A couple of years ago I realized I probably needed to procure as many NY Rocker issues as I might be able to afford, before they started bei
A couple of years ago I realized I probably needed to procure as many NY Rocker issues as I might be able to afford, before they started being priced like Slash currently is. Even now there are pathways to getting these for $15-$25 a pop, so thatâs what I did a few years back â and then I wrote reviews of them here, here, here and here. Even now, Iâm just catching up to the half-dozen or so I bought. I actually remember first seeing this while it was actively being published at Rasputinâs in Berkeley, CA, probably in 1981, but I was too broke and too much of a teenage dumb-dumb to be able to buy it.
NY Rocker, including in this December 1980 issue, brought together heroes like Don Snowdon, Byron Coley, Ira Kaplan, Don Waller and later Don Howland â a lot of Dons â along with guys who loved Chic and disco-dancing or whatever, and werenât afraid to tell you. It never really reads to me as quite hitting the quality level of Slash or even Damage most of the time, but thatâs irrelevant. Itâs still absolutely stacked with the maniacal explosion of underground music that defined the times, both across the USA and in the UK, much of which NY Rocker pays close attention to, as well as anything else interesting beyond Manhattanâs borders.
First up after the table of contents, Ira Kaplan talks about how Robert Frankâs Cocksucker Blues finally screened in New York after years of legal purgatory, and how tough it was to get into one of the screenings. âIronically, itâs possible that the only people more disappointed than those who didnât get in were those who didâŠ.Cocksucker Bluesâ strength is that it makes the fabled lore of the road â the drugs, the sex, the destruction of hotel rooms â look not merely ugly, but as weâve been assured touring is, boring â a combination Iâve never seen pulled off beforeâ. Bingo. My thoughts precisely on this film, which is a âwatch once, discuss, then forgetâ sort of viewing.Â
Cover star Captain Beefheart is interviewed with Doc at The Radar Station having just come out. If youâve read Van Vliet interviews before, his style was give a millimeter, take an inch â so itâs difficult to get a bead on him aside from his eccentricity, which frankly, is enough for me. You just need to know what to expect going in. I suspect a collection of all his late 70s/early 80s interviews wouldnât add up to much in terms of new revelations on, say, the creative process â but heâs just daffy enough and moderately confrontational that itâs still a fun read.
Jeff Hayes has a piece on a bunch of heavy metal teens going to a Molly Hatchet show, and about their subculture of booze, partyinâ and metal. The obvious comparison, of course, would be Heavy Metal Parking Lot from six years later. Thereâs an embarrassing Delta 5 interview by Jim Anderson where he wants to commit the 3 women in the 5-person band to a sort of âwomen in rockâ solidarity with The Raincoats and the Slits and theyâre having none of it. In 1981, when I was really diving into college radio for the first time, my initial favorites were the funk/bass-heavy, female-sung, post-punk rhythms of the Delta 5, Au Pairs and Bush Tetras, all sitting at ground zero in this December 1980 issue. Itâs amazingly still a sound that hasnât gotten old for me, likely because it was as formative as it comes (even though I rarely listen to anything else like it).
So much else going on! Jah Wobble is now driving a cab in London and figuring out his next move â which merits an entire short piece on him. âLightninâ Jeffreyâ Lee Pierce has his own section on reggae records; the cream of the crop has already risen, and he knows it. He was doing these sorts of reviews and roundups for Slash too. Thereâs a takedown of the Times Square film, which Iâve never seen because Iâve never wanted to. And thereâs a great interview with the band Information, plus later, an ad for their Tape #1 with Mofungo and Blinding Headache, a tape recently unearthed again here. Rick Brown from this band is still killing it with 75 Dollar Bill, 44 years later.
Byron Coley and Greg McLean do a passel of 45 reviews â Mission of Burma, Dead Kennedys, Jad Fair, Snakefinger and many, many lesser lights. Thereâs a â30 NY bands of the momentâ centerspread â Bush Tetras, Zantees, Mofungo, Ut, Von Lmo, DNA, Lounge Lizards and Klaus Nomi (!), among others. And what a surprise â thereâs a short piece on the mysterious Chain Gang with a great photo; itâs about how no one knows who they are, and how theyâll just pop up for a gig somewhere in NYC, maybe on a fishing pier, about once a year.











