Classic Albums: No New York
 

This is a very important record to musical history. Its the best document of the short lived no wave scene in new york back in the 70s. Its the scene sonic youth eventually sprung from.This compilation is classic. I recently turned a friend onto it.

Who's your favorite band on this comp? Do you feel its unfair that red transistor and theoretical girls didn't get on it? Have you further explored this genre?

My favorite band on this is definetly James Chance and the Contortions, but I like all the bands on this comp. Chance just sounds so crazy with that weird sax playing mixed with weird rhythms.Wish he had done more.

I like the Mars and DNA cuts best.

i also like the contortions the best. "flip your face" is actually steve albini's all time favorite songs. also, check out that contortions album irrestistable impulse i.. amazing.

you know what's odd.. i was actually going to make a poll the other day "favorite band on no new york". hmph..

I like the contortions the best on there.

i concour!

I haven't been able to get this album. All I have is Teenage Jesus and the Jerks' Everything.

I must pick up this record at some point.

haha "Everything" is a classic. every song is lydia lunch singing "AH AH AH AH" to the bass/drums going "BUN BUN BUN BUN" and then the guitar shrieks. that's every song! (except the ones with james chance)

i don't care, teenage jesus were so negative they were awesome.

same with mars...i don't know, i like all four bands in it.

well, i think james chance has the best songs on this particularly comp.. but i think dna is the best of all the bands.. if only because every dna song has arto lindsay with one hand on the 2nd, 3rd, and 12th frets of his guitar while his other hand just pushes the strings down as far as they could go. and that's it!

no wave rules.

Remember taking ages to hunt this down then, when i finally got it, feelng a bit let down. I still think it's more of historical than musical interest.

Hey, I think I might've just dissed a corner-stone of the whole No Wave scene. Wow.

Teenage Jesus and the Jerks.

Never heard the whole comp, nor have I heard James Chance + Contortions... but I'm gonna say Teenage Jessus + Jerks. They fucking rule.

And rawdick... WHAT THE FUCK?! I need proof!

I found this, inexplicably, a few weeks ago whilst on holiday in Ireland. Never seen a copy of it anywhere else. Its a good thing to do spasms to.

excuse me, what asskrak?

swa(y): yes, but they sprung from that scene, their first shows were attended by arto lindsay and lydia lunch, glenn branca employed them and jim sclavanous played on confusion is sex.

I agree with this sentiment. It's a good record, and I can imagine it must've been really exciting when it first came out, but I wouldn't say it's the best compilation I have. I do like the Mars tracks, and I need more of their stuff, but the rest doesn't really appeal to me.

What sort of CD release was it given? Cos i know they did an "update" a few years ago called Yes New York that had Yeah yeah yeahs, Liars and all that sort of thing on, but ive never found No New York when ive looked.

It was re-issued on a Russian label a couple of years ago... Lilith Records, a quick internet search reveals.

Available here. There's quite a sexy picture disc there as well.

they also had uh.. "maybe chicago" or something.. i dunno.. check the wikipedia for no new york..

on that note, i don't really hear no wave in yeah yeah yeahs or liars.. i hear no wave in erase errata, scissor girls, bride of no no (who are like no wave prog rock), maybe even magik markers though i hate to admit it.. anyone else know of any good current "no wave" type bands?

coughs, hospitals, oshiri penpenz, aids wolf, hamborginni, ex-models, nightwounds, times new viking a little, los llamarada some, death sentence: panda! a bit...not with us anymore but arab on radar and harry pussy.

liars, i guess because they are atonal but it's a different approach they actually have verses and choruses and use notes, and yeah yeah yeahs, the guitar can be as obliterated as lydia lunch's or arto lindsay's, if the drummer didn't know how to play, they would be more no wave, but they played structural melodic rock.

