Kramer

Mark Kramer (born Stephen Michael Bonner, 1958 in New York City, United States) known professionally as Kramer, is a musician, composer, record producer and founder of the New York City record label Shimmy-Disc.

Kramer's first experience in the New York music scene came when he played in the band New York Gong, led by Daevid Allen, in 1979 and 1980.

Kramer played organ on one song on their 1979 album About Time.

In 1980, Kramer joined the band The Chadbournes, led by Eugene Chadbourne, which also included David Licht, Tom Cora and John Zorn.

In the early 1980s Kramer met Ann Magnuson, New York City performance artist, when he ran the sound for a band she was in, Pulsallama, during their frequent performances at Club 57.

They played together until Chadbourne, Kramer and Licht formed the band Shockabilly, which toured from 1982 until 1985.

The pressures of living on the road led to personal differences between Kramer and Chadbourne.

He was a full-time member of the bands New York Gong, Shockabilly, Bongwater and Dogbowl & Kramer, has played on tour (usually on bass guitar) with bands such as Butthole Surfers, B.A.L.L., Ween, Half Japanese and The Fugs (1984 reunion tour), and has also performed regularly with John Zorn and other improvising musicians of New York City's so-called "downtown scene" of the 1980s.

Kramer's work as a producer has been with bands such as Galaxie 500 (whose entire oeuvre he produced), Low (whom he discovered and produced), Half Japanese, White Zombie, GWAR, King Missile, Danielson Famile, Will Oldham, Daniel Johnston, and Urge Overkill, including their hit cover of "Girl, You'll Be a Woman Soon".

After Pulsallama disbanded in 1984, the two began to collaborate, and in 1986 they formed Bongwater.

The band dissolved while on a US tour early in 1985.

That tour included a brief tour of Texas with the then-unknown Butthole Surfers.

Forging a close friendship with co-founding Butthole Surfers members Gibby Haynes and Paul Leary, Kramer was available when the band needed to replace their bassist.

Kramer bought a Höfner Beatle bass and joined the Butthole Surfers' debut European tour in 1985.

After touring, Kramer took over a New York recording studio named Noise New York, using a loan of $5,000 from an uncle.

The studio was to serve as a mainstay for artists and bands both local and international, and Kramer became one of the busiest indie music producers in New York City.

The first recording at Noise New York was the Buttholes' rendition of "American Woman".

Kramer formed the record label Shimmy-Disc two years later in 1987 and enjoyed critical acclaim, releasing albums, including Songs from the Pink Death.

The label remained a favorite at college radio stations for the next decade.

Shimmy-Disc artists included Bongwater, King Missile, GWAR, Naked City, Ruins, Boredoms, Damon & Naomi, Daniel Johnston, White Zombie, Yellow Plastic Bucket and Ween.

A pivotal moment in Kramer's early career came when Jad Fair of Half Japanese introduced him to Penn & Teller. Kramer soon found himself working eight shows per week as Sound Consultant on Penn & Teller's 1987 Broadway show, and composing the music for their Cruel Tricks for Dear Friends special.

In 1988 Kramer and Fair released the record Roll Out the Barrel together on Kramer's Shimmy-Disc label.

In 1990 Kramer first met the two-man band Ween when they played a show at a small New York club, the Pyramid Club.

Together they released five LPs, including Double Bummer, and culminating with their 1991 swansong, The Big Sell-Out.

In 1991 they began a romantic relationship while Kramer was separated from his estranged wife, who was at that point three months pregnant with their daughter.

After several months, Kramer decided to end the romantic relationship and reconcile with his wife, and the end of the relationship also spelled the end of the band.

Several months later, Magnuson sued Kramer for $4.5 million for breach of contract, among other charges, and Kramer responded with a counter-suit.

The subsequent legal battle resulted in the financial crippling of the Shimmy-Disc label, which never recovered.

Kramer struck up a friendship with the two, who had already been fans of the Shimmy-Disc label, and he convinced them to release their home-recorded demos on Shimmy-Disc, on what became the 1991 album The Pod.

In 1992, Kramer formed the band the Captain Howdy with Penn Jillette, and together with guest artists Debbie Harry (of Blondie) and Billy West, they made two highly eclectic CDs together, both released on Shimmy-Disc.

In 1992 the three went on a brief tour of England, where Kramer played bass.

In 1992 Kramer sold his Noise New York recording studio and moved just across the Hudson River, where he'd found a house going into foreclosure with a state-of-the-art 24-track recording studio built in.

He dubbed the studio Noise New Jersey, and continued to produce recordings there, including, most famously, Urge Overkill's cover of "Girl, You'll Be a Woman Soon".

However, family illness and personal challenges weighed on him during these years, and the pressures of balancing his profile as an artist with his work as a producer and label head proved too heavy.

Though it was during this time that he produced some of his greatest recordings, including the three-record box set "The Guilt Trip," the consistency of his output had begun to suffer.

The lawsuits were eventually settled out of court in 1997 for undisclosed terms.

Following Penn's permanent relocation to Las Vegas in 1997, the group disbanded.

They reunited in 1998 and published the record ''The Sound of Music.

An Unfinished Symphony in 12 Parts'' that year.

The tour did not go well, due to personality and creative differences between Kramer and the two members of Ween, but Ween band member Mickey Melchiondo said in a 2007 interview that "we're still friends".