Andre Stitt (Vocals, Words) Matt Cook (Guitar, Production)
Influences
The Seeds, 13th Floor Elevators, Add N To X, Talking Heads, LCD Soundsystem, Throbbing Gristle, Cabaret Voltaire, Joseph Beuys, Situationist International, Suicide, No Wave, Gang of Four, White Trash, Anarchism, Americana, Hugo Chavez, Politics, Revolution
“Who do they think they are these performance artists who want to be the new Golden Gods of Art Rock?” Andre Stitt, Tour Blog
The Panacea Society is a performance art experiment turned art rock duo, first conceived in 2003 by artist, front man and writer Andre Stitt during a series of happenings he was staging in the English town of Bedford. Stitt enlisted the services of sonic artist, guitarist and producer Matt Cook, and the duo set about recreating the lost hits of the late sixties Bedford based Psychedelic outfit Panacea.
“It all started when we bought some old reel-to-reel tapes at a car boot sale, mostly of people freaking out on drugs” Stitt, quoted in MOJO, 2003
The story, as explained in the liner notes of their first single Do Me Rattle b/w God Is Sexy, has the duo stumbling upon some old tapes marked simply Panacea, then tracking down the performers of this as yet unappreciated music. Of course Panacea never existed, meaning the first Performance by The Panacea Society at the 2003 Bedford River festival would be revered in local history as contemporary art prank.
During this time Stitt received national tabloid notoriety for his performance White Trash Curry Kick, which meant that the single received a lot of press coverage and The Panacea Society achieved a small but dedicated cult following. This allowed the collaboration to continue, and the group performed extensively throughout the UK and Europe, allowing them to develop their powerful and unique performance style.
“Expect high and wide doses of generation zero whatcore” L.A. Weekly, 2006
April 2006, The Panacea Society embark on their first North American tour, with time out to record the initial sessions that would eventually become their first Album.
“We are bloody great tonight. I am soaking with sweat, dancing and having the time of my life. The kids are just aghast. We are loud, the sound is great, I am pounding the stage with my fists, my feet, my big f*ck-off boots. Matt chops out shards of rhythm from his Supro guitar.” Andre Stitt, Tour Blog
With songs about white supremacy, road rage and dictatorships, the new 10” EP Flowers & Beads, and album, We Don’t Dig Doom, capture the groups danceable yet confrontational style in it’s immediacy, with grooves that will have you gyrating uncontrollably to the command; You are being infiltrated!
Its been selling faster than we expected, and we currently only have around a quarter of our stock left - so we thought we'd better you all know that if you want a copy then now would be a good time to pick one up! If you buy it from the link above then you're buying it direct from us, the label aren't taking a cut - so its a bit like Fair Trade for struggling musicians.
International mail-order is available, just follow the instructions.
Thank you very much, and sorry for making a mess of your profile. If its any kind of consolation, we don't have a MySpace bot, so I'm leaving these comments the old fashioned way. Three -and-a-half thousand of them. My life is so exciting.
Hey hows it going. Hope is well. I was wondering if you would like to have a free album? You can get it at http://www.megaupload.com/?f=3NNQTYF1 I would love to know what you think
Hey its Sem thought I would let you know that we have decided to give our entire album away for free on download. We wanted to share the music with as many people as possible. You can get it here:
You have to be playing when we're playin hard rock havent you? look out for tanya walker band - very good, all tracks sound completely different, lovin autumn tuesday.x
Hello André - many thanks for the add and hope you're keeping well. I really enjoyed reading the tour blog by the way - I feel like I know you a bit better now!
Well, fair do's..those 4 tracks are excellent. I liked the change around 2min50 in pimps and holes - nice touch.I like the singer voice, quite definitive and good, not usualy the voice i listen to, but works well with the songs. Are you gonna be playing live soon or what? Oh and thanks for helping me yesterday matt, sorry if i was a little spaced on the way out - drinks in pen and wig methinks!!
