "Patterns", full-length CD/LP. (Self-Release (US)/ Fortissimo Records (UK)/Les Potagers Natures (France), 2006)
 * "Neptune", full-length, LP only. (Golden lab records, 2007)
 * "Gong Lake", full-length CD/LP (Radium/ Table of the Elements, February 2008)
 * "18:40/19:19", full-length LP (Magnetism Crafts/Wrong Way Archival Bureau, 2010)
 * "Cave Drawings", 7 songs, 10-inch colored vinyl + digital mini-album. (Self-Release/Magnetism Crafts, January 2011)
 * "Silent Partner", full-length CD/LP/Digital (Northern Spy Records, 2011)
 * "msg rcvd", full-length CD/LP/Digital (Northern Spy Records, 2012)
 * "Mother of Millions", full-length Cassette/Digital (Wrong Way Archival Bureau, 2021)
 * "Green White Red", full-length Digital Reissue (Magnetism Crafts/Wrong Way Archival Bureau, 2024)

EPs
 * "Knife Fight E.P.", 7-inch. (self released, 1996)
 * “Neptune.”, 3-song cassette. (Neptune self-released, 1998)
 * "Basement Recordings E.P.", 6-song CD. (Mister Records, 2001)
 * "Green Cassette", 5-song C30 Cassette. (Magnetism Crafts, 2005)
 * "3" CDR", 5-song CDR. (Magnetism Crafts, 2005)
 * "White Cassette", 4-song C20 Cassette. (Wrong Way Archival Bureau, 2005)
 * "3" Collage CDR", 2 songs. (Magnetism Crafts / Self-Release, 2006)
 * "Red Cassette", 6 improvisations, C30 Cassette. (Magnetism Crafts, 2006)
 * "3" CDR", 3-song 3" CDR. (Hiddenbirdhouse, 2006)
 * "Tell My People To Go Home", 4-song EP, split release w/ One Second Riot, LP only. (Distile Records, 2007)
 * "Paris Green", 5-track CDR with hand painted art. (Magnetism Crafts/Wrong Whole, 2007)
 * "Roman Business", 4 songs, C20 cassette. (NO=FI, March 2009)

Singles
 * "Swang!/Poodle Walk", 7-inch single. (Anti-Social Records, 1996)
 * "Your Company/Productivity is a Science", 7-inch single. (Heliotrope Records, 2000)
 * "At the Pink Pony/A Car Is A Weapon", Live 7-inch Single. (Mister Records, 2002)

Live albums
 * "Live on Pipeline, WMBR 03.16.04" (Neptune self-released, 2019)
 * "Live at SCSI Cell 11.20.2004" (Neptune self-released, 2021)

Videos

 * Equestrian Phantasy. Video by Zea Barker, 2006. (from Patterns)
 * Silver Pool. Video by Mike Piso, 2008. (from Gong Lake)
 * Grey Shallows. Video by Zea Barker, 2008. (from Gong Lake)
 * Copper Green. Video by Jonathan Schwartz, 2008. (from Gong Lake)
 * Gentleman Caller. Video by Zea Barker, 2021. (from Mother of Millions)

Live Videos

 * Thorns. Video by Bill T Miller, recorded at the Paradise, Boston, MA, 8/3/2006. (from Neptune)
 * The Penetrating Gaze. Video by Bill T Miller, recorded at the Middle East, Cambridge, MA, 12/29/2005. (from Patterns)
 * Live in Strasbourg France (full set, 11 songs). Recorded live at Le Zanzibar, Strasbourg, France, 9/27/06. Video by Normaltv.org.