Standing In Two Circles: The Collected Works of Boyd Rice [Paperback]

Boyd Rice (Author), Brian M. Clark (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 2, 2008

STANDING IN TWO CIRCLES is the first defintive and comprehensive compendium of the works of BOYD RICE, one of the most provocative and controversial underground figures of the post-punk era. A pioneering noise musician and countercultural maven, from the late 1970s to the present Rice has worked in an array of capacities, playing the roles of: musician, performer, artist, photographer, essayist, interviewer, editor, occult researcher, filmmaker, actor, orator, deejay, gallery curator and tiki bar designer, among others. First coming to prominence as an avant-garde audio experimentalist (recording under the moniker NON), Rice was a seminal founder of the first wave of industrial music in the late 1970s. In the 1980s, through collaborations with Re/Search Publications, Rice further established his position in underground with recountings of his uproarious pranks and the promotion of "incredibly strange" cult films and "industrial" culture. Rice's influence on subculture was further exerted through his vanguard exhibition of found photographs and readymade thrift store art, as well as his adamant endorsements of outsider music, tiki culture and bygone pop culture in general. Rice is also notorious for his public associations with nefarious figures both infamous and obscure, including friendships and ideological collusions with the likes of cult leader Charles Manson and Church Of Satan founder Anton LaVey, among others. His work continues to profoundly affect the countercultural underground at large, inspiring and enraging in equal measure. STANDING IN TWO CIRCLES contains: Essays 1986-2007 / Lyrics 1988-2007 / Art & Photography (38 plates) STANDING IN TWO CIRCLES also includes an extensive biography of Boyd Rice from the 1970s to the present, by the book's editor, Brian M Clark.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Boyd Rice was my mentor." -Marilyn Manson

"Boyd Rice is an iconoclast!" -Anton LaVey, Church of Satan

"Boyd Rice is a black pimp." -Charles Manson

About the Author

A pioneering noise musician and countercultural icon, from the late 1970s to the present Rice has worked in an array of capacities, playing the roles of: musician, performer, artist, photographer, essayist, interviewer, editor, occult researcher, filmmaker, actor, orator, deejay, gallery curator and tiki bar designer, among others. First coming to prominence as an avant-garde audio experimentalist (recording under the moniker NON), Rice was a seminal founder of the first wave of industrial music in the late 1970s. His work continues to profoundly affect the countercultural underground.

Brian M. Clark has authored articles and conducted interviews for a number of publications such as International Living, Modern Drunkard Magazine and Rated Rookie, as well as several others. He has also penned the liner notes to two retrospective musical anthologies: Ralph Gean's The Amazing Story Of Ralph Gean and NON's Terra Incognita: Ambient Works. This is his first book.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 288 pages
• Publisher: Creation (October 2, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1840681187
• ISBN-13: 978-1840681185
• Product Dimensions: 10 x 7 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,072,621 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Manson's blurb sums it up perfectly-- Boyd Rice IS a black pimp!, June 26, 2009

By 

Robert P. Beveridge "xterminal" (Lakewood, OH) - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Standing In Two Circles: The Collected Works of Boyd Rice (Paperback)

Boyd Rice, Standing in Two Circles: The Collected Writings of Boyd Rice (Creation, 2008)

For over thirty years, Boyd Rice has been one of music's most enduring enigmas. Ignored by most, despised by almost all the rest, and entirely uncaring, Rice has been pranking the music industry and its end-users for years, releasing albums of harsh, unlistenable loops that I'm not entirely sure anyone is actually supposed to enjoy. (Adam Parfrey, the head of Feral House books, declaims on Rice's music that the majority will loathe it, but for the sect few it is pure balm for the soul; this is as perfect a description of Rice's music as I've ever heard, and I can't add anything to it.) All the while, he's also been researching the philosophies and events that lie behind the music, and as a result has learned a great deal about a great many things. It would be a natural for someone with that much stored-up knowledge to become an essayist, along with everything else that he is. A number of Rice's essays have seen print, including a large number in Re/Search Publications' excellent books Pranks! and Incredibly Strange Films (Rice was the architect of both books, in fact), but a number of others have only seen print in magazines with minuscule runs, or never got published at all; a number of those essays are collected here, along with an extensive section of Rice's photographic work and an end section of lyrics to some of Rice's albums, both as a solo performer and under the NON moniker.

