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Ministry
Ministry performing live at the 2008 Sweden Rock Festival.
Background information
Origin	Chicago, Illinois, United States
Genres	Industrial metal, thrash metal, synthpop (early), EBM (early)
Years active	1981–2008, 2011–present
Labels	Wax Trax!, Arista, Sire, Warner Bros., Sanctuary, 13th Planet, Megaforce
Associated acts	Revolting Cocks, Lard, 1000 Homo DJs, PTP, Acid Horse, Lead Into Gold, Pailhead, Killing Joke, Slipknot, Fear Factory, Soulfly
Website	www.ministrymusic.org
Members
Al Jourgensen Mike Scaccia John Bechdel Sin Quirin Aaron Rossi Casey Orr

Ministry is an American industrial metal band founded by lead singer Al Jourgensen in 1981. Originally a synthpop outfit, Ministry changed its style to industrial metal in the late 1980s. Ministry found mainstream success in the early 1990s with its most successful album Psalm 69: The Way to Succeed and the Way to Suck Eggs (1992) and touring as part of the Lollapalooza festival.

After 27 years of performing, Jourgensen decided to end the band in 2008, and since then stated that a reunion would never happen. However, on August 7, 2011, a reunion was announced, when Ministry confirmed that they will play one of their first shows in 4 years at the Wacken Open Air festival in August 2012.^[1] Ministry released a new album, titled Relapse, on March 23, 2012, which will be followed by a world tour.^[2]

Band history[link]

[edit] Early years and With Sympathy (1981–1984)

Al Jourgensen began Ministry in Chicago, Illinois in 1981. His first band prior to Ministry was Special Affect with Groovie Mann (of My Life With the Thrill Kill Kult), drummer Harry Rushakoff (Concrete Blonde) and bassist Marty Sorenson. After that was the short-lived Silly Charmichaels,^[3] with Ben Krug,^[4] Tom Krug and Tom Wall (all of The Imports). The original line-up of Ministry consisted mainly of Jourgensen (vocals and guitar), Stephen George (drums), Robert Roberts (keyboards), and John Davis (keyboards), although with a few personnel changes, the band's image would begin to focus more on Jourgensen and Stephen George. Ministry's original sound was essentially New Wave synthpop that was more melodic and stylized than the aggressive music for which they would become known. Ministry released four 12" singles on Wax Trax! Records from 1981 to 1984 (anthologized on Twelve Inch Singles (1981–1984) that featured the club favorite "Everyday is Halloween"). Their first LP, With Sympathy, was issued on Arista Records in 1983, and sold slowly but hit the upper 90s in the Billboard 200. The music in With Sympathy, and the various singles that Arista issued in association with it, was melodic pop. Jourgensen has always expressed disappointment with Ministry's music during those early years, reportedly referring to With Sympathy as an "abortion of an album." According to him, after signing the record contract, all artistic control of Ministry was "handed" over to other writers and producers.^[5] Some of his preferred recordings from that era were collected into the CD Early Trax (Rykodisc Records, 2004).

[edit] Twitch (1985–1986)

By the mid-1980s, Jourgensen parted ways with George and signed to Sire Records. Jourgensen performed mostly solo for Ministry's next LP, Twitch (1986), which sold well, but was still considered to be "underground". The music was danceable electronic music, but wasn't pop music, and the sound was harsher and more aggressive than what Ministry had recorded before. According to Jourgensen, "Twitch was stuff that I was doing before With Sympathy came out. Some of that stuff was already four or five years old, but the record company didn't want to use it, so...".^[6] Much of the new sound was created with the use of digital sampling and the input of producer Adrian Sherwood.

[edit] The Land of Rape and Honey (1987–1988)

After Twitch, Jourgensen made the most significant change in Ministry's history when he became re-enchanted with the electric guitar. Jourgensen also brought bass guitarist Paul Barker of the Seattle band The Blackouts into the Ministry camp; Barker would remain Jourgensen's bandmate for many years when he was the only person credited as a member of the band other than Jourgensen. With the addition of The Blackouts drummer William Rieflin, Ministry recorded The Land of Rape and Honey (1988). The LP continued their success in the underground music scene. The Land of Rape and Honey made use of synthesizers, keyboards, tape loops, jackhammering drum machines, dialogue excerpted from movies, unconventional electronic processing, and, in parts, heavy distorted electric guitar and bass. The album was supported by a tour in 1988 and the singles and music videos for "Stigmata" and "Flashback". Stigmata was also used in a key scene in Richard Stanley's 1990 film Hardware, although the band shown performing the song was Gwar.

