“Willy DeVille (born William Paul Borsey Jr., August 25, 1950 – August 6, 2009) was an American singer and songwriter. During his thirty-five-year career, first with his band Mink DeVille (1974–1986) and later on his own, Deville created original songs rooted in traditional American musical styles. He worked with collaborators from across the spectrum of contemporary music, including Jack Nitzsche, Doc Pomus, Dr. John, Mark Knopfler, Allen Toussaint, and Eddie Bo. Latin rhythms, blues riffs, doo-wop, Cajun music, strains of French cabaret, and echoes of early-1960s uptown soul can be heard in DeVille’s work. Mink DeVille was a house band at CBGB, the historic New York City nightclub where punk rock was born in the mid-1970s. … During three years, from 1975 to 1977, Mink DeVille was one of the original house bands at CBGB, the New York nightclub where punk rock music was born in the mid-1970s. Their sound from this period is witnessed by Live at CBGB’s, a 1976 compilation album of bands that played CBGB and for which the band contributed three songs. In December 1976, Ben Edmonds, an A&R man for Capitol Records signed the band to a contract with Capitol Records after spotting them at CBGB. Edmonds paired Mink DeVille with producer Jack Nitzsche who had apprenticed under Phil Spector and helped shape the Wall of Sound production technique. Assisted by saxophonist Steve Douglas and a cappella singers the Immortals they recorded the band’s debut album Cabretta (simply called Mink DeVille in the U.S.) in January 1976. Cabretta, a multifaceted album of soul, R&B, rock, and blues recordings, was selected number 57 in the Village Voice‘s 1977 Pazz & Jop critics poll. …”
Wikipedia
W – Cabretta
iTunes
YouTube: Spanish Stroll (Live), Venus Of Avenue D – 6/7/1978 – Winterland
YouTube: Cabretta – Full Vinyl 35:33
Month: March 2019
Tom Johnson – The Voice of New Music: New York 1972-1982
“The ten years, from 1972-1982, during which Tom Johnson closely followed the developments in the new music in New York and reported his experiences in the Village Voice, constitute the most innovative and experimental period of recent musical history. A considerable number of his articles and reviews has been brought together in this collection. Together they provide a lively impression of the genesis and the exciting adventure of the new music, of the diversity of utterances that were part of it from the very start, and of the circumstances and opinions which prompted it. Johnson recorded the emergence of a generation of composers and musicians which has set out to probe once more all conventions of the Western musical tradition and to remove the barriers between different cultures and various artistic disciplines. That process is still in full swing. Therefore it is of interest today to read how that process was triggered.”
Mediamatic
W – Tom Johnson
[PDF] The Voice of New Music: New York 1972-1982
Concerts – Henry Cow (1975)
“Concerts is a live double album by English avant-rock group Henry Cow, recorded at concerts in London, Italy, the Netherlands and Norway between September 1974 and October 1975. Sides one and two of the LP record consist of composed material while sides three and four contain improvised pieces. The album includes Henry Cow’s last John Peel Session, recorded in September 1975 and extracts from a concert with Robert Wyatt at the New London Theatre in May 1975. ‘Groningen’ (recorded in September 1974) is part of an instrumental suite where the band improvised around fragments of an early version of Tim Hodgkinson‘s ‘Living in the Heart of the Beast‘ from In Praise of Learning (1975). Another performance of this suite (in full) later appeared in Halsteren on Volume 2: 1974–5 of The 40th Anniversary Henry Cow Box Set (2009). …”
Wikipedia
BBC Review
ProgArchives
YouTube: Beautiful as the Moon; Terrible as an Army with Banners / Nirvana for Mice / Ottawa Song / Gloria Gloom (Video)
YouTube: Concerts 11 videos
(White Man) In Hammersmith Palais / The Prisoner – The Clash (1978)
“‘(White Man) In Hammersmith Palais’ is a song by the English punk rock band The Clash. It was originally released as a 7-inch single, with the b-side ‘The Prisoner’, on 16 June 1978 through CBS Records. … The song showed considerable musical and lyrical maturity for the band at the time. Compared with their other early singles, it is stylistically more in line with their version of Junior Murvin‘s ‘Police and Thieves‘ as the powerful guitar intro of ‘(White Man) In Hammersmith Palais’ descends into a slower ska rhythm, and was disorienting to a lot of the fans who had grown used to their earlier work. ‘We were a big fat riff group’, Joe Strummer noted in The Clash’s film Westway to the World. ‘We weren’t supposed to do something like that.’ ‘(White Man) In Hammersmith Palais’ starts by recounting an all-night reggae ‘showcase’ night at the Hammersmith Palais in Shepherd’s Bush Road, London, that was attended by Joe Strummer, Don Letts and roadie Rodent, and was headlined by Dillinger, Leroy Smart and Delroy Wilson. … ‘(White Man) In Hammersmith Palais’ helped The Clash assert themselves as a more versatile band musically and politically than many of their peers, and it broke the exciting but limiting punk mould that had been established by the Sex Pistols; from now on The Clash would be ‘the thinking man’s yobs’. …”
