Band of Susans is a band formed in New York in 1986 by Robert Poss (guitar/vocals), Susan Stenger (bass/vocals) and Ron Spitzer (drums) with Susan Lyall (guitar), Susan Tallman (guitar) and Alva Rogers (vocals).
Taking their name from the number of Susans in the line up, Band of Susans released one EP - Blessing and Curse - on Poss's own Trace Elements label before being signed to Mute Records's Blast First imprint for their first album Hope Against Hope. After the release, Rogers, Lyall and Tallman quit to be replaced by Karen Haglof (guitar) and Page Hamilton (guitar). After a second album Love Agenda and a Peel Sessions EP the two new members quit (Hamilton to form Helmet) and were replaced by Anne Husick (guitar) and Mark Lonergan (guitar), forming the line up which made three more albums and one EP. The band's final production was a version of Wire's Ahead for a collection of Wire cover versions called Whore released in 1996.
Musically, BoS organised their three guitarists into providing an overwhelming wail of feedback and guitar noise layered under more conventional song structures (Poss had worked with guitar enemble composer Rhys Chatham and was a big fan of The Rolling Stones, the latter resulting in covers of Child of the Moon and Paint it Black). Although pretty much unconnected with it, Band of Susans are generally included in the New York No Wave scene that produced Sonic Youth and Glenn Branca.
After the dissolution of the band, Poss and Stenger performed with Bruce Gilbert of Wire as GilbertPossStenger. Poss then concentrated on production and solo work whilst Stenger played live with The Creatures for a period as well as working with John Cage. An open-ended promise to reform under a new name has yet to happen.
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