Norwood Sebastian Grimes (born 17 May 1985) is an Australian musician, songwriter and composer from Adelaide, South Australia. He is best known as a founding member of Australian experimental pop duo Purple Johnson Blimp Situation.
Early life[]
Norwood Grimes was born in Adelaide, South Australia at the Queen Victoria Hospital, don't look for it, it's not there anymore. He wasn't brought into a musical family and had no musical interest until the age of 12 when he met a guitarist at his primary school named Brett. Norwood suggested they start a band with Brett on guitar and Norwood on vocals, but at the time Norwood's voice was breaking, so Brett suggested he played bass. Norwood agreed and Brett taught him how to play.
Early career[]
Norwood Grimes began recording his own music in 2003 and released his first two solo recordings in 2004. The first to be released was Somewhat Shocking Melodies and the Mindless Memories, and the second release was The Staunch EP. These two releases of Norwood Grimes' back catalogue are the only releases that haven't seen a digital re-release.
Norwood Grimes began playing a few gigs with his high school band at local teen music cafe The Riff and also gigging in pubs and being paid with beer all while still underage in a band called 3 Days Off. The band would later split and remaining members would form J & The Rippers. Norwood played with J & The Rippers for nearly 8 years under the pseudonym "Jake Ripp".
2003 also saw the birth of The Cheese Dirigible, who recorded one EP, quickly disbanded and reformed in 2006 as Purple Johnson Blimp Situation
Earlier in 2003 Norwood Grimes started a Primus cover band called Gus, and while learning the lyrics for "The Air is Getting Slippery" he discovered The Residents. Shortly after Gus would fall apart and Norwood Grimes would go on a Residents binge resulting in the 2005 release, Trying To Reason With You. Norwood refers to this release as being his 'third debut' making light of the fact that he has no plans on re-releasing Somewhat Shocking Melodies and the Mindless Memories or The Staunch EP.
During 2005 Norwood recorded and released An Idea Blurred By Us. While most tracks on this album was written for this record, it does also contain tracks lifted from both Somewhat Shocking Melodies and The Staunch EP. It also has the earliest known Norwood Grimes recording which was recorded in 1998.
The Curse Trilogy[]
Norwood Grimes began working on the first album in The Curse Trilogy immediately after the release of An Idea Blurred By Us. Shortly after commencing work on the album, Norwood Grimes and Peter Because with the help of the enigmatic Harleyquin Z. Jones founded Purple Johnson Blimp Situation. The debut Purple Johnson Blimp Situation album was released at the start of 2006 and The Curse was completed and released mid 2006. The second instalment was released a year later in 2007 and the third in 2009.
During 2009 Norwood Grimes began working with local horrorcore rapper KidCrusher on a metal project called Kcavemen and toured Australia in 2010.
Internet presence[]
Norwood Grimes finally joined the internet community when he joined up to Myspace in 2009 just after the re-release of Trying to Reason With You which was bundled with a new mini album called Jewskin Lamp. The album/re-release was recalled after controversy arose over the title of the new mini album. In 2010 he composed a noise album named Chaostatic which was released on the Torn Flesh Records netlabel. Soon after this, he began focusing on recording the songs he wrote for a now defunct rock group called Stoner. These rock tracks were completed and released in 2011 on the Stoner EP. During this time Norwood Grimes was also working with a local black metal outfit, Wintercorpse, under the pseudonym "Bastürdkunt" and they released an album later that year called 'Bloodless Heart'. After the release of Bloodless Heart by Wintercorpse, they began to work on a new album when Norwood Grimes left the band and abandoned the Bastürdkunt moniker. Wintercorpse continued as a one man band just as it was before Norwood Grimes joined.
The Stoner EP was the first of Norwood Grimes' releases to receive positive feedback, which prompted Norwood Grimes to write more rock based albums.
While writing the next album and working with Purple Johnson Blimp Situation, Norwood Grimes gathered together a selection of short tracks that he recorded in 2005 and released them as a mini album called Debris shortly after the release of The Stoner EP. The tracks on this album were an attempt to imitate the music from The Commercial Album by The Residents. Later in 2011 K is for King, C is for Cunt was released on Torn Flesh Records but did not fare as well as The Stoner EP did, although standout tracks like "Jesus Was a Buddhist" and "Neil's Song" did drive the album downloads.
During 2012 Norwood Grimes began to focus on Purple Johnson Blimp Situation with the first ever PJBS live show to be performed that year.
With Norwood's solo career taking a back seat while he focused on Purple Johnson Blimp Situation and writing their biggest hit "I'm Not Saying it's Aliens", he decided it was time to attempt a re-release of Jewskin Lamp. The mini album was re-released in 2013 as Jewskin Lamp v2.0, complete with new artwork by Peter Because and bonus unreleased tracks.