[edit] The Mind is a Terrible Thing to Taste (1989–1990)

The follow-up, The Mind Is a Terrible Thing to Taste was supported by the "RollerBall" tour from 1989 to 1990. Due to the complex nature of the album's drumming, a second drummer, Martin Atkins, was used. In addition to Atkins, a ten piece touring line-up was formed, consisting of Chris Connelly (keyboards and vocals), Nivek Ogre (vocals and keyboards), Joe Kelly (vocals and backing vocals) and guitarists Mike Scaccia, Terry Roberts, and William Tucker, with Jourgensen, Barker and Rieflin serving as the groups core members. This tour was documented on In Case You Didn't Feel Like Showing Up. One single, "Burning Inside" (for which a video was made), was released from the album.

Throughout the late 1980s Jourgensen and Barker expanded their ideas beyond Ministry into a seemingly endless parade of side projects and collaborations. Many of these bore Ministry's signature sound and the duo's "Hypo Luxa/Hermes Pan" production imprint. (These side-projects were also responsible for the delayed release of Ministry's next album.) Foremost of these was Ministry's alter ego, the Revolting Cocks. "RevCo", as it is often referred to, essentially became the same band as it had originally featured Belgian musicians Richard 23 (of Front 242) and Luc Van Acker. Jourgensen and Barker also formed Lard with Dead Kennedys lead singer Jello Biafra, Acid Horse with Cabaret Voltaire, 1000 Homo DJs (which featured Nine Inch Nails' Trent Reznor doing vocals on a cover of Black Sabbath's Supernaut), PTP with Chris Connelly and Pailhead with Ian MacKaye of Minor Threat and Fugazi. Barker released his own material as Lead Into Gold and Jourgensen produced and played electric guitar on Skinny Puppy's Rabies LP. Atkins and Rieflin also formed the band Pigface, which featured Barker on several tracks, as well. The smaller of these projects were later collected on the CD Side Trax (Rykodisc Records, 2004), and the RevCo discography was remastered and reissued.

[edit] Psalm 69 (1991–1993)

Ministry broke into the mainstream in 1991 with "Jesus Built My Hotrod" (co-authored by Gibby Haynes of the Butthole Surfers and Michael Balch of Frontline Assembly affiliation). The music video was a hit on MTV, and the band scored second billing on the Lollapalooza tour and managed, by some accounts, to steal the show. As the single would have indicated, the sound of the following LP, Psalm 69: The Way to Succeed and the Way to Suck Eggs (1992), was the most metal-oriented Ministry had put to record at that point, the focal point of the sound shifting almost entirely from synths to Jourgensen's and new members Mike Scaccia's and Louis Svitek's electric guitars.

ΚΕΦΑΛΗΞΘ, which is printed on the record, is a concatenation of "κεφαλή" (Greek for "head" or "leader") and "ΞΘ" (the number 69 in Greek numerals). The title was borrowed from Aleister Crowley's work: The Book of Lies (Chapter 69, "The Way to Succeed—and the Way to Suck Eggs!"). Psalm 69 became Ministry's biggest hit, including in addition to "Jesus Built My Hotrod", the singles "N.W.O." (a protest of the Persian Gulf War and attack directed at then-President George H.W. Bush) and "Just One Fix" (a collaboration with poet/novelist William S. Burroughs). The single "N.W.O." was used in the 1992 live-action/animated movie Cool World. Later, NWO was used in Need For Speed - The Run video game.

