Did you know the late Mike Kelley played in a band called The Poetics with fellow Cal Arts graduate school alumna Jim Shaw and Tony Oursler?
Kelley and Shaw had originally been part of the Ann Arbor-based Destroy All Monsters, before heading out to California together when first encountered video artist Tony Oursler. Kelley recalls: “I was soimpressed with Oursler’s morbid vocal quality and his narrative abilities that I immediately asked him to be the vocalist in the band.” One of their first recordings was a conga-link punk version of “I See Your Honey,” an original song Oursler wrote as a child. The Poetics’ activities slowed down in 1981 when Oursler another band member moved to New York.
Check out the full essay by Mike Kelley on the late artist’s website. View Phaidon’s survey of Mike Kelly on Paddle8.