Now snap back to this reality. Are you with us? Well, GAM isn't. They're still out on the road, heading for another joint - or in the recording studio polishing a new track which just might set this shitty old world on fire agaln. You probably haven't heard of GAM before. If that's true, then you're too old to know what's good for you. You're too lazy and grateful to realize you're getting screwed up the ass by the media-based technocracy we call The Music Industry.

But, if you'll get out of the office and talk to the kids at The Knitting Factory or The Continental in New York, The Lounge Ax in Chicago, or Lucy's Record Shop in Nashville, you'll find they're all chanting one word over and over again like some subbacultcha mantra. It's the same word that's driving the clubowners and record-store clerks crazy in Cincinnati, and Mobile, in New Orleans and Austin, in Pensacola and Philly and D.C.. The word is GAM , and it's not going to stop there.

Because somewhere between the brilliantly bizzarre and willfully absurd songs, the maddeningly intense stage show, the dangerous improvisational freakouts and emotional outbursts, the spontaneous human combustion and the unquestionably sincere reverence for the holy spirit of Rock lies the most overlooked and underappreciated DIY band in North America. They are the band of the new Millenium. They are already legends. And the best part is, they're ready to make a deal.

GAM was lirst hatched on Easter 1991. Thc band playcd its debut show in June of 1993. Their name casually references both many pop and un-pop cultural entities, yet swears allegiance to none.

GAM 's music has been compared to a shocking varicty of artists, including (but certainly not limited to) King Crimson, John Zorn, The Ramones, Gong, Talking Heads, Iggy Pop & The Stooges, Captain Beefheart, Monks of Doom, Pink Floyd and Black Sabbath.

Their theatrical and improvisational stage show is one of the most manic, intense and unpredictable on the circuit today. While their live concerts often include bizarre costumes, props and pyrotechnic effects, thcy are not a gimmick band. Regularly pcrforming shows with little or no affectations, these "stripped-down" gigs lose none of their punch. The music stands on its own.

It's not uncommon for audiences in five different towns over a five-day period to witness five completely different GAMs . Songs change tempo and meter, spoken-word pieces weave into the sets, and a split-second judgement call is all it takes for GAM to break into an impromptu cover or long forgotten original.

It is this complete unpredictability and naked risk-taking that places GAM in the same league with such notoriously daring groups as The Jesus Lizard and The Butthole Surfers.

GAM has released two independent CD's. l995's 2 song Thunder Bomb EP on Standard Records was a 21 minute blast of psychedelic bummer-rock. Recorded quickly with an earlier lineup, it does not compare to their 17-song full-length debut, 1997's Phase 8 (on the band's own Blast-O-Disc label). This record veers from the Raw Power of "Detroit Steal" to the European film-noir freakout "Rose", with stops in between to the Ziggy Stardust-era vibe of "Legendary Spaceman II", and the Trout-Mask Funkadelic of "Kant Keep Me In Check".

In addition to regular rotation on over 20 college and commercial radio stations, GAM was recently CBGB's Band of The Week. That gig was simulcast live by Pseudo Net on the internet, and a videotape of their show aired on National Japanese Television. The band's last Rochester, NY appearance is bcing broadcast in 30 U.S markets by the syndicated radio show Univcrsal Buzz Radio, which Rolling Slone magazine called "the King Biscuit Flower Hour of the '90s". In the past, Universal Buzz hJs leatured such established and influential alternative artists as They Might Be Giants, Ween and Ani Difranco.

This is your chance to say you knew them when.