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.

Rock 'n Roll high school ephemera: What if punks were REALLY animals?

I've had finding this on my mind for years! And last night, while searching for something completely unrelated, there it was! Drawn by a classmate of mine back in probably 1983, we all found it so funny he had to xerox the original for us. Or at least he did for me. I still love it. Especially the fact that Bean McKay (sic) is not an animal at all. Thank you Robert G.

Audio of the Week: Noise The Show #25 and #52 with Tim Sommer, WNYU (1981-82)

Courtesy of Everybody Wants What the Next Guy's Got, here are more digitized rare tapes of the infamous WNYU show, Noise The Show, hosted by Tim Sommer, in the early 80's. For links to previous posts click here. 

Grab these two shows here.

Audio of the Week: Noise The Show #18, #19, #21, #24 with Tim Sommer, WNYU (1981)

Courtesy of Everybody Wants What the Next Guy's Got, we'll now be able to enjoy digitized rare tapes of the infamous WNYU show, Noise The Show, hosted by Tim Sommer, in the early 80's. And he did a real nice job in annotating each episode.

In the summer of 2014, I went googling to see if any episodes of Noise The Show were on youtube (there are) or on blogs similar to this one (there are.) I even stumbled across a facebook group dedicated to the show. Earlier this year, a group member mentioned having a box of tapes of a bunch of episodes, and lacked the gear necessary to digitize them. I spoke up and offered to get these tapes into a format that’s sharable on the internets. Which brings us to this post. Continued at the following link:

Read & download the show.

Great Zoogz Rift! 25 Episodes of New Wave Theatre!

This classic show has been bouncing around for a while in different shapes, sizes & formats, but someone has finally gone and put all 25 episodes up on YouTube. New Wave Theatre, along with Glenn O'Brien's TV Party, can be looked at as one of the better examples of cool in the oasis of mayhem that was early cable TV.

Performances included are by Dead Kennedys, Fear, Plugz, Johanna Wendt, Carnival of Souls, Zoogz Rift, Geza X, Legal Weapon, Unknowns, Angry Samoans, D.I., Los Microwaves, Vox Pop, Circle Jerks, Rayonix, Levi Dexter & the Tribe, UXA, The Blasters, 45 Grave, The Models, X, The Church, Bad Religion, Suburban Lawns, and many others.

The playlist below shows all 25 shows. If you want to see them one at a time, I suggest going to the uploader's YouTube page, and beginning there.

Hat tip to Dangerous Minds.

Stupefied: The NME UK Top 50 Singles of 1980

Back by no demand whatsoever, I felt inspired to continue the series of NME year-end lists, so here you go - 1980 in all of its glory. Lake Placid, Russian boycott, great records & more video with each release. You could easily do a second, completely different, list, and it would be just as good. Please note that the Spotify list is not as complete as the YouTube list due to availability.