[edit] Filth Pig (1994–1996)

In 1994, Ministry performed at the Bridge School Benefit charity concert, covering songs by Bob Dylan, Ten Years After, and The Grateful Dead, and playing a new song, " Oh...Presley, Come Hither, Presley...", which was intended to be on their next album. In 1995, Ministry was one of the headlining acts for Australia and New Zealand's Big Day Out touring festival. In spite of their growing success, Ministry was nearly derailed by a series of arrests and drug problems.^{[citation needed]} The band did not issue their next album, Filth Pig, until 1996. For Filth Pig, Ministry stripped all synthesizers and most samples from their style and made the music almost entirely with ultra-noisy guitars, heavy bass, and real drums. The songs were played mostly at slower tempos than the very fast ones that were used for the compositions on their previous three LPs, giving it an almost doom metal feel. Filth Pig was supported with the singles/videos "Reload", "The Fall", "Lay Lady Lay" (an unusual and unexpected cover of Bob Dylan's old country-tinged hit) and "Brick Windows" and with a tour in 1996 (the live performances were later anthologized on the Sphinctour album and DVD in 2002). The album has been considered by Jourgensen to be his response to fan expectations of where Ministry's sound was heading, and it's also been speculated that it was an attempt to move away from the "industrial" label of the band's music.

[edit] Dark Side of the Spoon (1998–2000)

The members of Ministry experienced greater devastation when former guitarist William Tucker committed suicide in 1999 by cutting his own throat. Ministry then recorded their final studio album for Warner Bros. Records, Dark Side of the Spoon (1999), which they dedicated to Tucker. For Dark Side of the Spoon, Ministry tried to diversify their sound by adding some melodic and synthetic touches, to their usual electro-metal sound, along with some jazz influences, but the album was not well received. However, the single "Bad Blood" appeared on the soundtrack album of The Matrix and was nominated for a 2000 Grammy award.

In the summer of 2000, Ministry was invited to that year's Ozzfest. They would fill in the co-headliner position left vacant by a failed-reuniting of the original Judas Priest. Ministry was later dropped from the bill after a management changeover, although Al's drug habits may have actually played the culprit in this. They were replaced by Soulfly.

[edit] Hiatus and Animositisomina (2001–2003)

Parting with their longtime record imprint, Warner Bros. Records issued the collection Greatest Fits in 2001, which featured a new song, "What About Us?". Ministry would later make a brief cameo appearance in the Steven Spielberg film AI: Artificial Intelligence, performing the song. During 2000-2002, record-company (Warner Bros. Records) disputes resulted in the planned albums Live Psalm 69, Sphinctour and ClittourUS on Ipecac Recordings being canceled (although its contents had been compiled), resulting instead in Sphinctour appearing on Sanctuary Records.

Around 2001, Jourgensen almost lost his arm when he was bitten by a venomous spider.^[7] According to Jourgensen, the realization that he could have lost his livelihood caused him to kick his heroin addiction and focus on music once again. Jourgensen and Barker, along with Max Brody who had joined as a saxophone player for the 1999 tour, focused on developing songs for a new record during 2001 and 2002, with the band issuing Animositisomina on Sanctuary Records in 2003. The sound was strongly heavy metal laden with voice effects, and matched the ferocity of Psalm 69 (though it featured an almost-pop cover of Magazine's "The Light Pours Out Of Me"). Animositisomina did poorly in terms of sales and singles for "Animosity" and "Piss" were canceled before they could be released.

Barker left the Ministry camp in 2003 due to dissatisfaction with the direction of his life. He stated that the trigger was his father dying while the band was wrapping up a summer tour in Europe, and also stated in early 2004 that his family life was his main focus at that particular time. Jourgensen continued Ministry with Mike Scaccia and various other musicians.

[edit] Houses of the Molé and Rio Grande Blood (2004–2006)

For Ministry's next album, Jourgensen released the song "No W", an attack on then-U.S. President George W. Bush; an alternate version of the track was placed on the multi-performer compilation Rock Against Bush, Vol. 1. The follow-up LP, Houses of the Molé (2004), contained the most explicitly political lyrics Jourgensen had yet written, with songs in Ministry's classic industrial electro-metallic sound played messier, more crudely and more freely than ever before, giving the album the most metal-oriented sound of their career. In 2006 the band released Rio Grande Blood, an LP on Jourgensen's own 13th Planet Records. With Prong's Tommy Victor and Killing Joke's Paul Raven, the album featured an even heavier thrash metal sound drawing comparison to Slayer. The single "Lieslieslies" was nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Metal Performance at the 49th annual Grammy Awards. It, along with another song on the album, "The Great Satan", is also available as a downloadable content song for the 2008 video game Rock Band 2. In July 2007, the band released Rio Grande Dub, an album featuring remixes from the band's 2006 Rio Grande Blood album.

