Monthly Archives: December 2015

Let’s hear it for rock’s great forgotten. Take Fanny, the first all-female band to record an album on a major label, back in 1970. They opened for everyone, recorded some cool albums, and who remembers them? Nuts like me. And David Bowie, who in 1999 said of them, “One of the most important female bands in American rock has been buried without a trace. And that is Fanny. They were one of the finest… rock bands of their time, in about 1973. They were extraordinary… they’re as important as anybody else who’s ever been, ever; it just wasn’t their time.” That “wasn’t their time” deserves elucidation; it’s not that they were playing music that was out of sync with the age—their problem was they were a female group in what was still a world dominated by all-male bands.

Judy Nylon falls into the same category. She is a largely obscure figure, despite her multidisciplinary contributions to the glam, punk, and No Wave movements in both London and New York. The reasons for her neglect in the historical time line of rock music are two-fold; first she was a woman, and second she didn’t release much music, and is as well-known for inadvertently assisting Brian Eno to develop ambient music as she is for the relatively sparse collection of songs she recorded with Crucial, a dub punk outfit, and Snatch—originally called Cha-Cha—her duo with fellow American Patti Palladin, who would later record with Johnny Thunders and lend her ice-cold vocals to the Flying Lizards’ frigid version of “Money (That’s What I Want).”

Beyond the 1983 Snatch compilation Witch 1, which collected the band’s singles and miscellaneous tunes, and her reggae/dub/punk LP Pal Judy, which she released with the band Crucial in 1982, there’s virtually nothing out there. She was primarily a background presence and muse—she played the seductress in John Cale’s “The Man Who Couldn’t Afford to Orgy” off his 1974 LP Fear (for which she was paid, she has said, “Twenty quid and a line of coke”); collaborated with Eno on the song “R.A.F.,” a sound collage featuring telephone calls from the German revolutionary group that succeeded the Baader-Meinhof Gang (and that appeared on the B-side of Brian Eno’s “The King’s Lead Hat”); and was the “Judy” of Eno’s “Back in Judy’s Jungle” off his 1974 LP Taking Tiger Mountain (By Strategy).

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The fortification of the Swans’ shelf continues with Young God’s reissue of two early ‘90s studio albums, White Light from the Mouth of Infinity and Love of Life. Finding Michael Gira resetting the course after an anti-climactic major label soiree, both are out now on LP individually and also in a strikingly designed limited edition vinyl/CD box. Ears curious over Swans’ less formidable motion could easily dabble in one of the two, though an entire disc of related extras is likely to spur converts to covet the whole swank package.

Of the assorted angles comprising the subterranean scene of the 1980s, one of the more interesting is the nook populated by the tight-knit (indeed, intermittently overlapping) and stylistically ambitious (oft transgressive, even) gang of post-punk musical leaders. A loosely defined grouping, the principals are post-Birthday Party Nick Cave, Lydia Lunch, J.G. “Foetus” Thirlwell, and the work of Michael Gira.

Michael Azerrad’s tome Our Band Could Be Your Life dishes a hulking amount of info pertaining to the persistently influential success stories springing from the ‘80s underground, but as its title outlines it was concerned with bands, specifically those based in the USA. The abovementioned figures fall outside Azerrad’s terms for various reasons, though geography (New York City), associates (Sonic Youth) and leadership of Swans can make it seem that Gira fits the bill pretty well.

Circa the late ‘80s Swans did register as a band, in fact a shape-shifting unit led by vocalist Gira with a sound gradually heading to the light from the pummeling severity of the era commencing with ‘82’s “Swans” EP and progressing through ‘83’s Filth to reach an apex in the Gira, Norman Westberg (guitar), Harry Crosby (bass), and Roli Mosimann (drums) lineup of ’84’s Cop and “Young God” EP.

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“I dated Vinyl’s mom Victrola growing up. She was a total cougar. Technically, those 78s were made of shellac so I can’t say it was vinyl, although it did have an amazing sound that I had never heard before. Warm, muddy, crackly…I used to listen to opera and classical records on that old lady. Sadly, she was sold in a yard sale.”

“I didn’t reconnect with her hot daughter vinyl until I was in college. The artwork pulled me back in initially, and the experience sealed the deal. The process of listening to a record is immersive and requires commitment. The artwork and album credits are held in higher regard than other mediums and therefore elevate the music itself. Smoking a J and listening to Queen’s News of the World on vinyl was a life changing experience for me. Many people have similar stories about albums that affected them and defined their musical lives.

Vinyl records demand your full attention and are not meant to be listened to in the Spotify-esque muzak way. They are not for working out to, studying to, falling asleep to, or any number of other second-rate tasks. Vinyl records are simply for listening to.

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Our last check in with Windian Records examined two swell reissues from the increasingly reliable wellspring of punk-garage-trash. It’s an enterprise just as concerned over the happening nonce as vital history however, and recently its roster has been fortified with a pair of worthy and diverse new releases; Jacques Le Coque deliver raw infectiousness through the “Tip of My Tongue” b/w “You Better Move” 45 while Black Panties cram four slabs of prime ugliness into the highly potent “Future EP.” Available now, both are solid acquisitions for anyone maintaining a home shelf of contemporary punkish gusto.

Jacques Le Coque formed in Stamford, CT (their place of origin also the hometown of Killed by Death notables Tapeworm of “Break My Face” non-fame) and are currently composed of Pete Mazza on guitar and vocals, Jason Kyek on drums, RJ DeAngelis on guitar, and Francis Carr (also of Moth Eggs, Thee Goochi Boiz, and formerly of The Happy Jawbone Family Band) on bass.

Making their debut in late 2012 on a self-titled CD featuring a dozen tracks, Jacques Le Coque specialize in melodic punk classique, reaching back to nab elements of beat rock, garage, Thunders’ Heartbreakers, early Saints, and even the Replacements into a catchy and tough scenario. Easily sticking in the memory, the band flaunts a streak of rudeness effectively fending off any confusion as to where to file the results.

The picture sleeve of Jacques Le Coque’s latest platter (to say nothing of the name) surely aids in underlining a level of snot in their attack, and in a nifty bonus the 7-inch’s purchase provides digital access to their sophomore effort from earlier this year. A tunefully ragged improvement on its predecessor, the 12-song Hooky helped to cement the four-piece as inhabiting the busy crossroads of sturdy tunes and raucous energy with a few nods into the direction of ‘60s-ish folk rock thrown in.

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