= excerpt #1 = from HARVEY BENNETT STAFFORD He Is Heavy Paint Machine Victory! by Lisa Carver . . . HARVEY: It was the first Abject and Unusual Music Festival at Berkeley, in 1988. I was in a noise purist band for a while called Electrodejellyfishspoon with two guys from New Orleans, Kevin Deal and Paul McCord.

They set up this horrendous racket and I ran around like a housewife with this vacuum cleaner that also made a horrendous noise because the bearings were totally shot. Sparks were flying. It was smoking and burning up. It was an outdoor show and I was chasing around people in the crowd with this vacuum cleaner, tearing up chunks of turf.

Then, in homage to Jimi Hendrix, I set it on fire. I was trying to coax the same crazy sound out of it as Hendrix did when he set his guitar on fire. The fire got a little out of control so I threw it into the fountain to put it out. Sometime during all of this the power blew, but I think the flaming Kirby vacuum cleaner was distracting enough that no one noticed.

There was also a lunatic Sufi mystic who was totally goggle-eyed, dancing through all the chaos and speaking in tongues. I don't know where he came from. He just appeared at the right time. I think everyone assumed he was in the band, which might have been why they tolerated his getting in everyone's face, burbling baby talk, and offering flaming remnants of the vacuum cleaner chassis to selected members of the audience. It was a pretty fun show.

photo caption: Performing with Electrodejellyfishspoon at Abject and Unusual Music Festival. Top photo: A boy, his lighter fluid, and the Cadillac of vacuum cleaners. Bottom photo: Still from the film Harvey Plays Berkeley. The instrument is a one-of-a-kind invention constructed of steel and two piano strings.

Typed by Cheryl Vega 5-3-95