No Wave

UPDATE: This post was re-uploaded 
09/13/2013. Enjoy, NØ.

So, what is No Wave?

The name came about as reaction to the term New Wave. At the tail end of the 70's the record industry was trying to rebrand punk & labeled the poppier bands that came in the aftermath of Punk as New Wave. The No Wave bands wanted to reject this poppier side but they also felt no affinity to Punk. At the time, Lydia Lunch (the queen of No Wave?) bemoaned how Punk was just sped up Chuck Berry riffs & it is true that if you listen to most (but not all!) punk today, it is just badly played, sped up three chord rock n' roll. The Garage bands of the 60's had nailed the Punk sound way earlier & frankly mainly sound better to this day. Listen to No Wave today and it is still a shock to the system & often sounds like a music with no precedent. This last thing is another of the keys to what No Wave is. Many of the artists were determined that their music should not be influenced by anything that came before & should sound totally new. If influences did creep in they were more likely to be from free jazz than any rock based form of music. The 'No' in No Wave could thus be taken to imply the music didn't belong to any particular style or genre.

The ability to play was completely unimportant too. But where Punk liberated thousands of non musicians who found they could make music by only learning a few chords, many of the No Wave artists didn't even bother learning one chord. Coaxing atonal & abrasive sounds from their instruments & conjuring up basic repetitive rhythms was a much more effective way for them to express themselves. Melody? Forget it! Although when one hears No Wave, it is instantly obvious that that is what is being listened to, none of the bands really have that much in common stylistically.

In 1978, Brian Eno was living in New York & was blown away by the performances he was seeing by these artists. He wanted to capture this & document it so he took four of the bands - Mars, The Contortions,Teenage Jesus & The Jerks, Mars, & D.N.A. into the studio & produced (in the loosest possible sense) four tracks apiece by each of them. This came out as the legendary No New York album. The one problem with this album is all the bands that got left off, which has resulted in many people thinking these four bands are the definition of No Wave when there were numerous other acts ploughing similar (different) territory. The Theoretical Girls must have been particularly gutted as they were initially meant to be on the album but were then dropped at the last minute.

No Wave critics often argue that it was all a load of art wank and while many of the artists involved did come from an art / performance background, most didn't. But, as well as music, there were also No Wave film makers, the most famous of them being Nick Zedd, John Lurie and Richard Kern.

Starting off with one track each from all four contributors to the legendary 'No New York' compilation, here represented by tracks that don't appear on that record:

Mars - 3E (Ze Records)
First up are Mars with perhaps their most conventional sounding song. Mars were perhaps the first No Wave band, having formed before any one else got in on the act. Their two man / two woman line up would also prove to be a reflection of how equally the sexes were represented in No Wave, a fact often forgotten & seldom replicated in any other musical genre.


D.N.A. - You & You (Lust/Unlust)
From a fabulous 7" on Charles Ball's Lust/Unlust label, Arto LIndsay's guitar on this is outrageous. Perhaps more than any other No Wave act D.N.A. took their complete inability to play & made it their greatest asset. Lindsay conjured sounds out of his guitar that had never been heard before while Iku Mori's non drumming is a revelation. Lindsay's strangulated vocal style is also a thing of wonder. What I would give to have been able to see them live! They can be seen in rehearsal in the flawed but brilliant Downtown '81 film .


Teenage Jesus & The Jerks - Freud In Flop (Lust/Unlust)
42 seconds is all you need. Lydia Lunch's wonderfully named combo may have been short lived but everything they left behind is like an electric shock to the system.


The Contortions - Contort Yourself (Ze Records)
Led by the legendary James Chance who also co-founded but was only briefly in Teenage James Chance could be the Godfather of No Wave. Being a James Brown freak probably clinches him deserving that title. This song is The Contortion's 'hit' & Chance would go on to re-record it in a disco style with his James White & The Blacks ensemble. Chance could have gone on to become a star but personal problems & his confrontational attitude on stage helped to prevent that happening.


The Fire Engines - Get Up & Use Me (Codex Communications)
This is where music nerds will start to debate about what is No Wave & whether it is limited to New York artists. The Fire Engines are Scottish, but they were obsessed with The Contortions & it certainly shows. Based around one of the greatest riffs of all time, this was recorded in one take.


