Biography
The origins of this inventive San Francisco pop ensemble trace back to the imagination of Andrew Goldfarb, a writer, musician, and visual artist whose output carries a strong theatrical and romantic charge. While traveling through Paris in 1996, Goldfarb—who had earlier played in the eccentric indie group Caroliner—came upon Charles MacKay’s 1841 book Memoirs of Extraordinary Delusions and the Madness of Crowds. One chapter in particular, “The Slow Poisoners,” held his attention with its account of a robust British aristocrat slowly killed by two scheming adversaries over six months. The story’s quietly sinister atmosphere remained with him, leading him to enlist his older brother Ed in making the album Great Spiders and Diamond Powder, whose sound conjures monster-filled seas and jungles as well as pale European dandies sipping sherry inside an antique dirigible. The record draws on a roster of Bay Area players to display Goldfarb’s polished songcraft and off-kilter lyrics alongside Ed’s taste for classical arrangements. The Slow Poisoners soon stabilized as a performing unit with Goldfarb on vocals and guitar, cellist Mica Pollock, bassist Tim Plicka, and drummer Dan Agrella. After Pollock departed, guitarist and keyboardist Rich Trott joined. Goldfarb’s reputation rests on his singular approach to performance and stage design, whether freeing himself from a straitjacket or filling venues with bubbles released from a giant papier-mâché head. He has also pursued activism; in 2000 he and Trott walked through San Francisco’s City Hall wearing only flyers stripped from telephone poles to demand unrestricted advertising. Later that year Christopher Webber replaced Plicka on bass.
Albums
