Various - Soul Jazz Records presents 135 Grand Street, New York, 1979

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Press release

5...according to our Brett on Wed 31 Mar, 2010.

Here's a little seen treat from a little scene called No Wave. This DVD (with the soundtrack also available on CD with extra tracks) charts the Soho side of things in a completely punkish, no-frills fashion, just a Super-8 camera pointed into an alcove where a series of terrifyingly undernourished bands will be introduced and play.. Although there is the occasional fade into a photo or something to be fair. The most well known people here are undoubtedly multi-guitar overlords Glenn Branca (with The Static and Theoretical Girls - who killed it here better than they ever did on record for my money) and Rhys Chatham (who plays a stunning 'trio' with only two people and seemingly just the one chord) as well as the ever-underrated UT (who had a good go at it right the way through the 80s) and it's great seeing such rare early footage, but the real fun is in the lesser-known bands whose performances give you a much more rounded idea of the scene as a whole.. I'm particularly enamoured with Jill Kroesen's awkward torch songs and Youth In Asia's feral dissonance but they all have their charms. An invaluable document, oui?

•   Ericka Beckman’s seminal, rarely seen, film captures the driving energy and posturing of early No Wave bands’ performing live in a sparse downtown loft and includes the only known footage of the Theoretical Girls, The Static and other No Wave bands of the period.

•   Garage band line-ups in varying degrees of post-punk musical destruction. Ericka Beckman’s film matches the rawness, minimalism and radicalism of the music - a fitting document and visual statement of new forms created out of New York’s anti-everything musical nihilism, circa 1979.

•   ‘135 Grand Street, New York, 1979’ is history. This is a film about bands made up of painters, filmmakers, actors - and occasionally musicians - thriving and thrashing in the pulsating, vibrant post-punk world of New York where high art met low culture.

•   Featured bands include Theoretical Girls, UT, A Band, Rhys Chatham, Chinese Puzzle, The Static, Morales, Youth in Asia, Morales, Steven Piccolo and Jill Kroesen.

•   The film has currently been showing throughout the world as part of Sonic Youth’s ‘Sensational Fix’ touring art exhibition as well as screening before Glenn Branca’s most recent shows in New York City (Sep 2009).

•   "If you want to see what the Soho side of No Wave looked like this is the only place you're ever gonna find it" - Glenn Branca.

• “Ericka Beckman’s film finds these ensembles deconstructing rock with unpretentious vitality and uncompromised vision. ... Remarkably kinetic performances” - Marc Masters (Author of ‘No Wave’) The Wire.

•   The mid-price DVD comes in thin-DVD case with booklet.

•   A mid-price CD soundtrack, released to coincide, comes with bonus tracks not featured in the film.

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