Thurston Moore (Sonic Youth) presents six classic New York no wave bands: Devo, DNA, Teenage Jesus, The Contortions, Bush Tetras, and Pere Ubu

TV clippings with Thurston Moore (Sonic Youth) and Byron Coley about the New York downtown pre-1980 post punk no wave noise music scene. 

They talk about Pere Ubu, The Contortions, Teenage Jesus & The Jerks, Bush Tetras, Devo, and DNA. All these bands have the NY funk & noise trademark that makes them quite a lot different from their european counterparts. Three of bands - The Contortions, Teenage Jesus, and DNA was on the legendary Brian Eno produced 1978 album No New York. Six videos below....

Pere Ubu
Rock band gone Eclectic. With legendary David Thomas in front, and the Allan Ravenstein on weird out-of-context monophonic synths.


The Contortions  (w. James Chance)
Archtypical white intellectuals playing staccato funk.


Teenage Jesus & the Jerks (w. Lydia Lunch)


Bush Tetras
Mostly a girl-band with former Contortions guitarplayer. Again staccato noise-funk.


Devo
The most commercially succesful of the presented bands. Sort of a mix between Kraftwerk, The Residents, and early Talking Heads.


DNA (w. Arto Lindsay)
Noise trio with guitar god Arto Lindsay - more on him soon...


Outbound links

• The No Wave genre: Wikipedia entry; AllMusic.com entry
• Pere Ubu: Wikipedia Entry; iTunes store
• The Contortions: Wikipedia Entry; iTunes store
• Teenage Jesus & The Jerks: Wikipedia entry; iTunes store
• Bush Tetras: Wikipedia Entry; iTunes store
• DNA: Wikipedia entry
• Devo: Wikipedia entry; iTunes Store
• The No New York record (produced by Brian Eno): Buy on Amazon
• Books: Thurston Moore & Byron Coley: No Wave Post-Punk Underground New York 176-1980; Simon Reynolds: Rip it Up and Start Again
• The presenters: Thurston Moore wikipedia entry; Byron Coley wikipedia entry
• Other resources: James Chance interview in Pitchfork; New York No Wave photo archive; ZE Records wikipedia entry; Thurston Moore Q&A session video (1+ hour)