Carnival Art

The slightly bent guitar rock of L.A.'s Carnival Art took its lessons from the demented Pixies. Consisting of Michael P. Tak (vocals, guitar), Ed (guitar, vocals), Brian Bell (bass, vocals), and Keith Fallis (drums), Carnival Art released their debut LP, Thrumdrone, in 1991. Signed to Beggars Banquet, Carnival Art weren't heavy metal enough to jump on the grunge bandwagon in the early ‘90s, and they were too weird to for pop audiences; caught in limbo, the band recorded two albums of off-kilter alternative music that were ignored and then faded into obscurity. Carnival Art broke up soon after their second full-length, Welcome to Vas Llegas, and a subsequent EP, Blue Food and Black Sparks. A cover of "Cold Ethyl" appeared on an Alice Cooper tribute CD a year later, but Bell had already formed his own group, the Spacetwins, by then; he later joined Weezer. In 1994, Tak recorded Pretty Little Lonely as Michael Petak.