News from the desk of Richard Boch: artist, writer and former Mudd Club doorman

As I continue work on my Mudd Club chronicles, an enduring labor of love, I find that history occasionally does repeat itself. November 2015, leaves are falling, and another chapter is writing itself; I'm once again working with Steve Mass! That's the short of it. From the offices of the Mudd Club Rummage Sale Host Committee, to benefit the Bowery Mission Women's Program, here's the rest:

Steve Mass, aka Dr. Mudd, the genius behind the legendary Mudd Club (1978-1983) where nightlife was truly an art form, quietly slipped out of New York at the turn of the millennium, when downtown was still in the shadow of the twin towers. He moved to Berlin. There things were, perhaps, more like the New York he loved than what New York has now become. And now, as suddenly as he vanished, he has reappeared to the joy of all Mudd graduates turning up in lower Manhattan on White Street just a few blocks from the legendary 77 White Street site of the Mudd Club. Steve is now back in town to have a huge birthday party/Bowery Mission Charity event.

It’s funny to see Steve, in many ways the ultimate New Yorker, visiting the city today. He’s like a tourist from another dimension, full of wonder and bemusement. His presence stands out as a magnificently preserved specimen from another time: a perfect prankster idealist hoping to make the world a better place and have fun doing it. During the late 70’s, early 80’s, the heyday of the Mudd Club, Steve was such a very generous host to the young creatives pouring into a then desolate Tribeca helping to facilitate a magical design laboratory where you could work and get by on very little money. The Mudd Club was THE creative epicenter. This contributed in no small way to today's boom in art, music and film. It is all part of the Mudd's legend and lore. At that time talented people didn’t need to have a full time day job to get by. Still it was difficult for many talented young people, especially women, who were changing the world against the odds. Steve recalls the greatness of the late Gia Carangi, Edwige Belmore, Tina L’Hotsky, Anya Phillips, Sara Charlesworth, Abbijane Schifrin, Anita Sarko and the difficulties they faced. And they were the successful ones.... although ultimately suffering tragically.

Today it is so much harder to eat, to keep a roof over one’s head in this city. It is not surprising that there are many college educated and once employed homeless in New York City. Now fortunately there is a program which sponsors vulnerable women at The Bowery Mission. Their Women’s Center provides residential private accommodation for women suffering from homelessness due to the many pitfalls of the city including domestic violence, addiction, financial exploitation, job loss, and health crises.Therefore we are asking for your help in reaching out to friends, Mudd Club members and habitues as well as their descendents and heirs and to ask them to participate in the MUDD CLUB RUMMAGE SALE.

As a friend of the Mudd Club we ask that you and your friends lovingly donate an historic work of art, photographs, couture treasures, accessories, memorabilia, designer sample and/or cultural curios (hopefully from the Mudd Club days but any period is acceptable) in memory of our youth, friends lost and the special lives we now live. In addition we are asking you to purchase tickets to the event and if possible make a donation to The Bowery Mission. 

Ticket sales:

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/mudd-club-rummage-sale-event-benefitting-the-bowery-mission-womens-centers-tickets-19262318112

Anita Sarko: A remembrance by Richard Boch

Richard Boch & Anita Sarko, 2010

Remembering Anita Sarko:

1979 and 1980, Mudd Club, 77 White. Lou Reed’s “Sweet Jane” (live version, Rock ’n Roll Animal), “Public Image” PiL, “The Lost Sheep” Adrian Munsey—baaaa baaaaaaa baaaaaaaa—clearing the dance floor at 4AM. Anita Sarko’s spinning records and I’m working the door; that’s when and where we became friends. Early mornings, her place on Jones Street, more music and whatever else was lying around. A sharp wit, Anita’s sweet and not too scary, still beautiful at 9AM. The daybreak hours gone, I walk out into the sunshine morning: dark glasses, a cigarette, brain cells still burning. I’m heading home, having a laugh, knowing we’d both be back for another round, another night on White Street. 