Blurt - Puppeteer (Factory)
Blurt are probably the most No Wave but not No Wave band of all time. Blurt probably would have existed & sounded exactly as they do whether such a thing as No Wave had ever happened or not. Hailing from Stroud & centering around the skronking sax genius & belching vocals of Ted Milton, Blurt are one of the great unsung bands of our times. Their music has so much space & groove that it's easy to get lost inside it. Blurt are a psycho-funk, afro-punk, no-wave, pogo-jazz-trio. This track oozes funk which apart from James Chance's experiments is not something No Wave is generally known for doing.


Tools You Can Trust - Show Your Teeth (Red Energy Dynamo)
Hailing from Manchester, Tools You Can Trust were very aware of No Wave although they never thought of themselves as a No Wave act, but this has all the hallmarks of a No Wave gem. The slightly deranged vocalist & the gas cylinders used for percussion clinches it. Most of their songs related to the war which the Conservative government was at that time waging upon the ordinary working people of Great Britain.

Sonic Youth - Shaking Hell (Neutral)
Again, the purists would probably debate the inclusion of this. But even though No Wave had pretty much finished by 1983, Sonic Youth were certainly born out of it. This song is great & features one of my favorite Kim Gordon vocals.


8 Eyed Spy - Lazy In Love (Fetish)
Here's Lydia Lunch finally getting to let rip. 8 Eyed Spy was her short lived 'mutilated blues' band & while a lot less shrill than much other No Wave (especially Teenage Jesus) it still has a certain 'on the edge' aspect to it.


Pulsallama - On The Rag (Y Records)
Described at the time as '12 girls fighting over a cowbell', Pulsallama were a short lived collective of feisty women who banged things together & wowed New York crowds as much with their on stage fighting as with their music. Featuring future star Ann Magnuson as a member, this is their ode to their periods!
bonus track - May (Y Records)


Arto / Neto - Pini, Pini (Ze Records)
This was a one off project for Ze Records featuring Arto Lindsay from DNA & his cinematographer friend Seth Tillet. On top of primitive drum machine hi hats, Lindsay does some of his best & most out there guitar noise while Tillet (Neto) recites an hysterical pigeon English rap. It has been argued (sort of) that this is in fact one of the first hip hop records.


Y Pants - That's The Way Boys Are (Neutral)
Y Pants were three women artists - Barbara Ess, Virgina Piersol & Gail Vachon. They mainly played at art spaces & had their own unique sound derived from their unusual instrumentation. They based their sound around an amplified toy piano, a toy drum set & a ukelele played through a distortion unit. Later they would add an electric bass & synth. They released one single for the legendary 99 Records & then one lp on Neutral Records. "That's the Way Boys Are" is sad, scary & lovely all at the same time.


ImpLOG - Breakfast (Log)
impLOG are most famous for the track "Holland Tunnel Dive" which is in my opinion seven & a half minutes of complete genius . "Breakfast" shows that No Wave doesn't have to be all about abrasive dissonance. impLOG were Don Christensen with help from Jody Harris. They were both in The Contortions & released just two records as impLOG - the Holland Tunnel Dive 12" and the Breakfast 7". This song is a rather silly but utterly charming ode to the great American breakfast. Jody Harris is one of the unsung heroes of No Wave - a Contortion, an impLOGger, founder of the wonderful Raybeats & collaborator with New York legend Robert Quine on the super Escape LP on the mighty Lust/Unlust label.


Jill Kroesen - Fay Shism Blues (Lovely Music)
Ending with the best song Patti Smith never wrote, this features contributions from Bill Laswell, the ubiquitous Jody Harris, Don Christensen & Arthur Russell amongst others. This is an incredibly tense piece of music that is so New York it hurts. Several people I have played this to have become completely obsessed with it. A performance, video & visual artist, musician & composer, it astounds me that Kroesen's work is so unknown. To me this sums up all that that era gave us - truly challenging & supremely wonderful music that inspires & moves as much, if not more so today than it did a quarter of a century ago.

A visitor request this update. I have placed all the songs in one file. I also added an entire folder of scans.

Various - No Wave Bands 1978 - 1984.

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Enjoy,
NØ

No New York

No New York is a compilation album released in 1978 by Antilles Records (AN-7067) under the curation of producer Brian Eno. Although it only contained songs by four different artists, it is considered by many to be the definitive single album documenting New York City's late-1970s No Wave movement.

No Wave was a short-lived but influential art music & art scene that thrived briefly in New York City during the late 1970s & early 1980s alongside the punk subculture. The term No Wave is in part satiric wordplay rejecting the commercial elements of the then-popular New Wave genre. The term also highlights the music's experimental nature: No Wave music belonged to no fixed style or genre.

