Ed Kuepper

Ed Kuepper (born Edmund Kuepper in Bremen, West Germany, 20 December 1955) is an Australian guitarist, vocalist and songwriter. He co-founded the seminal punk band The Saints, the experimental post-punk group Laughing Clowns and later the grunge-like The Aints. He has also recorded over a dozen albums in his own name with a variety of backing bands, notably Ed Kuepper and the Yard Goes On Forever, Ed Kuepper and his Oxley Creek Playboys, Ed Kuepper and The Institute Of Nude Wrestling, The Exploding Universe of Ed Kuepper, Ed Kuepper and the New Imperialists and presently Ed Kuepper and the Kowalski Collective.

In 1976 Kuepper and the Saints were one of the first Australian acts to form their own record label, Fatal Records, to release that band's first single "(I'm) Stranded". In 1980 Kuepper started up Prince Melon Records to release his work with Laughing Clowns.

Kuepper was awarded ARIAs in 1993 and 1994 for Best Independent Australian Release (and nominated for similar awards in 1992, 1995, 1996, 1997 and 1998). He was one of Australia's most prolific recording artists in the early nineties.

In recent years Kuepper has been involved in soundtracking radio drama and experimental films. He toured Australia and Europe performing semi-improvised music to some of these films under the banner of MFLL. Venues included The Institute of Modern Art (Brisbane), Sydney Opera House, The Austrian Film Museum (Vienna) and The Cartier Foundation (Paris), where Kuepper has the distinction of being the only rock musician to be invited to play apart from the Velvet Underground.

2007 saw the release of Kuepper's Jean Lee and the Yellow Dog album, which was inspired by the story of Jean Lee who was the last woman hanged in Australia, and features amongst others, performances by Jeffrey Wegener (Laughing Clowns), Peter Oxley (Sunnyboys), Warren Ellis (Dirty Three), and Chris Bailey (The Saints).

After extensive touring in 2008 opening for Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds Kuepper joined this band as a touring guitarist upon the departure of founding member Mick Harvey in early 2009. This year Kuepper also relaunched Prince Melon Records.

He has also covered several songs by Eric Burdon & The Animals.

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