[edit] The Last Sucker, Cover Up and Undercover (2007–2010)

Ministry's "final" album,^[8] The Last Sucker, was released on September 18, 2007.

On June 4, 2007, Al Jourgensen filed a Tortious Interference lawsuit against ex-bassist Paul Barker and Spurburn Music in Los Angeles Superior Court.^[9] (case #SC094122) The case was dismissed on October 24, 2008.

Paul Raven died on October 20, 2007.^[10] He suffered an apparent heart attack shortly after arriving in Europe to commence recording for the French industrial band Treponem Pal near the Swiss border.

Al Jourgensen remixed and co-produced Spyder Baby's "Bitter", which was released by Blind Prophecy Records in early 2008.

A song titled "Keys to the City", the theme song for the Chicago Blackhawks was released on March 5, 2008. In addition to this single, two albums of covers/remixes, Cover Up (April 1, 2008) and Undercover (December 7, 2010) were released. All of these releases are credited to Ministry and Co-Conspirators, since they feature collaborations between Al Jourgensen and other musicians.

Ministry's farewell tour, the "C-U-LaTour", started its North American leg on March 26, 2008 with Meshuggah performing as special guests and Hemlock as an opening act. They played their final North American show in Chicago on 12 May 2008.^[11] The final date on their farewell tour was at the Tripod in Dublin, Ireland on 18 July 2008. During the performance, Jourgensen repeatedly reaffirmed that it would indeed be the last ever Ministry show. Due to a large demand for tickets, an extra gig was added at the Tripod on 19 July 2008. The band again played to a full house. It was clear that the band were not expecting so much support, as the merchandise stall was sold out before the gig even got under way. Ministry's final song at this show (and ostensibly their last ever live performance) was a rendition of their cover version of "What a Wonderful World"^[12] to the music of "Jesus built my Hot-Rod".

Adios... Puta Madres, a live album featuring material culled from Ministry's final tour, was released in 2009 on CD and DVD.^[13]

Three of the group's songs were featured in the Academy Award-winning 2009 film The Hurt Locker.

A documentary film, called Fix, was planned for release sometime in 2010. However, the release date was pushed back to early 2011. The documentary premiered at the Chicago International Movies & Music Festival. Jourgensen sued the maker, Doug Freel, for failing to fulfill his part of the contract (giving Jourgensen approval over the final cut, along with "thousands of dollars").^[14] The lawsuit was dropped in July 2011. On July 21, the film was screened privately at the Music Box Theater in Los Angeles.

[edit] Reunion and Relapse (2011–present)

On August 7, 2011, it was announced that Ministry was reforming and would play at Germany's Wacken Open Air festival, set to take place August 2–4, 2012.^[1] The reunion lineup features Al Jourgensen on vocals, Mike Scaccia and Tommy Victor both on guitar, Aaron Rossi on drums, John Bechdel on keyboards and Tony Campos on bass.^[15]

Jourgensen told Metal Hammer in August 2011 that Ministry has been working on a new album called Relapse, which they hoped to release by Christmas. Regarding the sound of the new material, he explained, "We've only got five songs to go. I've been listening to it the last couple of weeks and I wasn't really in the mood, I was just taking it as a joke. Just to pass the time at first but [Mikey's] raving about it. It's like, dude c'mon, this is not about Bush, so… that parts over. The ulcers are gone and Bush is gone so it's time for something new. I think this is actually gonna wind up being the fastest and heaviest record I've ever done. Just because we did it as anti-therapy therapy against the country music we would just take days off and thrash faster than I've done in a long time, faster than Mikey's done in a long time. He just did a Rigor Mortis tour and said it was easy compared to this Ministry stuff so it's gonna be brutal and it's gonna freak a lot of people out."^[15]

Ministry announced on their website that they entered the studio on September 1, 2011 with engineer Sammy D'Ambruoso to begin recording their new album.^[1] During the third webisode featuring behind-the-scenes footage from the making of Relapse, a release date of March 3, 2012 was announced.^[16]

On December 23, 2011, Ministry released "99 Percenters", the first single from Relapse, and began streaming it on their Facebook page two days later.