In many ways, No Wave is not a clearly definable musical genre with consistent features. Various groups drew on such disparate styles as funk, jazz, blues, punk rock, avant garde, & experimental. There are, however, some elements common to most No Wave music, such as abrasive atonal sounds, repetitive driving rhythms, & a tendency to emphasize musical texture over melody. No Wave lyrics often focused on nihilism & confrontation. No Wave is often better defined in terms of the artistic environment in which it thrived & the character of performances typical to its context. No Wave performances drew heavily on performance art & as a result were often both highly theatrical & minimalistic in their renditions.

Also during this time, there was a period of No Wave Cinema which was an underground film movement in the East Village. No Wave filmmakers included Amos Poe, John Lurie, Vivienne Dick, Scott B & Beth B. This in turn led to the Cinema of Transgression, with work by Nick Zedd & Richard Kern. Late followers of this movement included groups such as Sonic Youth, Skeleton Key, Swans, Cop Shoot Cop, and others. The Theoretical Girls heavily influenced early Sonic Youth, who then emerged from this scene by creating music that eventually reached mass audiences & critical acclaim.

No Wave had a notable influence on noise & industrial bands who formed after, like Big Black, Lev Six, Helmet, & Live Skull. Also for new bands like Liars, Ex Models, Neptune, Erase Errata the influence of the No Wave scene was important. The Brian Eno-produced album No New York is perhaps the best example of this genre, featuring songs by The Contortions, Teenage Jesus & the Jerks, Mars, & D.N.A.

The No Wave movement continues to have a far-reaching impact on the American anti-culture music scene.

In a foreword to the book No Wave, Weasel Walter wrote of the movement's ongoing influence:
"I began to express myself musically in a way that felt true to myself, constantly pushing the limits of idiom or genre and always screaming "Fuck You!" loudly in the process. It's how I felt then and I still feel it now. The ideals behind the (anti-) movement known as No Wave were found in many other archetypes before and just as many afterwards, but for a few years around the late 1970s, the concentration of those ideals reached a cohesive, white-hot focus."

From No New York, spring 1978...
Enjoy,
NØ

The Contortions

One of the original punk-jazz groups of the New York No Wave scene, the Contortions were led by saxophone player James Chance, aka James White. (aka James Zhite, aka James Black, etc.) Their first recorded appearance, credited solely as the Contortions, was on the 1978 compilation, No New York. The following year, two albums were issued almost simultaneously on the ZE label, Buy the Contortions (an extreme jazz-punk LP) & Off White (a disco/standards hybrid; with one side vocals, the other side instrumentals). The same line-up recorded both records, although no one aside from Chance appears or is credited on the jacket of the Buy album. Following Chance & manager Anya Philips' acrimonious break with many of the original Contortions, the line-up changed frequently.
Dish it Out
Flip Your Face
Jaded
I Can't Stand Myself

Chance was romantically linked with another New York No Wave luminary, Lydia Lunch; in 1979 the pair collaborated on the album Off White (released by 'James White & the Blacks' with 'Stella Rico'). Original Contortions guitarist Pat Place went on to found the group the Bush Tetras. The African-American band members of "the Blacks," later separated from Chance & formed the band Defunkt. Guitarist Jody Harris formed neo-surf combo the Raybeats with Don Christensen, George Scott III & Pat Irwin.

Teenage Jesus & the Jerks

Teenage Jesus & the Jerks were an influential New York City No Wave music group of 1976-79 fronted by Lydia Lunch & James Chance, who later left the band after some conflict about their direction.

Burning Rubber

Reputed to play ten-minute sets of thirty-second songs (though "The Closet" & "I Woke Up Dreaming" extended to around three minutes & pushed performances up to twenty), they sought to take music beyond what Lunch saw as the traditionalism of punk rock ("I thought punk was lousy Chuck Berry music amped up to play triple fast", she later commented). Their frenzied playing & Lunch's shrieked vocals gained them a renown quickly matching & even surpassing that of other No Wave bands such as DNA or the older Mars.

The Closet
Red Alert

The group left behind little more than a dozen complete recorded songs, most of the surviving titles being assembled in 1995 into an 18-minute career retrospective CD only slightly incorrectly titled Everything (though other studio versions of several songs exist alongside a few live recordings). Few bands can have achieved quite such an impact with so slim a body of work, one felt not only in the US but also via (extremely limited) radio play in Britain where their assault on convention contrasted even more powerfully with the punk music of the day. Lunch & Chance went on separately to continued success in the New York underground music scene & beyond.

