No Wave remains one of the most obscure, short-lived, mysterious and influential musical movements of the 20th century. No Wave began in 197
Common influences include the 60’s sonic explorations of the Velvet Underground, The Doors, The Stooges, David Bowie, The New York Dolls, Robert Quine, Lou Reed, John Cale, Patti Smith, electronic synth duo Suicide and James Brown. The genre became separated from punk because it was considered “too weird” and promoters often refused to pay for such unconventional performances, so the early bands formed their own scene and called it No Wave as a pun on the commercial ‘New Wave’ label.
The earliest and most influential No Wave bands were Teenage Jesus and The Jerks, James Chance & The Contortions, MARS, and D.N.A. These were the four groups that appeared on the 1977 compilation ‘No New York’ which was recorded at the Big Apple Studio in 1978 and produced by Brian Eno, who was in New York City to produce the second album by the Talking Heads when he happened to catch a No Wave show at the Artists Space and decided to record what he saw as a fresh and innovative scene. Due to its production by Brian Eno the album became well known and highly influential amongst aspiring avant garde artists and noise musicians leading to the formation of another two early No Wave bands, Swans and Sonic Youth.
Other important early No Wave bands that didn’t appear on the No New York compilation include Theoretical Girls, Glenn Branca, Lounge Lizards and Rhys Chatham. Members of these bands often collaborated together, for example Lydia Lunch worked with Sonic Youth on their Death Valley ’69 single and Thurston Moore appeared alongside Lydia Lunch, Nick Cave and Rowland S. Howard on her Honeymoon in Red album and George Scott III played bass in the Contortions, with Pat Irwin of Raybeats and with Lunch in 8 Eyed Spy.
The scene was based around traditional early punk and New Wave New York City venues like CBGB’s, The Mudd Club, Max’s Kansas City, Tier 3 and Club 57 as well as shorter-lived installations like the Artists Space and Speed Trials. ZE Records was formed in 1978 and at one point or another every early No Wave group was affiliated with the label aside from latecomers Sonic Youth and Swans who were first released on Neutral Records, with Sonic Youth moving to SST then Geffen and Swans staying with Atavastic and later Young God Records. Lydia Lunch founded her own label, Widowspeak Records to maintain creative control of her work.
No Wave was mainly an artistic rather than profit driven genre and it came to include No Wave cinema, art and literature as well as music. Famous No Wave filmmakers include Scott B, Beth B, Jim Jarmusch, Nick Zedd and Richard Kern, who created the controversial short film Fingered starring Lydia Lunch. The films were typically shot in black and white and focused on themes of sex, violence and degradation. No Wave cinema eventually evolved into Transgressive Cinema.
Lydia Lunch has released numerous books and collections of poetry, many of which reference people and events in the No Wave movement. These include The Gun is Loaded, Will Work for Drugs, Adulterers Anonymous and Paradoxia: A Predator’s Diary. No Wave and visual art mixed at gallery openings and exhibitions, notably some by Jean-Michel Basquiat and the Times Square Show, which featured over 100 artists working in a variety of mediums. The ABC No Rio Gallery was the center of No Wave related visual arts during the 1980s.
Other important early No Wave bands that didn’t appear on the No New York compilation include Theoretical Girls, Glenn Branca, Lounge Lizards and Rhys Chatham. Members of these bands often collaborated together, for example Lydia Lunch worked with Sonic Youth on their Death Valley ’69 single and Thurston Moore appeared alongside Lydia Lunch, Nick Cave and Rowland S. Howard on her Honeymoon in Red album and George Scott III played bass in the Contortions, with Pat Irwin of Raybeats and with Lunch in 8 Eyed Spy.
No Wave: Final Thoughts
The original No Wave music scene was short lived and by 1980 most of the early groups had broken up but the genre left an indelible mark on the history of New York’s underground music scene. Bands that were spawned from or heavily influenced by No Wave include 80’s bands such as Bush Tetras, These Immortal Souls, The Fall, Pussy Galore and Live Skull. During this time the line between No Wave and Post Punk began to blur and saw several collaborations between members of Post Punk bands like The Fall, Clint Ruin, The Birthday Party and No Wave acts like Sonic Youth and Lydia Lunch.
In the early 90’s scene veterans Lydia Lunch of Teenage Jesus & The Jerks & Rowland S. Howard of These Immortal Souls and The Birthday Party teamed up to create the No Wave and Post Punk inspired album, Shotgun Wedding, and new bands with a heavy debt to the No Wave sound emerged such as The Flying Luttenbachers, Gallon Drunk, Nirvana, L7, The Chrome Cranks, Jon Spencer’s Blues Explosion, Boss Hog and Cop Shoot Cop.
In the 2000’s the genre was continued by new groups like Child Abuse and Cellular Chaos, which has Weasel Walter of The Flying Luttenbachers on guitar as well as by scene veterans like Jon Spencer, who released Freedom Tower: A No Wave Dance Party in 2016 with the Blues Explosion and Lydia Lunch who formed Big Sexy Noise with members of Gallon Drunk in 2008 and in 2012 she formed RETROVIRUS with Bob Bert (Sonic Youth, Pussy Galore, Chrome Cranks) Tim Dahl (Child Abuse) and Weasel Walter (The Flying Luttenbachers, Cellular Chaos) and they released two albums and toured the world doing a retrospective concert of her career in which she played songs from Teenage Jesus & the Jerks, Eight Eyed Spy as well as her own considerable back catalogue of solo recordings.
No Wave continues to survive today as bands and artists like Cellular Chaos, Child Abuse, The Flying Luttenbachers, James Chance, Bush Tetras, Michael Gira, Arto Lindsay, Chelsea Light Moving, Lee Renaldo and The Dust, Kim Gordon’s Body/Head and Lydia Lunch continue to tour and keep up the traditions of No Wave while still inspiring new groups and artists today such as Sista Fista, Square Nails, Sonic Titan/Yamantaka, Wolf Lane and the Gadarene Swine.
