the ghost taco
------“After an extended period of abstract sounds, melodically increasing and decreasing in volume, the performer extracts the microphone from the stand and inserts a condom on it. Applying lubricant to the condom she then inserts the microphone into her vagina, and with the crackling sound of the microphone against her organs and flesh, an almost operatic symphony begins.”
Newman, 2015
about
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The Ghost Taco puts an sm57 microphone in her vagina live on stage and creates sonic landscapes with the ensuing signal. Once the microphone is inside her, the Ghost Taco’s voice and heartbeat can be heard reverberating through the fluids and chasms in her body, a bit like an ultrasound. The performer, Devon Michigan, is a heavy metal singer. She uses guitar effects pedals and the acoustics of the room itself to create a mix of cosmic and claustrophobic soundscapes with her body and voice.The feedback loop between the performer and the audience creates different conditions, affecting the body and then the audio. The signal can change drastically depending on the sound system, the space, the audience, and Michigan’s place in it all. More than once, the screaming audience was so intense that the microphone picked it up from inside her and the cheering crowd was heard on the speakers. She edges a classic microphone feedback loop to find the Goldilocks zone where drinks bounce along with her heartbeat. Hunched over and turned away from the audience as if afraid in some environments, Michigan ebbs and flows between screeching feedback and pulses of heartbeat loud enough to throb through the audience. In others she rocks back and forth, droning and harmonizing while drumming on her abdomen. Covering her face in a hunched positions, as if crying in despair, she warbles out a soprano song that echoes in a long chasm, entirely alone.the ghost taco began in 2007 in association with fake jazz! at the cobalt, illegal queer cabarets, and the signal + noise festival, all in so-called 'Vancouver'. It was further developed within the queer, punk, metal, and experimental music communities of 'montreal' in the 2010s. As of 2026, it has been performed roughly 100 times.
upcoming
------(incubating, check back Spring 2027)
links & press
site is still under construction.
please check back again soon.------
'garbage music'
2009-2020 (mostly) live demo retrospective EP on bandcampInterview in Untitled Magazine
(2025 Interview by Kate Risiek)Interview in Destroyed Cinema Zine
(2026 Interview by Nick Workman)Three Questions for The Ghost Taco
(2017 Interview with Max Alper)devon michigan (more about the artist)
quotes
“What is remarkable about this is that she uses this set up in a way that is totally not sensationalized or gimmicky--it is simply her primary sound source, just as tape machines or a certain synth might be the main component of a setup for someone else. Even with feminist performance art going back to the 1960s, this gesture still feels radical to me, mostly because of the entirely nonchalant manner of her approach. The last few sets I have seen of hers she has been getting really wonderful harmonic vocal loops going, amplified by way of the interior of her body.”
Sasha Ford. Barrance, Renee. (2017) Blankets An Interview with Sasha Ford. Critic Te Arohi. Otago University Students’ Association. Aeotearoa Student Press Association. Published on 2017-05-28. Retrieved 2020-07-02 from https://www.critic.co.nz/culture/article/6833/blanketsan-interview-with-sasha-ford“But anyways, also in terms of the lineup I’m also really excited about Rusalka, from British Columbia, who always puts on strong performances, she does like extreme theremin. Ghost Taco, I saw her in Montreal and she’s like an extreme singer, coming from metal and hardcore. And she does extreme electronics with powerful delivery.” Bob Bellerue (before he knew how I got my main input hahaha! Also shout outs to Rusalka). Lehrer, Adam (2013) Bob Bellerue (End Tymes Festival). Tiny Mixtapes. Published 2017-05-23. Retrieved on 2020-07-03 from https://www.tinymixtapes.com/features/bob-bellerue-ende-tymes-festival“Devon Michigan, the performance artist known as Ghost Taco, sang through a microphone she held inside herself, knees pressed together, to a packed house at La Baraque.It began with a warning. Michigan let the audience know that she would take no offence if anyone felt the need to leave during her performance. Then she pulled down her green