On February 22, 2012, Ministry released a second single, "Double Tap", which was included in the April 2012 issue of the Metal Hammer magazine.

World tours[link]

• Early Shows, 1981–1983 (not an actual tour)
• With Sympathy Tour, 1983
• Wax Trax Singles Tour, 1984
• Twitch Tour, 1986–1987
• The Land of Tape and Honey Tour, 1988
• RollerBall Tour, 1989–1990
• Psalm 69 Tour, 1992–1994
• Sphinctour, 1996
• Clitour, 1999
• Ozzfest Tour, 2000 (cancelled due to management company changes^[17])
• Fornicatour, 2003
• Evil Doer Tour, 2004–2005
• MasterBaTour, 2006
• C-U-LaTour, 2008
• DeFiBriLaTouR / Relapse Tour, 2012

Discography[link]

Studio albums[link]

• With Sympathy (1983)
• Twitch (1986)
• The Land of Rape and Honey (1988)
• The Mind Is a Terrible Thing to Taste (1989)
• Psalm 69: The Way to Succeed and the Way to Suck Eggs (1992)
• Filth Pig (1996)
• Dark Side of the Spoon (1999)
• Animositisomina (2003)
• Houses of the Molé (2004)
• Rio Grande Blood (2006)
• The Last Sucker (2007)
• Relapse (2012)

Members[link]

Current members[link]

• Al Jourgensen – vocals, keyboards, guitar, bass, other various instruments (1981–present)
• Mike Scaccia – guitars, bass (1989–1995, 2003–2006, 2011–present)
• John Bechdel – keyboards (2006–2008, 2011–present)
• Sin Quirin – guitars, bass (2007–2008, 2012–present)
• Aaron Rossi – drums (2007–2008, 2011–present)
• Casey Orr – bass, keyboards (2012–present)

Former members[link]

• John Davis – keyboards (1981–1982)
• Stephen George – drums (1981–1985)
• Robert Roberts – keyboards (1981–1984)
• Marty Sorenson – bass (1981–1982)
• Shay Jones – vocals (1982–1983)
• Brad Hallen – bass (1983–1985)
• Paul Barker – bass, keyboards, programming, vocals (1986–2003)
• Bill Rieflin – drums, keyboards, programming, guitar (1986–1995)
• Chris Connelly – vocals, keyboards & various songwriting credits (1987–1993)
• Nivek Ogre – vocals, guitar, keyboards (1988–1990)
• Howie Beno – programming, editing (1990–1993)
• Michael Balch – keyboards, programming (1991–1992)
• Louis Svitek – guitar (1992–1999, 2003)
• Duane Buford – keyboards (1995–1999)
• Zlatko Hukic – electronics, guitar (1995–1999)
• Rey Washam – drums, percussion, programming (1995–1999, 2003)
• Max Brody – drums, percussion, programming, saxophone (1999–2004)
• Mark Baker – drums (2004–2005)
• John Monte – bass (2004)
• Paul Raven – bass, keyboards, guitar, drums (2005–2007)
• Tommy Victor – guitars, bass (2005–2008, 2011–2012)
• Tony Campos – bass (2007–2008, 2011–2012)

Live line-ups[link]

References[link]

Further reading[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Ministry (band)

• Official site
• Jon Wiederhorn, MTV News, 10:11 p.m. EDT May 6, 2004, "In President Bush, Ministry Find Both A Monster And A Muse".
• Kirk Miller, Rolling Stone, June 21, 2004, "Ministry's War on Bush".
• Bernard Van Isacker, Side-Line, November 25, 2005, “Taming the old demons”.

