Clay Bell, Aaron Sarlo, Mark Pearrow, and Shayne Gray formed Techno-Squid Eats Parliament in 1992, based on demo recordings from Bell and Sarlo. Techno-Squid’s first show was as a participant in the Spectrum Weekly Musicians Showcase, judged by music industry legends Jody Stephens, Jim Dickinson, and John Fry. Techno-Squid won first place that evening, and, shortly after, signed to Ardent Records and recorded their eponymous album with Grammy™ winner, John Hampton, producing. Philips Multimedia re-released the eponymous album, and Techno-Squid toured the U.S. and Canada relentlessly, made countless fans and friends along the way, inspired a host of indie rock acts, and was featured on Mtv’s 120 Minutes, as well as Mtv Canada, who famously told the band, back stage at the 1995 NXNE music conference, “You guys are the only band we care to see this year.”

Techno-Squid Eats Parliament disbanded July, 1995.

On August 15, 2015, Techno-Squid reunited, releasing their second album, “We’re Back. What Did We Miss?”

Where Did the Name Come From?

We originally played under the name The Lemmings, but after some personnel changes, we decided to change the name. There is an English comic called Viz (http://viz.co.uk/ ; warning, loads of profanity) that used to have a lot of cover stories that were spoofs of US tabloids, like “Bat Boy Eats Own Face” and the like. When we formed the band, a lot of bands had ostentatious names like They Might Be Giants and Toad The Wet Sprocket, so I wanted something absurd / dada that sounded like a headline from Viz.

So, the visual that the name should invoke is that of a mechanical leviathan rising up from the Thames and stuffing members of Parliament (not the band) into its gaping maw. Unfortunately, the name instead tended to conjure images of either Techno music or funk (as in the band Parliament). Alas!

What is Biscuit Quarterly?

The best-known promotional material of TSEP was its self-produced newsletter, or ‘zine, which featured tour dates, spirited descriptions of truck stop snack food, pictures of fans with death-ray hand-beams, recipes of dubious content, and a variety of other views into the facets of madness that was the 1990’s TSEP. The name itself was a parody of GQ. We didn’t have a regular release schedule. When we had something major coming up, we’d often put the money together to produce an issue. A single issue typically cost us around $1000 to put together and mail out. We would put it together in Adobe PageMaker, and would typically use two ink colors (usually black and a spot color on the front and back page).

At the time, I (Mark) was responsible for putting together the newsletter for the much-loved mom-and-pop Little Rock store, Boyd Music Center. Similar to that newsletter, we included a recipe on the back page of each issue – though not ones based in reality. The name of that column changed from issue to issue, but was always a riff on the music store’s recipe column – “Harmony in the Kitchen.” For example, “Gnarf in the Kitchen.” The author’s pic would also change for each issue; for example. Robert Oppenheimer was featured in one issue.

But now, we live in the future, and it’s a lot more cost effective to mail you ones and zeroes! This new incarnation of BQ is more-encompassing than the old one, and will hopefully give you a glimpse into what we were about back then, what we’ve been doing in the meantime, what we’re doing now, and also secret encoded messages that will help you survive the galactic cataclysm that is just around the corner.