James Chance & the Contortions
35 articles
List of articles in the library
Downtown icon James Chance cuts loose
Live Review by Carol Cooper, The Village Voice, 16 November 2016
IT WAS WELL after midnight last Thursday by the time James Chance and the Contortions took the stage of the Bowery Electric. Dapper in his ...
James Chance & the Contortions, Chumps: d.c. space, Washington DC
Live Review by Joe Sasfy, The Washington Post, 6 November 1979
D.C.'s METROPOLITAN Arts and Music Association has begun to fill an important void in the local music scene by bringing some of the more artistically ...
James Chance: Twist Your Soul – The Definitive Collection
Review by Stevie Chick, bbc.co.uk, 2 August 2010
Two-disc retrospective of scabrous No Wave figure's searing jazz-punk contortions. ...
Review by Andy Schwartz, New York Rocker, October 1980
LAST MAY, James Chance left New York for Paris, France — and he hasn't returned yet. The feisty funk merchant was accompanied by guitarist Patrick ...
Essay by Lester Bangs, Musician, April 1980
IN A New York City nightclub, a skinny little Caucasian whose waterfall hairstyle and set of snout and lips make him look like a sullen ...
Eight Eyed Spy: George Scott (1953-1980)
Obituary by Andy Schwartz, New York Rocker, 8 October 1980
ON AUGUST 6, N.Y. Rocker received the following press release from Bob Singerman, the booking agent and acting manager of Eight Eyed Spy: ...
The Contortions, Teenage Jesus & the Jerks, Mars, D.N.A.: No New York (Antilles AN 7067)****
Review by Dave McCullough, Sounds, 2 December 1978
Terminal weirdness... ...
Nobody Waved Goodbye: Bands At Artists Space
Report by Roy Trakin, New York Rocker, July 1978
"He's in love with a rock 'n'roll world..." — 'Janie Jones', The Clash ...
James Chance: Twist Your Soul – The Definitive Collection
Review by Stevie Chick, bbc.co.uk, August 2010
Two-disc retrospective of scabrous No Wave figure’s searing jazz-punk contortions. ...
Cassette rock comes on with a "Roar"
Report and Interview by Jim Sullivan, The Boston Globe, 27 May 1982
IN THE competitive record business, how can a company that releases dated rock 'n' roll and aims well below the top of the pops prosper? ...
Hello Goodbye: James Chance & the Contortions
Interview by Mike Barnes, MOJO, February 2013
Start: punk jazzers picked for their looks. End: the boss alienated them ail... ...
Report and Interview by Peter Silverton, Sounds, 17 February 1979
PETE SILVERTON meets the second generation of New York new wave bands... TEENAGE JESUS AND THE JERKS, THE CONTORTIONS, DNA and other assorted weirdos ...
Contortions, Teenage Jesus And The Jerks, Mars, D.N.A.: No New York (Antilles AN 7067 — US import).
Review by Ian Birch, Melody Maker, 11 November 1978
Manhattan cocktail ...
Will Punk Jazz Replace The Sounds Of Funk?
Overview by Don Snowden, Los Angeles Times, 15 November 1981
PUNK JAZZ? It's hard to imagine a more unlikely musical combination. Punk rock favors short, fast songs and disparages musical technique in favor of "anyone-can-do-it" ...
Traditional Discs: Is It R.I.P. FOR R.P.M.?
Report and Interview by Richard Cromelin, Los Angeles Times, 15 May 1982
IS THE phonograph record on its deathbed? Neil Cooper, who runs a record company that doesn't sell records, thinks so. "Within five years, vinyl will ...
James Chance: Middle East, Cambridge
Review and Interview by Jim Sullivan, The Boston Globe, 15 September 1995
CAMBRIDGE – James Chance, Milwaukee born 'n' bred, as well as musically educated, tried to fit in when he moved to New York City in ...
The Contortions: Buy The Contortions (Ze Records)
Review by Ian Penman, New Musical Express, 5 January 1980
LIGHTBULBS FLASH dutifully o'er our heads, signifying but an insufficient brightness. We go sleepily about our business. Flashbulbs slash daily at our eyes, fulfilling narcissism. ...
