Triclops! began as an experiment in trans Bay friendship. Christian Beaulieu from San Francisco’s Bottles and Skulls bravely chose to collaborate with cross town rival/would-be-ally Johnny from Oakland’s Fleshies. They made a tape with echo-laden guitars and drums, the vocals run through broken solid state amps with phaser explosion. The duo attacked noise pedals/tape loops/randomly modified guitars and began to realize the band required a rhythm section.
Finding their native punk scene poached dry of experimental-friendly comrades, they randomly responded to a Craigslist ad and struck gold in a brutally talented drummer named Phil from the defunct band Lower Forty-Eight. By January of 2006 they called out to megaveteran bass player Larry Boothroyd (of Victim’s Family/Hellworms/Saturn’s Flea Collar fame). Despite his self-imposed ban on joining bands, Larry could not resist the siren call and Triclops! was born.
In August 2006, Triclops! recorded the Cafeteria Brutalia EP (w/ engineer Phil Manley of Trans Am, Fucking Champs, Golden) for renowned Chicago indie label SickRoom. It was also released on picture disc format on with a 12″ Picture Disc version on Missing Finger Records from Brooklyn. On September 9th, 2007 Gold Standard Laboratories (Sonny Kay of VSS, Angel Hair) ended its run as an active label with a Triclops! picture disc 7″.
In this short but productive existence, Triclops! Has shared the stage on some exciting and diverse show bills with bands such as Acid Mother’s Temple, Don Caballero, Melvins, and Circle. The group has toured with 400 Blows, QUI (David Yow of The Jesus Lizard) Federation X, Burning Brides, played the GSL showcase at SXSW 2007 to a packed house at Emo’s. Fall 2007 had the quartet in NYC for the CMJ Music Marathon and then to Gainesville, Florida for the No Idea Fest 6. Spring 2008 has the band playing select shows and prepping the release of the new full-length Out of Africa, recorded with Melvins engineer Kurt Schlegel at his Lucky Cat Studio. Jello Biafra personally chased them down to secure the album’s release on Alternative Tentacles.