Anita left her job at Mudd before I did. Thirty-six years came and went fast. I missed her then. I miss her now.

Richard Boch

Below, Anita discusses the early days of her career with videographer Merrill Aldighieri in 2013 - they worked together at Hurrah.

Obituaries of Note: Anita Sarko, Joe Moss, Mark Murphy

Anita Sarko - RIP

Joe Moss - RIP

Mark Murphy - RIP

Edwige Belmore RIP

Edwige Belmore - RIP

The Downtown Decade: NYC 1975-1985 coming soon to Glenn Horowitz Bookseller

In a show that sounds not all that far off from what the Fales Library did about 10 years ago, Glenn Horowitz Bookseller announced the following event(s) earlier today:

The Downtown Decade: NYC 1975–1985

Exhibition Dates: Thursday, September 10–Saturday, October 10, 2015

Opening Reception: Tuesday, September 15th, 6–8 pm

17 West 54th Street between 5th and 6th Avenues

Catalog PDF available here. Includes many photos of Stupefaction faves & pals like Kate Simon, Allan Tannenbaum, Marcia Resnick, Roberta Bayley, Bob Gruen, and much more.

We are excited to begin our Fall season with The Downtown Decade: NYC 1975–1985, a multi-genre overview of the visionary creative scene that developed on New York City's Lower East Side during the late 1970s and early 1980s. At a time when the city was on the brink of fiscal disaster and suffering daily internal chaos, a burgeoning and interconnected artistic community emerged that would enduringly alter previously held perceptions of art, photography, literature, film, and music.

On display will be original items both by and featuring many of the era's participants, including Rene Ricard, David Armstrong, Nan Goldin, the Lurie Brothers, Jenny Holzer, Richard Prince, Peter Hujar, Kiki Smith, and Christoph Kohlhofer, as well as historical documentary material—vintage issues of the East Village Eye, gallery flyers, posters, manuscripts, and advertisements—and original artwork and photography by Keith Haring, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Kate Simon, Philip Taaffe, Francesco Clemente, Marcia Resnick, Curt Hoppe, Jimmy DeSana, Christopher Makos, and Patti Smith, among others.

A soundtrack showcasing the period's outstanding musical talent will also be playing in the gallery during the show, including songs by the Ramones, The Clash, Blondie, Public Image Ltd., Grandmaster Flash, Talking Heads, James Chance, the Lounge Lizards, and Television.

The exhibition will be on display from Thursday, September 10–Saturday, October 10, 2015. 
An opening reception will be held Tuesday, September 15th, from 6-8 pm.

Events in conjunction with The Downtown Decade:

Book Signing: Jeannette Montgomery Barron


Date: Wednesday, September 30th, 6-8 pm 


Location: GHB Penthouse, 20 West 55th Street

Photographer and author Jeannette Montgomery 
Barron will be signing copies of her new book, My Years 
in the 1980s: New York Art Scene, in the GHB penthouse. Material featured in the book will be on display during the event, and RARE will remain open until 7 pm.

Screening: Downtown 81, with Glenn O’Brien


Date: TBA 


Location: GHB Penthouse, 20 West 55th Street

Please join us for a special screening in the 
GHB penthouse of Downtown 81, starring 
Jean-Michel Basquiat, which has been praised for capturing “…that New York moment when punk, emerging rap, art school cool and the East Village art and music scenes were at their creative best.” 
The film’s writer and producer, Glenn O’Brien, will both introduce the film and answer questions afterward. Seating will be limited.

Movie of the Week: Put Blood In the Music - Underground New York Music Scene feat. John Zorn & Sonic Youth (The South Bank Show - 1989)

Movie of the Week: The Funky Four Plus One at the Kitchen (Nov. 22, 1980)

The Funky Four: K.K. Rockwell, Li'l Rodney C!, Keith Keith, Jazzy Jeff & Sha Rock.

