The Flying Luttenbachers

The Flying Luttenbachers are an American instrumental unit led by multi-instrumentalist, composer, improviser and producer Weasel Walter.

The Flying Luttenbachers have created a body of work focused on musical extremity and dissonance. Their music ranges from intense all-acoustic free improvisation to complex and modernistic rock composition, and from electronic noise to punk-inspired jazz. Walter has been quoted as saying he has drawn musical inspiration from the fields of punk, death metal, free jazz, and no wave.

History
The Flying Luttenbachers formed in December 1991 in Chicago, Illinois, as a punk jazz trio, with Hal Russell (tenor and soprano saxes, trumpet, vibraphone, and drums; co founder), Chad Organ (tenor sax, moog synthesizer, and baritone sax) and Weasel Walter (drums, guitar, bass, keyboards, woodwinds, electronics, and main composer). The band derived their moniker from Russell's birth name, Harold Luttenbacher. Russell left the band in June 1992, and was soon replaced by Ken Vandermark for the recording of The Flying Luttenbachers' first 7″ record.

Since its formation, the band's personnel have changed several times under Walter's leadership. The band has featured several free jazz and experimental rock musicians including Fred Lonberg-Holm, Kurt Johnson, Jeb Bishop, Alex Perkolup, Mick Barr, Ed Rodriguez, Mike Green, and Jonathan Hischke. The Flying Luttenbachers have toured Europe and the US extensively with bands including The Locust, Arab On Radar, Lightning Bolt, U.S. Maple, Erase Errata, Bobby Conn, and Wolf Eyes.

Walter moved from Chicago to Oakland, California, in 2003, and then again to the San Francisco Bay Area. He refreshed The Flying Luttenbachers with the addition of bassist Mike Green, guitarist Ed Rodrigues and later Mick Barr. The band played their final concert in November 2006 before officially disbanding in November 2007 with the release of a studio album (recorded solo by Walter).

In 2017, after a 10-year hiatus, The Flying Luttenbachers reformed, accepting an invitation to play at the Sonic Protest festival. Walter (on drums) was joined by guitarist Chris Welcome and bassist Tim Dahl. The group opened three shows for Oh Sees in October 2018 before touring Europe in April 2019.

In 2019, a quartet version of the band released Shattered Dimension. Joining Walter (on drums) was saxophonist Matt Nelson, bassist Tim Dahl, and guitarist Brandon Seabrook. Over the next few years, the band's varying lineup included bassist Evan Lipson; guitarists Henry Kaiser, Wendy Eisenberg, Katie Battistoni, and Alex Ward; and drummer Sam Ospovat.

Conceptual continuity
Since 1996’s Revenge album, the Flying Luttenbachers’ musical output has been underlined by a gradually unravelling storyline concerning the self-obliteration of the planet Earth and the resulting aftermath. The 2006 album Cataclysm concerns an interstellar battle between two monolithic entities: The Void (a dark, silent spectre detailed in 2004’s album of the same name) and The Iridescent Behemoth (a massive planetoid being whose tale was told in 2003’s complex Systems Emerge from Complete Disorder album). The music energetically utilizes deliberate harmonic dissonance and the material operates on a principle of intelligent transformation of concise amounts of interrelated themes.

Singles

 * "546 Seconds Of Noise" 7″ (Quinnah/ugEXPLODE, 1992, Quinnah 01/ug003)
 * "1389 Seconds Of Noise" 7″ (Quinnah/ugEXPLODE, 1993, Quinnah 02/ug004)

Albums

 * Destructo Noise Explosion!: Live at WNUR 2-6-92 cassette/LP/CD (ugEXPLODE/Coat-tail, 1992)
 * Constructive Destruction LP/CD (ugEXPLODE/Quinnah, 1994)
 * Destroy All Music LP/CD (Chimp/ugEXPLODE/Skin Graft, 1995)
 * Revenge LP/CD (ugEXPLODE/Skin Graft, 1996)
 * Live in the Middle East cassette (Bourgeois/Elevated Chimp, 1996)
 * Gods of Chaos CD (ugEXPLODE/Skin Graft, 1998)
 * Retrospektiw III CD (ugEXPLODE/Quinnah, 1998)
 * "...The Truth Is a Fucking Lie..." LP/CD (ugEXPLODE/Skin Graft, 1999)
 * Alptraum CD (ugEXPLODE/Pandemonium, 2000)
 * Trauma 2XLP (ugEXPLODE, 2001)
 * Infection and Decline LP/CD (ugEXPLODE/Troubleman Unlimited, 2002)
 * Retrospektiw IV CD (ugEXPLODE/MNTCIA, 2002)
 * Systems Emerge from Complete Disorder LP/CD (ugEXPLODE/Troubleman Unlimited, 2003)
 * The Void LP/CD (ugEXPLODE/Troubleman Unlimited, 2004)
 * Spectral Warrior Mythos Volume 1 CD (ugEXPLODE, 2005)
 * Cataclysm CD (ugEXPLODE, 2006)
 * Incarceration by Abstraction CD (ugEXPLODE, 2007)
 * Shattered Dimension CD (ugEXPLODE/GOD Records, 2019)
 * Imminent Death CD (ugEXPLODE/GOD Records, 2019)
 * Negative Infinity CD (ugEXPLODE/GOD Records, 2021)
 * Terror Iridescence CD (unEXPLODE/GOD Records, 2022)

Compilations

 * Camp Skingraft 33 Hits! Now Wave Volumes 1-3 CD (Skin Graft Records, 1997, GR50)
 * Hayfever EP No. 4 7″ (Hayfever Magazine, 1997, No. 4)
 * Knormalities 7″ (Dephine Knormal Musik, 1998, DKM 03)
 * Troubleman Mix-Tape 2xCD (Troubleman Unlimited, 2001, TMU-050)
 * Troubleman 2003 Sampler CD (Troubleman Unlimited, 2003, TMU-109)