"THE BANDS OF NEW YORK"

"THE BANDS OF NEW YORK"

For the last year I have been observing this new growing underground Rock & Roll scene emerging on the New York circuit with the likes I haven't seen since the New Wave/Punk Rock era of the late 1970's..  
Gone are many of New York's live music clubs such as Max's Kansas City, The Filmore East, The Electric Circus, The Palladium, The  Mudd Club, The Nursery, Stickball's, The Underground, The U.K., Dancerteria, The Bottom Line, Great Gildersleeve's, La Amour's, C.B.G.B.'s to name a few.

PEOPLE WHO DIED
 
Joey Ramone, Johnny Ramone, Dee Dee Ramone (The Ramones), Eric Carr (KISS), Johnny Thunders, Jerry Nolan, Arthur Kane (The New York Dolls)..all of these native New York musicians have passed away. 

THE BOYS FROM QUEENS

Simon & Garfunkle, KISS, The Ramones, Anthrax...

ROCK AND ROLL PART II:  THE BOWERY BOYS, CHEAP PERFUME, TUFF DARTS, ECHOSTREAM, MAHAVATARA, WUSSY, CHARM SCHOOL, NOIRCEUR

The Clash's concert series at the club called "Bond's" located in Times Square back in 1981 killed Punk Rock. Through The Clash, punk rock had finally reached it's commercial limit unlike The Sex Pistols who were never able to achieve such a level even with Malcolm McLauren's manipulation of the press. The Clash reached it's apex when recording engineer Joe Blaney pumped out two final huge hits "Rock the Casbah" & "Should I Stay or Should I Go" on the "Combat Rock" album...there was no place further for them to go.

Before "The Go Gos" and "The Bangles" there was a real all girl band that could actually play called "Cheap Perfume". Not only was it difficult for an all girl band to co-exist with the boys but the band was as diverse as the various cultures of New York City itself. This alone was an achievement all it's own during the era of the 70's.  I would like to think that what made NYC great was the diversity of it's people and there was no band better established to show New York's true colors and sounds than the legendary "Cheap Perfume".

With the demise of the music scene in the 80's, it was temporarily revived in 1994 by the Alternative Rock movement and of course the short lived "Lilith Fair" concert tour consisting solely of extraordinary female solo artists and female-led bands.

THUNDER FROM THE EAST-ASIAN DAWN

Besides the bands, part of the new underground scene must be accredited to the promoters. At Club Midway there was Frank Woods getting things started with promoting a marathon of bands in every lower east side bar he could find in the dead of autumn but there is one particular promoter named Samurai Zak, the founder of Genki Shock, who found his niche promoting asian bands right here in New York City. I see the baton being passed on to these new bands as the future of music.

The other day I was checking out some bands with Lou Bova, the legendary bass player from the former New York band called "The Fast" when my attention was taken away by this left handed guitarist who approached the stage. In the history of Rock and Roll there have only been two left handed guitarists. This musician, JOff "Lightning" Wilson was different. This was a Bowery Boy. The Bowerie (actual spelling) Boys have a long colorful New York history dating back over a century. One of the first "Gangs of New York" trading in their battle axes for guitars and drums. After listening to the first set I stated to Lou Bova that this was what music was about back in the seventies. This was a real New York band. The past eventually repeats itself especially after a 27 year hiatus but this time without the drugs, without the violence, and without the attitude. The bass player, Kenny Hurricane remained me of the Japanese version of Sid Vicious.  The drummer, Jungle Jim, well, he's Jungle Jim.

When I spoke to JOff "Lightning" Wilson after the set he told me back in the 90's he went to see Johnny Thunders at some upstate gig and brought his girlfriend, Diane, backstage to meet Johnny Thunders. When asked for an autograph instead of signing "To Diane" Johnny wrote "Die Ann". JOff and his girlfriend were aghast when Johnny Thunders died a few weeks later. 

I told JOff Wilson that left handed guitarists have a special quality about them. I spoke to him of those lefty guitarists who came before us such as Jimi Hendrix and those who came after like Kurt Cobain. I told him we must set a positive example for the youth unlike Seattle's Jimi Hendrix & Kurt Cobain whose deaths based on drugs and suicide are controversial. I told JOff that often the courage is not to die but to live and although Ace Preston will never perform again or pick up a guitar, he now has a camera to photograph the many wonderful things the world has to offer so that he may show those pictures to those who can't go and weren't there.
I told him..."Hey, it's okay, It's gonna be alright. I gotta go now....New York has JOff "Lightning" Wilson, Kenny K. Hurricane, and Jungle Jim: "The Bowery Boys". It has Angie, Susan, & Brenda: "Cheap Perfume"...These are The Bands of New York.  Everything else will follow.