Watch below or here.

. Hat tip to Glen E. Friedman and The Kitchen

Opening This Friday: ART & EPHEMERA FROM 98 BOWERY, 1969-89 at the Lodge Gallery, NYC

John Feckner, “Decay,” Fashion Moda flyer, 1980

The Lodge Gallery

131 Chrystie Street, NYC
December 19 - 28, 2014
Opening Friday, December 19, 6 - 9 pm

Colette, “Taken away by Police,” from the series Records from the Story of My Life, 1973/78

The website 98bowery.com tells the story of the downtown art scene in the 1970s and 80s as I experienced it living in the top floor loft at 98 Bowery. These bleak years for New York were marked by economic decline, crime, drugs, and in many sections of the city, a desolate landscape of abandoned buildings and rubble-strewn lots. But for the young artists living in the Lower East Side during one of its worse moments there was a silver lining: cheap rents, camaraderie, plenty of real-life inspiration, and a do-it-yourself ethos that made anything possible. To use the ironic phrase coined by artist Joseph Nechvatal, downtown was an “Island of Negative Utopia.”

Every era creates its own type of art object. The multiples, political statements, and ephemera in this exhibition at the Lodge Gallery are representative of the deliberately transient quality and populist impulse of art in the 1970s and 80s. These are treasures that I acquired during that time, as well as vintage works that I have collected more recently for Gallery 98, the online store of the website 98bowery. In selecting the items, I have not held back. Many are masterpieces whose rich historical and aesthetic content rivals that found in more conventional art objects.

- Marc H. Miller, Curator

Sandra Fabara (Lady Pink), Home Sweet Home, silkscreen, 1989

More Downtown NY Ephemera From 98 Bowery: Mudd Club, Times Square and more!

Flyer for Where is Art Going? panel discussion with Nancy Arlen, Jennifer Bartlett, Scott Burton, Candace Hill Montgomery, Walter Robinson, and David Salle. Moderated by Jeffery Deitch; At the General Theology Seminary, 1980
Xerox on paper, 8 1/2 x 11 in.

As long as Marc Miller keeps letting me know about new additions to the store at 98 Bowery, I'll keep posting them. These are some true treasures. All are available for purchase on a first come, first serve basis, so don't sleep if you're interested. Visit the gallery at 98 Bowery now.

“Teamwork the American Way” Presented by Candace Hill-Montgomery, a performance at Franklin Furnace, 112 Franklin Street, New York, 1981
Poster, Xerox on paper, 11 x 17 in.

Just Another Asshole benefit party and film screening, at  Mudd Club, 1979
Invitation, Offset print on paper 11 x 17 in.

Real Estate at Mudd Club, 1980
Xerox on paper, 8 1/2 x 11 in.

Art of the Future, Times Square Show flyer
Xerox on paper, 5 1/2 x 8 1/2 in.

Poster for the film The Trap Door, by Beth B and Scott B, Starring John Ahearn and Jack Smith, 1980
Offset print on textured heavy stock paper, 11 x 17 in.

New at Gallery 98: THE NIGHT TIME IS THE RIGHT TIME - N.Y.C. Nightclub Ephemera, 1980s

Every Wednesday, Dancing for Women! at the Girl Bar, 15 Saint Mark’s Place, NYC, c.1988

THE NIGHT TIME IS THE RIGHT TIME: N.Y.C. Nightclub Ephemera, 1980s

Gallery 98 has added a new section devoted to nightclub invitations and posters from the 1980s, a period in which nightlife and clubs were central as both an inspiration and venue for ambitious new art. Amongst the clubs featured: Area, CBGB, Club 57, Danceteria, Limelight, Mudd Club, Palladium, Paradise Garage, Pyramid, Studio 54, and Tunnel. Nightclub stars include: performers Ann Magnuson, John Sex, Joey Arias, Phoebe Legere; artists Colette, Keith Haring, Richard Kerns; and impresarios Baird Jones, Neke Carson, Michael Alig. In an age before the Internet it was all captured in the cards and handbills created by the clubs and performers to publicize the nightly events.

