The Great Society Mind Destroyers | it

The Great Society Mind Destroyers are a psychedelic garage rock and roll group from Chicago, Illinois currently consisting of five members: Brett Borden - lead/rhythm guitars and vocals, Andrew Coltrane Kettering - rhythm/lead guitars and vocals, Will Sauceda - bass, Ralph Darski - drums and percussion, and Nick Kaminsky - tambourine. Formed during the winter of 2007 by Andrew Kettering, Brett Borden and Will Sauceda as an acoustic group with Mike Ortiz on drums and percussion, The Great Society Mind Destroyers began writing songs and traveling down many different side-streets before finally finding the electric rock & roll road they were looking for all along.

As an acoustic four-piece, the Great Society Mind Destroyers wrote most of their original numbers during the winter of '07-'08 such as God is a Misunderstanding, Weapons, Belonging, Mess, and If You Want to Save the World With Me as well as releasing a full length album entitled, Conversationalism, which was conceived as a sound collage experiment involving two tracks of dialogue and one track of improvised organic music. The music consists of the traditional bass guitar, acoustic guitar, and Casio keyboard with non-traditional percussion elements and other noise makers. Vocals are present but no melodic structure is included. Ultimately, the release became more of an exercise as the band continued forward in the creative process of developing and progressing within their music.

With strong desire to evolve into a full electric rock band and having no financial means of getting a practice space, they put together a small practice area in the back room of their current basement apartment with two small guitar amps, a small bass amp and an electric drum kit. This proved to be fruitless and was only used a few times due mostly to strong lack of sound quality, neighborly noise complaints, and a lack of space. In aggravation, they scheduled themselves to perform at an acoustic open mic at The Fixx coffee shop in Chicago on October 24, 2007 which Ortiz could not attend. This was The Great Society Mind Destroyers first public performance and their only acoustic open mic performance to date.

At this point, Mike was offered an opportunity to rejoin Company of Thieves (he had left the band less than a year before due to personal differences) and he jumped at the chance to play big venues and travel. We couldn't blame him, and wished him the best. We are still great friends. With the departure of Mike, the band decided to take a different direction as they developed a weekly routine jamming with some friends (Brendan Losch, Dan Culp of Theadore, Angelina Lucero of Paperplant, John Will Balsley, and Ian) in what was supposed to be an experiment in non-leadership free-form folk/blues/psych. Unfortunately the lack of structure and differing musical directions led to the disbanding of this collective as Will, Andrew and Brett grew anxious to fulfill their psychedelic dreams.

Further experimentation with psychedelic substances lead Borden, Sauceda and Kettering to create and record noise performances at their home in Logan Square, Chicago. In May of 2008, using both conventional and non-conventional instruments (i.e.: am/fm radio, desk fan, record player, pots and pans, etc.), the GSMD would move around the room at will, creating noise with anything they saw fit. This is how they recorded their second full-length lo-fi album with a three-sentence title: Purple Peace and Love. These Words are Your Grave. The Sky is a Mountain. Other sessions of experimentation with noise manipulation took place, but no other official releases were produced as the band were suddenly offered an opportunity to play at the Elbo Room in Chicago.

With two months to prepare for their first electric live performance, the group readied their electric musical gear and procured a temporary drummer (Brendan Losch). The group practiced in Andrew's family's suburban garage where they could turn up and transform the acoustic-based folk songs into bluesy-psych-garage rockers. (This is also the period when the jam "Ghost Dance" first developed as the band sought to express their psychedelic experiences). The Great Society Mind Destroyers performed at The Elbo Room in Chicago on August 17, 2008 and had fun doing it, having to skip one song entirely due to Brett breaking all of his guitar strings during Ghost Dance and eventually having to improvise with switch pedals; all of which, you can hear in the recordings.

About a month after the show, the group was anxious to play more gigs and posted an ad for a drummer specifically listing bands such as The Brian Jonestown Massacre, The Seeds, The West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band, The Stooges, The Black Angels and The 13th Floor Elevators as influences. Within a couple days, a man named Ralph Darski responded explaining that he was the lead singer and guitarist of another local rock band called Rabble Rabble and he was interested in drumming for the destroyers. After meeting and discussing details, The Great Society Mind Destroyers and Rabble Rabble eventually moved into a practice space together and began writing, practicing, jamming, partying and performing. After a few gigs done well, a soul-brother of the group, Nick Kaminsky (a.k.a. the Sea Green) booked a couple gigs in Chicago with The Great Society Mind Destroyers and Rabble Rabble and moved into their practice space adding Nick to the GSMD line-up on tambourine.

Currently, the band is performing monthly around the city of Chicago while writing and progressing the sound and expanding their community, their musical family, and their minds... .