I Woke Up Dreaming

Mars

Mars were a New York City No Wave band formed by vocalist Sumner Crane in 1975. He was joined by China Burg (née Constance Burg; aka Lucy Hamilton - guitar, vocals), Mark Cunningham (bass), & Nancy Arlen (drums). The band played one live gig under the name China before changing it to Mars. They played a mixture of angular compositions & free-form ambient
noise jams, featuring surrealist lyrics & non-standard drumming; all the members were said to be completely untrained in music before forming the band.

Helen Fordsdale

Critic Stella Doon wrote in 1977:
"To the uninitiated, Mars may sound like listening to a laundromat magnified. That's because every instrument is making a sound, but who is making which sound? Instead of one direct sound or beat the music travels in at least 3 different directions, speeds of rhythm making a totally orbital sound, one that never really enters the ear instead spinning around the head. At times it sounds like tortured children singing in 7 different tongues."

Hairwaves

Mars played live about two dozen times, all in Manhattan. Their first show was at CBGB's in January of 1977; their last one was at Max's Kansas City on December 10, 1978.

Tunnel

Their recorded debut was the "3-E"/ "11,000 Volts" 7-inch single, released by Rebel Records/ ZE Records. The group then released a single live EP in 1979 or 1980, though they had broken up in 1978. Both recordings were compiled by Lydia Lunch's self-run label, Widowspeak Records, in 1986, as 78; the songs were slightly remixed & tweaked by Jim Thirlwell (a.k.a. Foetus). It was reissued by Atavistic Records on CD in 1996 as 78+. Due to complaints about Thirlwell's modifications on 78/78+, the full studio recordings of Mars (totaling about 30 minutes) surfaced in 2003 on the Spanish labels G3G & Spookysound. Cunningham ran both Hyrax Records & Spookysound Records. After the break-up of Mars, Cunningham was part of the bizarre John Gavanti "no wave opera" project with Crane, Arto Lindsay, & others. He has also worked with the band Don King, & recently with Convolution.

Puerto Rican Ghost

Crane died of lymphoma on April 15, 2003. Arlen died on September 17, 2006, following heart surgery.

D.N.A.

D.N.A. was a short-lived but influential New York band, associated with the No Wave movement. They were formed in 1978 by guitarist Arto Lindsay & keyboardist Robin Crutchfield. Rather than playing their instruments in a traditional manner, they instead focused on making unique & unusual sounds. Their music was described as spare, noisy, & angular. It was compared to some of Captain Beefheart's output.

Egomaniac's Kiss

D.N.A. originally consisted of Lindsay, Crutchfield, Gordon Stevenson, & Mirielle Cervenka. They took their name from a song by another no wave band, Mars (see above). Stevenson went on to play bass for Teenage Jesus & the Jerks; Cervenka is the younger sister of Exene Cervenka of X. This incarnation of the band was very brief, not playing even one concert. After the rapid departure of Stevenson & Cervenka, Lindsay & Crutchfield hastily recruited Ikue Mori (listed as Ikue Ile on the No New York album) --- a Japanese woman with little command of English & no drum set --- to be D.N.A.'s drummer.

Lionel

This lineup of D.N.A. played occasionally at CBGB & Max's Kansas City. They recorded one 7" single. Within their first year, they had cemented their reputation as a paradigmatic no wave band when Brian Eno selected them as one of the four groups documented on the No New York LP, the first recording to expose no wave groups to an audience outside of lower Manhattan.

Not Moving

Shortly after the recording of No New York, Crutchfield left D.N.A. to form a new band, Dark Day. He was replaced by Tim Wright, previously of the Cleveland band Pere Ubu. As Wright played bass guitar & not keyboards, & also being the only member of the band to have any conventional instrumental technique, the change in D.N.A.'s sound was dramatic. The music became even more spare & angular, with Wright's bass lines creating a sometimes menacing sound to support Lindsay's scraping, atonal guitar & Mori's irregular rhythms. Their song structures became tighter, briefer, more abstract. It has been compared to aural haiku.

Size

The Lindsay-Mori-Wright lineup of D.N.A. developed something of a cult following between 1979 & 1982, but perhaps more of their fans came from the art world than from rock audiences. Live shows were frequent in this period, but rarely outside of the CBGB - Mudd Club - Tier 3 circuit in lower Manhattan.

