* En anglais uniquement
While she never achieved stardom,
Tia Sprocket was an uncompromising musician and songwriter who earned the respect of an impressive and diverse group of her peers; she is likely the only musician in history who worked with
Luscious Jackson,
Ministry, and
Shooter Jennings in the course of her career. She was born Tia Palmisano in Hoboken, New Jersey on April 5, 1968.
Sprocket developed a fierce passion for music in her teens, and took up the drums, quitting lessons after a few months once she felt she'd learned what she needed to know.
Sprocket's first band was Gut Bank, a noise rock outfit, where she took over as drummer after the departure of former
Sonic Youth percussionist
Bob Bert. The group would release an album, The Dark Ages, in 1986. Gut Bank would later evolve into an all-female trio called
Sexpod; several days before they were to set out on a U.S. tour,
Sprocket quit the band mid-performance.
In 1997,
Sprocket landed a gig with the respected indie rock band
Luscious Jackson; she played bass and percussion and sang backing vocals with the group on tour, and appeared on their 1999 album,
Electric Honey. In 2000,
Sprocket relocated to California, and joined the riot grrrl-affiliated group
Lucid Nation, appearing on their album Suburban Legends, released in 2001. In 2003,
Sprocket joined
Ministry as their drummer; that same year, she was hired by the producers of the film Prey for Rock & Roll to coach actresses
Gina Gershon and Drea de Matteo in how to convincingly play seasoned rock musicians. Several years later, she joined
Hank Williams III's road band, and appeared on his album
Straight to Hell, issued in 2006.
By this time,
Sprocket was writing her own songs and playing intimate solo gigs at L.A. clubs; she also hosted a monthly showcase, The Backwoods of Holly, where she frequently performed with outlaw country scion
Shooter Jennings. In 2005,
Sprocket independently released a solo album, Pale Moonshine, and later a self-titled EP, but by 2012 she had dropped off the L.A. music scene, and few were aware of her whereabouts or actions when she died on January 27, 2017 from causes related to drug addiction. In the wake of
Sprocket's death,
Hank Williams III released a free digital EP, Pure Power Memorial, of recordings they had made together. A year after her passing, another posthumous EP was released, a four-song set titled Lady Jane. ~ Mark Deming