Month: November 2007 Page 1 of 2

New York Noise: Art and Music From the New York Underground
By Paula Court
Soul Jazz

No Wave
By Marc Masters
Black Dog Publishing

I’ve just written my first-ever piece for the Village Voice, a dual review of two new books about No Wave and the downtown NYC scene in the late 70s/early 80s.

New York Noise is a companion volume to the excellent Soul Jazz No Wave series called, coincidentally enough, New York Noise. (Funny how that works, isn’t it?) It’s a fun book —basically an archive of downtown photographer Paula Court’s work from 1975 to 1988. In addition to being the official photographer for the Wooster Group, she also happened to have a zillion connections to the punk, No Wave, and party circuits —all of which overlapped a lot more in those days. So the book is a multivalent, colorful reflection of the many strands of downtown life at the time. Reminiscences from artists, musicians, writers, dancers, and filmmakers round it out.

No Wave is Marc Masters’ long overdue, exhaustive secret history of a movement that wasn’t a movement —or, as Dark Day’s Robin Crutchfield put it, “it was a wave that didn’t ride in on a wave. The sound wave was jarring, uncomfortable. It didn’t soothe the soul or lull one into a sense of security. It may have taken elements from other musics, but torqued them in a way that bore little resemblance to the original.”

Music-wise, I’m posting a fun little No Wave mix done by crack Glaswegian DJ team Optimo. You can read their very personal take on No Wave here here, including a track-by-track breakdown of the mix.

The short version goes something like this:

• Mars, “3E”
• DNA, “You and You”
• Teenage Jesus and The Jerks, “Freud In Flop”
• The Contortions, “Contort Yourself”
• The Fire Engines, “Get Up And Use Me”
• Blurt, “Puppeteer”
• Tools You Can Trust, “Show Your Teeth”
• Sonic Youth, “Shaking Hell”
• 8 Eyed Spy, “Lazy In Love”
• Pulsallama, “On The Rag”
• Arto / Neto, “Pini, Pini”
• Y Pants, “That’s The Way Boys Are”
• ImpLOG, “Breakfast”
• Jill Kroesen, “Fay Shism Blues”

If you’re curious to investigate some No Wave (and there’s a slew of great reissues out there), there’s a great new Fire Engines comp Hungry Beat, courtesy of the fantastic Acute. (Their back catalogue is filled with all sorts of overlooked gems from groups as diverse as Theoretical Girls, Ike Yard, The Prefects, and Metal Urbain.)

The fantastic Downtown 81 soundtrack (which features John Lurie’s Lounge Lizards, Rammellzee, Lydia Lunch, Suicide, and Tuxedomoon, among others) has just been re-issued, along with the film. In addition to three excellent volumes of Soul Jazz’ New York Noise compilations, Ze has a few of their own, including Mutant Disco and NY No Wave.

Optimo, “Optimo No Wave Mix”

IMAGE FROM MARC MASTERS’ NO WAVE (BLACK DOG PUBLISHING, 2007)

Echo Park, The Evolution of Everyday Life (Lo Recordings, 1998)

Echo Park was a mysterious and —as far as I know— short-lived collaboration between Lo Recordings label head Jon Tye and London DJ Spykid (aka Tony Wilson —no, not THAT Tony Wilson). Their debut album featured some relatively big-name guest stars (Seefeel’s Sarah Peacock and Daren Seymour, Robert Hampson, Thurston Moore) making an intriguing if somewhat unfocused amalgam of airy electronica, drum & bass, and post-rock.

Then there’s track two, a song so laser-like in its intensity that the rest of the album blurs out in comparison. “Needled.” It begins with a wonderful rhythmic underpinning, a jazzy yet strangely motorik drum loop. It’s almost jaunty.

Then the ominous feedback kicks in. A woman’s voice, desperate and inaudible at times, strains to be heard over the white-noise wash:

There might not be a platform here tomorrow. There may not be a school here tomorrow. You may not be here tomorrow. You may decide to go out and get yourself shot.

Please, let him have this chance.