View the gallery.

Susan Tremblay’s Henry VIII, at 8 BC, 337 East 8th Street, New York, c. 1985

American Highway, at AREA, 157 Hudson Street, New York, 1986

New Book Alert: Beauty Lies in the Eye by Catherine Ceresole

Swiss photographer, Catherine Ceresole, has a new book out documenting the no wave/art damage/noise scene of the late 70's and into the 80's in New York City. Entitled Beauty Lies in the Eye it includes artists such as Sonic Youth, Lydia Lunch, Glenn Branca, Arto Lindsay, Christian Marclay, the Beastie Boys and many others. And it also includes writing from Christian Marclay, Thurston Moore, Rhys Chatham, Mark Cunningham, Lee Ranaldo, Alan Licht, and a conversation between Catherine Ceresole and Emmanuel Grandjean, along with Nicolas Ceresole and Francis Baudevin.

For more information, check out the book's page on Amazon, or visit the publishers website. 

p.s. I think the young Thurston Moore and a young Wes Anderson make for a good case of "Separated at birth?"

Jim Thirlwell (Foetus), Pyramid, New York, 14 January 1984

 

 

Beastie Boys, White Columns, New York, 7 May 1983

Sonic Youth (Thurston Moore, Lee Ranaldo), Dancetaria, New York, 18 June 1982

Suicide, Irving Plaza, New York, 28 June 1984

NY In The 70's: From the mind of Luke Haines

Only someone as smart as Luke Haines (ex-Auteurs, Black Box Recorder) could come up with this - an album themed on a fantasy of the 1970's downtown New York rock & roll scene. Available in May from Cherry Red Records, NY In The 70's is exactly what its supposed to be - a mythic re-imagining of the New York Rock n Roll scene 1972 - 1979.

SCENE 1 – A DORSET CHALKHILL, BRITAIN 2014

A gigantic mythical naked man awakens from thousand year kip. Chico, a messenger bird, is speaking in tongues and whispering a poem into the naked dude's chalky ear:

“Oh Little Johnny Jewel
He's so cool
He has no decision
He just trying to sell a vision”

Chico (something of a savant, bless) is reciting the lyrics to Television's seismic year zeroin classic Little Johnny Jewel.

“He's just trying to sell a vision,” repeats the messenger bird. With an ancient rumble, the naked dude stands up to reveal his true height of 180 ft.

“I am Cerne Abbus Giant, and Tom Verlaine is my main man,” bellows the Chalk Giant. “I awaken from Dorset Hills as the seeker. The seeker of Mythic Muthafuckin' Rock n Roll. Show me the way to CBGBs in the 1970s Chico. We will bestride the Atlantic and I'll carry you on my fantastic 36 ft phallus. Climb aboard Chico.”
“Oh my,” says the bird.

SCENE 2 – NEW YORK CITY. ONE YEAR LATER

The Kaballistic order of OM AKA The Real Dead Boys, comprising of Alan Ginsberg, Jim Carroll, Stiv Baters, Johnny Thunders and Sid Vicious are holding an invocation, on 213 Park Avenue South. The chanting begins at 23.23pm:

Shalom Shalom - David Johanson
Shalom Shalom - John Genzale
Shalom Shalom - Jerry Nolan
Shalom Shalom - Killer Kane
Shalom Shalom - Max's Kansas City
Shalom Shalom - The Mercer Arts Centre
Shalom Shalom - Billy Murcia
Shalom Shalom - Syl Sylvain

On it goes until dawn, Shalom Shalom... Lou Reed... Shalom Shalom... Alan Vega...