tights, slid a condom over her condenser mic, lubed it up, and inserted it into her vagina. Crouched over a circular table with four distortion pedals, Ghost Taco turned knobs while gently moving her body. We heard her accentuate the sounds that came from inside– the creaks and groans as her inner doors opened and closed. Some sounds were sacred, and some were novel. At one point she sang a few bars of a lovely song ...and we heard the lyrics emanate, an echo of the movement of music inside her coming through La Baraque’s amps; It was beautiful. A few minutes later she asked if anyone had a request. ... Before she inserted, it was a marvel watching her rub the microphone in tight circles on her thigh, hearing the sounds that skin can make. At one point while the mic was submerged she tried tapping on her stomach to see if we could hear that; it was experimentation at its best. Moments before it was all over, she went back to leaning over the pedals. In a prayer-like pose she manipulated the ambient sounds of her body until they became frantic, and wild. It felt like everything in her was yelling, begging, and then it was all over. She pulled the mic out of herself with her left hand, clothed in a black rubber glove, said thank you, and walked off stage, tights around her ankles.” Feldbloom, S (2012) Friday night at B.F.F (Best Friends Forever/ Bunch of Fucking Feminists). Festival Les HTMlles 10. Studio XX. Retrieved 2020-07-03 from https://htmlles10.tumblr.com/post/36060131544/friday-night-at-bff-best-friends-forever
“Similarly, in the final performance of the second production of the cabaret, a performer by the pseudonym, Ghost Taco, exemplifies Schneider’s explicit body, which Johanna Frank argues aims “to identify the means by which female performance artists position and incorporate their bodies in performance despite (or maybe, in spite of) the fact that the body of the female or feminist performance artist is already implicated in the body of the artist’s work” (Frank 2005/2006).“In her performance, Ghost Taco arrives on a dim stage in a black leather outfit with a sound mixer and a microphone. In a procedure, which seems both ritualistic and surgical in its precision, Ghost Taco prepares the sound mixer and begins experimenting with noises. At first it is unclear what the intention is behind her actions. After an extended period of abstract sounds, melodically increasing and decreasing in volume, the performer extracts the microphone from the stand and inserts a condom on it. Applying lubricant to the condom she then inserts the microphone into her vagina, and with the crackling sound of the microphone against her organs and flesh, an almost operatic symphony begins.“Ghost Taco’s sounds are manipulated and transformed with the sound mixer, with vocal accompaniment coming in and out of the instrumental, and at times alarming music of her body. By giving “voice” to the physical body, whose workings and sounds are typically concealed or ignored, …. Ghost Taco emphasizes the corporeal body and queers our expectations of what it is and what it should do. Though the only comprehensible words that the performer speaks on stage are, “mic check” as she taps the microphone at the beginning of the performance, the use and manipulation of the internal body’s sound as a means of expression and character creation challenge normative conceptions of the woman and the body.“….the sound coming out of Ghost Taco’s sound mixer objectifies the performer doubly – at once Ghost Taco is a performer on stage, and simultaneously the sound from her internal organs portrays a separate and equally fascinating object, one which seems both a part of and a part from her character. This divorce between the two objects of perception is so distinct, and so dramatic, that it seems there is a duet on stage, harmonies building between the voice of a person and the disconnected expression from subterranean parts.Ghost Taco’s body as visible object moves to the background, and the visceral internal body emerges in the foreground. Though separated entities, voice and sound here function to queer our expectations, blurring the boundaries, as Frank notes, between that which exists inside and outside. We become aware of bodily expectations and the ways bodies are normalized through a wonky and disoriented queer gaze.”Newman, L. Z. (2015). Staging the Queer Woman’s Body: Doubling in Dirty Plötz. SQS–Suomen Queer-tutkimuksen Seuran lehti, 9(1–2), 29-35. https://journal.fi/sqs/article/view/53598
