CATEGORY

MUSIC

No Wave
Marc Masters
Editor

Rob Young

ISBN13: 978 1 906155 02 5

Paperback
192 pages
220 b/w and colour ills
27 22 cm
Pub date: September 2007
19.95

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l The radical, anarchic and hugely influential musical movement of No Wave

swept through the underground clubs of New York in the late 1970s. This book
tells its fascinating story.
l Influenced by the experimental approach of previous New York groups such
as The Velvet Underground, No Wave bands drew on disparate styles such as
funk, jazz, blues, and punk rock, fashioning abrasive, rhythmic songs that were
completely original and utterly compelling.
l Like Rough Trade and Warp, No Wave is a vivid, compelling document of an
exciting and incredibly significant period in modern music.
l NME and The Wire contributor, Marc Masters engagingly chronicles this
extremely fertile time and the book is visually stunning, filled with archive images
and previously unseen photographs and artefacts.
l No Wave features exclusive interviews with key players including James
Chance, Arto Lindsay and Lydia Lunch.
l The book also explores No Wave cinema and art, an exciting innovative
underground scene where figures such as Jim Jarmusch and Steve Buscemi first
made their mark.
l The movement has caught the public eye again, and this book charts No Wave's
continued influence on a diverse range of performers including Sonic Youth,
Nirvana, Liars, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, !!! and Black Dice.

architecture art design

fashion history photography
theory and things

DESCRIPTION

Flashing through the New York underground in the late 1970s, No Wave was noisy,
uncompromising and hugely influential. Its bands consisted of artists and poets
untrained in music, with short, rhythmic, aggressive songs and even shorter life-spans,
looking to explode rock and disappear before the smoke cleared. This book is an
absorbing exploration of this movement, tracing its history from its most famous names
down to its many offshoots.
Influenced by iconic New York bands such as The Velvet Underground and Television,
No Wave's prime perpetrators also drew on primitivism, performance art, and the avantgarde. From early pioneers like Suicide, DNA, Mars, Teenage Jesus and the Jerks and
Glenn Branca, to forgotten treasures like Red Transistor and Bush Tetras, No Wave
charts all the cracks and crevices of this fertile period. The book also delves into No
Wave cinema, a vibrant underground scene where figures like Jim Jarmusch, Steve
Buscemi and Nick Zedd first cut their teeth.
Illustrated with rare and previously unseen concert photos, record covers and posters
and filled with quotes from those who were there, the book profiles the scene's key
protagonists and features exclusive interviews with James Chance (The Contortions),
Arto Lindsay (DNA), and Lydia Lunch's last ever interview on No Wave.
The book also considers No Wave's continued influence on a diverse range of
performers including Sonic Youth, Nirvana, Liars, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, !!! and Black Dice.
Engagingly written by Marc Masters, No Wave is the definitive guide to a genre whose
sounds and ideas still vibrate through alternative culture today.
Marc Masters is a freelance music journalist and contributor to NME and The Wire.
Rob Young is the acting reviews editor of The Wire, and the author of Rough Trade
and Warp in Black Dog Publishing's Labels Unlimited series.

Also available:
Rough Trade 978 1 904772 47 7 and Warp 978 1 904772 32 3

black dog publishing limited

Unit 4.04 Tea Building
56 Shoreditch High Street
London E1 6JJ
www.blackdogonline.com