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Watch the House Videographers at CBGB Call Richard Hell a Crybaby

October 10, 2013 By Daniel Maurer

As you may have read over at Rolling Stone, Pat Ivers and Emily Armstrong — in what’s sure to be one of the highlights of the CBGB Festival — are screening some of their rare late-70s and early-80s concert footage at Bowery Electric tonight, between performances by Cheetah Chrome of the Dead Boys, Syl Sylvain of the New York Dolls, and Glen Matlock of the Sex Pistols. We were lucky enough to have the authors of our weekly Nightclubbing column into the B+B Newsroom last Friday, along with Richard Boch, who’s working on a memoir of his time manning the door of the Mudd Club, and Pat Irwin, the guitarist for the Raybeats, 8 Eyed Spy and the B-52s, who spoke about his recently unearthed collaboration with Philip Glass.

If you missed Friday’s discussion, watch the replay above. Here’s what the gang had to say about Suicide (we spoke to Martin Rev of that band back in June) and the evolution of the Ramones.
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Tags: 8-eyed spy, b-52s, blondie, cbgb, East Village, iggy pop, mudd club, pat irwin, patti smith, punk, richard boch, richard hell, suicide, talking heads, television, the dictators, the ramones, the raybeats

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Nightclubbing | Bush Tetras, 1980

December 5, 2012 By Emily Armstrong and Pat Ivers

Pat Ivers and Emily Armstrong continue sorting through their archives of punk-era concert footage as it’s digitized for the Downtown Collection at N.Y.U.’s Fales Library.

Ritz Furs.

“You don’t need a million to look like a million!” So went the tagline touting Ritz Furs in a ubiquitous late night commercial that ran throughout the ’70s and ’80s. Ladies were urged to sell their skins or buy them second-hand at a fraction of the price because, like the man said, “Some women ski in St. Moritz; other women just look that way.”

Cynthia Sley, lead singer of the Bush Tetras, got to live the dream. One night, she found a full-length fur coat lying on an East Village street. She picked it up, dusted it off and the next day sold it to Ritz Furs. The cash allowed her to live another month in New York, pursuing her art instead of a paycheck.
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Tags: adele bertei, Arts + Culture, bush tetras, cynthia sley, danceteria, East Village, freedomland, laura kennedy, nightclubbing, pat place, postpunk, punk rock, ritz furs, the contortions, the raybeats, too many creeps, topper headon

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Nightclubbing | The Raybeats

September 27, 2012 By Emily Armstrong and Pat Ivers

Pat Ivers and Emily Armstrong continue sorting through their archives of punk-era concert footage as it’s digitized for the Downtown Collection at N.Y.U.’s Fales Library. In this edition: the discovery of a lost Philip Glass recording.

(Photo: Gary Reese)

In 1687, Newton’s third law of motion explained that for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. For punk rock, that reaction was the Artists Space 1978 music festival. With a line-up featuring the Contortions, DNA, Mars, and Teenage Jesus and the Jerks, it spawned the No Wave scene. The sound was atonal, abrasive and utterly new, combining elements of funk, jazz and just plain noise. As Lenny Kaye of the Patti Smith Group observed, “the edge that originally attracted people to punk rock, that splintered sound, was almost gone by the late ‘70s. No Wave kinda picked up the artistic banner.”

In 1980, the pendulum swung again for four of No Wave’s most influential musicians. Jody Harris, Donny Christensen and George Scott III were veterans of the Contortions and Pat Irwin had performed with George in 8-Eyed Spy with Lydia Lunch. They were done with moody lead singers and wanted to try another way. They formed The Raybeats. More →

Tags: 8-eyed spy, artists space, Arts + Culture, bush tetras, cbgbs, command v, contortions, cynthia sley, danceteria, dna, donny christensen, East Village, george scott iii, jody harris, lenny kaye, mars, musical maze, nightclubbing, no wave, pat irwin, patti smith, philip glass, punk rock, rocko's modern life, spongebob squarepants, sugarhill gang, the raybeats