Gary Panter

Gary Panter was born in Durant, Oklahoma, and grew up in Brownsville and Sulphur Springs, Texas.
a painter, commercial artist, and designer as well as cartoonist, he is the recipient of two Emmy Awards for his setdesigns for "Pee-Wee's Playhouse". His work has been exhibited in Japan, Sweden, Spain and France and in galleries across America. He was one of the earliest contributors to "Slash", and his work has appeared in "Time", "New York", "Rolling Stone", "Raw", "Spin", and many other newspapers and magazines."

Around 1979 Warner Brothers asked him to do a couple of covers for Frank Zappa albums.
Gary Panter also recorded with the Residents.

Frank Zappa appears in Gary Panter's graphic novel "Jimbo in Purgatory". The book also includes a (one-page) list and drawings of Gary Panter's favourite vinyl recordings. It includes The Mothers Of Invention with "Uncle Meat", Captain Beefheart's "Clear Spot", an Edgar Varèse album, The Fugs, Pink Floyd, and more gems.

"Jimbo's Inferno", another graphic novel, and part two of Jimbo's adventures, also includes another (one-page) list & drawings of Gary Panter's thirty-three 'best loved vinyl recordings'. The list includes Zappa's "Lumpy Gravy", Captain Beefheart's "The Spotlight Kid" and The Residents' "Duck Stab", just to name a few.



Pray For Smurph (1983)

A1 Tornader To The Tater 3:07
A2 I Fought The Lord 3:41
A3 Alice The Goon 3:29
A4 Italian Sunglass Movie 2:52
A5 Empty Mansions 3:30
A6 Fountain 0:40
B1 Oakie Oktober 4:00
B2 Roy & Dale 2:25
B3 Jesus Says 3:04
B4 Birf Of Smurph 2:36
B5 Pray For Smurph 4:37

Artwork By [Cover & Insert Artwork] - Gary Panter
Bass - Phillip Randal* (tracks: A2, B2, B3, B5) , Ray Ohara (tracks: B2)
Drums - Fudgehead (tracks: B4)
Drums, Piano, Vocals [Yells] - K. K. (tracks: A2, A5, B1, B2, B3)
Drums, Viola, Vibraphone, Other [Bowed Metal] - Joe Berardi* (tracks: A2, A5, B2, B3, B5)
Guitar, Vocals - Gary Panter (tracks: All)
Keyboards [Secret], Other [Secret] - Residents, The (tracks: A1, A4)
Piano, Synthesizer, Vocals [Laugh] - Ian McLagan (tracks: A5, B2)
Producer - Philip Randal (tracks: A2, A5, A6, B2-5) , Residents, The (tracks: A1, A4)
Synthesizer, Bass [Pedal] - Garrett Parks (tracks: A2, A5, B5)

Overheat Communications in Tokyo originally issued Gary's LP in 1983. Now Overheat has just rereleased Pray For Smurph on CD with booklet and special collector's FREAK FLAG! The music is irreverent, psychedelic, swampy and a little country. Gary plays guitar and yelps and is accompanied by Ian McLagan, the Residents, Phil Culp, KK, Joe Berardi and many other fine musicians and audio technicians.



Tornado To The Tater 7"






One Hell Soundwich


In 1989, he worked with Jay Cotton in the recording of a limited picture disc edited by his british alter-ego and almighty Savage Pencil/Edwin Pouncey and published by Blast First : "One Hell Soundwich", includes a "Sex Pistols' God Save the Queen" cover.
This two delicious experimental rock recordings, for Panter fans or lovers of The Residents, ripped by Rain, and zipped with HQ scans. Thanx Alice!






D/L Drawings


SECONDS: What else do you listen to?

PANTER: I like Beefheart. Right now, I'm listening to Nurse With Wound, 60s stuff, and 80s Virgin Prunes stuff. I get a lot of the records I never had before in garage sales. I just got a Jethro Tull record.

SECONDS: For a dollar, right?

PANTER: Yeah. In perfect shape. And I just got the soundtrack to The Bible by some Japanese composer. It's little bit like a Godzilla soundtrack. And I make radio tapes where I just take little bits off the radio - listen to clips of ten seconds of a song and a commercial and listen to it a thousand times, and get rid of things and add things in. I like Negativland and Eugene Chadbourne. Psychedelic and neo-Psychedelic and Concrete music, Electronic music.

SECONDS: You play music yourself?

PANTER: Yeah, I play in a retarded kind of way.

SECONDS: You've done a couple of records.

PANTER: I had the opportunity to put out some records. The music I have out isn't schooled or anything. I would make up these songs in my room and then I'd get a chance to go into a studio and record them. The first time I would ever hear them would be when it was going on tape. It was very amateurish and weird. It goes along with the roughness of my other work. I shouldn't really be putting out records anyway.

SECONDS: Why's that?

PANTER: I just think it's embarrassing to put out half-assed dopey records. Anyway, I enjoy doing it. I love doing the package stuff. Some people even like them occasionally.

SECONDS: You were hooked up with The Residents for a while. The Ralph Records ads used to scare the pants off me. It was as if there was some retarded guy they kept in the basement.

PANTER: They did have a retarded friend who's left-handed, can't quite put things together in the right way, and not really trying that hard to make it. I've always been interested in creepy stuff since Famous Monsters Of Filmland and monster movies. I remember seeing an ad in the paper for The Land Unknown and making my parents let me go see it when I was six. It was a double feature with The Curse of Frankenstein and I just remember having the shit scared out of me.

Bio