King Missile had already released two albums, Fluting On The Hump (Shimmy Disc, 1987 – Instinct, 2004) and They, when Dogbowl dissolved the group.

Their story began in the early ’80s in Manhattan’s Lower East Side. John Hall was a poet influenced by Ginsberg and Burroughs, dedicated to “spoken performance” in East Village cafés. Dissatisfied with that format, he decided to form a band with guitarist Dogbowl and focus solely on performing other people’s songs in a deliberately absurd way. The You Suck quickly became a New York legend, earning a reputation as virtuoso cover artists. When irreverent covers became fashionable, Hall and Dogbowl decided to change direction: they brought in saxophonist Alex DeLaszlo and drummer R.B. Korbet and formed King Missile. Dogbowl’s departure, feeling constrained as a sidekick, led to the early end of this first incarnation.

The new lineup, built by Hall with the ever-present Kramer, with guitarist Dave Rick (of Phantom Tollbooth and Bongwater) and multi-instrumentalist Chris Xefos (of When People Were Shorter And Lived Near The River, WPWS), was conceived specifically to musically accompany his surreal short stories.

Mystical Shit (Shimmy Disc, 1990 – Instinct, 2004) features a modern and varied sound, essentially melodic acid-rock performed and arranged with just enough humor to make it transgressive (though not revolutionary). The approach worked, and on college campuses the absurdist sermon of Jesus Was Way Cool (for actor and solo piano) and the comedic sketch Gary And Melissa (for actor and guitar) spread widely. Hall is a more verbose, more comedic Jonathan Richman. The sung songs are less compelling, except for Rock And Roll Will Never Die (an obviously fake anthem), the psychedelic She Didn't Want, and the garage-rock Love You More, all lively and sharp as per the ’60s manual. King Missile aimed to compete with Dogbowl: they had no shortage of instrumental and vocal talent, but genius was lacking.

The following album, The Way To Salvation (Atlantic, 1991), adopts an even more “mainstream” sound, hard rock that at times (Life) imitates Neil Young-style chord progressions and at others (I Wish) drifts into jingle-jangle territory. Rick now plays guitar with a style that is simultaneously powerful and comic (ā la Zappa); Xefos alternates between bass and keyboards; their instruments paint the hippie anthem of My Heart Is A Flower, perhaps the album’s best track. The most popular track, however, is The Boy Who Hate Lasagna And Could Jump Over A Church, just as Detachable Penis was for the subsequent Happy Hour (1992): musical jokes that combine an eccentric psychedelic theme with Hall’s nonsensical lyrics. On the latter album, opened by the Hare Krishna parody Sink and closed by the hallucinatory delirium of the title track, the melodic vein peaks (among the catchiest are Trapped and among the oddest harmonies, Vulvavoid). The music is now entirely handled by supporting players (Rick, Xefos, and drummer Roger Murdock), with Hall focused on crafting (more or less) comic lyrics. In reality, Hall’s recitations often spoil the happy insights and creative jamming of the power trio. Nevertheless, alternative radio success continued and even grew, making King Missile a true underground phenomenon of the early ’90s.

In 1991, Hall also indulged in a collaboration with Kramer, Real Men (Shimmy Disc), where he did what he does best: reciting free verse over the musical backdrop provided by his partner. Musically, the album belongs to Kramer.

Meanwhile, Rick and Xefos continued to perform with WPWS (singers Kim Rancourt and Joey Defilippis, guitarists Bob Meetsma and David Raymer, veteran drummer David Licht), recording two “cover albums”: Bobby (Shimmy Disc, 1989), a sarcastic tribute to the light-music crooner Bobby Goldsboro; Porgy (Shimmy Disc, 1991), their version of Gershwin’s famous masterpiece; and Bill Kennedy's Showtime (Shimmy Disc, 1994), another collection of covers.

Hall, however, hit rock bottom with King Missile (Atlantic, 1994).

John Hall’s spoken-word Body Has A Head (Manifatture Criminali, 1996) is actually mostly scored by Jane Scarpantoni on cello and Sasha Forte on violin. Only The Bunny Who Wanted To Be A Rat recaptures the magic of King Missile’s novelty songs.

Hall then reformed his band, renaming it King Missile II for Failure (Shimmy Disc, 1998), and III for The Psychopathology of Everyday Life (Instinct, 2003) and Royal Lunch (2004). By this point, Hall had become primarily a spoken-word artist with little or no interest in rock music.