Thursday, June 12, 2008

No Wave: Post-Punk. Underground. New York. 1976-1980

The New York Times has a bit about a new book on the No Wave scene. Here's the gist:

Of all the strange and short-lived periods in the history of experimental music in New York, no wave is perhaps the strangest and shortest-lived.

Centered on a handful of late-1970s downtown groups like Teenage Jesus and the Jerks, DNA and James Chance’s Contortions, it was a cacophonous, confrontational subgenre of punk rock, Dadaist in style and nihilistic in attitude. It began around 1976, and within four years most of the original bands had broken up.

But every weird rock scene — and every era of New York bohemia — eventually gets its coffee-table book moment. This month Abrams Image is publishing “No Wave: Post-Punk. Underground. New York. 1976-1980,” a visual history by Thurston Moore and Byron Coley.

There's a nice little slideshow too.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hey this is has nothing to do with your post but what do you think of pete doherty (you might have already passed judgement but I haven't seen)

James Jacket said...

It Was a great period! I will buy the book!