James Chance

I'm on a James Chance kick lately. He's one of the coolest sax-playing No-Wave heroes of late 70's NYC (Yes, there are actually more than one.) He was in Teenage Jesus and the Jerks, The Contortions, and James White and the Blacks. His music is aggressive, funky disco-punk mixed with free form jazz. YES!

Brian Eno likes it. 

With the late Anya Phillips who was his girlfriend, manager, and muse. She's a super cool No-Wave hero too.
She died too early in life, in 1981 of cancer.

With Richard Hell.

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Ok, now time to watch videos and hear the songs:

James Chance & The Contortions - Contort Yourself  live at the M-80 Festival, Minneapolis, 09/23/1979. Wish I could have been there!!

James White & The Blacks - Sax Maniac

James Chance & the Contortions - I Can't Stand Myself 

James White & The Blacks - Contort Yourself  This version is different than The Contortions version, more disco and funky.

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James Chance's website

Olde New York

I haven't listened to this early 80's, all-girl, no wave band yet, but they have all the ingredients that make me fall in love. Here's an article about them published earlier this year in the Village Voice

New York subway, shot by Erik Calonius, May 1973

CBGB, NYC, 1977; © Bob Gruen. Looks fun!

No Wave all-stars hanging out on the Bowery. Shot by Godlis, summer 1978.
I'm not cool enough to be able to identify all of these people, but I do see Diego Cortez, Anya Phillips, Lydia Lunch, and James Chance.

Skins on Ave A. Looks mid-80's

Dead Kennedys, California Über Alles

 

This is the Fast Product UK 7" released in 1979. Download the song by option-clicking this link.

Miscellaneous

Punk girls on the tube. 

Gondolas at the Expo 70, the World's Fair event held in Osaka in 1970.

The Face, February 1981, featuring the Clash. 

I really miss this magazine. It folded sometime in 2004 or 2005. 

I was shocked that the next issue just never came out!

Lev Borodulin, Water Festival, 1960

Miscellaneous

Andy Warhol. So meta!

Pauer, from the series ‘Berlin Teenagers' by German photographer Helga Paris, 1982. Those pants are something to behold.

Cool girls: Lydia Lunch, Adele Bertei, and Anya Phillips

Another hot Sheena Easton photo. She's so cute!

Josef Albers, Homage to the Square – Arctic Bloom, 1965

Miscellaneous

Dress by Nanette Lepore, Summer 2010

I'm always attracted to photos of buoys, because I like the colors and the weathered texture. I think this is just a stock photo.

Suicide. 

Sometimes their sound causes me to feel ill in the stomach. It's really odd to get that kind of reaction from sound.

Nico and Andy Warhol dressed as Batman and Robin for Halloween. Cute!

Miscellaneous