Al Jourgensen
Al Jourgensen at the Astoria, London during 2004, promoting Houses of the Molé.
Background information
Birth name	Alain David Jourgensen
Also known as	The Alien, Alien Jourgensen, Hypo Luxa, Dog, Alien Dog Star, Buck Satan, Uncle Al, Enchanted Al
Born	(1958-10-09) October 9, 1958 (age 53) Havana, Cuba
Genres	Industrial metal Industrial rock Alternative metal Thrash metal New Wave Synthpop EBM Hardcore punk
Instruments	Vocals, guitar, keyboards, synthesizer, bass, harmonica, mandolin, saxophone, piano, drums
Years active	1978–present
Labels	Arista Records Sire Records Warner Bros. Sanctuary Records 13th Planet Records Alternative Tentacles Wax Trax!
Associated acts	Ministry Revolting Cocks Skinny Puppy Lard Prong 1000 Homo DJs PTP Acid Horse Lead Into Gold Pailhead Buck Satan & the 666 Shooters
Website	http://www.ministrymusic.org

Alain David Jourgensen (born October 9, 1958, in Havana, Cuba; often known as Al Jourgensen), is a Cuban-American musician best known as the founder and frontman of the industrial metal band Ministry. He is sometimes credited as Alain Jourgensen, Alien Jourgensen, Hypo Luxa (his alias as a music producer), Dog, Alien Dog Star^[1] and Buck Satan. He is a member and/or founder of several industrial rock bands, performing as a singer, guitarist or keyboard player.

Biography[link]

Jourgensen was born in Havana to a Cuban mother and Norwegian father in 1958. Soon after, he came to the US to live with his mother and his Danish stepfather, who changed his name to Jourgensen. Growing up, he was a fan of such artists as The Beatles, Black Sabbath, Hawkwind, Pink Floyd, Can, Kraftwerk, The Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin, Kitty Wells, Buck Owens, George Jones, Charlie Parker, Charles Mingus and Miles Davis.^[2] His stepfather was a stock car driver, and also a mechanic for Formula One driver Dan Gurney. Jourgensen was raised in Chicago, Illinois and Breckenridge, Colorado, eventually attending the University of Illinois - Chicago, after briefly enrolling at the University of Northern Colorado as well as the University of Colorado. He worked as a radio DJ out of college, until becoming a professional musician by joining the band Special Affect, which included My Life with the Thrill Kill Kult founding member Groovie Mann. Jourgensen formed Ministry in 1981.

Jourgensen was married to Patty Marsh from 1984-2002. He has a daughter from the marriage, Adrienne, born April 13, 1985.^[3] He remarried in September 2002 to Angelina Lukacin at Graceland mansion.

His lyrics reveal many aspects of his life, such as his heroin and cocaine addictions, alcoholism and his political opinions. These were greatly influenced by the beat generation (William S. Burroughs collaborated on some of his tracks).

Jourgensen had been a life-long drug user, which culminated in the 1995 police raid of Ministry's Texas headquarters and Jourgensen's arrest for possession. He received a five year probation sentence, a time that he recalls as the darkest in his life. As of 2003, he maintains that he has been drug-free, ever since a bite from a venomous spider caused him to nearly lose an arm.^[4] Jourgensen resides and records in El Paso, Texas.^[5]

Professional life[link]

Ministry[link]

Jourgensen formed Ministry in 1981 after he left the band Special Affect, which was a new wave/synthpop band (notably including Frankie Nardiello, founder of My Life With The Thrill Kill Kult and drummer Harry Rushakoff of Concrete Blonde). Early singles by Ministry and Jourgensen's other projects were released on Wax Trax! Records. He also produced Skinny Puppy's Rabies album. During that time, it is said that Jourgensen befriended Nivek Ogre, who later joined Ministry.

The band broke into the mainstream with 1992's legendary Psalm 69: The Way to Succeed and the Way to Suck Eggs album. One of its tracks was nominated for a 1993 Grammy Award for Best Metal Performance, losing to Nine Inch Nails' "Wish". However, its next album, Filth Pig (1995), divided their fanbase, leading to a commercial decline that became evident when Warner Bros. Records dropped Ministry from the record label in 2001.

