Lubricated Goat

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Lubricated Goat was an Australian rock band of the 1980s. They achieved a brief notoriety for playing on a television programme naked, with only their instruments. They are also credited for laying the foundations of what later became grunge and 1990s noise.

Lubricated Goat was formed by Stu Spasm (real name Stuart Grey). Spasm had previously been in bands such as Singing Dog with Nick Barker and Salamander Jim with Tex Perkins. Upon returning from England, Stu went to Perth to visit with Singing Dog drummer Brett Ford who was then playing in The Kryptonics with Peter Hartley.

While in Perth, Stu recorded side one of what later became Plays The Devil’s Music EP at No Sweat Studios with Ford and Hartley. Side Two was recorded on a 4 Track recorder with drummer Martin Bland (Bloodloss/Salamander Jim) in Adelaide.

Lubricated Goat were signed to Red Eye Records offshoot Black Eye Records. The band soon relocated to Sydney where Stu met Guy Maddison of the Greenhouse Effect (now in Mudhoney) and offered him the opportunity to play bass for Lubricated Goat.

The majority of the band lived on Cleveland Street in an old run-down three-storey mansion which was soon dubbed Gracelands. The house was a creative haven for musicians and artists that were known to host art shows and nude discos.

In 1988, Lubricated Goat released their debut full length Paddock of Love which featured the track "In the Raw". This song was later mimed to in the nude on the Australian Broadcasting Corporation TV programme Blah Blah Blah, an event which created national media outrage. A documentary has been made about the performance, also titled In The Raw, which explains how the band came to be nude in the first place.

Around this time there also was a line-up change, with Hartley and Ford sacked and replaced by guitarist Charles Tolnay of King Snake Roost, and Gene, the drummer from The Space Juniors. The new line-up recorded the EP Schadenfreude, released in 1989.

Lubricated Goat also released their back catalogue on Amphetamine Reptile in the United States and Normal in Europe before making their first American tour in mid-1989. From 1990 onwards Lubricated Goat commenced their first European tour, one that was plagued with tragedy with the stabbing of Stu Spasm. The incident placed Lubricated Goat on hiatus.

Various incarnations of Lubricated Goat featuring Stu Spasm have since existed, recording material for Sub Pop, PCP, Sympathy for the Record Industry and REPTILIAN. Spasm also played in Crunt which featured his then wife Kat Bjelland of Babes in Toyland and Jon Spencer Blues Explosion drummer Russell Simins.