In 1979, Paul Metzger drilled a few innocent holes into a Yamaha acoustic guitar. A self taught musician with 5 years of playing behind him, Metzger was growing tired of the conventions of the instrument. This lobotomy was the first of many surgeries that would follow in years to come. Strings were added, subtracted, added again; the frets of the neck were disemboweled and retrofitted with a sarod like metal fingerboard plate; paint was splattered over it, a rejigged music box was affixed to the guitar's belly, a crash cymbal mounted to its bottom. On the face of it, the instrument took on the look of a piece of tramp art. Thirty years on, Metzger plays the same guitar in rotation with a heavily modified 23 string banjo in a tireless - often isolated - search for a musical style of his own which he finally took public for the first time in 2002. His sonic vocabulary ranges from deeply satisfying & impulsive outer cosmos ragadelia to clangorous, rapidly punctuated percussive workouts. Metzger has been described as a virtuoso and a visionary whose live performances are vital, deeply visceral and simply breathtaking. Metzger has played more than 500 shows worldwide on bills with a diverse array of artists including blues legends Spider John Koerner & Tony Glover, Japanese metal act Boris, new wave revivalists Gang Gang Dance, psych acts Amen Dunes and Six Organs of Admittance, moperockers Low and fellow string journeymen Sir Richard Bishop and Jack Rose. Notable festival appearances include the Festival Météo (France), Suoni per il Popolo (Montreal, Canada), Two Rivers (Portland, Maine) and events sponsored by WFMU and The Wire magazine. Metzger has been profiled on National Public Radio's Weekend Edition and recorded for Amsterdam's legendary VPRO radio. Since 2005, Metzger has released 7 full length solo recordings, a split lp, a compilation appearance and, most recently, a trio improvisation lp with Milo Fine and Davu Seru. His 8th record - a follow up to his widely acclaimed 2007 album Deliverance - was recorded in 2009 in a century old abandoned church in northern Minnesota and is due out on Locust Music in Spring 2010. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.