Niagara Detroit

About Niagara Detroit

Niagara Detroit is a painter and musician. She was the lead vocalist of the proto-punk rock bands Destroy All Monsters (DAM) and Dark Carnival, which included former members of the Stooges. Her painting derives principally from the Lowbrow art movement.

Destroy All Monsters was a band started in 1974 by University of Michigan art students Niagara on vocals; Mike Kelley on drums and vocals; Jim Shaw on vocals and squeeze toys; and Cary Loren on guitar and vocals. This proto-noise-band was the first pure noise-band according to music historian and Sonic Youth band member, Thurston Moore, who said, "I can find no earlier example of such primitive playing with the use of non-instruments." They were considered an important link between the Detroit proto-punk bands of the late 1960s, the MC5 and the Stooges, and the punk rock explosion of the mid-70s. Niagara's striking physical beauty provided a sharp contrast to her band's savage, atonal noise attack.

After her career in music, Niagara became an acclaimed visual artist, with her work being compared to Robert Williams, Raymond Pettibon and Andy Warhol.