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NYC 1978-1979
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NYC 1978-1979
Current price: $29.99
Barnes and Noble
NYC 1978-1979
Current price: $29.99
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were a new wave band formed in 1978 by four students from Columbia University who were studying fine art, and if there ever was a prototypical new wave art students' band, it was these folks. Aggressively angular and eccentric at every turn,
' songs were full of choppy, turn-on-a-dime rhythms, instrumentation that jumped back and forth between melodic and atonal, male vocals (from guitarist
Tomek Lamprecht
and multi-instrumentalist
Steven Alexander
) that were theatrical and mannered, and female vocals (from violinist and keyboard player
Eugenie Diserio
and percussionist
Gloria Richards
) that were theatrical and over the top, suggesting the
Yoko Ono
influence
the B-52's
embraced and taking it to the next level. The group's blend of new wave pop, serialism, minimalism, and weirdness for its own sake was brilliantly executed, and it's not hard to see why they made fans of
Philip Glass
(they appeared on a bill with him at Carnegie Hall) and
John Cale
(who signed them to his
Spy
label and produced their sole release during their run, a four-song 7" called
Shift the Blame
). After many years out of print, the
material has been reissued as part of
NYC 1978-1979
, a 2023 anthology that presents the studio material along with 12 live tracks from their frequent New York club gigs during the band's two-year lifespan. Heard from a remove of more than 40 years,
sound like they borrowed a lot of ideas from
Talking Heads
and
, as well as anticipating the noisy experiments of the nascent No Wave scene, and while the band's skill and ambition are commendable, they're the kind of group that will either strike you as bold and creative or unfortunately pretentious, depending on your tastes, though there are moments here that make clear those things are not mutually exclusive. (The group also had the wisdom to add a rock rhythm section by the time they started gigging seriously, and bassist
Billy Robertson
and drummer
Robert Medici
give the music an excellent foundation that holds the many conflicting elements in place.) The members of
went on to other, better-known bands, including
Polyrock
the Dance
, and even when the artier conceits of this music are a bit hard to take, they were a group with no fear of taking chances and choosing the musical road not taken.
contains plenty of clever, powerfully original music that deserved to be rescued from the dustbin of history. ~ Mark Deming
were a new wave band formed in 1978 by four students from Columbia University who were studying fine art, and if there ever was a prototypical new wave art students' band, it was these folks. Aggressively angular and eccentric at every turn,
' songs were full of choppy, turn-on-a-dime rhythms, instrumentation that jumped back and forth between melodic and atonal, male vocals (from guitarist
Tomek Lamprecht
and multi-instrumentalist
Steven Alexander
) that were theatrical and mannered, and female vocals (from violinist and keyboard player
Eugenie Diserio
and percussionist
Gloria Richards
) that were theatrical and over the top, suggesting the
Yoko Ono
influence
the B-52's
embraced and taking it to the next level. The group's blend of new wave pop, serialism, minimalism, and weirdness for its own sake was brilliantly executed, and it's not hard to see why they made fans of
Philip Glass
(they appeared on a bill with him at Carnegie Hall) and
John Cale
(who signed them to his
Spy
label and produced their sole release during their run, a four-song 7" called
Shift the Blame
). After many years out of print, the
material has been reissued as part of
NYC 1978-1979
, a 2023 anthology that presents the studio material along with 12 live tracks from their frequent New York club gigs during the band's two-year lifespan. Heard from a remove of more than 40 years,
sound like they borrowed a lot of ideas from
Talking Heads
and
, as well as anticipating the noisy experiments of the nascent No Wave scene, and while the band's skill and ambition are commendable, they're the kind of group that will either strike you as bold and creative or unfortunately pretentious, depending on your tastes, though there are moments here that make clear those things are not mutually exclusive. (The group also had the wisdom to add a rock rhythm section by the time they started gigging seriously, and bassist
Billy Robertson
and drummer
Robert Medici
give the music an excellent foundation that holds the many conflicting elements in place.) The members of
went on to other, better-known bands, including
Polyrock
the Dance
, and even when the artier conceits of this music are a bit hard to take, they were a group with no fear of taking chances and choosing the musical road not taken.
contains plenty of clever, powerfully original music that deserved to be rescued from the dustbin of history. ~ Mark Deming
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