Press Kit

BIO

Based in the United States, itchy-O has brought its dark, mystical, sweat-drenched shows to audiences across the globe since 2009. Propelled by a massive rhythm section of over 14 drummers along with an orchestra of other instruments; guitars, synthesizers, theremin, vocoders, and other custom-made sonic devices, and an ensemble of technicians and provocateurs, their performances are lauded as a wholly immersive, musical experience of magnificent proportions. . 

Itchy-O engagements are all encompassing ceremonial events that engage audiences from every angle in an electric bog of music, ephemera, and spectacle. The group disrupts traditional concert protocols with a powerful form of magic and chaos that awakens the senses, tests assumptions, and creates an opening for new experiences where identity and boundaries surrender and disband.

Itchy-O was selected to act as a centerpiece at MONA’s world-renowned Dark MOFO fest in Tasmania in 2016 and is thrilled to be invited back to perform again in 2023. They have played with David Byrne & St. Vincent, JG Thirwell, Magic Sword, performed on bills with Iggy Pop, Dan Deacon, Bad Religion, and Public Enemy. They have opened for DEVO, Beats Antique, The Melvins and have three albums released on Jello Biafra’s famed record label, Alternative Tentacles.

Itchy-O is also committed to providing spontaneous free public performances in the spirit of upending the mundane and delivering mesmerizing art to the streets by providing impromptu musical encounters in non-traditional settings; delighting unsuspecting audiences with surprise ontological assaults on ordinary reality.

An elemental baptism, a mass exorcism, and a reorienting of the collective soul-compass. A liberating ritual exciting ex-stasis in the collective, dissolving body-bound egos into the timeless tides of trance from which all possibilities emerge.

•  No Proscenium

HISTORY AND INFLUENCE:

Itchy-O began as an experimental solo project when the first primordial album, Pulmonic, was recorded and crafted from layering animal heart noises found on an instructional veterinarian vinyl record . Since then, it has blossomed into the 50+ member performance group it is today. Burn the Navigator and From the Overflowing were later recorded and released on famed punk rock label, Alternative Tentacles, and hundreds of performances have followed. The performance troupe is deeply influenced by the visual vocabulary and shamanistic psycho-magic of Alejandro Jodorowsky, the writings of Robert Anton Wilson, Phil Hine, JG Ballard, Peter J. Carroll, Aleister Crowley, Carl Jung, the archeology of Sir James G. Frazier, the Master Musicians of Joujouka, J.G. Thirwell, Talking Heads, Einstürzende Neubauten, DEVO, the Residents, and the immersive performance styles of acts like Crash Worship.

CONTENT AND FORM:

Itchy-O creates transcendent musical experiences by blending many cultural iconographies in an effort to provide a distinctive offering that dissolves familiarities, awakens possibilities, and employs the true nature and power of hive-minded ceremony. With a performance troupe of over 50+ musicians, dancers, puppeteers, and special effects experts, itchy-O creates a space where the performer and audience co-create an ecstatic artistic experience. Shaking all tenants of tradition, the percussive rhythms of the drum battery and taiko drums intermingle with unique custom-crafted electronic devices, providing a primal-futuristic spiritual immersion.

IMPACT—ARTISTIC, INTELLECTUAL, COMMUNAL, CIVIC, SOCIAL:

Societies today largely choose what to see, hear, and believe. Our lives are carefully curated and programmed by ourselves and outside influences. Itchy-O challenges that hierarchy of choice and control by inserting its one-of-a-kind creative chaos. We invite our audiences to embrace mystery by passing between knowing and unknowing, self and other. Performances create a temporary community of co-creators who surrender control as observers to become a part of manifesting a shared artistic experience.

• compel-fratorum • hyper-intentus • desumo-acoustic • artifex voluptus • celebratio professio •

• compel-fratorum • hyper-intentus • desumo-acoustic • artifex voluptus • celebratio professio •

Download Bio
Download Press Quotes

Music

“Denver electronic percussion collective itchy-O appear from nowhere and stir the room into a cacophonous, demonic riot – then disappear just as suddenly.”

•  TimeOut Melbourne

“Itchy-O… sounds like Blue Man Group if it were infiltrated by satanists and members of Sepultura.”

•  Chicago Tribune

“(They) tore down the third wall — and the fourth, and the fifth — in an all-enveloping performance that aimed to elevate the conscious mind. Think 21st-century drum circle, where cyborg bulls are slaughtered on the altar of Mystery Science Theater 3000.”

•  SF Weekly

“What the fuck just happened?… Denver’s itchy-O is the future of showmanship — or at least what it should be. There’s truly nothing like the crowd involvement that the group provides, basking in originality and a refusal to abide by the norms of live music.”

•  303 Magazine

"It's kind of like the ultimate punk-rock, rhythm booty shake. When the drums start hitting, you have to move."

•  Confluence

Like an Appalachian tent revival performing a Day of the Dead ceremony in the year 2500, itchy-O’s live performances have become infamous for a kind of digital spirituality, a bone-shaking sensory experience of complex instrumentation and feverish exigency.

•  Westword

I feel like I’m bearing witness to a secret cult ritual.

•  No Proscenium

The music itself spanned the rhythms of war, screeches of madness, bleating goats and demonic incantations; it was noisy and hallucinatory, a highly orchestrated wildness.

•  Westword

Best Immersive Concert 2023 - A show from 57-piece avant-garde marching band itchy-O is less a concert and more a mind-altering, transcendental experience that transports audiences to a whole new realm.

•  Westword

Their ceremonies bind, entice, cut past the logical centers of the brain and straight to the instinctual, spiritual, cosmological, rhythmical.

•  Austin Chronicle

Photos

Video
IDRA & SCEPTRE; LIVE COMPILATION
INFERNO NO CORRIDOR; LIVE COMPILATION
Itchy-O Performing From the Overflowing LIVE on WGN-TV in Chicago
GALLOW'S DISCO; MUSIC VIDEO
DAVID BYRNE COLLABORATION
BLACK MIST; MUSIC VIDEO

• compel-fratorum • hyper-intentus • desumo-acoustic • artifex voluptus • celebratio professio •

• compel-fratorum • hyper-intentus • desumo-acoustic • artifex voluptus • celebratio professio •

Riders

Domestic Technical Rider

Representation

PR
Kirsten Vermlen
Mettle Institute
Kvermulen@mettleinstitute.com

Label(s)
Alternative Tentacles
Mettle Studios

Booking

BOOKING

  • Unfortunately, itchy-O cannot perform in the daylight, inclement weather, etc. Crash/mobile shows do not typically allow for promoting and do include taiko but not the big taiko stage drums.
  • Who will be providing marketing/promotion?
  • itchy-O has often been requested to "crash" various events including weddings, private parties, other events.
  • This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.
What the fuck just happened?… Denver’s itchy-O is the future of showmanship — or at least what it should be. There’s truly nothing like the crowd involvement that the group provides, basking in originality and a refusal to abide by the norms of live music.

•  303 MAGAZINE

[instagram-feed]
Download Bio
Download Press Quotes