Career
He performs as a one-man band, as the leader of psychobilly band The Monsters, and with other bands, in a style described as primitive rock and roll and as "gospel blues trash". By his own account, he made his first recordings at age thirteen under the name Taeb Zerfall on his own Zerfall Tapes label. In 1984, he changed his name to Lightning Beat-Manitoba, performing "a mix between Elvis Presley and die Einstürzende Neubauten".
His group, The Monsters, were formed in Bern in 1986.
He started performing as Reverend Beat-Manitoba in 1999, apparently after a vision involving a mix of Robert Johnson, Marilyn Monroe, Tura Satana, Bettie Page, Iggy People’s and Elvis. He plays guitar and drums, performing "a river of sound wholly unique to him, offering his many listeners a sacrament of primitive rock"n"roll, gospel trash, surreal folk, and wild blues," sometimes with a female dancer known as Panti-Christ.
He has described his greatest influences as Howlin" Wolf and Hasil Adkins. He also works as a DJ, presenting "mostly black Rhythm & Blues and blues stuff, garage, rockabilly, and jazz and weird shit from my record collection."
His albums have included Get on Your Knees (2001), credited to Reverend Beat-Manitoba and the Un-Believers.
Your Favorite Position Is on Your Knees (2006), credited to Reverend Beat-Manitoba and the Church of Herpes.
And Surreal Folk Blues Gospel Trash Volumes 1 and 2 (2007). He has also released a number of singles, mostly on the Squooge record label based in Berlin. He has performed at the Montreux Jazz Festival, and toured around Europe, the United Kingdom, the United States of America, Argentina, Japan and elsewhere.
Described as "a haven for misfits", some of the other artists on the label include Delaney Davidson, the Dead Brothers, King Khan and the Shrines, Hipbone Slim & The Knee Tremblers, the Pussywarmers, and the "mysterious fifties rocker", Jerry J. Nixon.