All four songs in 320Kbps mp3 & FLAC.

The group's 10-minute debut album, A Taste of D.N.A. was recorded for Kip Hanrahan's American Clavé label. It was later released on Rough Trade in 1980. Some live D.N.A. tracks appeared on compilation albums while the band was still in existence.

Lindsay, Mori, & Wright decided to dissolve the band in 1982. It's a measure of the cult following the band had developed that its final concerts were three consecutive sold-out nights at CBGB. D.N.A.'s final encore was a cover of Led Zeppelin's "Whole Lotta Love." Sadly, this is not included on the CD Last Live at CBGB, released more than a decade later on John Zorn's Avant label.

Lindsay, Mori, & to a lesser extent Crutchfield, have remained active in music.

The Aesthetics of Noise is an in-depth, scholarly article on noise & its relationship to aural art (if anyone is interested in learning more).
From the above mentioned article, by Torben Sangild:
Noise can blow your head out. Noise is rage. Noise is ecstatic. Noise is psychedelic. Noise is often on the edge between annoyance and bliss. Noises are many things. Noise is a difficult concept to deal with...
After defining noise and giving a brief history of noise in music, I will take a closer look at Sonic Youth, My Bloody Valentine, Merzbow and Curd Duca as four very different aesthetic approaches to noise...
The first composer to consciously operate with noise as music was the Italian futurist Luigi Russolo, writing the manifesto "The Art of Noise" in 1913. He constructed the so-called "intonarumori" (noise intonators) and composed a few works for these machines...
Noise in rock music is centered on two effects, both connected to the electric guitar and developed in the sixties: feedback and distortion...
The deliberate use of these effects can be traced back to Link Wray's "Rumble" (1958), but it was garage bands like The Kingsmen who made it an integral part of their sound. The great innovator, however, was undoubtedly Jimi Hendrix, who constructed a whole catalogue of noise effects, using them with virtuosity in his blues-inspired rock compositions. Aesthetically, however, the influence on noise rock came not from Hendrix, but rather The Velvet Underground, with their minimal, lo-fi, sinister music and disillusioned texts. On tracks like "European Son" and "Sister Ray," the noise is alarming in ways that has made Velvet Underground a reference point for all noise rock.

The present-day Pachuco refuses to die!

Never forget Ruben Sano!

The Story of Ruben & the Jets

Ruben Sano was 19 when he quit the group to work on his car. He had just saved up enough money to buy a '53 Nash & four gallons of gray primer. His girl friend said she would leave him forever if he didn't quit playing in the band & fix up his car so they could go to the drive-in & make out. There was already 11 other guys in the band so when he quit nobody missed him except for his car when they had to go to rehearsal or play for a battle of the bands at the American Legion Post in Chino. They are all still good friends even today. The other main guys in the band: NATCHO, LOUIE, PANA, & CHUY still come over to RUBEN'S house on Tuesday or Wednesday to listen to his collection of Richie Valens records & also "Eddie My Love". Generally speaking, they save "Cherry Pie" & "Work With Me Annie" till the late part of the evening so they can have something to hum on the way home or to Burger Lane. Some of them continue to hum & pop their fingers even the next day, working in the car wash. Now that they have gotten their big break in show business each one of the main guys in the group voted at the band meeting to keep the name RUBEN on the JETS not only because it sounds real fine & gives it class, but also because it makes it real sharp. RUBEN even likes it too & thinks its real sharp. All the guys in the band hope that you are sick & tired like they are of all the crazy far out music some of the bands of today are playing. They hope you are so sick & tired of it that you are ready for their real sharp style of music. They are good socially acceptable young men who only want to sing about their girl friends. They want everybody to start dancing close back together again like 1955 because they know that people need to love & also want to hold on to each other. Even holding hands is okay to them. They want you to hold hands & dance the bop & fall in love to their music. One of the main guys in the band was telling me a couple of weeks ago when we were talking about how only about half the guys in the band ever show up at rehearsals most of the time..."IF PEOPLE WOULD JUST HEAR MY PLEA I WOULD GIVE EVERYTHING JUST TO SING THE SONGS THAT WAS TURNING ME ON IN HIGH SCHOOL.

RUBEN HAS 3 DOGS.
BENNY, BABY & MARTHA.