01. Joy Division - Love Will Tear Us Apart

02. The Jam - Going Underground

03. The English Beat - Mirror In The Bathroom

04. Joy Division - Atmosphere

05. David Bowie- Ashes to ashes

06. Bow Wow Wow- I Want My Baby On Mars

07. Grace Jones - Private Life

08. David Bowie - Fashion

09. BOW WOW WOW - C30 C60 C90 Go!

10. Stevie Wonder - Master Blaster (Jammin')

11. The Teardrop Explodes - Treason

12. Dexys Midnight Runners - Geno

13. The Jam - Start

14. UB40 - Food for Thought/King

15. Elvis Costello & The Attractions - New Amsterdam

16. A Certain Ratio - Shack Up

17. Echo and the Bunnymen - Rescue

18. UB40 - My Way Of Thinking

19. Kurtis Blow - The Breaks

20. The English Beat - Best Friend

21. Elvis Costello & The Attractions ~ I Can't Stand Up for Falling Down

22. The Cramps - Drug Train

23. The Fall - Fiery Jack

24. Dexys Midnight Runners - Dance Stance (Original 7'' Version)

25. Robert Palmer - Johnny and Mary

26. The English Beat - Hands Off... She's Mine

27. The Subterraneans - My Flamingo

28. Magazine- A Song From Under The Floorboards

29. Comsat Angels - Independence Day

30. The Undertones - My Perfect Cousin

31. Stray Cats - Runaway Boys

32. Robert Wyatt - At Last I Am Free

33. Robert Palmer - Looking For Clues

34. Dexy's Midnight Runners - There, There My Dear

35. Madness - My Girl

36. Squeeze - Another Nail In My Heart

37. A Certain Ratio - Flight

38. Au Pairs - Diet / It's Obvious (7")

39. Tom Browne - Funkin' For Jamaica

40. Caberet Voltaire - Seconds Too Late

41. Diana Ross - I'm Coming Out

42. Elvis Costello & The Attractions - High Fidelity

43. Aswad - Warrior Charge

44. Richard Hell & the Voidoids - Love Comes in Spurts

45. Smack - Edward Fox

46. The Police - Don't Stand So Close To Me

47. Bette Bright - Hello I Am Your Heart

48. Linx - Rise and Shine

49. Siouxsie & The Banshees - Happy House

50. Adam and the Ants - Dog Eat Dog

Rock 'n' Roll High School

Via Precious Instant

From the "I'll Believe It When I See It" Department: Decline of Western Civilization Collection now available for pre-order

Courtesy of Shout Factory comes this four disc set (both Blu-Ray and DVD) of these long unavailable films, now available for pre-order. The release date is the end of June.

New Documentary of Note - The Damned: Don't You Wish That We Were Dead

YES PLEASE!

Facebook

Ruts DC on Pledge Music now!

The Ruts. 

RUTS D.C. 

Book. 

Double live album. 

Pledge music campaign. 

Do it: http://www.pledgemusic.com/projects/9426

Movie of the Week: Punking Out (1977)

Glad to finally see this on YouTube! As I said back in August 2009:  

Punking Out was filmed in 1977 in & around CBGB and features some high quality, in-your-face, front row footage of the Dead Boys, Ramones, and Richard Hell & the Voidoids performing, as well as interviews with club employees and fans, including a VERY young couple of kids by the names of Lydia Lunch and James Chance. Visit the film's official website. A DVD of the movie is available for only $14.95. That's a steal! Plus, you're buying it directly from the filmmaker himself.

Buy the DVD from the filmmaker here.  

Watch it here.

Movie of the Week: The Clash At The Roxy, January 1st, 1977 (Julien Temple)

Built around the earliest, until now unseen, footage of the Clash in concert, filmed by Julien Temple as they opened the infamous Roxy club in a dilapidated Covent Garden on January 1st 1977, this show takes us on a time-travelling trip back to that strange planet that was Great Britain in the late 1970s and the moment when punk emerged into the mainstream consciousness.

Featuring the voices of Joe Strummer and the Clash from the time, and intercutting the raw and visceral footage of this iconic show, with telling moments from the BBC's New Year's Eve, Hogmanay and New Year's Day schedules of nearly 40 years ago, it celebrates that great enduring British custom of getting together, en masse and often substantially the worse for wear, to usher in the New Year.

New Year's Day is when we collectively take the time to reflect on the year that has just gone by and ponder what the new one might hold in store for us. Unknown to the unsuspecting British public, 1977 was of course the annus mirabilis of punk. The year in which the Clash themselves took off, catching the imagination of the nation's youth.

As their iconic song, 1977, counts us down to midnight, we'll share with them and Joe Strummer, in previously unseen interviews from the time, their hopes and predictions for the 12 months ahead.

Hat tip to CoS and Fact Mag.

New Book of Note: Sounds of Two Eyes Opening by legendary SST Producer/Engineer, Spot

A new photography book by Spot is available now. You may remember seeing his name on countless releases (including Black Flag, the Minutemen, and Husker Du) on the SST label. Sounds of Two Eyes Opening looks back at SoCal life from the very late 60's through the early 80's.

Order it direct from the publisher, or on Amazon.

Liz Maher reviews Viv Albertine's Clothes, Clothes, Clothes. Music, Music, Music. Boys, Boys, Boys

Order the book here. Visit Viv's website here.

