Livesexact

In the mid-nineties, Boston-based Livesexact formed among longtime college friends Freedom Baird, Alex Westner, and Stefan Agamanolis. All three were enrolled in graduate programs at MIT when the MIT Council for the Arts awarded them funding to build a set of unconventional MIDI instruments. The musicians fulfilled the commission and went further, assembling a band that relied on stuffed-animal drums and astro-turf loop arrangements. Through these tools they shaped a punk-pop aesthetic that drew steady audiences in Boston and its surrounding communities. In 1999 the group entered the studio to cut an album. The following eighteen months were spent shuttling between Vienna, Austria, and Cambridge while exchanging ideas and refining their sound. Upsetting Remedy finally appeared in late 2001. By then Agamanolis had exited, so Scott Schmitt and Amy Dattilo assumed lead vocal responsibilities. Martin Atkins (Pigface, Killing Joke, Ministry) took note of the band and reworked their song “You Must Get Down” for the 2001 Boston compilation Notes From Thee Real Underground. One year later Livesexact released the mix collection Segmented Purity.