Q:

Since you mentioned it in the Sparks ask Flans, what were some of the no wave bands you were into?

geneer-gebubu

John L. and I landed in Brooklyn in Sept. 1981. It was a very specific cultural moment for the city. Much of the CBGB bands that started in 76-78 had blown up. Some had become world famous, and had become notorious fuckups on their way to imploding as groups.

So regarding these “No Wave” bands-none of them became very famous, and the whole movement was not exactly beloved by audiences, and except for some positive reviews, all kind of writing in a theoretical way, it just wasn’t successful.

There is a single compilation album called No New York, produced by Brian Eno, that is a good taste of what the scene was kind of about. All of these bands are officially “difficult” but I guess the most intriguing to me was DNA with Arto Lindsay, and the discs I played the most were by James White and the Blacks, and their brother band The Contortions. I didn’t really enjoy Teenage Jesus and the Jerks, but Lydia Lunch’s first solo album was interesting (although in some ways the opposite of No Wave with some actual musical productions with horns included). There were a LOT of other bands tossed into the “no wave” label, but most seemed a lot more typical rock bands, and others were just limited bands’ noisy jams without a lot in the way of musical interest.

Of course this was also the very moment that hardcore as we all know it now was beginning-and while the hardcore scene had its own self-imposed limitations, in some ways it just eclipsed the idea of No Wave, being just as noisy and aggressive but speaking very directly to crowds.

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