Naked City was an avant-garde music group led by saxophonist / composer John Zorn active primarily in New York City from 1988 to 1993. Naked City was Zorns idea of a "composition workshop" to test the limits of composition (& improvisation) in a traditional rock band lineup. Their music incorporated elements of jazz, surf, progressive rock, classical, heavy metal, grindcore, punk rock, & other genres. The band performed an aggressive mix of soundtrack themes, bluesy hard bop, speedy hardcore rock, squealing free jazz & metallic funk, jump-cutting micro-collages of hardcore, country, sleazy jazz, covers of John Barry & Ornette Coleman, brief abstract tussles, the whole gamut of musical styles crammed into two or three minute bursts.

This is John Zorn's infamous "versatile" band, & although they could play most any style of music, the majority of their songs are noisy & complex. They've taken everything aggressive about jazz & heavy metal, blended it together, tightened it.
They played live for several years before they recorded their first self-titled album under the Naked City name. After its 1990 release, Zorn wanted to release a full record of "hardcore miniatures" (a minute or less) but Nonesuch showed no interest in it. They did however bankroll the project allowing Zorn to license it to Shimmy Disc & Earache.

John sez:
"Basically, the first Naked City record (their first album on Nonesuch) came out, right. In the middle of it are about ten songs that are really short and hard. I said I wanted to do a record of 40 of those pieces, cause I was really interested in the compression and compactness of form that that music gets to. The guys at Nonesuch were not interested. If I wanted to do that, I better take it somewhere else. So what I managed to do was get them to bankroll the whole thing, and then I licensed it to Earache and Shimmy for basically no money and no royalties. So they are just putting this stuff out that Nonesuch bankrolled."
Naked City is: John Zorn - alto saxophone, vocals; Yamatsuka Eye - guest vocals; Bill Frisell - guitar; Wayne Horvitz - keyboards; Fred Frith - bass; & Joey Baron - drums.
Blood is Thin
Demon Sanctuary
Thrash Jazz Assassin
Dead Spot
Bonehead
Speedball
Blood Duster
Pile Driver
Shangkuan Ling-Feng
Numbskull
Perfume of a Critic's Burning Flesh
Jazz Snob Eat Shit
The Prestidigitator
No Reason to Believe
Hellraiser
Torture Garden
Slan
Hammerhead
The Ways of Pain
The Noose
Sack of Shit
Blunt Instrument
Osaka Bondage
Igneous Ejaculation
Shallow Grave
Ujaku
Kaoru
Dead Dread
Billy Liar
Victims of Torture
Speedfreaks
New Jersey Scum Swamp
S & M Sniper
Pigfucker
Cairo Chop Shop
Fuck the Facts
Obeah Man
Facelifter
N.Y. Flat Top Box
Whiplash
The Blade
Gob of Spit
Enjoy (if you dare).
NØ