Pittsburgh Newsweekly
by Manny Theiner

Formed in 1965, the group often calls itself "the world's first noise band,"... their few contemporaries were England's AMM, Italy's MEV and the early stirrings of Peter Brotzmann and Free Music Productions. The Spasm Band may not have been aware of the others at the time though and apprroached improvisation from a less studious, more wide-eyed "let's see what happens" perspective, inspired by the artistic adventures of the Dadaists and Russian Nihilists.