I like the DNA and Mars songs the most

ex-models no wave? i dunno. maybe their last record, but their first two were.. hmm.. they reminded me of gang of four with clean guitars all the time. i loved them though!

i forgot about arab on radar, harry pussy (duh!), coughs, and hospitals.. not a big fan of aids wolf.. and i haven't heard the other bands you mentioned so i'll check em out. oh, and i forgot that the flying luttenbachers have a LOT of no wavey kinda shit going on on most of their records too..

Sonically i can see Liars in the "no Wave" things ive heard, Contortions, DNA, Branca. But the more i listen to the Butthole Surfers the more i see Liars have in common with them

eh.

actually, i was thinking, ikara colt have some no wave influenced guitar lines.. they remind me of a band who used to be a no wave band but then heard the fall.

Well, when i saw them for the first time i didnt know what the sod they were on about. but they impressed me

well, the only album i heard by ex-models is zoo psychology and haven't looked more int them, but that album is no wave fo sho.

yeah, the luttenbachers, weasel considers them no wave.

funny you mention that thing about the ikara colt, los llamarada are kinda like the fall if they played no wave and removed everything british about them.

oh.. xbxrx are pretty no wave now that i think about it.. some o their shit..

i didn't include xbxrx because they cross the line between precision and looseness in a total chaotic way.

true.

one of the best bands i ever saw live.

me too, completely insane, one of the only recent shows that made slam and mosh.

first time i saw them, they had everyone on stage with them.

second time i saw them, they completely trashed the drum set every song and by the end weasel walter was just standing there or jumping down to play the trashed drums. it was insane.

Weasel fucking rules. I hope I can see The Lutt's and XBXRX before I die...
videos of XBXRX I've seen are fucking INTENSE, total chaos, balloons, looks like a fucking blast.
But I don't think I'd consider them (XBXRX) no-wave, they're pretty structure stuff (though extremely discordant and dissonant).

Zoo Psychology is a really no-wavey album, and that's also the only one I've heard.

Black Eyes were pretty no-wavey, especially on Cough.

Erm... yr not making any sense here, swa(y).
Yr only argument for SY being able to happen without the no-wave movement is ...that... they just could.

I honestly don't believe they would have. If they did, they certainly wouldn't have lasted long, probably as a punk-rock band or something. They wouldn't really have a grounding for noise tendencies and extreme experimentalism... I mean, I'm sure they themselves were very original people, and would have come up with a few cool ideas, but they would not be the same band at ALL, if they existed, and they wouldn't have lasted well into their twenties (and beyond).

you know, i know i brought them up earlier in this thread.. but you all have heard bride of no no right? fucking amazing band. it's seriously like no wave songs that are like 10 minutes long.. two guitars.. it's insane..

historical fact: sonic youth started in the no wave scene.
another historical fact: glenn branca started in the no wave scene.

artistically, they all were different and went on to far different things, but historically, they were part of it.

when i saw xbxrx they weren't that insane, they didn't kick the drums or had balloons or any of that shit, they even played between bands (local band opened, then they played, then another band played), but the singer and the guitar player were moshing the whole time with us crowd...probably the crowd had something to do with it, since it was mostly hipster idiots who were just standing there, arms crossed trying too hard to look cool, you know the song were they people to get down? they took more time trying to get people down than to play the whole show. even some dude i know told me "they are good but this kids still need a lot to go" and i was like "they have been around for more than ten years".

i know scissor girls but i haven't heard brides of no no, and i've heard from more people that they are fantastic.

yeah, early sonic youth is the no wavest. why else would they have collaborated with lydia lunch?

and everyneurotic, definitely check out bride of no no. you'd love em.

when i saw xbxrx the first time, they did have balloons.. forgot to mention that.. second time i saw them, the singer had everyone in the crowd focus all their energy into him so that he could break down the wall.. an actual physical wall.. our energy couldn't knock it down.. but i COULD have.. he ranted about it for like 10 minutes.. great!

I'm thinking of the band I'm being good at the moment. I like them. They have really dirty guitars. Which I like. No wave? Probably not. But. People who like no wave might like them. Is all I have to say for now.

...huh..

i saw them support melt banana, i'm suprised you like them, i thought they were like a budget mr bungle