The Mothers - Cruising with Ruben & the Jets

Verve V6-5055x

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"This is an album of greasy love songs & cretin simplicity. We made it because we really like this kind of music (just a bunch of old men with rock & roll clothes on sitting around the studio, mumbling about the good old days). Ten years from now you'll be sitting around with your friends someplace doing the same thing if there's anything left to sit on."

Ray Collins (lead vocals)
Frank Zappa (low grumbles, oo-wah, & lead guitar)
Roy Estrada (high weazlings, dwaedy-doop, & electric bass)
Jimmy Carl Black &/or Arthur Dyre Tripp III (lewd pulsating rhythm)
Ian Underwood or Don Preston (redundant piano triplets)
Motorhead Sherwood (baritone sax & tambourine)
Bunk Gardner & Ian Underwood (tenor & alto saxs)

TRACKS:
Cheap Thrills
Love of My Life
How Could I Be Such a Fool
Deseri
I'm Not Satisfied
Jelly Roll Gum Drop
Anything
Later That Night
You Didn't Try to Call Me
Fountain of Love
"No. No. No."
Anyway the Wind Blows
Stuff up the Cracks

In 1984, Zappa, unhappy with the sound quality of Cruising with Ruben & the Jets, enlisted Arthur Barrow & Chad Wackerman to re-record the original bass & drum parts (although they were not credited) for the Old Masters Box One re-issue of the album.

In addition to the new drums & bass, Zappa added several vocal overdubs & heavily remixed the album, nearly making it sound like a completely different album. 
 
The 1984 remix of the album has become the standard, & all post-1984 reissues of the album have featured this mix.

The 1968 version of the album with the original bass & drum parts has not been officially rereleased on CD, although bootlegs have surfaced.

The tracks here are from the original album release. They will be removed shortly.

Enjoy
NØ

Can You Hear Me?

Re-uploaded 03/12/2014. Enjoy, NØ.

Various - Can You Hear Me? Music from the Deaf Club, Optional Music OPT LP001, 1980.

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This record has only three tracks per side, one track for each band. I did not separate the tracks nor the songs in each track but simply included Side 1 & Side 2. I have included the back cover graphic that lists the song titles. If you want it cut up into individual song, DIY.

The Deaf Club was a notable music venue located on Valencia Street in San Francisco which remained open for an 18 month period. Its main attraction was punk music. The name comes from the fact the building it was in originally was the San Francisco Club of the Deaf.

Robert Hanrahan, manager of the The Offs, discovered the club, & was able to rent it on a nightly basis.

The first show as the Deaf Club was on 9 December 1978 & featured the Offs, The Mutants & On The Rag. Over 100 bands such as Northern California's The Zeros, Crime, The Dils, Flipper & Southern California's The Bags, Alleycats, The Germs, X & Dinettes played during the clubs short history.

Given the unique nature of the venue & it's location in the Mission District near 16th Street & the Roxie Theater, it was enthusiastically supported by the punk & arts community, visited by film greats like John Waters & occasionally challenged by the officials of the San Francisco noise abatement patrol, the police, fire department, health department & the alcohol/beverage control until it closed.

The house DJs were Enrico Chandoha who worked on the editorial staff of the early Thrasher Magazine; Jack Fan (an Offs road manager & chef at the Zuni); BBC celebrity Johnnie Walker; & Robert Hanrahan.

About such venues, Brendan Earley of The Mutants comments:
"The earthiness, I guess, of playing places like the Deaf Club seemed to have a lot more energy to them. You know the crowd that started coming to this music in '77, it was maybe a peak of their scene, or the scene at that time. They were not normal kinds of clubs, they weren't places like the Stone, or even the Mabuhay, really. They were neat places to play; often good audiences, & good energy going on."

The four partners in Walking Dead Records developed a live compilation project that resulted in this album, released by Optional Record distribution of Berkeley, CA on the Walking Dead label: Can You Hear Me? Music From the Deaf Club. It was recorded on a mobile 8 track by Jim Keylor (also of Army Street Studios), DJ'ed by Johnnie Walker , produced by Robert Hanrahan who also managed & booked the Club, & coordinated by Peter Worrall. The photos selected for the album were taken by Sue Brisk, the album art was by Diana Miami (aka Diana Stumbo) & the liner notes were written by V. Vale of RE/Search/Search & Destroy. It was recorded live at the club during early 1979 & is a testament to the authentic underground punk & "new wave" scene during that period in San Francisco's music history.