And suddenly, the jauntiness of the drum loop seems so very wrong. It remains steadfast while everything else slowly collapses around it. It’s the sound of a world falling into chaos.

This track really affects me. It’s terrifying, despite the fact that nothing really happens. The listener is trapped with this woman on the cusp of some Unexplained Event, locked in an endless and inappropriately buoyant drum loop. The dystopian nightmare looms, and it’s oppressive. But it’s alluring too. Or I wouldn’t listen to it over and over.

PS: Have a lovely Thanksgiving holiday!

Buy from Lo Recordings | Spykid | Jon Tye

Echo Park, “Needled” (from The Revolution Of Everyday Life, 1998)

MARQUISE CASATI BY MAN RAY

If you happen to be in the Providence area tonight (really, all of RI pretty much counts as “the Providence area”), you’re in for a treat, ’cause X frontman JOHN DOE will be playing tiny rock n’ roll hole-in-the-wall Jake’s. John is always great, and the show is something like five bucks. How can you go wrong?! (Answer: you can’t.)

Doe’s songs know their way around heartbreak, but never seem to lose their wicked sense of humor. Thanks to the wry immediacy of his plain-spoken, supple voice, his songs have a bittersweet warmth that slips mercurially past your defenses with the subtle sting of aged whiskey.

He’s touring for his latest album, A Year In the Wilderness (Yep Roc). The first single, “The Golden State,” is a duet with Kathleen Edwards. Harmonizing always brings out the best in John’s voice —just listen to the gorgeous interplay here. Sublime.

(Added bonus: I’ve also posted a fantastic duet of “White Girl” with Kristin Hersh, another of my favorite performers, recorded during the Exile Follies tour a few years back.)

John graciously answered a few Providence-centric questions from the road.

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I was kinda surprised to see that you’re playing at Jake’s for the second time this year! What’s your connection to the place, and to Providence in general?

It just so happens to be between NYC & Boston. The Living Room is no more —or at least they don’t like me any more.

Do you have fond memories of filming A Matter of Degrees here? It’s become infamous for being the film that JFK Jr. was in, but I’m quite fond of it, partly because of all the great cameos (yourself included), but also for the all-too rare chance to see Providence on the big screen.

Apart from John K Jr. I thought it was Tom Sizemore’s big debut.

(True! Ker-azy. EVERYONE is in that flick. I’m still partial to the John Doe and B52s cameos.

I’ll try and refrain from going off on a WT Morgan tangent that WE NEED TO SEE A DELUXE, BAND-SANCTIONED EDITION of The Unheard Music ! Um, did I say that out loud?! —Andrea)

Jeez, man, when are you NOT touring?! It’s amazing, because every time I see you you’re nothing short of amazing. I’m in awe of the boundless energy and sheer bonhomie you project on stage. How do you do it? Yoga? Method acting? A portrait in the attic?

I run three to four miles at least every other day. I drink beer, wine sometimes a little whisky almost every night. I’m sure I’ll pay soon. And I have a very short short term memory.

What’s your favorite type of place to play? Little, big, somewhere in-between? (When I lived in SF my absolute favorite place to see X, the Knitters, or you solo, was the Great American Music Hall. Such a fantastic vibe to that place!)

My new favorite city is Pittsburgh, and the best new venue I’ve played is Jammin’ Java in Vienna, VA.

Which of your TV or film characters would you be curious to revisit, however many years down the road? Step in to their shoes for a day, as it were?

My favorite semi recent character was the shit-heel rock star on Law & Order. And the movie I wish I could make over the most is Roadside Prophets.

(Agreed. I love that movie, and the oddball duo played by Doe and Ad-Rock have a poignant chemistry together. I’d love to find out what happened to them years later… Paging Abbe Wool! —Andrea)

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John Doe Myspace | Buy at Yep Roc

John Doe and Kathleen Edwards, “The Golden State” (from A Year In the Wilderness)

John Doe and Kristin Hersh, “White Girl” (Live at the Exile Follies, 9.24.02)

JOHN DOE PHOTO BY AUTUMN DE WILDE