Career
Present through almost the entirety of the band"s existence, Westberg was brought on for " debut album Filth (1983) and appeared on every album through 1991s White Light From the Mouth of Infinity (he also played in 1995 for The Great Annihilator). Westberg became a full-time member once again when Michael Gira reactivated the group in 2010. Westberg"s playing can also be heard on many side projects, including The Body Haters and solo albums by Jarboe.
Aside from the present incarnation of, he currently plays in the New York City bands NeVAh (with Vinnie Signorelli & Algis Kizys) and Five Dollar Priest (formerly Size Queens) (with Ron Ward of Speedball Baby & Bob Bert among others).
He also appeared (credited as Norman Westburg) in a short film The Right Side of My Brain directed by Richard Kern and starring Lydia Lunch. On February 25, 2012, Westberg made two limited edition solo releases available at his webstore.
Plough is a four-track European Parliament recorded from 2006 to 2009 and features Westberg coupling guitar with banjo and DX drum machine. Limited Edition of 75 features one fifteen-minute-long ambient piece and is packaged in one-of-a-kind imagery, each disk being decorated with a unique Medical Research Institute from a Civil Defense Westberg was given in hospital.
Both Civil Defense-Rs are packaged in handmade sleeves, Plough with a signed inner and Limited Edition of 75 signed and numbered on the disk itself.
Westberg"s most recent recorded appearances are on double live album We Rose From Your Bed with the Sun in Our Head, which was released initially as a handmade Civil Defense in a limited edition of 1000 copies issued to raise money for the recording of a new album proper. In February 2014 Westberg released a third limited edition solo Civil Defense entitled 13, which will be reissued through Room40 record label on November 13, 2015.