Phantom Limbs

When the Phantom Limbs disbanded in 2004, the Bay Area music scene lost a truly strange and marvelous spectacle. Often drawing comparisons to The Screamers or Christian Death as well as Gilbert and Sullivan and Kurt Weill, the Limbs carved out a curious place in punk with their carny organ-infused no wave deathrock. 
 
Their sound stood out, sure, but their live spectacle was an integral piece of the Phantom Limbs experience. Singer Loto Ball (nee Ryan Hopeless) was something of a punk rock Artaud, encouraging involuntary audience participation by handcuffing himself to show-goers, hocking fake gold watches, or just covering himself in greasepaint that inevitably rubbed off on the crowd.  
 
Accept the Juice / Whole Loto Love is two releases in one double-digipak. Accept the Juice collects the Phantom Limbs' odds and ends: tracks from out-of-print EPs (including the split with Fleshies), live tracks, and other rarities from between 1999 and 2002. Whole Loto Love includes one hour of live videos from shows in Oakland, Portland, Germany, and Poland, along with 40 minutes of interviews, behind-the-scenes footage, and more. 
 
"Awesome East Bay band ... new wave Rudimentary Peni ... the dance infection hit." 
--Maximum Rocknroll  
 
"A new wave circus: a hurdy-gurdy with a really strange singer." 
--East Bay Express