Discography
It's a rare and curious situation when an artistic  force of magnitude on the scale of Maximillian Colby appears and then  abruptly dissipates. Initially not greatly known outside their native  state of Virginia, the quartet of Drew Ringo, Dave NeSmith, Tom  Richards, and Bob Baynor never truly knew the scope of their  influence on a mid-'90s subgenre of hardcore music punctuated not  only by fractured walls of sheer noise but also filigreed  instrumentation. Maximillian Colby certainly provide one of the  definitive snapshots of this style of music and have a quality  reminiscent of, say, Gravity Records' back catalog, but they manage  to overstep mere layers of screams and feedback into a realm more  droning  and haunting.Beginning in Harrisonburg, Va., at James Madison University in the  early'90s, the four men produced intricate compositions on one hand  clean, repetitive, and mellow, but on the other, brash and jagged.  Perhaps that's the allure of Maximillian Colby: there's always a  sonically unstable element to them. Control and temperance are always  jockeying for position with splatter and chaos; howls mix with picked  chords to emerge as music of a  singular quality.The foursome flung out a raw, unharnessed energy to produce sketches  of sprawling beauty and rumbling roars. For Maximillian Colby, a  premium was placed on mood, not necessarily crystallized thought. A  quick glance at the lyrics sheet might reveal words that appear as  greeking, or random text used to see how a CD layout would look. But  the sense one gets when listening to the unified channels of  Maximillian Colby's lyrics and music is that narration of specific  instances didn't matter to them. In other words, it's  all about conception and impression.It was their terrifyingly earnest approach towards composition that  resonates in their first 7" on DC's Nervous Wreck Kids, two  compilations on Whirled Records, and their near legendary split 12"  with Canada's Shotmaker. Sadly, the band came to a complete halt  following the sudden death of bassist Baynor in 1995. While Richards  didn't continue onto other musical projects, Ringo and NeSmith  followed their stint in Maximillian Colby with Sleepytime Trio,  Supine to Sit, Rah Bras, Bats & Mice, and a host of other bands.  Maximillian Colby finds glimpses and refractions of itself as the  progenitor in this long list of projects.