McLuhan (2)

Founded in Chicago, USA in 1969. McLuhan was a concept and a mixed-media group where no particular musical venue or style would necessarily prevail. The creator of the idea was David Wright who composed most of the music and wrote the lyrics on their only album, Anomaly. Paul Cohn was a friend and fellow-student of David Wright at UICC (University of Illinois Chicago). He was also a sax, flute and clarinetist in a week-end prom group called the Seven Seas. When the band lost their trumpeter he asked his friend who he knew could play, to fill in. Soon after the group had a falling apart thing with the singer and guitar player who had big plans and wanted to be stars etc... So after the two stars had walked-out, David introduced the remains of the group to the McLuhan concept. The idea was to try different things in performances including special sound effects such as baby's crying, various weird instruments, background sounds, playing old movies during their performance ("Monster Bride" was actually Bride of Frankenstein and in live performance they would turn on the movie at the point where the 20th Century Fox theme is played). The medium was the message", not the content. Labels didn't matter "The Wise-Fools Pub" on Lincoln Avenue in Chicago hired McLuhan to perform every Monday night and they developed a small local following. Their performance got really thight at Wise Fools, and eventually it led to a Brunswick Record contract. McLuhan only was together for about 1 to 1 ½ years. And they never had a live performance promoting their album, because the very last thing they did was producing Anomaly. It got some obscure radio play but it was "dead" as far as the band knew. Anomaly's concept and ideas now sounds advanced for its time of release (1970). Uniquely american artrock in a brassy and groovy kind of way. Over the years its become cult album, but its never been re-released.