Ministry's newest albums, Rio Grande Blood and The Last Sucker, as well as the 2006 Revolting Cocks album Cocked and Loaded were released on Jourgensen's new record label, 13th Planet Records. He formed this label after falling out with the mainstream agendas of major industry labels.^[6]

Jourgensen appeared as a fictional musician in the film A.I.: Artificial Intelligence, and has had a number of songs appear in other films, including the 2008 Wicked Lake, produced by Fever Dreams, for which he composed the entire sound track. He also makes a small appearance in the film as an art school teacher.

In a November 2008 issue of Hustler Magazine, Al Jourgensen announced that the end of Ministry was official. The reasons behind this were Ministry "takes up so much time" as well as the hassle of getting out new albums. He also said he was responsible for six other bands and can get seven albums done a year when he is not working on new Ministry material.

Despite Jourgensen's previous insistence that Ministry would never return, a reunion was announced on August 7, 2011. The band is scheduled to play their first show in four years at Germany's Wacken Open Air festival in August 2012.^[7] A new album, titled Relapse, was released on March 23, 2012.

RevCo[link]

Revolting Cocks, now known as RevCo, is an American industrial rock band that began as a musical side-project for Richard 23 of Front 242, Luc Van Acker, and Al Jourgensen of Ministry. The band got their name after a fight in a Chicago bar in 1983. Jourgensen, Richard 23 and Luc Van Acker celebrated the formation of their new band with a few drinks. The evening ended in a brawl, with bar stools thrown through the windows. As he ejected the trio, the owner, a man Jourgensen recalls was named Dess,^[8] shouted, "I'm calling the police! You guys are a bunch of revolting cocks!^[8]" The trio decided to use the name for their band.

The band have changed lineups several times. RevCo currently features Al Jourgensen (guitars, keyboards, programming, background vocals, producer), Josh Bradford (vocals, background vocals), Sin Quirin (guitars, bass, keyboards) and Clayton Worbeck (keyboards, programming, mixing, bass). Their Seventh album, called Sex-O Olympic-O, which was produced by Jourgensen at his studio, was released on his 13th Planet label in March 2009. Their newest album, Got Cock?, was also released on April 13, 2010 on the same Label.

Production Work[link]

Jourgensen and Paul Barker of Ministry worked as a music production team under the names Hypo Luxa and Hermes Pan, producing their own work as well as other Wax Trax! Records acts. He has also done production work for Reverend Horton Heat, Nine Inch Nails, Dessau and Gwar. Jourgensen has set up a recording complex for his 13th Planet label in his home in El Paso, TX.

Political views[link]

Jourgensen frequently offered scathing criticism of the Bush family. Beginning with Ministry's 1992 album Psalm 69, continuing with the 2004 album Houses of the Molé, 2006's Rio Grande Blood, and 2007's The Last Sucker. His favorite targets have been former U.S. Presidents George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush. Ministry also contributed a song to the first Rock Against Bush album. The theme continues on Ministry's 2007 offering and in Jourgensen's various side projects.

Jourgensen expressed support for Barack Obama during the 2008 election, speaking in favor of progressive taxation.^[9]

Discography[link]

with Ministry[link]

with Revolting Cocks[link]

with Lard[link]

References[link]

External links[link]

• www.thirteenthplanet.com/ministry/
• fumaga.com/10807/
• Ministry @ prongs.org
• "Ministry's War on Bush". Rolling Stone. http://www.rollingstone.com/artists/ministry/articles/story/6196660/ministrys_war_on_bush. Retrieved 2006-06-12. 
• Roberts, Michael (2003-04-10). "So What? Ministry isn't on a major label anymore, but Al Jourgensen still loves his job". Dallas Observer. http://www.dallasobserver.com/2003-04-10/music/so-what/. 
• "Al Jourgensen". Internet Movie Database. http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1013090/. Retrieved 2006-06-12. 
• Al Jourgensen is featured in VanityFair.com's article, 'The Best Little Music City in Texas', from March 2009.