1985-1990
In the early '70's, these two characters met in high school band. They both played sax, and they were both out of their minds a fitting basis for musical collaboration in rural Indiana. Soon, the boys would be recording "selections" to be played during prank phone calls. Posing as interviewers from the Music Department of a nearby university, they would ask an unsuspecting citizen to rate three selections. The basic format was Selection #1: a fairly straight version of something like "How Great Thou Art," Selection #2: some boogie woogie Tim would punch out on the piano, Selection #3: bone-curdling screaming madness. In 1976, Los Bozotros was hatched. Conceived as a subcompact, mobile anarcho-art group, the first ditch attempt was Don donning a clown mask and decomposing the festive billboard on the edge of town. On July 8, a very poorly shot photograph of the "vandalism" appeared in the local paper with this caption: "BOZENTENNIAL? 'Bozo' was reported the only suspect as the taping over of some letters was discovered on this Bicentennial sign at the Ind. 124 West entrance to Bluffton. Officials asked that citizens refrain from defacing the patriotic markers symbols of Wells County's recognition for participation in the 200th U.S. birthday activities." |
In each of the next three years, Los Bozotros entered a "garbage pile" float in the fall classic, the World Famous Bluffton Street Fair Parade. Oddly enough, in '79, Los Bozotros won Third Prize (a cash award of 100 clams) for a last-minute entry: Wearing a mummy mask and bathrobe, Don marched up the midway with the BOZOTROS banner used in previous parades while childhood chum Jim Warthman, camouflaged in the melted alien mask replica, followed closely behind in a totally unadorned Ford Bronco. Either the judges were very high or very afraid. In 1977, Tim and Don moved their act into the barn behind Tim's house. Joined by Michael Gitlin, returning from school "out west," The Barn Boys was born. The fundamentals: Turn on three cheap, portable General Electric tape recorders, bang away on guitar, sax, violin, mandolin, pipes, whistles, bells, pots, pans, and anything else within reach, then play back the results on all recorders simultaneously for the "tripophonic" effect. Several years later, The Barn Boys would compress this bluster into song-form, but that's another webpage. |
On January 13, 1979, Los Bozotros staged The Strange Event, a freeform multimedia happening at Ball State University in Muncie, Indiana. Two days later, the Ball State Daily News reported: "In a lowly lit classroom at Carmichael Hall, chairs were scattered haphazardly, mimeographed papers and posters were thrown on the floor and taped to the walls, slides of unusual designs were flashed on one screen, and nonsense homemade movies were shown on another. In this atmosphere of complete chaos, a small group of 'musicians' gathered in the front of the room for a bizarre jam session. According to Tim Noe, Los Bozotros was trying to motivate the audience to be free to do what they wanted. 'Basically,' he said, 'people can come and go crazy for a couple of hours.'" On April 1, 1985, Tim and Don officially became April Fooles. "Songs" from their various recording sessions were featured on the Post Hip Gnosis tape and in Large Door material. Their one and only live performance with Ed the Meat Poet occurred on Halloween, 1990 at the Knitting Factory in New York City. The April Fooles set included musical selections in the old-school prank phone call format, a short film by Michael Gitlin, and an histrionic reading of "A Circus Of Clatters." ~ Uncle Roy ~ January 2000 |