The Pain Teens were formed in Houston, Texas by Bliss Blood and Scott Ayers waaaaaay back in 1985 (although it took them two years to get around to gigging and pu tting out an album). Originally a punk band with metal leanings (check out their early cover of the Stooges' "I Got A Right" and their eerie, soul-crushing cover of Black Sabbath's "War Pigs" for evidence) aligned with Houston's p unk scene, they soon mutated into something else altogether -- a chaotic and sinister hybrid of punk, noise, tape loops, found sound, samples, exotic instrumentation, and pure unbridled creepiness. (This is what happens to you when you live in Housto n too long.)
Distinguished mainly by Scott Ayer's guitar playing -- a unique sound that combines swamplike psychedelia and twisted, effects-laden sounds -- and Bliss Blood's disturbing lyrics and icy deliver y, the Pain Teens sound like no other band on earth. For the record, their best song ever (in my opinion, anyway) is the still-obscure "Happy Razors," from the cassette-only release PAIN TEENS IV.
The Pain Teens began releasing their own 90-minute cassettes the same year they formed; and followed that with their first LP, PAIN TEENS, on their own Ano mie Records label in 1988. (They also released a single by Sugar Shack, some other odds and ends, and at least one CD in the MANIFESTATION series, among other things.) After self-releasing CASE HISTORIES in 1989, they were added to the Trance Syndicate roster and CASE HISTORIES was issued with BORN IN BLOOD nationally in 1990. In 1991, Frank Garrymartin (drums) and joined them and Kirk Carr (bass, who had joined in 1990) for the purposes of touring. Over the next four years, they toured several times and released two more albums, STIMULATION FESTIVAL and DESTROY ME, LOVER. Following a national tour in 1994 with the Boredoms and Brutal Truth (half of which Bliss would join again two years later on th e Relapse release SMOKING SONGS, a tribute to the joys of hemp), Frank and Kirk left the band, and Bliss and Scott returned to working as a duo to finish BEAST OF DREAMS, which was released in late 1995.
It now appears that BEAST OF DREAMS was the last statement of the Pain Teens; Scott and Bliss have gone totally separate ways and the Pain Teens are no mor e. Scott and Frank Garrymartin have since appeared in the Houston band Truth Decay (headed by Ralf Armin, who played guitar on BORN IN BLOOD tracks "Pleasures of the Flesh," "She Shook Me," and "My Desire"); they have released one single and an album is completed and will appear somewhere in the next year. Bliss has left Tejas entirely for NYC, where she has been doing solo banjoule performances and working with several different bands, among them Lovecraft ( with former members of 13 and Motherhead Bug) and Emma Peel. Truth Decay have already released a single and Bliss has material in the works. Scott has also begun steadily releasing material as Walking Timebombs, while Frank has appeared on the most r ecent Helios Creed CD. See discography for more details. He is also now apparently a formal member of former Butthole Surfer Jeff Pinkus' band Daddy Longhead; he's touring with them and will appear on the next Daddy Longhead disc. And Kirk Carr is al ive and well in Houston, although what he's actually up to is a mystersy to moi. (Note: Bliss is no longer associated with Emma Peel, who have apparently broken up after releasing only one single, which Bliss didn't appear on anyway. I have yet to se e anything released by Lovecraft and am not sure the band even exists at this point.)