SCENE 3 – A PRESS RELEASE FROM LONDON, ENGLAND. MARCH 2014

Luke Haines has made an album about the 70's Rock n Roll scene in New York City which is released on Cherry Red on Monday May 19th 2014.. A mythical re-imagining of a long gone age, by a man who hails from Surrey, Southern UK. It is the third and final part of a psychedelic trilogy that began with 2011's 9 and a half psychedelic meditations on British Wrestling From the 1970s and early '80s. This one is for the real rock n roll animals.

Hail the Mythic
Hail the Muthafuckin'
Hail the Rock n Roll

Luke Haines website

Facebook

Cherry Red Records

Movie of the Week: Beat This! A Hip Hop History (1984)

 Here's an amazing doc from 1984 from the BBC on the still nascent (at the time) hip hop scene. Astounding & beautiful...

Appearances include Easy A.D., Almighty K.G., Arthur Baker, Afrika Bambaataa, Drew Bundini, H. Rap Brown, Grandmaster Caz, Charlie Chase, Brim Fuentes, G.L.O.B.E., Kool Herc, Lisa Lee, Malcolm McLaren, Pow Wow, Sha Rock, and Tony Tone.

Hat tip to Dangerous Minds

Mondays & Tuesdays

Mudd Club poster, circa 1979/80. Available from Gallery 98 Bowery.

Now on in Woodstock NY, opening party Saturday with Bob Bert, Pat Place, Richard Boch & Tommy Turner

Cookie Mueller by Bob Bert

Now on at the Ai Earthling Gallery in Woodstock, NY, there will be an opening party at the gallery on Saturday, 10/5, for the show No Wave Heroes. The show features the pop art of Bob Bert, conceptual photography of Pat Place, mixed media collage on manuscript paper edited from Richard Boch's forthcoming book about life downtown circa late 70's/early 80's with the Mudd Club at the heart of the scene, and films by Tommy Turner.

Sonny Vincent, Suicide, and living to tell about it

The Dogs, Distance & Suicide at The Circus, St. Marks Place, NYC, October 1971

Sonny Vincent

Sonny Vincent is one of those New York guys...the type of musician who has always been around...played the right places at the right time with the right acts, but for some reason never really made it (although you wouldn't know that from his discography). Always a part of the underground, you really need to dig a little deeper to find out about these types. And they usually have interesting stories to tell.

Thanks to Peter Dougherty for pointing me to this pretty amazing interview with Vincent over at Victim of Time. While the entire thing is definitely worth reading, it was the story about Suicide that really interested me. I've excerpted that below, but make sure you check out the entire interview right here. And keep up with Vincent's current stuff via his Facebook page and website.

What was your most lasting impression of Suicide and what was your first encounter with seeing them?

Ahhh Suicide. In the early days I would see Alan and Marty pushing gear down the street in a shopping cart, Didn’t know who they were, but it definitely looked odd seeing them walking along the sidewalk on St. Marks Place or Canal Street pushing an A&P cart with a keyboard that had no protective case sticking out of the cart. The first time I played a show with them was at a place called The Circus/Playwrights Workshop. It was originally called The Electric Circus where all the 60’s groups like Hendrix and The Doors played. Then a bit later, it was called The Dom, and Moe Tucker and Sterling Morrison told me they played there early on when it was shortly called The Balloon Farm, and also they did a lot of the Velvet Underground / Andy Warhol’s Exploding Plastic Inevitable performances there when it was The Dom. I think Andy rented the place sometime to put on his events. (Continued after the jump.)

Movie of the Week: CBGB - The Roots of Punk

The following is a demo video produced for Hilly Kristal, creator and owner of CBGB - possibly sometime in the 80's(?). This is one playlist made up of seven parts.

Thanks to Godlis for pointing to it.

Low Fidelity - The Photographs of Bobby Grossman 1975-1983

 Low Fidelity - The Photographs of Bobby Grossman 1975-1983 by Bobby Grossman

Bobby Grossman

The recently published Low Fidelity - The Photographs of Bobby Grossman 1975-1983 is a hugely credible addition to the steadily growing collection of catalogs, books & films looking back at the mid-70's thru mid-80's. Bobby Grossman definitely pushes the envelope of hip. 