Wikipedia
Punknews
BBC: White man’s blues
YouTube: White Man – 3/8/1980 – Capitol Theatre, White Man in Hammersmith Palais with Lyrics, The Prisoner
Trans-Europe Express – Kraftwerk (1977)
“Trans-Europe Express (German: Trans Europa Express) is the sixth studio album by German electronic music band Kraftwerk. Recorded in mid-1976 in Düsseldorf, Germany, the album was released in March 1977 on Kling Klang Records. It saw the group refine their melodic electronic style, with a focus on sequenced rhythms, minimalism, and occasionally manipulated vocals. The themes include celebrations of the titular European railway service and Europe as a whole, and meditations on the disparities between reality and appearance. … Kraftwerk believed critics in the United Kingdom and the United States associated them with Nazi Germany, with tracks such as “Autobahn” inextricably linked with the Nazis who built the high-speed roads in the 1930s and 1940s. At the same time, the band were keen to move away from their German heritage towards a new sense of European identity and felt that the Trans Europ Express could be used to symbolize this. AllMusic referred to Trans-Europe Express as a concept album with two different themes. The first being the disparities between reality and image, represented by the songs “Hall of Mirrors” and “Showroom Dummies”, and the others about the glorification of Europe. Slant Magazine described the album as ‘a sonic poem to Europe’. The musical style of Trans-Europe Express was described by AllMusic as melodic themes which are ‘repeated often and occasionally interwoven over deliberate, chugging beats, sometimes with manipulated vocals’ and ‘minimalism, mechanized rhythms, and crafted, catchy melodies’. …”
Wikipedia
Kraftwerk Resurrected Pop for a Torn Germany on ‘Trans-Europe Express’
The Story of Kraftwerk ‘Trans-Europe Express’
YouTube: Trans Europa Express (original), Trans Europa Express (Full 7-Inch EP), Showroom Dummies, Franz Schubert
U-Roy – Dread in a Babylon (1975)
“Even without the music, this album would still leap off the racks; its photo of U Roy exhaling a mushroom cloud of marijuana smoke from his ever-available pipe ranks among the all-time greatest covers, regardless of genre. However, U Roy doesn’t have any trouble coming across as a distinctive presence; his scattershot repertoire of barks, chants, and screams is as critical or more important as the deft, unobtrusive backing woven behind him. U Roy imposes his own willful style, regardless of setting. Sometimes he pulls off a positively poppy veneer on tracks like ‘Runaway Girl’ or ‘Silver Bird’; other times, he extemporizes slightly ahead of the beat on ‘Natty Don’t Fear’ or ‘The Great Psalms.’ His lyrics run the gamut of Rastafarian concerns, from facing adversity (‘Dreadlocks Dread’) to female troubles (‘I Can’t Love Another’) and royalist run-ins (‘Chalice in the Palace’). The uncredited musicians stay out of the way (although they get their own album-closing instrumental, ‘Trench Town Rock’). This album ranks among the ’70s dub masterpieces, even if the odd lyrical clinker keeps it from perfection; ‘Runaway Girl’s’ glistening skank can’t paper over its sexism (which suggests the girl in question ‘may be nice/but you’re not that smart’). Even so, sometimes an artist only needs charisma to get across, and U Roy handily wins on that score.”
allmusic
W – U-Roy
iTunes
YouTube: 01 – Runaway Girl
No New York – Brian Eno (1978)
“No New York is a compilation album released in 1978 by record label Antilles under the curation of producer Brian Eno. Although it only contained songs by four different artists, it is considered by many to be the definitive single album documenting New York City’s late-1970s no wave movement. Early in 1978, New York‘s Artists’ Space hosted an underground rock festival with several local bands. The final two days of the show featured DNA and the Contortions on Friday, followed by Mars and Teenage Jesus and the Jerks on Saturday. English musician/producer Brian Eno, who had originally come to New York to produce the second Talking Heads album More Songs About Buildings and Food, was in the audience. Impressed by what he saw and heard, Eno was convinced that this movement should be documented and proposed the idea of a compilation album with himself as a producer. When Eno recorded No New York, some of the sessions were done without much of the stylized production he was known for on other artists’ albums. James Chance stated that the Contortions tracks were ‘done totally live in the studio, no separation between the instruments, no overdubs, just like a document.’ …”
Wikipedia
Pitchfork
YouTube: No New York – Full CD 43:57
Einstein on the Beach – Composed Philip Glass / Directed Robert Wilson (1976)
