Where to start with NYC No Wave
NYC No Wave is a music scene from Lower Manhattan, New York City, 1977–1984. Its principal artists include Suicide, Teenage Jesus and the Jerks, Sonic Youth and The Contortions. This issue covers 10 essential albums and 14 dated events.
Start here
- 1
Suicide
Suicide · 1977Original release: Red Star Records · RS 1 · 12″ Vinyl · US 1977The first full documentation of the sound that got called punk before the term meant anything, laying groundwork for everything after.
- 2
No New York
Various Artists · 1978Original release: Antilles · AN-7067 · 12″ Vinyl · US 1978Brian Eno's definitive document of no wave at its most confrontational, gathering the scene's four essential bands together.
- 3
Daydream Nation
Sonic Youth · 1988Original release: Blast First · BFFP 34 CD · CD · UK 1988Shows where no wave's experimental instincts led, synthesizing the scene's whole legacy into songs that are both ambitious and accessible.
Go deeper
- 4
The Ascension
Glenn Branca · 1981Original release: 99 Records · 99-001LP · 12″ Vinyl · US 1981Glenn Branca's first solo album, released in 1981, took no wave's guitar noise out of the club and into formal composition, using massed electric guitars tuned outside standard configurations to…
- 5
Confusion Is Sex
Sonic Youth · 1983Original release: Neutral Records · n.9 · 12″ Vinyl · US 1983Sonic Youth's first studio album, released in 1983, is louder and more dissonant than what came after, still visibly working through no wave's raw materials rather than smoothing them into songs.
- 6
EVOL
Sonic Youth · 1986Original release: Blast First · BFFP 4 · 12″ Vinyl · UK 1986Sonic Youth's first album for SST Records, released in 1986, carried no wave's aesthetic to the national underground scene and won the band notices from Robert Palmer and Neil Young.
- 7
Sister
Sonic Youth · 1987Original release: Blast First · BFFP 20 CD · CD · UK 1987Sister, released in 1987 and loosely inspired by the novels of Philip K. Dick, became the first Sonic Youth album to crack the Village Voice's Pazz & Jop Top 20…
- 8
Queen of Siam
Lydia Lunch · 1980Original release: ZE Records · ZEA33-006 · 12″ Vinyl · US 1980Lydia Lunch's first solo album, released in 1980, expanded past the brutal brevity of Teenage Jesus and the Jerks while holding on to no wave's confrontational aesthetic and its refusal to court an audience.
For the obsessed
- 9
8-Eyed Spy
8-Eyed Spy · 19818-Eyed Spy's self-titled 1981 album, Lydia Lunch's project after Teenage Jesus and the Jerks with bassist and guitarist George Scott III, pushes no wave into darker, more structured territory without sanding down its edge.
- 10
Goo
Sonic Youth · 1990Original release: DGC Records · 9 24297-D2 · CD · US 1990Goo, released in 1990 on the major label Geffen, brought no wave's influence into alternative rock's biggest commercial moment, helped along by 'Kool Thing,' which featured a guest appearance from…
The stories behind every record are in NYC No Wave.