By Liz Maher for Stupefaction

Viv Albertine, original Slit girl and It girl of the 70’s London punk scene, long before the Kates and the Caras, has released her memoir CLOTHES, CLOTHES, CLOTHES. MUSIC, MUSIC, MUSIC. BOYS, BOYS, BOYS. (Thomas Dunne, on sale 11/25) The title comes from Albertine's long suffering mother’s exasperated summation of Albertine’s autoelectic description. Mother Albertine nailed it. Fortunately, Albertine grew up impoverished in the UK council estates (you know, the staircases and hallways are on the outside like at an Eileen Warnos era Florida motor court) instead of the USA where she could have easily have taken the ubiquitous mall rat turn. Thus charming transcends annoying. Malcolm McLaren and Viv Westwood’s frock shop, Sex, was Viv’s university and family, and they used her without mercy. The Diane Lane film based on Viv and her mates, Ladies and Gentlemen the Fabulous Stains, missed that part.

Albertine’s memoir does more than reminisce about her days as guitarist of the pioneering female punk bands (The Slits, The Flowers of Romance, and Flying Lizards), it tells a coming of age story which also serves as a historical insider’s guide to London’s early punk scene. The Slits served as female counterparts to The Clash - touring with them and The Buzzcocks and opening for The Sex Pistols. Declaring herself a feminist throughout the book, Albertine eschewed the traditional groupie/girlfriend role women - think Bebe Buell, Uschi Obermaier (my brother’s fave), Pamela Des Barres – women who also obtained a measure of agency through a more traditional and outwardly submissive role. Instead she immersed herself into the music scene as a musician and artist and uninhibited public persona who redefined her identity to embrace the world beyond the council flats. What Albertine might actually mean by “feminist” seems to be an autodidactic sense of rejecting the role of the abject and being assigned to ontological irrelevance. A plaster caster, she was not.

Admittedly she could not actually play guitar when she started out but that was part of punk’s search for the arche blues energy and its charm as an arresting fairy tale in the age of disco, self-absorption and Silver Jubilee commorative tea sets. Obsessed with having the perfect look and band cred, she eventually learned to play power chords. On the side she dated The Clash’s Mick Jones, inspiring the song Train In Vain, and Johnny Thunders (who I remember watching on stage wedged in between two speakers, drunk out of my mind at age 13,) was Sid Vicious’s BFF and ran with Chrissie Hynde and Siouxie Sioux.

Albertine offhandedly stakes her claim to setting the Doc Martin with minis, shrunken dress and taped torn stocking trends and Sid started the safety pin thing. More accurately, it happened around McDowell and Westwood’s boutique on Portobello Road and they glommed onto the trend and pushed the merch. At one point Albertine mentions her influence on 15-year old Slit’s bandmate Ari Up (RIP, Johnny Lydon’s daughter in law and creative msifit). Later she served as role model for Sleater-Kinney, Carrie Brownstein, Courtney Love and Kurt Cobain through the phylogenic persistence of her “mosquito guitar” sound). If that is not enough, her analysis of Sid Vicious’ handwriting alone makes it worth reading. I had always wondered about graphology and the creative process. In Sid’s case he was a sensitive slob, behind his – um – public image.

In keeping with the brevity of punk tracks averaging under 3 minutes, Albertine’s writes in speedy, two page per chapter bursts, a roman a clef version in the vein of Dashiel Hammnet, James McElroy and the 30 Second Bunnies ‘tunes. She takes the reader through a treacle flavored tour of her life from her first memories as a child immigrating from Australia to an dodgy life in England, growing up in an abusive broken home, coming of age on the cusp of punk rock’s development in the UK, attending art school hoping to follow in the footsteps of Ray Davies, too many boyfriends, battles with addiction, cancer and personal demons. Albertine experiences more in three chapters than most people experience in a lifetime. In short a Scholastic Books type morality tale for the middle –aged. Albertine writes about a lot of sexual harassment which she doesn’t feel the need to call out thereby making a stronger statement. She muses wistfully upon Joe Strummer’s lack of loyalty to his bandmate Mick Jones as Strummer “pesters (her) to sleep with him” despite his rotting teeth and overbearing political naiveté. Strummer wasn’t the only Clash member to solicit her. On the other hand, Vicious is portrayed as the eternal gentleman, if gentlemen spit, curse and start fights.