Halloween of 2013 saw the return of Bastürdkunt reinvented as a noise artist releasing a split called Halloween13, with local noise artist Ghostskull. Halloween13 was the debut release for both Bastürdkunt and Ghostskull.
After the release of Purple Johnson Blimp Situation's 12th album, aptly named Twelve, Norwood Grimes decided to shamelessly cash in on his new found minor celebrity status by writing a new solo album. I Hate Myself and Want Bono to Die was released in 2014 and saw the best response from fans yet, also gaining many new fans worldwide.
Jetsam was released in 2015 as a sister release to 2011's Debris, containing another ten tracks that were recorded during the same time as those from Debris.
At the start of 2015 Norwood Grimes started a new improv experimental group with two other experimental musicians, Peter Because and Jed Ward, called Secret Salmon. Yet another pseudonymous band, Norwood Grimes chose the name Rex Hunter S. Thompson, while Peter Because chose Ray Martin Bryant and Jed Ward chose Chuck D. B. Cooper.
Later in 2015 Norwood Grimes revived Bastürdkunt by taking the tracks from the 2013 noise split and releasing them along with a few new tracks on his first self-titled release. Bastürdkunt continues to release eponymous albums, leaving the album art itself to take on the role of the album title, the only exception is for splits and singles. A movie was made to accompany the first self-titled album in 2015, and was later released on DVD in 2016.
Discography[]
Norwood Grimes[]
- Somewhat Shocking Melodies and the Mindless Memories (2004)
- The Staunch EP (2004)
- Trying to Reason With You (2005)
- An Idea Blurred By Us (2005)
- The Curse (2006)
- The Curse II: The Curse Gets Worse (2007)
- The Curse III: The Enemy is Listening (2009)
- Trying To Reason With You / Jewskin Lamp (2009)
- Chaostatic (2010)
- The Stoner EP (2011)
- Debris (2011)
- K is for King, C is for Cunt (2011)
- Jewskin Lamp v2.0 (2013)
- I Hate Myself and Want Bono to Die (2014)
- Jetsam (2015)
- Drink-e-poos - Norwood Grimes/Toxic Chicken (2017)
- Lester (2017)
Purple Johnson Blimp Situation[]
- Satanic Mechanic in the Sky (2006)
- Return of the Cheese Dirigible (2007)
- In The Blimp Shed (2007)
- Penetrating the Clouds (2008)
- Airships (2008)
- The Colour Purple (2008)
- The Double Hindenburger with Cheese (2008)
- 1937 (2010)
- Blimp my Ride (2010)
- A Monetary Lapse This Season (2011)
- The Food Album (2012)
- Twelve (2013)
- Ödland Kybernetisch (2014)
- Trapdoor Expansion (2015)
- Unplugged - Live at Puzzle Park (2015)
- Gone Fish'n (2016)
The Cheese Dirigible[]
- PJBS EP (2003)
J & The Rippers[]
- The Extra Tension Chord (2005)
- Rock n Roll Son (2005)
- Memorium (2006)
- The Extra Extra Tension Chord (2006)
- We are Medieval Barbers (2006)
- Trainwreck Album (2007)
- A Hearty Beef Smorgasbord (2007)
- The Rippers Ruin Christmas (2007)
- Project Bananarama (2008)
- The Extra Tension Cord 3: Final Plug In (2009)
- Blistering Conflict (2009)
Kcavemen[]
- Gondwanaland (2010)
Wintercorpse[]
- Bloodless Heart (2011)
Secret Salmon[]
- Conspiracy (2016)
- I, Spy (2016)
- Komputer Magick (2017)
- The Fish That Has is Crunched and the Wound is Received - Secret Salmon/Harsh Noise Movement (2017)
- Would You Like Some Heroin? [single] (2017)
- Lunch (2017)
- Songs in the Key of H (2017)
- Lady in the Longdrop (2017)
- dRum Diaries (2017)
- After The Hidden Fisherman's Ball (2017)
- Brechtian Onanistic Rites in Three Dimensions (2018)
- Sex Daddy (2018)
- IDK (2020)
Michael Hutchence Scarf[]
- Micahel Hutchence Scarf (2020)
IDK[]
- IDK (2020)
- Dirt Nap (2022)
Bastürdkunt[]
- Halloween13 - Bastürdkunt/Ghostskull (2013)
- Bastürdkunt (2015)
- Bastürdkunt (2016)
- Bastürdkunt (2016)
- Sounds From The Gutter - Bastürdkunt/Harsh Noise Movement (2016)
- Bastürdkunt (2016)
- Bastürdkunt (2016)
- Bastürdkunt (2017)
- Bastürdkunt (2018)
- Bastürdkunt (2018)
- Bastürdkunt (2018)
- Bastürdkunt (2018)
- FIVEaa - Bastürdkunt/Ghostskull (2018)
- Bastürdkunt (2021)