The album features performances by first & second generation San Francisco Punk bands like:

* Dead Kennedys with "Police Truck", "Short Songs" & "Straight A's". This was the last performance of the DK's rhythm guitarist 6025 & also features Ted on drums, who was replaced by DH Peligro at the very end of 1980. Raymond Pepperell, Jr., better known as East Bay Ray of the Dead Kennedy's used the original eight track safety masters from this live recording to release their recent 2004 "live at the Deaf Club" CD.

* KGB- "Dying in the USA" & "Picture Frame Seduction"

* Offs - "Hundred Dollar Limo", "Die Babylon", "I've Got the Handle" (Offs were: Don Vinil, Billy Hawk, Bob Roberts now of Spotlight Tattoo in Los Angeles, Bob Steeler & Denny Boredom who also played with Hot Tuna)

* The Mutants' "Tribute to Russ Meyer" & "Monster of Love"

* Pink Section - "Jane Blank", Francine's List" & "Been In The Basement 30 Years"

* Tuxedo Moon - "19th Nervous Breakdown" - courtesy of The Rolling Stones & "Heaven" from the film Eraserhead

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The Dead Kennedys ... no need to say more.

1. DEAD KENNEDYS "Police Truck"
2. DEAD KENNEDYS "Short Songs"
3. DEAD KENNEDYS "Straight A's"

K.G.B.

Re-uploaded 01/23/2014. Enjoy, NØ.


K.G.B. was a short-lived band consisting of singer Johnny Genocide (The Offs, No Alternative), drummer Zippy Pinhead (The Dils, DOA), bassist Jeff Reese (No Alternative) & guitarist Ron Ramos (The Assassins). Johnny also played rhythym guitar for the OFFs. After KGB broke up, he formed No Alternative with Jeff Reese on Bass & a rotating list of drummers (Bobby Barage, Andy Freeman, & Chris Coon).

K.G.B.

4. K.G.B. "Dying In the USA"
5. K.G.B. "Picture Frame Seduction"

The Offs

Re-uploaded 05/13/2024. Enjoy, NØ.

 

The Original line-up of The Offs was: Billy Hawk - guitar, Don Vinil - vocals, Fast Floyd - bass, & Bob Steeler - drums. They were later joined by Bob Roberts - saxophone. The Offs' singer, Don Vinil (who sadly died of a heroin overdose on Ninth St. in New York in 1983), was one of the first openly gay people in the West Coast punk scene. V.Vale of Search & Destroy & RE/Search introduced Vinil to guitarist Billy Hawk after Vinil was kicked out of his first band, Grand Mal. The Offs formed in late 1977 as just a goof between Billy Hawk, Don Vinil, & a girl named Olga. They played around, various wanna-be musicians drifted in & out of the band. Gradually everyone involved got more & more serious.

The Offs were unique among the first wave of West Coast punk bands in maintaining a home base on both coasts. In San Francisco, their manager discovered the Deaf Club as a live venue, & the Offs released records on the labels CD Presents and 415 Records. In New York City, they hung out with Basquiat (who scrawled their album cover), & released a single on Max's Kansas City Records. The greatest thing about this San Francisco sextet was their inability to be pigeon-holed. Were they punk? New wave? Avant-garde? Art rock? No New York noise? A new strain of art jazz? Some odd form of mutant ska gone wrong with bleating sax & screeching vocals? Like their U.K. contemporaries, Blurt, they were sort of all these things, & still others with names that haven't been invented. But what tied them to the punk community was the basic blazing energy to everything they did. These weren't a bunch of art school posers, they were smash-it-up party skanksters who wanted to do something fresh within an absolutely remarkably creative late-'70s Bay Area scene -- in cahoots with Crime, Nuns, Avengers, Negative Trend, Flipper, Pink Section, Tuxedomoon, Vktms, Mutants, Lewd, Dils, Zeros, & more.

Most of their earlier recordings have been nearly impossible to get but recently a live recording of The Offs has been released on Vampir Records, recorded by Terry Hammer at the infamous Mabuhay Gardens in 1980.

The OFFs from Various - Can You Hear Me? Music from the Deaf Club, 

Optional Music OPT LP001, 1980.

6. OFFS "Hundred Dollar Limo"
7. OFFS "Die Babylon"
8. OFFS "I've Got the Handle"

Mutants

The late 70's provided a giant stage for American underground bands trying to create a new kind of rock & roll. In San Francisco, The Mutants emerged as one of the great art school punk bands of the era with their unique seven-member high octane, alcohol fueled melodic punk assault. Each performance was treated as a special event, which the band packed with truly memorable tunes from their enormous catalog.

