NYC has long been one of the most
exciting counter-cultural hotspots, spawning numerous
underground movements in its brief history that have
successfully managed to either export themselves to or
provoke reaction on other shores. Whether graphic, vocal,
literary or musical, these are certainly one weird bunch
of punks. The most obvious name checks like Iggy, The
Ramones or Sonic Youth have got their share of the glory,
as have the lesser known but equally good Blues
Explosion, Pussy Galore, DNA, Teenage Jesus and the
Jerks, and individuals like Glenn Branca, Richard Hell,
Jon Spencer and Lydia Lunch.
But that's not the half of it, 'cos beneath this surface
counter-culture there are an even groovier bunch who are
doin' it all for themselves: Chrome Cranks, New York
Loose, Speedball Baby, Jonathan Fire Eater and The Stiffs
representing the pick of the bunch. These wild'n'scary
90s sounds are fusing punk, trash, garage, rockabilly,
blues and surf in a style reminiscent of the late
seventies NYC-contained No Wave movement:a kaleidoscope
of spontaneity, offshoots, hybrids and short lived beauty
which gave rise to names like Richard Hell, Ornette
Coleman, teenage Jesus and the Jerks and Sonic Youth.
Many of the new acts will no doubt disappear into the
depths of New York like so many before, probably popping
back up in mutated forms as other bands.
Formed in Ohio in the Summer of '88, The Chrome Cranks
moved to NYC in mid '92, hooking up with bassist Jerry
Teel, who was let loose when the Honeymoon Killers
mutated into the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, and the
legendary Bob Bert on drums (Sonic Youth, Pussy Galore,
Action Swingers.........). Bob was later replaced by
Charles Hanson, who is surely one M short of a madman. A
string of seven inches on Sympathy, PCP and Insipid Vinyl
followed, including one shared with Jim Thirwell / Foetus
on which they covered tracks by Dick Uranus and
Television, and a contribution to the seven inch box set
'Out of Their Mouths and Into Your Head'. This was neatly
topped by an incredible self titled debut LP last year.
This jewel kicks in with screams and grunts reminiscent
of a musical demolition derby, forty minutes of howling,
twisted vocals and paraffin doused basslines,
psychobilly, garage and surf mania, and more punk than a
mischievous match in a dragster's fuel line!
Peter Aaron: People look at New York from the outside
like there's this sort of scene. I mean I guess there
sort of is but it's really just a few bands. The kind of
stuff we're doing is stuff we've always been into. I
think there's always been bands in different areas doing
stuff that's in a similar kind of vein, but of course New
York's a bigger city and has a denser concentration of
people so there's more chance of people being into
similar things.
Jerry Teel: Actually we don't play out too much in New
York. Prior to the release of the album we were playing
five to seven times a year. We were really selecting the
gigs, not for the proper bill or whatever, but more or
less timing with who you were working with before. We
were doing more recording and playing out of town. We
always figured you wanna base yourself there but you know
you're always gonna do better in a different market,
playing out of town or whatever.
Peter: No, not always... Yeah, but there's so much going
on and there are so many people there but it's not like
every night every show that's happening is totally
packed. Speedball Baby we play with there just about
every show we play. I guess we're part of the whole
post-stooges blues based school or something.
Jerry: Post post post Stooges!
Peter: Yeah, six times post or something...
Are the blues a big part of it?
Peter: Yeah. For us, because their stuff is blues based
and the thing I like about that is that it's deceivingly
simple but is more of a challenge to work within that
framework.
Jerry: you sort of twist it...
Peter: We're by no means a straight blues band but it's
sort of implied or something...
Do you distort the blues the same way the Sonics did?
Like they were pre British invasion but were still trying
to play pop music but a lot of blues music as well, so it
all goes in the blender...
Peter: Yeah. a lot of those bands had the same sort of
standards and those guys are obviously a pretty wild
band. I think if we had been around in that period we
would have been...
Bob Bert: Looked Over!
Peter: ...in that kind of vein, but there's been so much
stuff that's happened since then that's influenced us.
Jerry: I think a lot of times they (The Sonics) couldn't
play, , and they played the stuff that was out currently
and it just came out more fucked up and better. The
element of not knowing how they did it.
Peter: That made it more original. But I think we're
somewhere between the more garagy stuff and something
like The Jesus Lizard. I think of us as being a really
modern band because of the bands we play with a lot and
we've got this thing on Crypt and because of the
equipment we use. People tend to be lazy and throw us in
with these retro style bands and we're not about that. We
listen to and draw on a lot of different stuff and that's
something a lot of bands don't do.
Bob: A lot of bands just take any show. I don't mean to
be conceited about stuff, but we prefer to be on a good
bill or play with bands we think are are cool and would
like to turn other people that like us on to, or else
maybe we get a good slot opening for someone.
