Oil Tasters were an early 1980s band from Milwaukee, Wisconsin, in the United States. They are one of the city's best remembered post-punk groups. They were not, however, easy to fit into the spectrum of post-punk music. Rather than use No Wave, for example, as a foundation, the Oil Tasters start with surrealist literature, then musically move through jazz and rock, with occasional references to James Brown.
The trio, founded on Milwaukee's East Side, released a 2-song 45 record in December 1980. It included "What's In Your Mouth" backed with "Get Out Of The Bathroom", a track which also appeared on Sub Pop founder Bruce Pavitt's compilation cassette release Sub Pop 5 (1981). In August 1981, a 3-song EP was released with "That's When The Brick Goes Through The Window," backed with "Earn While You Learn" and "Smoke."
Aside from defining the edgy, experimental side of the era's music in their live performances, the Oil Tasters left behind an LP recorded for Thermidor (1982), a Berkeley, California-based independent label. It reaffirmed their sound, which was spiritually rooted in the unguarded expressiveness of 1960s soul, the experimentalism of 60's jazz, and the energy of the late 1970s punk, but took forms unlike anything that preceded it.
The three members were bassist and vocalist Richard LaValliere, saxophonist Caleb Alexander, and drummer Guy Hoffman. No guitars were used. Alexander's thrashing sax took the leads and solos, while LaValliere plucked a sinewy bass and strummed it like a rhythm guitar. Hoffman's drums propelled the songs and he added backing vocals to LaValliere's lead voice.
LaValliere's singing and songwriting was as uniquely expressive as the Oil Tasters' sound was. A good example from their Australian reissued Oil Tasters collection CD (Lexicon Devil, 2005), is "My Girlfriend's Ghost," a song that hits with a Dixieland rhythm. It spins a psycho-narrative story of a doleful female specter, haunting the narrator from his TV screen. At the climax of his ghostly tale, LaValliere roars out a scream borrowed from Soul Brother Number One, himself.