Food for Animals

Biography

An unexpected collision of post-punk noise rock heavily influenced by both the late '70s likes of the Slits and the Pop Group and vintage early industrial acts like Einsturzende Neubauten and Test Department with modern day underground hip hop and experimental electronica, Food For Animals formed in Baltimore, Maryland in 2003. Producer and beatmaker Ricky Rabbit (Nick Rivetti) had released a handful of solo records featuring a breakbeat- and glitch-informed form of laptop based noise rock when through a mutual friend he met Andrew Field Pickering, a Pennsylvania native who had played drums for a variety of local hardcore punk groups after moving to nearby Silver Spring. Rivetti played Pickering an unfinished track that needed a rapper, and Pickering quickly offered his rhymes. A year's worth of sporadic work (including guitar parts by engineer Daniel Helmer, an unofficial third member of the duo as Dr. Dan) turned into Food For Animals' debut EP Scavengers, a 2004 release on the Canadian indie label Upper Class Recordings. A strident mix of Pickering's explicitly political rapping (under the stage name Vulture Voltaire) and Rivetti's grinding noise and cut-up beats, Scavengers attracted good if slightly puzzled reviews from online tastemakers like Pitchfork, but a period of personal distractions — Pickering's mother died, and Rivetti and Helmer attended to their studies at James Madison University — put off the follow-up. When the group regathered, Sterling Warren (Hy) joined as a more conventionally gifted rapper to complement Pickering's quirky, awkward flow. A full-length album, Belly, was released in early 2008.