Gene Defcon is your typical, everyday, average mega-genius. In the mornings he wakes to a pre-recorded loop of math equations set to the soaring sounds of Mozart. Around 11 AM he watches a videocassette of the movie “Baby Geniuses” and chews on dried fruit and exotic nuts. At noon he dons his hawk glove and stands outside his apartment waiting for a trained hawk to roost on his outstretched arm. By 1 PM he is busy composing letters to heads of state and prominent athletes. Around 2 he races around the block in a modified ice cream truck selling “energy drinks” to neighborhood children to avoid suspicion from unidentified pro-capitalist entities. About 3 PM or so, Gene power lunches with various cosmetics models and architects to discuss city beautification ideas. At 4 he retreats to his studio and crank calls random people in third world countries where they don’t have caller ID yet. Around 8 he starts working on writing music. Around 8:15 he heads downtown to take in a bit of nightlife. At 9:30 he catches a late supper and passion play at the local church. By 10:20 he is MCing numbers at the local bingo hall for powerful local community members using a sophisticated system of “Bingometrics” to relay important sensitive information. At midnight he catches a set by up and coming musical talent at the local junior high teen center. My two he is at the bar catching a quick drink before last call to wind down. He is usually asleep by 2:45 AM.
The Gene Defcon story began in Austin, TX, where Gene founded his first band, the Prima Donnas. He took the name Otto Matik and the group members all adopted British personas to complement their all-keyboard queer-tinged punk assault. In 1995 in Texas, you could still get beat up for this. The Prima Donnas toured across the country with the Peechees and Emily’s Sassy Lime and released records on Austin’s Peek-A-Boo Records. In 1998, the band decided to move to San Francisco, but for some reason Gene ended up in Olympia, WA instead.
Gene began teaching himself how to play instruments and started releasing his own home-recorded solo cassettes. Soon, friends from Bikini Kill, Mocket, Tight Bros from Way Back When, and Bangs joined in to back him up live. The full band recorded singles for Lookout! and K Records and toured across the country with Bratmobile. K also released the first Gene Defcon full-length, Come Party With Me 2000.
Gene returned to native Texas to work for his father in the family business: private investigations. Gene saved up big bucks as a P.I. and settled down in Austin once again where he wrote and recorded the 46 songs that would eventually coalesce into Throw Up And Die (as well as 46 more which will one day be released as The Worst of Gene Defcon, 2000-2005). He also formed a new side-project band, the Old-Timerz, described by many as “a bad Herman’s Hermits.” Old-Timerz songs as well as a couple of Gene Defcon songs also appear on the new Business Deal Top 40 CD, out on Gene’s own label/arts collective Business Deal.
releases
videos
upcoming shows
No shows booked at the moment.
