Wheelchairs For The Blind
Wheelchairs for the Blind are a noisecore band from England known for their offensive over-the-top song titles & lyrics and their vast release back catalog.
Contents
Biography
Wheelchairs for the Blind originated as a noisecore group, rumoured to have formed in 2004 in Gloucestershire, England. It is said the band members wished to play live at a school battle of the bands, and for a joke would turn up in masks and play nothing but random noise and screaming in order to piss off their teachers. Whilst they never got around to playing at school, the original idea has stuck with them for their whole career. It is not known how many actual band members are in the band, but their original lineup had 4 members under the pseudynms of Jesus Pimpmobile Jones (credited as playing lead guitar and bass), Giles Gillingham (credited as playing rhythm guitar and carkeys), Sir Horatio Nobwallace (credited as playing drums and machine guns) and Paul Brown (credited as their vocalist). It is rumoured on their website and in song titles starting around the time of their album “Permanent Periods & Infinite Hangovers” that Paul Brown has either died or just left the band. Around spring in 2008, three new members were credited to their lineup including Dr Michael Cancer, Marcus Tannenbaum and Francis Spoogeworthy (although their contributions to the band are not credited), whilst Paul Brown was not credited on further releases, but often mentioned in song titles. The band wear cheap masks when they play live and often have different amounts of people in the band lineup, rumoured to have ranged from 2 to 7 people, although live shows are often one off events in very small venues, usually to a few friends of the band.
Wheelchairs for the Blind self released their first album, “Oral Twat” in 2005. In the linear notes it states that there was a demo version of the album made in 2004, but all of the recordings were lost, so the finished album is actually a re-recording. Most of the songs fit into the grindcore and noisecore styles with harshly screamed vocals, although there is also an e-bow instrumental and an acoustic track. The sound is akin to lo-fi home recording. Wheelchairs for the Blind claim to have improvised almost all of their songs on the spot. They self released their second album “Cunt Vomit” in 2007, which was followed by many closely released EP’s and albums sticking mostly to the grindcore and noisecore sound.
By the time of their fourth studio release, Wheelchairs for the Blind started experimenting with a new style which they dubbed snuffcore (as written on the album cover for “It’s Like Trying to Work Out the Square Root of Pi In Your Head”). This style featured very long songs, ranging from 15-60 minutes that were made of mutliple other songs layered on top of each other and looped to create a nausiating wall of sound. The idea of snuffcore is that it should be near impossible to listen to all the way through.
The band carried on experimenting with the structure of their albums, and after releasing a 60 minute album featuring only 2 tracks, they made a 10 minute album consisting of 100 tracks, each under 10 seconds long. This album was 2008’s “Permanent Periods & Infinite Hangovers”, which combined short blasts of noisecore and grindcore with samples from TV shows and films such as The Naked Gun, Twin Peaks, Family Guy and The Simpsons. The album was favourably compared to Agoraphobic Nosebleed’s “Altered States of America” as well as the works of Anal Cunt. They then followed this album with an acoustic only album, adding clean vocals, keyboards and sampled drumbeats into their sound. Although still improvised on the spot, these songs tended to be structured formally and even had proper time signatures. The album also included their own takes on popular songs by Oasis, Nirvana, Pussycat Dolls and Metallica. Their next album was a covers album, but done in their unique style of noisecore. Again they chose to cover popular bands ranging from REM to Slayer, although some of the songs intentionally sounded nothing like the originals. They then released an instrumental ambient album titled “Disco for Amputees”. The band are currently taking a short break but have announced they have ideas rolling for a new album.
The identities of the band members have ultimately remained anonymous to the public, aside from close friends and listeners of the band. Members of the The Rotten Ronnies and The Great Dane Abortion Society have cited the band as an influence. They have released split EP’s with Canadian Doom/Grind band Saskatchewan, as well as Irish band The Rotten Ronnies, and a split with Welsh band The Great Dance Abortion Society has been rumoured. WFTB often record many albums and EP’s in a year and have said they plan to make 26 studio albums, one for each letter in the alphabet, and then retire. Although the band’s song titles and album covers are often highly offensive, as well as their music and lyrics often being described as chaotic and aggressive, the band members claim to be influenced by Christianity. They are said to be environmentalists who often give to charity and offer advice to victims of any kinds of abuse. Their self confessed goal is to create peace on Earth, through music about rape, murder, incest, and beastiality.
Band Members
- Paul Brown - Vocals (2004-2007)
- Giles Gillingham - Guitars, Additional percussion such as carkeys
- Jesus Pimpmobile Jones - Bass, electric and acoustic guitars, E-Bow.
- Sir Horatio Nobwallace - Drums and Percussion
- Francis Spoogeworthy - Rhythm Guitar (2008-present)
- Dr Michael Cancer - Vocals (2008-present)
- Lord Reginald Drinkleton - Keyboards
Discography
Albums
- Oral Twat (2005)
- Cunt Vomit (2007)
- Anti-Music, Anti-Everything... All the Time! (2007)
- It's Like Trying to Work Out the Square Root of Pi In Your Head (2007)
- Permanent Periods & Infinite Hangovers (2008)
- Xylophone Buggery & Other Romantic Ballads (2008)
- Now Is the Wheelchair of Our Discontent (2008)
- Disco For Amputees (2008)
- Slay Ride (2008)
Singles & EPs
- You Own A Car Single (2007)
- You Asked Me The Time So I Stole Your Wallet Single (2007)
- The Shortest EP I Ever Did See EP (2007)
- Step One: We Void Our Bowels & Record It Onto a CD. Step Two: We Become Huge In Japan! EP (2007)
- Racist In a Cemetary (Part One) Maxi Single (2007)
- Racist In a Cemetary (Part Two) Maxi Single (2007)
- I Came In Your Beard & You Didn't Notice For Seven Days EP (2007)
Split Releases
- Wheelchairs for the Ronnies split EP with The Rotten Ronnies (2007)
- Splitting Headaches split EP with Saskatchewan (2007)
- Songs About Abortion & Retro Gaming split EP with The Great Dane Abortion Society (2008)
Compilations & Special Editions
- Oral Twat (Bonus Track Edition) (2006)
- Cunt Vomit (Christmas Edition) (2007)
- Best of the Blind: 2004 - 2009 (2009)
