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 Teenage Jesus and the Jerks, James Chance's Contortions, Mars and DNA -- all drew on primitivism, performance art, and the avant-garde.
"No Wave" traces the history of this noisy and uncompromising genre, from forefathers like Suicide and Richard Hell, to forgotten treasures like Red Transistor and Bush Tetras, to descendents like ESG and Sonic Youth. The book also delves into No Wave cinema, where pioneers like Amos Poe, Eric Mitchell, and Beth and Scott B. translated the aggression of No Wave music
to the screen. Illustrated with rare concert photos, record covers, and other ephemera of the times, and featuring exclusive interviews with key
scene figures, "No Wave" is the definitive guide to a genre whose sounds and ideas still vibrate through alternative culture today.
"The No Wave scene has never gotten the overview it deserved until now. Masters traces its wayward experiments and stylistic switchbacks with critical engagement and thoughtfulness. Drawing on detailed interviews with many of the scene's key players, as well as an exhaustive amount of archival material, Masters brings this secret history to vivid life. Even if your interest in punk history is merely casual, the treasure trove of rare ephemera reprinted here is fascinating."
-- Andrea Feldman, Village Voice
Some Links:
http://www.blackdogonline.com/all-books/no-wave.html http://nowavebook.blogspot.com/ http://www.myspace.com/nowavebook http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/article/feature/47828-no-the-origins-of-no-wave
