Editor’s Note: This article originally appeared in Mole magazine.
By Angelo Diablo, with Quayle Smithers
1983 Alzo Boszormenyi was restless and bored. Punk and new wave music had become caricatures of themselves, and the young Hungarian immigrant had trouble finding music that accurately expressed his inner turmoil. He began searching for new outlets of expression. One such outlet was a late-night program on Virginia Tech’s college radio station (WUVT, Blacksburg, VA) called “Infinite Entropy.” “I felt that radio was too boring, so I yelled into the microphone. It felt good.” Alzo explained. The show quickly acquired a cult following. In between the recordings of pygmy yodeling and biker poems. Alzo would describe his bowel movements, share a recipe from a friend, or sound off on a range of topics that included mind control, mercy killing, and mating. No one knew it then. but these themes would become staples of his later work. Fans reportedly included G. Gordon Liddy, Morton Downey, Jr .. and Wesley Alan Dodd. Tapes of these legendary shows are prized by collectors and are traded widely. Try to find 10/14/93 or 3/10/84 for a good representation of this period.
1984 By the fall of 1984, “Infinite Entropy” had gained enough of an audience to support a few live appearances in Blacksburg by Alzo as “The Infinite Entropy Guy.” These early gigs were tentative forays into areas that Alzo would later explore more fully: performance art. coffeehouse poetry, tribal chanting. and topical commentary. These gigs were well-attended and “Infinite Entropy” graffiti began appearing around Blacksburg for the first time.
1985 January saw the release of Alzo’s first single. “Ice.” Recorded by Alzo and friends under the moniker of Factory, this piece of plastic is virtually impossible to find nowadays. It somehow manages, over the course of three and a half minutes, to anticipate both the rap movement and the use of the band saw in popular music. The song spawned legions of imitators (many of whom would later work as Boszermenyi sidemen) to rush to radio production studios with a stack of silly LPs and half-baked ideas. “Ice” also marked Alzo’s first association with local scenesters Ralph Wiley and David Craig, who would later help shape the now-familiar “Blacksburg sound.” Thus Alzo Boszormenyi’s Acid Army was born.
1986 Willard joined Alzo on bass while Jay Harlow and Alzo’s brother Enzo joined on guitar and drums, respectively. French horn and trumpet player Finn McCool claimed he was tricked into joining: “I thought I was joining a spacemusic band.” The sound was occasionally spacey, but it was more likely to be jarring or apocalyptic.
The story of why Alzo formed The Army has been told before, but is included here for the sake of completeness.”! was watching TV late one night,” Alzo recalled. “and I thought I noticed movement behind the static on the screen. There were people back there’ A whole race of Blue People bent on the destruction of modern civilization as we know it!” While Alzo’s theory has been maligned in some quarters, who’s to say that TV isn’t evil? Who’s to say that TV doesn’t have control over us? Who’s to say our civilization isn’t in decay? All Alzo asks is that we think about it. The song “Among the Blue People” became a late night favorite on radio. Its eerie tale of a land beyond the TV screen full of missing people came to life with some spooky, Miles Davis-inspired musings by Finn McCool on trumpet. Two singles were released this year: the off-beat “Ou’unch and Roll.” recorded by Alzo Boszormenyi and the Tramp Walk (Alzo, Enzo. and Sal Amoniac of The Rex Morgan M.D. Trio, Infant Mort, et al)), and “Black Diamond Sidewinder,” the latter being the title song from Alzo’s film project “At the Black Diamond” and recorded by the Acid Army. While the film received mixed reviews, the single gained enough airplay to manage a respectable showing in the college charts.
1987 A residency at the Nut House soon ensued and personnel changes followed. The addition of Joey the Boo on violin sweetened the sometimes dense sound. During one early basement show, drummer Enzo got mad that George had forgotten the music to one of their numbers and left during the middle of the show. Undaunted, Alzo and the band continued to play, even picking up a few new members by the end of the set. One was a bearded wanderer in sandals and backpack who turned out to be quite the virtuoso on a piece of sheet metal. He eventually left also, however, due to his roving nature. As for Enzo: like the son9. says, “Oh, but he was back by June, singing a different tune.’ The Army was back in full force. The highlight of the year for many was their triumphant final gig at Eheart Street. chronicled on the “Live at Eheart Street’ album, released later that year as part of the growing Nut Music catalog. The band is loose and swinging on this date. and Alzo is in top form, babbling, raving and generally inciting the audience to greater heights of reverence and awe. An ad lib rant linking Star Trek to the drug counter-culture highlights this sparkling set and is still talked about today.