Various Artists: No New York (Antilles)
Review by Richard C. Walls, Creem, April 1979
WELCOME TO the unwave. I haven't heard so much ferociously avant-garde and aggressively ugly music since Albert Ayler puked all over my brain back in ...
Why the Big Apple Lacks Real Bite
Report by Mary Harron, The Guardian, 7 February 1981
London's rock scene is fizzing, but New York's has turned flat. Mary Harron reports ...
Various Artists: No New York (Antilles)
Review by Roy Trakin, New York Rocker, January 1979
GETTING TO NO YOU: NO NEW YORK ON RECORD ...
Q: Why Interview James Chance? A: Because He's There
Interview by Roy Trakin, New York Rocker, January 1979
Roy Trakin (Who Really Wants to Know) Talks to James Chance (Who Isn't Telling) ...
James Chance: Contortions Crack Up
Interview by Tim Page, New York Rocker, August 1979
"Sick of being on the losing end/Tired of playing the obliging friend..." ...
Bow To The Devilish Prince: James Chance Interviewed
Interview by Zoë Street Howe, The Quietus, 7 July 2010
Zoë Street Howe talks to James Chance about his new retrospective collection Twist Your Soul and his relationships with James Brown and Lydia Lunch. ...
The Contortions, James White & the Blacks, Reasons, Information: Club 57, New York NY
Live Review by Tim Page, New York Rocker, April 1979
THE CLUB 57 is located in the Irving Plaza, an aging downtown vaudeville hall that manages to combine the worst features of a European grand ...
James Chance & the Contortions: Live In New York (ROIR cassette); 8-Eyed Spy: Live (ROIR cassette)
Review by Roy Trakin, Musician, October 1981
LISTEN TO the cacaphonous cutting edge of no wave punk-jazz in the privacy of your very own SONY walk-man. Be-bop down the street snapping yer ...
The Contortions: Buy — The Contortions (ZE ZEA 33-002. U.S. import)
Review by Jon Savage, Melody Maker, 5 January 1980
Let's twist ourselves ...
Defunkt, the Raybeats, James Chance: Funky, Punky and Chic
Report and Interview by Roy Trakin, Melody Maker, 15 March 1980
The Raybeats and Joe Bowie's Defunkt are working on New York's newest fusion: a post-No Wave music in which James Chance's punk meets George Clinton's ...
Various Artists: No New York (Antilles Import)
Review by Ian Penman, New Musical Express, 16 December 1978
I WAS wearing headphones. My teeth were aching again, and the lump behind my left ear was still as bad as ever. All 16 of ...
Interview by Ian Penman, New Musical Express, 23 June 1979
A comparative study (sort of) of aggressive American nihilism and French anarchists with beer cans. IAN PENMAN adjudicates on matters moral and philosophical. ...
Profile and Interview by Peter Silverton, New Sounds New Styles, July 1981
New York record label ZE is the product of a remarkable partnership between August Darnell and Michael Zilkha. Peter Silverton profiles the Z of ZE... ...
James White and The Blacks: Off White (ZE)
Review by Paul Rambali, New Musical Express, 23 June 1979
JAMES CHANCE, alias James White, leader of The Contortions aka The Blacks, has been making something of a name for himself this past year or ...
The Contortions: Buy The Contortions (Ze); James White And The Blacks: Off White (Ze)
Review by Richard Riegel, Creem, February 1980
SOME DAYS it's fun being a real Midwesterner trying to make it in the art rackets; the powers on the good-taste-is-timely Coasts already have you ...
Review by Kris Needs, ZigZag, March 1980
AMERICA TODAY: the old and the new. Play these in a row... ...
James Chance: Save The Last Chance For Me!
Interview by Ian Penman, New Musical Express, 20 June 1981
Sax and drugs and contorted soul – Ian Penman meets his hero in another instalment of conversations with James Chance. London 1981. ...
James White & the Contortions: Second Chance (PVC)
Review by Barney Hoskyns, New Musical Express, 1981
IT ALL depends how deranged you are to start with. James Chance – née White, née Black – makes impossibly futile, dead music, fit only ...
see also James White and The Blacks
see also Raybeats, The
see also Adele Bertei
see also Melvin Gibbs
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