Oil Tasters was a Milwaukee, Wisconsins' based early '80's post-punk band. They were not, however, easy to fit into the spectrum of post-punk bands. Rather than use no-wave, for example, as a foundation, the Oil Tasters start with surrealist literature, then musically move through jazz and end at James Brown. This article is about Milwaukee in Wisconsin. ... // Events and trends The 1980s marked an abrupt shift towards more conservative lifestyles after the momentous cultural revolutions which took place in the 60s and 70s and the definition of the AIDS virus in 1981. ... Post punk generally refers to the particularly fertile and creative period following the initial punk rock explosion. During the first wave of punk, roughly spanning 1976-1983, bands such as The Sex Pistols, The Clash, The Ramones and The Damned began to challenge the current styles and conventions of rock... Jazz is a musical art form originally characterized by blue notes, syncopation, swing, call and response, polyrhythms, and improvisation. ... James Brown is the name of several notable people: James Brown, soul and funk singer and bandleader, born 1933 James Brown, American TV personality, born 1955 James Brown, U.S. Senator from Louisiana (1766-1835) James Brown, British music journalist and magazine editor Jim Brown, né James Nathaniel Brown, American...

The trio, founded on Milwaukees' East Side, released a 2-song 45 record in December 1980. It included What's In Your Mouth backed with Get Out Of The Bathroom. In August 1981, a 3-song EP record was released with That's When The Brick Goes Through The Window backed with Earn While You Learn and Smoke.

Aside from defining the edgy, experimental side of the era's music in their live performances, The Oil tasters left behind an LP album recorded for Thermidor, a Berkeley, California-based independent label. It reaffirmed their sound spiritually rooted in the unguarded expressiveness of 60's soul, the experimentalism of 60's jazz, and the energy of the late 70's punk, but took forms unlike anything that preceded it. The trio was drummer Guy Hoffman, bassist and vocalist Richard Lavalliere, and Saxaphonist Caleb Alexander. No guitars were used. Alexanders' thrashing sax took the leads and solos, while LaValliere's sinewy bass functioned as a rhythm guitar. Hoffman's drums propelled the songs. Thermidor was the eleventh month in the French Revolutionary Calendar, which was used only in France and only for thirteen years. ... Berkeley is the name of several places, all eventually deriving from Berkeley Castle in Berkeley, Gloucestershire, from whom the noble family of Berkeley derive their name, and for which several vessels of the British navy have been christened HMS Berkeley Castle. Any of the holders of several titles in the...

LaValliere's singing and songwriting was as uniquely expressive as the Oil Tasters' sound. A good example from their Australian reissued Oil Tasters collection CD (Lexicon Devil (2005), is My Girlfriend's Ghost, a song that hits with a Dixieland rhythm. It spins a psycho-narrative tale of a doleful female specter, haunting the narrator from his TV screen. At the climax of his Twilight Zone tale, LaValliere roars out a scream borrowed from Soul Brother Number One.