Charlie Athanas : Burning City, Inc.
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AUDIO

Until I can coherently write this section and get audio samples up, it is a stream of conscious outline through my career in sound.

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Sat around dreaming of being a rock star and playing air guitar. My first records were John Barry's soundtrack to Goldfinger and Jimi Hendrix - Band of Gypsies Live. I was introduced to the Sex Pistols and punk when Gibby Haynes forced me to listen to Never Mind the Bullocks through headphones (turned up to 11+.) We bandied about forming a punk band with two vocalists, but he ended up creating what would eventually become the Butthole Surfers with Paul Leary and I teamed up with Rudi Harst.

The Tempest by William Shakespeare -
"Boom Boom Out Go The Lights" - Pat Travers. This is the song I sang at the audition to get the part of Ariel, the wind sprite. Oy. This was the play that got me to Chicago.

Rudi Harst
Rock Star 101. Went to the River City Music store in San Antonio to find an instrument that would be easy to learn and that I could play while I was "singing." A $400.00 Moog Prodigy fit the bill. Still in the box. I taped the notes over the keys. A B C D E F G. Met Rudi Harst at the his "audition" to be in my band and became his soundman, synth guy, roadie, disciple, and official thorn in his side. Much more to come on Rudi.

Goddess Zet Baer, Claude Morgan and the Blast (Robar and Steve "GoGo" Hartwell), Tim Anderson.

Gary Davenport of Mannequin -
Gary and I collaborated on an EP. He wrote one side and I wrote the other and we each contributed performances to each other's work.

Omnicircus -
I met Frank Garvey (son of Harry Partch conducter, John Garvey), a self-professed warlock, through a tattered flyer on the wall of Chicago's Gingerman Bar in 1982. He was looking for brave souls who could play synthesizers to help him score and operatic film score for a piece called Omnicircus. A singer on the project was Ted Levine. Ted soon after played Buffalo Bill, the serial killer, in "Silence of the Lambs".

Vanishing Children -
Rock and roll: Lou Mallozi, Dick Watts, Larry Miller, Dwayne, Brian Messiah

Snooty Brothers -
Lou Mallozi and I (We only played art openings.)

The Experimental Sound Studio -
I was a founding member of the ESS. An organization that is thriving today and worthy of your support and interest.

Heroes for Hire -
The band, Vanishing Children, morphed into this configuration. The name change caused Brian Messiah, musician extraordinaire, to leave the band. Among other things. Thankfully, Brian still talks to me.

Soundtracks -
I did a LOT of soundtrack work in the 80s and 90s for theater, computer videos, laser shows, computer games and live performances (i.e., a museum opening for photos from Voyager of Saturn, way too much fun.)

I met Dave Reilly (later of Big Black fame) while I was sleeping on the utility room floor of John Witham's home. Dave had just come in from Detroit and was crashing upstairs. The three of us had an amazing time at the Center For New Television doing "video art". All that video is now non-magnetic tape dust.

Through a mutual friend, I got hooked up with the University of Chicago Electronic Visualization Lab to do soundtrack work for budding computer video artists. It is here I met the amazing Sally Rosenthal (later to be the Best Man at my wedding), the sublime Johnie Hugh Horn (my Ralph the Punk collaborator), and was introduced to SIGGRAPH and the world of computers.

Computer Games -
I did soundtracks, sound effects and voice-over directing for all of the computer games I worked on. The exception being the critically-acclaimed soundtrack work on Cyberjudas by Michael Bodeen and Rob Milburn (Google these guys for their massive credits.)