New Wave for the New Week #152

There are those who will argue exactly where the whole Mutant Disco/No Wave scene happening in late-70s New York fits on the Punk Rock-New Wave spectrum.  That it was a fascinating, creative scene is obvious from the cast of characters populating it: if you don't know the names Lydia Lunch, Arto Lindsay, Jim Sclavunos, Robert Quine, Judy Nylon, etc., get thee to Googling!  No less than Brian Eno found it a scene well worth documenting, which he did on the absolutely necessary 1978 compilation No New York. Some dismiss the music as artless noise; others see in it the seeds of influence for bands ranging from Sonic Youth to Nine Inch Nails.  No Wave had a sense of humor (or at least a sense of irony), but it was gritty, harsh, and confrontational.

Among the most confrontational of that scene were The Contortions.  Led by saxophonist James Chance, The Contortions squawked out a groove that sounded like James Brown jamming with Captain Beefheart.  Blaring and atonal one moment, funky and smooth the next, The Contortions were infamous for not only challenging their live audiences sonically but physically as well.  Chance was not above getting into shoving matches and out-and-out fistfights with the audience.

After making their vinyl debut on No New York, The Contortions issued their lone album, Buy, in 1979.  Anchored by the fantastic "Contort Yourself," Buy is a difficult but rewarding listen.  Internal tensions caused the band to blow apart around the same time the album appeared, and those tensions are audible here.

Shortly thereafter, Chance rechristened himself, assembled a new batch of musicians, and as James White & The Blacks issued the outstanding Off White LP.  While still exploring the atonal fringes of sound, this record was considerably more accessible than Buy.  A silky take on Irving Berlin's "(Tropical) Heat Wave" provides a safe and familiar jumping-off point for novice listeners, while "Contort Yourself" reappears here in a somewhat less intimidating version to welcome existing Chance/White fans.  Fellow No Wave figure Lydia Lunch (with whom Chance had helped to create the infamous Teenage Jesus & The Jerks) appears incognito on the album.  A fantastic record.

A somewhat revised lineup of James White & The Blacks released Sax Maniac in 1982, basically continuing where Off White left off.  (This time around, the Johnny Mercer/Howard Arlen chestnut "That Ol' Black Magic" gets the wailing treatment.) A few years later, a final James White & The Blacks album, Melt Yourself Down, appeared as a Japanese-only release.

Over the years, Chance has never stopped, playing with various musicians and under assorted variations of the Chance/White/Contortions names, and a number of live recordings of varying quality have been issued on vinyl and cassette.  In 2003 a handy 4-disc career retrospective, Irresistible Impulse, turned up, eliminating the need to track down the whole discography.

For this week's NW4NW entry, here are a couple of clips from The Contortions.  First, an audio-only clip of the legendary "Contort Yourself," and then rare footage from a NYC cable access show, InnerTubes, of The Contortions performing "I Can't Stand Myself" at Max's Kansas City in 1979. Enjoy!

New Wave for the New Week #107 BONUS ENTRY! BY REQUEST!

[All throughout the month of November, all NW4NW entries have been based on requests made by you, dear readers. I want to take a moment to thank all of you who submitted requests. I hope that you were pleased with my efforts. The NW4NW series will resume its regularly once-a-week schedule in December. Although NW4NW All Request Month comes to a conclusion with this post, I am always open to your suggestions and requests for future entries - your feedback is greatly valued!]

Cover of Bush TetrasWe close out this year's NW4NW All Request Month with a bit of No Wave funk requested by Ron Parker.  Ron and I met online a few years ago and I have always enjoyed talking music with him. He got his request in under the wire this year, and it's a nifty one to end on.

Pat Place had just left a gig as guitarist in James Chance's bleat-and-skronk combo The Contortions when she teamed up with singer Cynthia Sley to form The Bush Tetras.  Building on the atonal foundation of the swiftly fading NYC No Wave scene, the Tetras cranked up the funky beat and found a greater semblance of melody amid screeching and stunted guitars than their predecessors.  Sley's chanted vocals keep things from sounding completely safe, and the songs wobble a bit, but fans of Gang Of Four or The Slits will understand.

The Bush Tetras original releases, the 4-song Rituals EP (1981) and the cassette-only Wild Things (1983), are both long out of print, but can be had if one is willing to look around a bit. Their two best-known songs were dance-club favorites in New York: their biggest underground success was the sparse but excellent "Too Many Creeps;" "Cowboys In Africa" is a bit more substantial musically but does not stray far from the boundaries of "Creeps."

Reuniting in 1990s, The Bush Tetras issued Boom In The Night, which collected their previous recordings and a few unreleased nuggets in one easy-to-own package.  Tetrafied, a collection of rare and unreleased demos and live performances, appeared in 1996.  Another reuinion came about in the middle of this decade, resulting in 2007's Very Very Happy, which combines old and new material.

For this request, I am happy to share both of The Bush Tetras classics; the video for "Too Many Creeps" and an audio-only of "Cowboys In Africa."  My thanks to Ron Parker for this request, and my thanks again to everyone who submitted requests for this month's fun.  Hope you've enjoyed!