The Apathetix existed for only a few weeks, even by the most generous measure, in the spring of 1984. They held only one incomplete "rehearsal," which consisted of one take of their only "song," which ended chaotically somewhere between the guitar solo (!) and the final verse.
They played only one show, consisting of that one song, and the microphone of the "singer" was inadvertently (or was it?) turned off midway through it.
They spent most of their time taking pictures of themselves to use as background images for their lone concert appearance – their ratio of time spent taking pictures to time spent rehearsing, playing and recording was easily ten to one.
Yet during this brief period consisting of almost no substantive musical activity, they were exhaustively chronicled (mostly by themselves) and relentlessly hyped (almost exclusively to a small group of skeptics). Their activities culminated in an ambitious music video which eventually was recognized as their coup de grace, their piece de resistance, and their Let It Be all in one. Again, vastly more time was spent scouting locations, setting up shots and arguing about the nature of Art and Commerce than writing a script, shooting usable footage, or recording the song (much of the principal photography was completed before the "director" realized there was no soundtrack recording available for playback so that the action onscreen could be synchronized with the song).Internecine squabbling, multiple personnel changes and high school graduation soon split the "band" apart. Their legacy is preserved in the poorly transferred, fifth-generation, ultra low-fi videos below. These ghostly images, and the hazy, failing memories of their victims "fans," are all that remain, at least until the inevitable "Behind The Music" special.
- Live at the J.P. McCaskey High School Talent (sic) Show, 1984:
- Starring in The Video That Ate Several Members Of The Class of '84 And Spat Them Out Again, Raw And Undigested
You have been warned.
2 comments:
Who would have imagined that video would have world exposure?
ah, the apathetix. geniuses, ahead of their time. WAY ahead of their time. sometime in the year 3000 - many years after the global meltdown and the 'dark humid times' - archaeologists will come across this video, and it will cause them to rethink their entire conception of pre millenium civilzation.
and i just dont care.
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