Draft:Chris Bickel
American film director and singer (1970)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Christopher Bickel (born 1970) is an American film director[1] and singer.
He most notably fronted the bands In/Humanity and Guyana Punch Line. Both bands could be considered to be Powerviolence and Hardcore punk, but Bickel jokingly described In/Humanity's music as Emo Violence and introduced the philosophy of Smashism with Guyana Punch Line.
Anakrid has released three LP records and is currently signed to the Beta-lactam Ring Records label.
Bickel runs Stereonucleosis Records, which released many Antischism records as well as those of Bickel's bands. He also was a columnist for Maximum RocknRoll for a while.
Biography
Christopher Bickel was born in Louisville, Kentucky in 1970,[2][3] but soon moved to Columbia, South Carolina due to his father's job.[4] He worked at the Manifest record store in Columbia during the 1990s, which he would later recall fondly.[5]
In/Humanity
In/Humanity was around from 1991 to 1998...
Guyana Punch Line
Guyana Punch Line (GPL) was formed of members who had previously played in In/Humanity, Antischism and .fuckingcom and was active from 1998 to 2003. Evolving past In/Humanity's tongue-in-cheek professed "emo violence" genre[6] and lyrical jabs, Guyana Punch Line worked to bring Chris Bickel's "Smashism" ideals to the masses through heavy, hard confusion music. The band embarked on what they called a "campaign to scare the hell out of middle America", including an infamous "Walk for Smashism" parade. The band name is a pun on the notorious Jonestown incident.[7] The band became defunct after the release of Direkt Aktion, with members going on to form or work on bands such as Confederate Fagg.[8][9] Vocalist Chris Bickel would go on to work for the Nickelodeon Theater.[10]
Other musical projects
After the demise of GPL, he sang in the short-lived Newgenics and Four, 3, One. Other musical projects of his included the metal band Confederate Fagg and avant-garde soundscape project Anakrid, the latter of which became main artistic endeavor.
Around this time, he also gained online popularity on the review website Epinions, where he was known for his provocative reviews, but also for being "a great writer and wit," according to Wired magazine.[11]