The Albertine-Jones relationship is complicated. It starts out with her whining to Jones about another

boy she's shagging after which he asks her on a date. With no effort or intention on her part, it progresses to a thing with Albertine reluctant to publicly acknowledge the romance (on the surface not conform to societal expectations but really because she didn’t want to hurt her chance with other boys.) Their love is challenged by Jones’ jealousy, a lonely abortion, more jealousy from Jones, Jones’ infidelity leading to VD for VA and finally ends with his blowing Albertine off after she won’t have sex with him will dealing with depression. She really should have gone with Thunders, possibly the only larger narcissist on the scene.

CMB is sectioned into two parts: Side One (young Viv) and Side Two (Middle Aged Viv). Side Two brings to mind the Arctic Monkeys’ anthem Fluorescent Adolescent of a woman who “used to get it in your fishnets, now you only get it in your night dress.” Part Two has our heroine trying to remain relevant by attempting re-create her band, teaching aerobics and taking a sort-of traditional job. Cancer, divorce, aging and loneliness enter but Albertine doesn’t let that or any man get her down. Albertine presents as not overly self-conscipus of her own talent. She is very skilled at showing things with her writing without having to state it, a sure sign of someone who never fit in. Her refusal to submit to undermining statements from male mouths is pronounced a bit too often and loud, we got the point. However, it is appreciated and maybe does need to be pronounced, discussed and chanted like a battle cry. It all ends on an uptick with Albertine counting her blessings and again her determination that no man will break her spirit. Albertine soundtracks her whole life in an appendix at the end, omitting the Arctic Monkeys. Let's say she lost her groove after 1981.

CMB is a great read/gift for both punk-o-philes and young women who these days identify with strong heroines (i.e. Katniss Everdeen.) There are a few cringe-worthy sex scenes in the book but they are so strained and uncomfortable they are more likely to promote abstinence than promiscuity. Vivian Albertine, you will never become a fixture in the Victoria & Albert, but her exegesis will be referenced in the catalogue.

New Book of Note: Clothes, Clothes, Clothes. Music, Music, Music. Boys, Boys, Boys - A Memoir by Viv Albertine

Clothes, Clothes, Clothes. Music, Music, Music. Boys, Boys, Boys: A Memoir 

by Viv Albertine

Citywide: James Chance, James Brown, Punk, Funk and the Free Jazz Connection

James Chance at CBGB by Eugene Merinov

As a sort of sister piece to James Chance's recent guest DJ spot on WNYU's Shake 'Em On Down,  he also sat down with the station's Micah Loewinger, and discussed some of his musical influences - specifically James Brown, and the point where punk met funk via free jazz - on the show Citywide. James' interview is the first half of the show.

James Brown

Movie of the Week: Bad Brains, A Band In DC

Watch it while you can!

New Book of Note: Glen E. Friedman's My Rules compendium now available

We love to see our favorites doing well, and one of our favorite photographers, Glen E. Friedman, has a new book out NOW! My Rules compiles the original My Rules zine from the early 80's, as well as his two books, Fuck You Heroes, and Fuck You Too. Plus, he says that 30% of the images have never been published before. This is gonna be a whopper of a book!

Rizzoli (the publisher) website 

Order My Rules on Amazon

Stupefied: The Glen E. Friedman Playlist

Contributors include:

TONY ALVA
IAN MacKAYE
ICE-T
LANCE MOUNTAIN
HENRY ROLLINS
LL COOL J
DUANE PETERS
KEITH MORRIS
CHUCK D.
RODNEY MULLEN
RAKIM ALLAH
JAY ADAMS
MILO AUKERMAN
DARRYL McDANIELS
ALAN “OLLIE” GELFAND
JELLO BIAFRA
RICK RUBIN
JEFF HO
TONY (CADENA) BRANDENBURG
ADAM HOROVITZ
GARY “DR. KNOW” MILLER

Introductions by

C.R. Stecyk III and Shepard Fairey

Afterwords by

Lisa Fancher and Gary Harris

Exhibit of Note: Edward Colver, Sept 20 in Los Angeles at Lethal Amounts

Edward Colver website

Lethal Amounts website

Looking For Johnny (Thunders): Trailer & DVD Pre-Order

 The recently screened doc about Johnny Thunders (Looking For Johnny: The Legend of Johnny Thunders) will be released on DVD on Oct. 7. I've heard mixed reports about it, but if you're so inclined you can pre-order it here. Check out the trailer below.