Read more
The most important audio recording released in the nineties wasn't a collection of songs by a self-tortured musician. The most important recording release in the grunge era was entitled Shut Up Little Man! It was a covert audio recording of two older drunken men living in a small flat in San Francisco, who spent their available free time yelling, screaming, hitting and generally abusing each other.
The first "viral" pop-culture sensation began in 1987 when Eddie and Mitch (two young punks from the Midwest) moved next door to Peter Haskett (a flamboyant gay man) and Raymond Huffman (a raging homophobe). This ultimate odd couple hated each other with raging abandon, and through the paper-thin walls their alcohol-fuelled rants terrorized Eddie and Mitch. Fearing for their lives, they began to tape record evidence of the insane goings-on from next door.
Exploring the blurring boundaries between privacy, art and exploitation, Shut Up Little Man!: An Audio Misadventure is a darkly hilarious story.
Matthew Bate