Starting in 1975 when he met future Talking Heads Byrne, Frantz & Weymouth at the Rhode Island School of Design, Grossman moved on to NYC and joined the in-crowd downtown. His subjects included the Talking Heads, of course, as well as folks like Andy Warhol, David Bowie, William Burroughs, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Debbie Harry, Fab 5 Freddy, and others, at places like CBGB and the Mudd Club. Special mention goes out for Bobby being the official photographer of Glenn O'Brien's TV Party cable access show!

Read the excerpt below written by Chris Frantz & Tina Weymouth (check out their excellent new Tom Tom Club album here). It's one of the many contributions from the impressive list of Bobby's subjects & friends that you'll find inside. Big thanks to Bobby for the images & text.

 Order Low Fidelity here. Visit Bobby's official website here. 

Bobby is represented by Vertu Fine Art in Boca Raton, FL.

Glenn O'Brien

On the set at TV Party

Anya Phillips

Talking Heads in the studio

Rhode Island School Of Design in the mid seventies was a real hothouse of interesting characters ready to bloom. After four increasingly ambitious years in Providence, we had explored Benefit Street from one end to the other and we were ready to make our mark in the world of art. For some of us, there was never any question that this would mean moving to New York City. In New York we hoped to rub shoulders with our heroes Andy Warhol, Lou Reed and John Cale, Robert Raushenberg and John Cage.

We knew that New York would become our city, too, and that one day we would be identified not as artists who came to New York, but as artists who came from New York. We used to say things like "When I'm rich and famous,H but what we really meant was not that we wished to become rich and famous. but that we hoped our art would be remembered by kids like us in the future.

There was a bar called CBGB on The Bowery of all places, and this is where some of us would make history. Our friend Bobby Grossman from RISD had the foresight to bring his camera to CBGB and to start shooting photos that chronicle those very intense and important early days. We are older now, but we remember that intensity very well and are so pleased to have been among his subjects. Bobby photographed the cover for a song we would become famous for, "Psycho Killer," that we had written when we were still students at RISD. It was that great art school education that set us apart from most of the other bands. We had been taught to always put something unique unto ourselves into our art. This what we did, and this is what Bobby did, too. We hope you enjoy these images as much as we do.

- Chris Frantz and Tina Weymouth (Talking Heads/Tom Tom Club)

Shot by: Cathy Campbell

On the set of Wild Style with Patti Astor: This luscious color-drenched photo by Cathy Campbell from Wild Style, 2:00AM outside the Dixie, South Bronx. LEE (Quinones) and I are about to get held up by the three "Bad Guys" in the rear, great story about this in the book. Excitement is building for the NYC party Oct. 6! Pre-order today to save $10. off the bookstore price, be on the VIP Door List and be guaranteed a book. What's to lose shorty? Head over to www.thefungallery.com.

Upcoming events of note: The Fun Gallery with Patti Astor

Here's an item I neglected to include in last weeks post about upcoming Art/Music related events - The Fun Gallery, run by Patti Astor, was probably ground zero for the explosion of art and galleries in the early-80's East Village. Opened in 1981, Astor was responsible for some of the first, if not the first exposure on a gallery level for such artists as Basquiat, Kenny Scharf, Fab Five Freddy, Futura 2000, Lee Quinones, Keith Haring, and many others.

Anyway, Patti will be publishing a memoir soon, Fun Gallery: The True Story, and to celebrate, the Clic Gallery will be hosting a book signing on Saturday, 10/6, from 6-8PM. Its sure to be a star studded event!

FUN Gallery...The True Story
Book Signing
Clic NYC, 255 Centre Street, NY, NY
Saturday, October 6, 6-8pm