ED KUEPPER
But like jazz and classical music, rock ‘n’ roll has shown a capacity to accommodate radical alteration. No matter how violently the form is manipulated, it usually maintains its essential “rock” quiddity. That’s why the Moody Blues, the Residents, the Velvet Underground, Rush, the Beatles, and Jonathan Richman are all members of the rock family. Elvis would probably have trouble acknowledging Pere Ubu as a cousin, but that’s how quickly and drastically rock music can change. That knack for shape-shifting has rankled those who would like to keep rock’s gene pool pure, but it’s also what’s kept it so interesting.
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Over the past ten years Kuepper has recorded a series of records alternating between dense, well-produced guitar pop (Everybody’s Got To, Black Ticket Day) and more personal and haunting acoustic efforts (Today Wonder, Serene Machine). In 1991 Kuepper assembled a new band he christened the Aints, who’ve released two records of overamplified, distortion-fractured songs in the MC5/Stooges tradition that revisit and elaborate on Kuepper’s punk rock roots.