One of the things about reading work written by a lifelong prankster is that you can never quite be sure when Rice is yanking your chain. Given the number of essays collected her,e it does become a bit easier; there are subtle changes in tone that can tip the astute reader off. (Of course, some of them are more obvious than others, and some are just outright hilarious. That said, it's worth watching out; it's when we're laughing the hardest that the raconteur often slips in his most potent messages.) Rice's interests over the years have been eclectic and wide-ranging; we get an account of Rice's regular meetings with Charles Manson over a short period of time, deconstructions of Nazism and Monism, paeans to various types of alcohol, travelogues of Eastern Europe, an appreciation of Mondo Cane, and much, much more.

Like his music (and recent film work), Boyd Rice's essays are not for everyone. In fact, they're not for many. But in the written word, Rice is more accessible than in any other format, and it's possible that reading some of the thoughts behind the music may endear the music itself to some who wouldn't normally appreciate it. And one of my goals in life has always been the bringing of noise to a wider audience, no matter how much they hate it. (In fact, the more they hate it, the more determined I am.) Another tool to use in the service of that goal, especially one as intelligent as this one, couldn't be more welcome. ****

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Put This High on Your List, October 1, 2008

By 

5ElIX (San Jose California) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Standing In Two Circles: The Collected Works of Boyd Rice (Paperback)

"Standing in Two Circles" is a survey of the writings, lyrics and art of Boyd Rice. Surrealist. Realist. Social Darwinist. Dadaist. Satanist. Vanguard Activist. Philosopher. Pioneer of Aesthetic Martial Terrorism. There's lots of fun stuff and food for thought in the ~35 writings.

Rice and editor Clark have included writings on the topics of: individuation, causes of social decay, mass de-evolution, drinking, extreme budget travelling, film, remembrances of forgotten friends and soap fads of the 1960s. These enlightening essays and musings come from the untoward pen of Rice. To the Rice enthusiast, the several previously unpublished writings are a delight.

The writings are sandwiched between the first complete Boyd Rice biography, penned by the capable editor Brian M. Clark, and a catalogue raisonne of Rice's photography. His photography ranges from the sort of Duchamp context-twisting in the "Documentary photographs" to an appetizing blend of eroticism and Man Ray in the "Erotic and "Things that Don't Exist" photos. Perceptual psychedelia is the overriding theme in his paintings.

And if you're like me and wondered about the wildly divergent lyrics of Boyd Rice's audio-recorded works, the sources are given in the last section of the book.

There is nothing beneath excellent about the inclusions of this work. Outside of Clark and Rice's control, perhaps it would have been great to see more of the "Found Photographs" exhibit.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars 20 Years Later, September 19, 2008

By 

Absinthe Drinker "Bad Bob" (DenCo) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Standing In Two Circles: The Collected Works of Boyd Rice (Paperback)

This book is a very solid presentation of Boyd Rice's career. More than 20 years worth of essays, artworks, photographs and song lyrics, all compiled in a single volume. It contains Rice's views on everything from philosophy, the occult and the nature of God, to his take on outsider music, tiki bars, pop culture and the art of drinking. Also featured is a photo-illustrated biography of Rice by the book's editor, which manages to be brief enough to serve as an introduction to the anthology, and yet still thorough enough to cover all the bases of Rice's multifaceted and difficult to pigeonhole career. The first of its kind (and long overdue), STANDING IN TWO CIRCLES will appeal to both the serious Boyd Rice fan and curious reader alike.