Seeing the Mutants live was like being invited to a secret John Waters movie about punk colorfully & melodically crashing into New Wave, like a dysfunctional locomotive designed by Johnnie Cash on angel dust. Why couldn't the Sex Pistols or the Doors be this much fun? Because the Mutants could be so flamboyant & conceptual, it's easy to forget the musical power of their songs. This is partially connected to how the vocals of sweet toughies Sally Webster & Sue White harmoniously combine with those of Fritz Fox. Although Frank Zappa denied ever using LSD, the Mutants didn't. Maybe that's how they mutated.

9. MUTANTS "Tribute to Russ Meyer"
10. MUTANTS "Monster of Love"

Pink Section

Re-uploaded 01/25/2014. Enjoy, NØ.


Pink Section was a great short-lived no wave/synth/noise band that performed regularly in San Francisco during the 1980's. It's members included: Mr. Todd, Stephen Wymore & Judy Gittlsohn/Carol Detweiler of Japanese Weekend. Yoko Ono was an inspiration to them.

They released the Tour of China 7", a self-titled 12" & a number of scattered tracks on compilations albums back in the day, plus no doubt there is some unreleased material in the vaults. They should have done more, but whaddya gonna do, they were playing in every other band in town & life is short. They veer from catchy art-pop to demented synth spazz.


Pink Section 

11. PINK SECTION "Jane Blank"
12. PINK SECTION "Francine's List"
13. PINK SECTION "Been In the Basement 30 Years"

Tuxedo Moon

 UPDATE: This post was re-uploaded 09/14/2013.       Enjoy, NØ.

Tuxedomoon was an avant-garde, electronic-oriented collective whose music ranged from new wave pop to jazz fusion to more experimental synthesizer soundscapes (usually including saxophone & violin), which were frequently married in concert to performance-art shows. Tuxedomoon was formed in San Francisco in 1977 by two electronic music students at San Francisco City College, Blaine L. Reininger (keyboards, violin) & Steven Brown (keyboards, other instruments). Brown's local theater connections supplied equipment & occasional vocalists in Gregory Cruikshank & Victoria Lowe, plus more frequent contributions from singer & performance artist Winston Tong. Punk & new wave were opening up the San Francisco music scene at the time, & Tuxedomoon landed an opening slot for Devo in 1978 at around the same time they cut their first single, Pinheads on the Move.

Lowe quit the band before their first EP, No Tears, which featured off-&-on members Michael Belfer (guitar) & Paul Zahl (drums). Tong & Belfer departed temporarily, & Peter Principle (b. Peter Dachert) joined as a full-time member. Tuxedomoon signed to the Residents' Ralph Records in 1979, when Tuxedomoon recorded their now classic album Half Mute. It's startling variety & innovation combined with Patrick Roque's brilliant award-winning cover art made it an unexpected success. Feeling that their ideas were more in tune with the European electronic music scene, the band then toured Europe. Touching down first in Rotterdam in April, 1981 where they spent six months as artists-in-residence, they were soon drawn (along with many others) to the independent music scene which began to flourish in Brussels in the eighties. Brussels at the time was a cultural crossroads, drawing groups from all over the world.

After 1981's Desire, the band relocated permanently to Rotterdam, where Reininger began to branch out as a solo artist. Tuxedomoon was also hired to score a Maurice Bejart ballet, the results of which were released in 1982 as Divine. Reininger left for a solo career in 1983 & was replaced by Frankie Lievaart & horn player Luc Van Lieshout.

Their period of European residence based in Brussels was extraordinarily prolific. When not touring, they spent much of their time in the studio, taking advantage of the free-spending optimism of the time & producing a large body of work which has stood the test of time & continues to appeal to those who seek alternatives to mainstream consumer Culture.

Although the group itself was semi-officially dissolved in 1989, they have continued to work on collaborative projects as well as their individual output, continually updating their collective discography with works for dance, for film & other media as well as music for its own sake.

In June 1997 Steven Brown, Peter Principle & Blaine L. Reininger, the founding members of the band met in Tel Aviv to collaborate upon the composition & performance of a series of pieces of "Hypothetical Elevator Music", music designed to create aural backdrops appropriate for a pursuit of leisure activities within the urban landscape.

Here are a couple songs from the Deaf Club compilation:  

"19th Nervous Breakdown" & "In Heaven".

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Enjoy,
NØ