My concept of “infotoxin” first appeared in the form of a “post-industrial techno-rap song” recorded in Atlanta GA in May of 1

My concept of “infotoxin” first appeared in the form of a “post-industrial techno-rap song” recorded in Atlanta GA in May of 1985. I decided to use the name “The Brink” for myself in musical form. This is my first multi-track recording; I did the drum programming (using the then-new Drumulator with John Bonham kick-sample!) and played Prophet 5 and Strat, as well as vocals. Rick Chapman, at whose studio we did the song, contributed lead guitar. This song was inspired by the vibe in the air in those days, when the Reagan administration was threatening to nuke the “evil Godless Communists” in Russia, as well as by the rise of MTV, represented by bands like REM. “Infotoxin” got airplay on maybe a dozen college radio stations around America, and not only brought me face to face with Frank Zappa at the KPFA studio in Berkeley, but also brought me to the attention of the embryonic Widespread Panic trio of John Bell, Mike Houser and Dave Schools, who invited me to play with them. This show, in June of 1985, was the first recorded Widespread Panic show.

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INFOTOXIN (1985)

Oh! The meaning of the lyric is the sound of the word

But the message of this song though isn’t totally absurd.

Recording all those albums now, videos, too…

It’s really quite enough,I think…don’t you?

CHORUS: Infotoxin! Flooding all our senses…

Living out of present now. Past and future tenses…

Infotoxin! Certainly a crime…

Total mediocrity…but not mine!

Maximum confusion, the spread of every vice,

Death of Mother Nature now, you’d better think twice…

Before you buy that new car or that color tv,

Think of what you’re doing, how you spend your energy!

CHORUS

Now it’s rather hard to justify the great expense it takes

To speak to you this way my friends, recorded songs to make.

I see it only as a way to communicate, to share

Some thoughts, a little critical jest, on problems everywhere…

CHORUS

Consuming Earth’s resources, increase in profit-sales,

Selling things that no one needs but no one can rebel

Against the exploitation games that keep us all apart:

Everyone I know it seems is a player from the start in

CHORUS

Oh! Personal computers, the video display,

Chocolate cheesecake ice-cream, physical decay!

Corporate-product business machine,

Will we ever really know what we really, really mean?

CHORUS

If you think politicians will our problems all resolve

You’d as soon believe the Earth does not around the sun revolve.

The answers lie in us, my friends…WE and THEY and YOU,

The lives we have, the LIFE we share is made by US, it’s true…

So watch out for…

For more music click on pictures of Einstein and Hendrix