The earliest version of Premature Ejaculation appeared in 1981, when Williams -- during a period of inactivity for Christian Death -- teamed with Ron Athey to deliver a scant few performances, one of which involved Athey eating (and vomiting up) a dead cat. Unsurprisingly, Premature Ejaculation found it difficult to get gigs, and when Christian Death's recording career picked up, Williams put the project on the back burner.
When Williams left Christian Death in 1985, he formed a creative partnership with Chuck Collison, at first calling themselves the Happiest Place on Earth. Due to their mutual interest in performance art, they decided to resurrect the Premature Ejaculation name, and after working on some instrumental soundscapes, they staged a series of multimedia gigs in Los Angeles over 1987-1988. Christian Death fans expecting more gloomy goth rock were in for a rude awakening: instead, they were treated to a spectacle that generally involved experimental noise, vocal samples, found-object percussion, assaultive video images, and Williams and Collison throwing meat, entrails, and animal eyeballs into the crowd. During this period, the two core members had help with their installations from several contributors, including Kris Fuller, Erik Freeman, Todd Gooch, and Kendal Roos, among others. Meanwhile, Collison issued a cassette of the group's music, Death Culture, and in 1989 the independently released Assertive Discipline album appeared (it was later reissued with wider distribution in 1996).
Williams gradually turned his attention to other projects, most notably Shadow Project and a revived version of Christian Death that competed with the existing lineup. However, he and Collison periodically reunited to stage Premature Ejaculation shows. In 1993, Cleopatra released a second official Premature Ejaculation album, Necessary Discomforts; it was followed a year later by Estimating the Time of Death on Triple X. Both continued the group's experiments with sampling, electronics, and noise. Premature Ejaculation was put to rest with Williams' suicide on April 1, 1998. ~ Steve Huey