Product Description

No Wave traces the history of this influential genre from its most famous names down to its many offshoots and sidetracks. From early pioneers like Suicide and Glenn Branca, to forgotten treasures like Red Transistor and Bush Tetras, No Wave charts all the cracks and crevices of a surprisingly diverse movement.

Flashing through the New York underground in the late 1970s, No Wave was the ultimate anti-movement. Its bands consisted of artists and poets untrained in music, looking to explode rock and disappear before the smoke cleared. The primary perpetrators - Lydia Lunch's howling Teenage Jesus and the Jerks, James Chance's skeletal Contortions, the dark-noise groups Mars and DNA - all drew on primitivism, performance art, and the avant-garde. They were best known for short songs and even shorter life-spans. The book also delves into No Wave cinema, a vibrant underground scene where figures like Jim Jarmusch, Nick Zedd, and Steve Buscemi first cut their teeth.

Illustrated with concert photos, record covers, and other ephemera of the times, and filled with quotes from those who were there, No Wave is the definitive guide to a genre whose sounds and ideas still vibrate through alternative culture today.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #349679 in Books
• Published on: 2008-01-16
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 205 pages

Customer Reviews

Best Book on No Wave so far!
The Best & most Vivid book about the Fabled No Wave scene of NYC in the Late seventies so far.

There are a Few other decent books, but this one is the Best.
Great Stories, Pictures, Opinions & Of Course Music!

Another "mystery" scene in the Varied history of Punk rock. Along with the Hollywood scene, NYC's No Wave scene was an insular one. With it's own bands, stars, films TV, & Press. It rose from the Burned out streets of Downtown Manhattan. Original musical Ideas Thrust upon a world, not even asking for it!

From the Pre-Punk rumblings of Suicide, throughout the ZE & Lust/Unlust record labels No Magazine years. James Chance, Anya Phillips, Lydia Lunch, Amos Poe, Beth B, Glenn Branca, Pat Place & More all survived & Maybe even Thrived! They did it their way!

This Book captures the scene in Great Photos, info, & graphics. You may have Missed out on it in it's original time, but you could still be Inspired by this book, to do your Own thing. And Of course, not just aping those Great sights & sounds. Lydia Lunch will come After ya!