“Einstein on the Beach is an opera in four acts (framed and connected by five ‘knee plays’ or intermezzos), composed by Philip Glass and directed by theatrical producer Robert Wilson. The opera eschews traditional narrative in favor of a formalist approach based on structured spaces laid out by Wilson in a series of storyboards. The music was written ‘in the spring, summer and fall of 1975’. Glass recounts the collaborative process: ‘I put [Wilson’s notebook of sketches] on the piano and composed each section like a portrait of the drawing before me. The score was begun in the spring of 1975 and completed by the following November, and those drawings were before me all the time.’ The premiere took place on July 25, 1976, at the Avignon Festival in France. The opera contains writings by Christopher Knowles, Samuel M. Johnson and Lucinda Childs. It is Glass’s first and longest opera score, taking approximately five hours in full performance without intermission; given the length, the audience is permitted to enter and leave as desired. … From the beginning of Glass and Wilson’s collaboration, they insisted on portraying the icon purely as a historical figure, in the absence of a storyline attached to his image. While they did incorporate symbols from Einstein’s life within the opera’s scenery, characters, and music, they intentionally chose not to give the opera a specific plot. This is in accord with Wilson’s formalist approach, which he asserts creates more truth on stage than naturalist theater. Wilson structured Einstein on the Beach as a repeating sequence of three different kinds of space. Between major acts are shorter entr’actes known as ‘knee plays,’ a signature technique that Wilson has applied throughout his oeuvre. Propelling idea of ‘non-plot’ within Einstein on the Beach, its libretto employs solfège syllables, numbers, and short sections of poetry. …”
Wikipedia
The Method and Madness of ‘Einstein on the Beach’
iTunes
NPR: The Minds Behind ‘Einstein On The Beach’ Talk Shop (Video)
UbuWeb: Einstein on the Beach: The Changing Image of Opera (Video)
THE EARTH MOVES. A documentary about Einstein on the Beach. (Video)
YouTube: Einstein on the Beach 4:36:23
YouTube: Philip Glass Ensemble “Train/Spaceship” part 1, “Train/Spaceship” part 2
I Just Can’t Stop It – The English Beat (1980)
“I Just Can’t Stop It was a late arrival onto the checker- boarded scene, the Specials, Madness and the Selecter had all beat the (English) Beat to the punch, but luckily this wasn’t a race. Besides, the band had already primed the pump with a trio of Top 10 singles — the double A-sided ‘Tears of a Clown’/’Ranking Full Stop,’ ‘Hands Off She’s Mine’ and ‘Mirror in the Bathroom,’ their debut album followed hard on ‘Mirror”s heels, picking up the latter two songs and “Full Stop” to boot. … Their own compositions were heavily cultural in theme — the radical cries to depose the prime minister on ‘Margaret,’ the slashing anti-violence of ‘Two Swords’ and even more ominous and feverish ‘Click Click,’ through the cultural nihilism of ‘Mirror’ itself. With a few softer love and lovelorn tracks taking some of the edge off. Stop was a stunning achievement, its driving, frenetic numbers grounded in punk’s fury smashing into the loose-limbed grooves and melodies of rocksteady inspired songs, and banging head on into sweeter pop fueled pieces. The album remained on the British charts for a whopping eight months, eventually peaking at Number Three. Time has not diminished its glory, the songs remain hugely as their continued inclusion in the band’s offshoot’s repertoire have proved.”
allmusic (Audio)
W – I Just Can’t Stop It
Genius
YouTube: Mirror In The Bathroom [Official Music Video]
YouTube: THE BEAT – (THE COMPLETE I JUST CAN’T STOP IT ALBUM) 35:41
‘Jean-Michel Basquiat’ at the Brant Shows His Bifurcated Life
Detail of Basquiat’s text-filled “Museum Security (Broadway Meltdown),” from 1983, acrylic, oilstick and paper collage on canvas.
“A few years ago, a plaza in Paris was named after the artist Jean-Michel Basquiat, the Brooklyn-born painter who became a global sensation in the early 1980s and died at 27 of a heroin overdose. No similar honor has been bestowed upon Basquiat by the City of New York. However, the opening of the Brant Foundation Art Study Center in the East Village, with an exhibition of nearly 70 works by Basquiat created from 1980 to 1987, serves as a fitting temporary shrine. The Brant in Manhattan is also part of a wave of private museums opening across the country, including the Hill Art Foundation in Chelsea; the expansion of Glenstone in Maryland; and the Marciano and Broad collections in Los Angeles. But first, Basquiat. The story of this painter of Haitian and Puerto-Rican descent is one of the most documented in contemporary art history. Basquiat moved to Manhattan — partly to escape his strict accountant father — couch-surfed, lived off girlfriends and formed a post-punk band called Gray after ‘Gray’s Anatomy.’ He sprayed poetic, enigmatic graffiti on walls in downtown Manhattan before moving to canvas and starred in an independent film, ‘Downtown 81.’ He dated Madonna before she was famous and made paintings with his hero-turned-friend, Andy Warhol. …”
NY Times
Installation view of “Jean-Michel Basquiat,” the inaugural exhibition of the Brant Foundation’s New York space in the East Village. A salon-style wall on the second floor includes a grid of 16 paintings from 1982.
Punk Scrawled Artist 