The Sound of Animals Fighting
By All Music Guide
By All Music Guide
Of course, in the age of the internet, no secrets stay that way for long. Its generally agreed that the leader of the Sound of Animals Fighting is singer and producer Rich Balling (the Nightingale), formerly of the southern California ska-punk act RX Bandits, and that 2005s The Tiger and the Duke was recorded by Balling in an unconventional manner that owes something to John Cages theory of indeterminacy and Frank Zappas late-era methods of mixing live recordings made in different times and places into a single piece of music. Supposedly, the album was recorded under Ballings supervision by placing musicians, one at a time, into the studio and having them improvise freely for a predetermined length of time without hearing any of the previously recorded instrumental tracks, all of which were eventually mixed into the completed album by Balling. Furthermore, the /Wikipedia and other online sources claim that Ballings fellow musicians on this album were fellow ex-RX Bandits members Matthew Embree (the Walrus) on guitar and Chris Tsagakis (the Lynx) on drums, Finchs Randy Strohmeyer (the Tiger) on guitar, and Derek Doherty (the Tortoise) on bass, with Matthew Kelly (the Llama) of the Autumns, Rich Zahniser (the Armadillo) of the Hippos, and Anthony Green (the Skunk) of Circa Survive on vocals, and Chris Fudurich (the Bear) on keyboards and programming. (The remaining six listed members were responsible for behind the scenes roles in recording, artwork and public relations.)
The collectives more accomplished second album, 2006s Lover, The Lord Has Left Us (Equal Vision), contains more structured elements alongside the free improvisation, including Karlheinz Stockhausen-inspired musique concrète, female Sanskrit singing, and passages of Italian opera. A slimmed down lineup includes Balling, Embree, Tsagakis, Green, Kelly, and two new singers, Keith Goodwin (the Penguin) of Days Away and Craig Owens (the Ram) of the Chiodos. Members of the group convened at the ~House of Blues in San Diego, Hollywood, Anaheim, and Las Vegas for four shows in late August that year for what were billed as the bands only live performances ever.