1988 With the graduation of most of the Army from school, Alzo sought out new musicians to form Wearing Gasmask Making Love (WGML). The line-up included the ubiquitous Enzo on drums. percussion and mood lighting, along with brothers Bobo and Rudolph. Technical assistance was provided by Ivan lsaki. There are numerous myths surrounding this band, including one fabled all-night jam with an Indian tabla player in an outdoor amphitheater. There are people who swear that they were there and experienced the whole thing, while others, including Alzo, insist it never happened. Another myth concerns their “Live in Paris” album. This story, according to Alzo. has been blown out of proportion. It is in fact an attempt to send a live performance to Paris by bouncing it off a passing satellite. Whatever the real story behind this recording, no one can deny its passion or zeitgeist. With its pounding drums and penetrating vocals, “Live in Paris” holds the listener spellbound with its account of the lizards’ rise from the swamp. Another hotly disputed WGML topic is whether or not Enzo’s muzique concrete classic “Barnabas” should rightfully be called a WGML product. Is Alzo on it or not? You be the judge.
1989 While the Acid Army was officially disbanded, Nut Music posthumously released “The Lost Sessions” this year. It contained many previously unheard performances, including tirades about professional wrestling nightclub performers and the classic “Where’s Amal?” Perhaps inspired by this release. several original members of the Army got back together for a New Year’s Eve jam/party, hosted by Nut All-star Sal Amoniac. Only bootlegs exist of this historic reunion, and we have no idea how to get them.
1990 The success of 1989s reunion prompted another New Year’s Eve reunion the following year. This time, Nut Music, in conjunction with Mr. Fondle (currently with Cornzone Productions), obtained the rights to record the festivities and the result was Alzo Boszormenyi’s Rex Ego Army’s “I’m Your Hardcore Daddy!” An unmitigated masterpiece by most standards, this recording set new criteria for compositional involvement. A cold-blooded tale about a serial killer, fun with Natalie Merchant fetishes, and a rap about sex jazz round out this stand-out recording. Something for everyone here: rap, jazz, hardcore, and swordfish.
1991 The rebirth of The Acid Army in the 90s continued with the formation of Alzo Boszormenyi’s Acid Achievers, which featured original members Finn McCool and George Willard, along with Rex Morgan alumnus Sal Amoniac. This line-up issued the critically acclaimed “L 14” album and the “Live in the Suburbs: I’m Gonna Kick Your Ass” EP. These are the sessions that inspired musicologists to christen a new term for the band’s musical innovations: terminal improv. Anticipating the widespread focus on sexual harassment, the “Professor Sex Song” caused quite a stir upon its release on “L 14.” Meanwhile. “Goal as Reality” crossed new musical boundaries and, with it’s rousing chorus of “Fuck the Homeowners Association,” ended up creating a new genre: the folk/rap/protest song.
1992 There were two particularly memorable gigs for Alzo and the Acid Achievers this year. One gig in Washington, DC (at a showcase sponsored by the now-defunct monthly newspaper, Whack. found Alzo throwing free cigarettes to a surprised crowd who either did not understand the gesture or had suddenly gone smoke-free. Audience members were attracted from all corners of the labyrinthine club by the word-of-mouth that the band was “weanng masks.” Later in the year, the band triumphantly returned to Blacksburg for a gala Halloween show with up-and-comers Milk Badger and the cowboy karaoke band True and True. Spirits were high and the energy carried over to the crowd. A few fights broke out, but luckily they were only between band members. The line-up for this date included Ralph Wiley on drums and Tony R. Boies (famous for his work in The Someday People) on moog synthesizer and leopard skin g-string. Unfortunately, this is a configuration we may never see again. An “unplugged” version of the Acid Achievers also appeared live on the Mole Radio show ( on cable access radio station WCXS, Fairfax, VA) a couple times, previewing new material and exploring Alzo’s new obsessions with “reading Nietzsche on a Saturday night” and a particular “fat girl from Alabama.”
1993 What do the rest of the 90s bold in store for Alzo and his merry band? Although new recording dates have been promised, there are no firm plans thus far, but a few long-discussed projects may surface. These include a proposed Alzo boxed set, an illustrated book of Alzo lyrics, and an Alzo tribute album. Alzo’s influence is far-reaching and has only just begun to be felt. Thom Kelley (aka Thom the Street Poet) of Melbourne, Australia noted the similarities between his and Alzo’s work: “People also don’t realize I have ten years of work out there either.” No one is quite sure how Alzo will mark the tenth anniversary of his arrival on the underground scene, but he has written loads of new material and his brain doesn’t seem to want to stop working. This stuff just has to get out…