Burning Rubber: No New York at 45
Looking back at the Brian Eno compilation that put the spotlight on the short-lived No Wave scene
Punk might have felt radical or dangerous with its inception in the early 70s, but many declared the movement dead almost as soon as it started.
Such declarations might have been premature, yet bands often classified as post-punk tend to be more radical than their forebears, especially before hardcore began rearing its ugly head at the end of the decade. One particular post-punk sub-genre that remains as confounding as it was confrontational was the short-lived No Wave scene.
For many, punk represented a return to the rock and roll of old, just with a snottier and more aggressive attitude. Many held rockers like Chuck Berry and Eddie Cochran in high regard while trashing the progressive rock and soft rock movements. While no wave may have not been possible without punk, it ultimately broke from the past and offered instead an avant-garde caterwaul, screeching its way into relevance.
While No Wave was definitely a deeply underground movement, its presence did not go unnoticed, particularly by ex-Roxy Music member and in-demand music producer Brian Eno. In town for the mastering of Talking Heads’ More Songs About Building and Food, Eno was immediately smitten by the radical sounds of No Wave. Correctly predicting the scene would be short-lived, he felt compelled to document it, and hence the No New York compilation was born.
Consisting of The Contortions, Teenage Jesus and the Jerks, Mars and DNA, No New York is an abrasive and primal blast of feral art punk. And while Eno had a reputation for being the kind of producer who would put his stamp on any record he worked on, he showed great restraint here, letting the music retain its raw essence.
The Contortions lead the album off and for the uninitiated, it will be surprising to learn that they are the most accessible of the four bands featured. “Dish It Out” is characteristic of their sound, somehow funk, somehow punk, yet not really any of the above. The Contortions pound out a spasmolytic groove with bandleader James Chance alternating between vile ranting and bursts of jittery saxophone squalls. The chorus sounds like a mash-up of Devo and Black Flag. “Flip Your Face” pulls back on the tempo a bit, but it still sounds like an ode to cocaine-induced paranoia. “Jaded” sounds like Albert Ayler fronting the Melvins, while “I Can’t Stand Myself” sees the guitar trading obtuse lines with the organ.
Teenage Jesus and the Jerks are the second band and were fronted by the punk anti-princess Lydia Lunch. It was an outfit that James Chance would work with for a while as well, though he’s not on this recording. There’s no semblance of funk here, instead “Burning Rubber” opens with a sonic dirge, Lunch’s vocals intoning like some sort of punk holy woman. “Closet” hints at more traditional songcraft, only to interrupt the chord changes with stabs of noise. Lunch bellows “I am treated like Sharon Tate”, a powerful line and probably even more so in 1978. At a brief thirty-five seconds, “Red Alert” hints at the subversive rhythms employed by some of the other compilation mates. “I Woke Up” returns to the slower dirge of their other tracks, a cacophonous bed upon which Lunch’s nihilistic sermons can rest.
Mars comes up next and kicks off with their best-known tune, “Helen Forsdale.” With the strummed bass chords and driving drums, this song seems to anticipate some of the Gravity Records screamo bands that would show up some 20 years later on the opposite coast, think Angel Hair or Antioch Arrow. “Hairwaves” is a left turn though, diving deep into an arrhythmic and utterly experimental sound sculpture. The guitar sounds like Derek Bailey trying to put new strings on his guitar while the drums stumble around a sparse vocal line. There are noises here too, but it is hard to place their source. “Tunnel” discovers rhythm again, a driving affair that nevertheless seems to imitate a subway train discovering new subterranean pathways beneath the Lower East Side. They close with “Puerto Rican Ghost,” an ecstatic piece with multiple shouting vocals, a dance party on another world.
DNA closes the compilation and another new sound comes to the fore. “Egomaniac’s Kiss” is a blues punk swagger that surely is a preview of The Birthday Party. “Lionel” is more maximalist in its approach with buzzsaw guitars and driving drums, although the middle section sounds a bit like Kraftwerk wandering around CBGB’s. “Not Moving” is another mash-up of strum und drang guitar work with trance-inducing drums. They close with “Size,” a stumbling groove that shakes like a seizure, a deconstruction of Nick Cave’s Grinderman even though they wouldn’t even exist in the same century.
AUDIO: DNA “Lionel”
No New York has always been the seminal album of the No Wave scene, even more so than any solo release by the bands themselves. Yet it is equally notable by those left out. Eno excluded both the Theoretical Girls and the Gynecologists due to their relationship to the SoHo art scene, apparently too “artsy” in his eyes. Yet both these groups were equally integral to the short-lived scene.
Most albums that are still discussed 45 years after being released have become widely loved as they’ve aged, but No New York is as challenging and confrontational as it was upon its release. Its influence has rippled through the work of Sonic Youth, the avant-garde jazz scene, and the 90s screamo hardcore scene to name a few scenes touched by these bands, but it surely still proves off-putting to more casual listeners.
But for the more adventurous, or even the more jaded listener, it still sounds fresh. It’s the sort of sonic abrasiveness that never goes out of style for some, and is never in style for most.
AUDIO: Teenage Jesus and the Jerks “Burning Rubber”
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