5. Various ArtistsNo New York
A lot of things came from working for Byron Coley, who’s a writer and record label operator in Massachusetts; I was living there and started interning for his label. And then he had a record store, so I got to hear these things. Like a lot of other people, I started going from Hendrix to Minutemen, to hearing Boredoms, and then, working for Byron, the first day that I went to interview for the internship, he gave me a list that was like, ‘Check this stuff out’. The great thing about having a brain that’s 19 years old is that it’s pretty flexible and hungry for new information. I’d heard some Sonic Youth and I think Byron was like, ‘Oh, if you like, early Sonic Youth check Teenage Jesus And The Jerks.’ I mean, Lydia Lunch’s guitar playing! No New York is a little bit of a cheat for a Baker’s Dozen, because I would have put the Teenage Jesus pink album and Mars’ ‘11,000 Volts’ and also DNA and The Contortions. Hearing all that no wave stuff, it’s still song, but it’s getting pretty far out there. With DNA, Arto Lindsay’s vocals, how much you can stretch? Ikue Mori’s drumming was totally mind blowing, like no cymbals and just sticking with a tom, she’s just incredible. And now her laptop playing is equally mind bending. All of those bands meant a lot. How different they could all be and still be part of a scene. And that was a thing in western Massachusetts, where I started working for Byron. There were all these different bands. Bill Nace was there playing with different people like Dredd Foole. Paul Flaherty played a lot. You could be playing a show and there’s a lot of things together that don’t sound exactly alike. It’s nice when there’s a lot of difference.