Do you get these oldies turning up at your shows?
Jerry: Oh NO! We always put 'em on the list but you never
get close. You see 'em around.
Bob: Those guys never stay in touch with the underground.
Jerry: They're past it! They just hang out at places...
Bob: Yeah. They go to some show with the same management
company...
Jerry: As long as they get in free...
Bob: Or someone they read about in some high profile
magazine. Those people are still around, but they don't
really hang out that much. I think they've got that part
over with.
Jerry: They're old anyway. The Dictators are playing out
again...
Bob: Yeah! the Dictators are great. I saw them at this
twentieth anniversary thing which was great, but then
these other bands got back together and it's just
embarrassing.
Jerry: Make the buck, man. Cash in...
Bob: There was nothing more embarrassing than when The
Jam played. It was the worst show I've ever seen!
SPEEDBALL BABY
Right up there with NYC's finest are Speedball Baby, a
hot to trot foursome trashing what's left of garage punk,
psychobilly and the blues after Chrome Cranks and the
Blues Explosion have finished with them. Formed in '91 by
Matt from Madder Rose and vocalist Ron Ward (ex Crush and
Wobbly Organ, the latter with Volcano Suns' John and
Peter), the line up included Madder Rose's Johnny Kick
and The Vacant Lot's Paul Corio, before settling down
with Matt, Ron, Alison Smith aka Alimander (Radio One,
Kelly Township) and drummer Dave Smith (ex lots of Johns:
Dr. John, John Zorn, Johnny Copeland and Luthor Guitar
Junior!!)
It didn't take this scary bunch long to earn the
reputation of New York's most volatile live act. The PCP
show went down in rock'n'roll history when soundman
problems escalated to the point of a complete p.a.
shutdown. Speedball Baby played a cappella the rest of
the set, with bottles as percussion and soundman targeted
insults as choruses! The encore proved impossible because
the crowd loved it so much they wouldn't even let them
leave the stage, if press releases are to be believed!
It's probably a load of crap though.
But records are the real evidence, and their self titled
seven inch has just gotta be heard for sure. They draw on
Velvet's style annihilism, 'Junkie'-style drug addled
sleaze and the stress of life on New York's streets. They
have an album and single on PCP/Matador.
NEW YORK LOOSE
New York Loose come from a similar angle, but with more
rhythm driven grooves to their tunes. They stayed in
London last year for a while, recording and playing live
to some very receptive audiences. Brijitte claims our
very own Brighton Basement show was one of their best
ever, and apologises to fans for the advertised second
show at The Butt which fell through. She compares life in
New York to that in London:
It's a little more naive over here, a little more laid
back. The experiences I've had over the past eight years
living in NYC would probably blow your mind, just because
it's such a harsh place to live. I kind of feel a little
'hardened' compared to a lot of the people I meet here. I
don't want to be hardened, so it's been good.
New York is the stress capital of the world. It's also an
amazing place too. Everything's happening there at once.
So it's really nice to come to a city that still had a
rock'n'roll vibe and a subculture vibe about it, but
wasn't so many guns around, and crack addicts. You know,
it was kind of like a vacation (laughing).
Musically, London and New York are very, very similar.
But the only thing is that when you're in New York,
you're walking down the street and you see Joey Ramone
and then you see Lou Reed and Iggy Pop. I mean all those
people are there, and they come to your shows and say
'Hey, this is great!', you know, and we've been there a
long time and we know a lot of people who are a lot
bigger there, so it's been nice to be over here, and
start from scratch.
How do you feel playing to the people you get compared
to?
It's cool. We did a show in New York in this place called
Irving Plaza, and Franky Monte came on stage and we did
One Way or Another from Blondie. They've been really
supportive, kind of carrying on in the tradition of New
York rock'n'roll. It's not something that was ever really
big. It's always been an underground scene. The
quintessential indie scene.
There's definitely something happening. I think they (the
media) are not really focussing on all the right bands.
There's some bands in New York that are so underground
and so into the diy thing, you will probably never hear
of them. But I'll tell you about 'em! Ha ha! There's this
band called Jonathan Fire Eater that are amazing. There's
this band called The Stiffs that are great. Ummm, aaaand,
oh, The Chrome Cranks, I don't know if you've heard of
them, they're fucking great. And Speedball Baby. Those
are all New York bands, those are the kind of bands. We
always get lumped in with the wrong bands. Like there's
this band called Degeneration, and the Clowns of
Progress, we don't have anything to do with them really.
We've done shows and stuff with them, but our vibe and
our style and our ideas about what rock and roll bands
should be about are much more aligned with bands like the
Chrome Cranks and Jonathan Fire Eater. |