Nitro von Borax: Vox, Bingo Borax: Gtr, Drano Borax: Gtr, Pogo Borax: Bass, Tempo Borax: Drm. Also, Wappeau Borax Keys N Backup Vox Also Butto Borax used to be on Drums, Also Njorg the Followed used to be on GTR But Borax is no more and so WEEP FOR ALL HUMANS
Spine-Shattering! Dreamy! Morbidly delicious! Raw! 200 Proof! Always pure industrial strength! Naughty! Just shy of coherence! Mind-fork! Help! It's Biting Me! All the circus animals love Borax. ALL TRUE PIRATES LOVE BORAX.
BORAX appeared in public for the first time in 1986, warming up for Rodent Kontrol at Sottini’s Sub Shoppe, and staggered thru the late 80’s and early 90’s, playing incessantly and to no avail at the Blind Pig, the Wobbly House Basement, The Heidelberg, the Fort Dewey Basement, St. Andrews, the I-Rock, the 4th Ave House Basement, Rick's (Ann Arbor), Jorge’s Living Room, The Hamtramck Pub, The Magic Stick (Detroit), Fred and Becky’s Wedding, Paychecks (Hamtramck), the Old Miami (Detroit), Scalici’s (Allen Park), the Green Room (Ypsilanti), More Basements, the Cross Street Station (Ypsilanti), a couple bars in Lansing, the North by Northeast Music Conference in Toronto, WCBN FM (Ann Arbor), More Bars, More Living Rooms… Borax came to a bloody end at the Ann Arbor Art Fair in 1996.
Initially known as Captain Borax and the Cleansers, the original lineup was: Drano Borax Guitars, Nitro Von Borax Vocals, Butto Borax a.k.a. Olive Oyl Drums, Wappo Borax a.k.a. Elvis Windex a.k.a. Elvis Angst Bass, Njorg the Followed a.k.a. Luke Skywalker a.k.a. Liquid Plumber Guitars.
Njorg casually drifted away after a couple of years, and was replaced by Bingo Borax on Guitars. More time went by, and Wappo ran off screaming to be replaced by Pogo Borax on Bass. Eventually, Butto couldn’t take it anymore and took off for California, to be replaced by Tempo Borax a.k.a. Chateau Borax on the drums. Dan Pettit was the soundman whenever possible, until he put some flowers in his hair and bailed out to San Francisco.
What was the music like? Borax specialized in busting up a groove. It was the auditory equivalent of being slapped repeatedly with a mackerel. it was an abomination, and audiences treated it as such. They would cluster in small groups, wincing and looking on with bemused embarrassment, as the band capered and minced around, hurling rubber eyeballs vindictively from the stage.
The stage show included a Robot Dog liberated from Chuck E. Cheeses’, an exotic dancer named Bobo Borax in a Rubber Lizard outfit, or breathing fire in goat legs, or painted green in just a spiked codpiece with raw chickens for gloves, breakaway bottles broken over heads, dry ice bombs, spurting corn syrup blood, an electric dryer containing broken glass and a bowling ball, the severed heads of various clowns, a cozy fake fireplace, uncountable tons of squeaky toys and Electric Pickles.
BORAX appeared on Shut Up and Take the Fifth, the legendary Michigan punk band compilation tape (thanx to J.B., bless his heart), then put out FUN PAK FROM HELL (1987), 34 songs on cassette in 1987, produced KRUNCHIES (1988) nine songs on cassette at White Rose Studios, then produced multiple demo tapes and abortive recording projects before launching the bloated retrospective studio monstrosity KINKY KRUNCHY PORNO MONKEY (1995), 24 songs on cd, on the Throbbing Cop Label.
BORAX also published a coloring book and a bible, and frequently made their own eyeballs from latex rubber or hand-painted ping-pong balls.
BORAX died screaming and spurting arterial blood into an indignant and appalled Art Fair crowd in July of 1996.
BORAX consistently attracted singular disinterest, and occasional outright hostility, from major labels.
BORAX is gone now, but sometimes at night, when the clown wind moans, you can still smell them...