past exhibitions
2026March 8 for Near Dark, Victoria. Part of Near Dark Fest 2026 with High Grove, The Rita, The Furnace, Schnudlebug, Pseudo 73 + The Outer Limits, and a Fussing / CSTL / Larry’s Horny Poetry collaboration-----2025Dec 13th for Vancouver Noise Fest at KW StudiosOct 5 DULF telethonAugust 16 at Green Auto for DULF w/ M01E, Buddie, & The Heterosexuals.May 10th, Espi + Ghost Taco Live at the Holloway. Split EP live recording.May 3rd in Victoria, ‘BC’ with Sainerine, The Furnace, Cicada Swarm, Landfill Park x Weird Girl, & Treponeme.April 10th in Reykjavik, Iceland for a private party.April 6th at the Holloway Norwich, EnglandMarch 29th at (A) Center, Belfast. with Vsevolod Plotkin, SW1N Hunter, & Siulacht.March 28th at Unit 44 for Kirkos Ensemble. Dublin, IrelandDecember 29- January 4 AARK Residency, Korpo Island Finland----2023 Nov 17 at Doris for Fake Jazz at the Toast with Knife Knife----2021 Garbage Music, self-released digital LP album----2019 August 29 at Ursa w Big Share, Lily Kaufman, Jamie Woollard, & Keith Odell----2017 June 6 at Casa del Polpolo w Limbs Bin, False Lives, & Umji Kelezo----2016Oct 26 at Casa del Polpolo w Vile Intent, Remwar, Ultrarat, & False LivesAug 17 at 49Shade, New York CityMay 29 at La Plante w Celin Bion & Ylang Ylang, Jacob Wren, Muffin DaydreamMay 22 at Brasserie Beaubien w Cloning, Shota Nakamuri, Radiator GreysMar 26 at Bar Le Ritz w Cages, Xarah Dion, & BlanketsMar 16 at Casa del Polpolo w TRNSGNDR/VHS, Blankets, & UrlapseMar 12 Power Plant at Centre Skol for Art Matters Festival----2015August 25 at La Vitrola with La Naegleria, Cold-Catcher, & SkinJuly 9 at Sala Rosa w Gambletron & Johnny Forever, UN, & Echo Beach for Slut Island----2014La Cohu 040 ‘MTL Tapes” Tape Release
w/ Roche Ovale, Minibloc, Thisquietarmy, Christian Richer, Roger Tellier-Craig, Bataille Solaire, Wapstan, Drainolith, Shining Wizard, Ala Vjiior, Black Givre, Xarah Dion, A Sacred Cloud, R U Real, Essaie Pas, Event Cloak, The Fatter Dust Mortal Orchestra, & Jean-Sébastien TruchyJune 5 at the Playhouse for Slut Island with Pretty Boys, Sigh Down One, Brother Moon Sister Sun, FAKES and DJs Sass War and K7K8May 27 ‘Dirty Plotz’ at WGSRF “Congress” Curated by Alex Tigchelaar Brock University TheatreMay 15 Public Privates. Curated by Slippery Slope Cabaret at Café Cleo
ft. Mr. Business Casualty, Dot Dot Dot…, Gigi Matrix, Morgan Sea, Baron Von Stryck, Iris Moore, Kama La Mackeral, Ricky Leach, Sandy Bridges, & Sherwin TijaApril 14 at Sala Rosa w JLK & Echo Beach for Island Frequencies----2013November 1 at noise=noise London, UKArtist in Residence at Arteles Centre, Hameenkyro Finland (October 2013)Sept 8 at Death Church, MontrealJune 26 Dirty Plotz 2 at Buddies in Bad Times, Toronto Pride WeekMay 4 Cool Fest 13 with Essaie Pas, Pink Noise, Crabe, & Chicken PetApril 5 RATS9 for SACOMSS, MontrealMar 2 w/ mandelbrut at June Records, TorontoFeb 28 Resistance & Raunch for the 34th Rhubarb Festival, Toronto. Co-curated by Kim Crosby, Vivek Shraya and Mikiki----2012Nov 16 for HTMLLES 10 c/o Studio XX, MontrealSept 11 w/ Noisy Tits, Bush Tit, & Shearing Pinx at Whitelight Tuesdays, Vancouver.Sept 2 w/ Blanket, Noisy Tits, Holzkopf, N.213, & Anju Singhat Shout Back! Fest, VancouverAug 24 10th Annual Noise! Festival, VictoriaAug 23 w/ Winters in Osaka (Chicago), Worker/The Rita, Totems, & Burrow Owl Destroy Vancouver! II at VIVOJuly 21 w/ alkonostian, krang, markus floats, staring, and Drew Hammond Barnet at Death ChurchJune 23rd Cool Fest v.11.3 at La Brique, Montreal w/ Klondike, Deep Space Niles, Tranz Defonce, Cousins of Reggae, Weirding Module, Elise Barbara, ManyMentalMistakes, Joseph Gabereau, & Avec Le Soleil Sortant De Sa BoucheMay 5 w/ MOR†, La Part Maudite, Housefly ft. Nebula X, Éric Cossette, Alain Lefevre w/Émilie Mouchous, & Sarah Wendt at Festival Last Rites at Friendship Cove, MontrealApril 29 at Reggay Night volume sex. Salon Officiel, MontrealApril 6 w/ alkonostian//weirwood, JS Truchy, MOR†, Sermon, dhalgren, Oryx Lamia, Grkzgl!, lowebrau, & looming omens at Good Friday Fuckery! at the Death ChurchFeb 26 w/ Markus Floats and Dirtyboots at Le CagibiFeb 25 for Art Matters Festival at Nuit Blanche, Blue Cat Boxing RingFeb 24 for Xpose Vernissage for Radical Queer Semaine @ Fresh Paint GalleryFeb 11 for St Emilie Skillshare and Rough Diamond CollectiveFeb 4 for Dissonance Cognitive No.4 at Cabaret PlayhouseThere’s more, but they’re buried in the archives…
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