Red Wedding
メンバー: John Tagliavia, Marc O, Michael Ely, Spider Taylor, Warren Mansfield
Michael Ely and Spider Taylor have been living together as a gay couple since 1971. In 1979 Michael and Spider founded the L.A. punk band Hey Taxi (1979-80).
In 1981 they founded L.A.’s first openly gay alternative rock band Red Wedding (although both of the band’s drummers and their second bass player were not gay). Red Wedding first gained notoriety as the “house-band” at the Brave Dog (a small downtown underground club, the birthplace of many up and coming underground and alternative artists) and helped launch the first Theoretical Party (a series of Sunday afternoon parties featuring many of L.A.’s finest alternative bands and performance artists of the 1980’s). The band headlined shows at all of the top clubs in both L.A. and San Diego and shared bills with many other notable bands such as Killing Joke, Romeo Void, Bow Wow Wow, Red Hot Chili Peppers, X, The Gun Club, Fibonaccis, The Bangles, Specimen, 45 Grave, … amoung many others. They released two EP albums Up And Down The Aisle in 1982 and Nails in 1984) on local labels and one of their tracks appeared on the difficult to findRadio Tokyo Tapes, Volume Two compilation album, however the open sexuality and flamboyant stage antics of the band was considered too controversial back then to be signed by any major label.
After moving from California to Tucson, AZ and retiring from music for nearly 17 years, Michael and Spider returned to the scene as Smoke & Mirrors, releasing three CDs of ambient / exotica / rock inspired soundscapes on Aural Fixation Records entitled The Perfume of Creosote: Desert Exotica Part 1, Deities and White Roses Painted Red. As of late 2006, Michael and Spider are now using their own names Michael and Spider and are in the process of recording a fourth CD entitled Iridescent Garden slated to be released on Aural Fixation Records in the Spring of 2007.