VARIOUS ARTISTS
No New York
(Antilles)
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With the opening bleat of James Chance's instantly recognizable sax, the story behind No New York sadly fills the head. The whole thing could've been so much more than the epitaph of an era. Brian Eno at the production helm handpicked the cream of NYC's no wave crop circa 1978 and each band was given four songs to strut their shit. The bands (Chance's Contortions, Teenage Jesus and the Jerks, Mars, and DNA) delivered, all arguably turning in the best performances they'd ever mustered in their decidedly brief careers. But the whole process seemed to cause the scene to implode. The inclusiveness of the whole project put off a lot of people in town and killed any momentum the no wave niche had built.

But enough boo-hooing; what you need to know is that you need to hear these songs. The Contortions bend you over backward and skronk on James Brown like they're the first white kids to ever hear him. Teenage Jesus, featuring a pre-whatever-she-does-now Lydia Lunch, is SoHo boho perfectly idealized. MARS are confused seven different ways to Sunday but they all seem to end up at the same wrong spot together. DNA blows shit up, inventing the anti-beat and primal noise decadence at the same time. So never mind that this has been out of print for 25 years, ignore the fact that these bands are all long gone. Very rarely does a rereleased compilation capture the essence of a scene at its pinnacle. No New York does so and the stink of Bowery gutters has never felt so good. BEN BLACKWELL

THE EARLIES
These Were the Earlies
(Secretly Canadian)
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Truly a band of the internet age, half of the Earlies' core quartet resides in Texas and half resides in the U.K. The four hadn't all met in person until two years after releasing their first 7", instead trading recordings through the mail or e-mailing song ideas. These Were the Earlies, originally released in 2004 by the U.K.'s Names/679 Recordings, is a collection of the outfit's singles and first two limited-edition EPs. Considering this widely discussed back-story, it's good to report that the Earlies' music is as interesting as their history.

The band has also become known for releasing free secret downloads—gloriously orchestrated pop soundscapes that sample anything from Elliott Smith and Tom Waits to foreign-language children's songs (and that's just on one of them), weaving together the pieces in a bright haze of Brit-pop and Americana. Earlies is just as broad and layered. Crescendos swell with rich vocal harmonies and interludes drift off into barren desert nights. The sound is surprisingly warm despite its tendency toward digital technique. Maybe it's due to the abundant lyrics about the course of life and humanity: "Wayward son/you've lost your head again/Think of all the words you could've said/The road's not fit for a kid who ain't ready to see it yet. It's alright to let yourself down again tonight." Add to this sweeping harmonies, all kinds of classical instrumentation, heavenly choral harmonizing, the oddly named Chinese Puzzle Bass and Optical Keys, and we've got ourselves a soundtrack for a moonlight drive down a desolate prairie highway. GRANT BRISSEY

The Earlies perform Tues Dec 6 at the Crocodile, 9 pm, $8.

FIRE ENGINES
Codex Teenage Premonition
(Domino)
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Codex Teenage Premonition gathers previously unreleased material from 1980–81 by the greatest band you've never heard of—unless you're a Scottish post-punk aficionado, an aging Anglophile, or an obsessive collector of Franz Ferdinand singles (the hot hit makers recently covered Fire Engines' classic "Get Up and Use Me," which appears here twice). But now that Fire Engines have opened for FF and covered their song "Jacqueline," the masses may be getting hip to Davey Henderson and company.

Fire Engines surfaced in 1979 and immediately distinguished themselves as iconoclasts within their country's burgeoning indie-pop scene. Uniquely paradoxical, Fire Engines songs balance a charming crankiness with a jagged jauntiness, as vocalist Henderson barks acidic taunts and croons wry wisecracks about consumerism.

Fire Engines' sound essentially derives from Captain Beefheart and the Magic Band's choppy, sun-zoom-spark guitars and corkscrewed rhythms, and from the Velvet Underground's mantric, jangle-nerved chug. But Fire Engines churned these elements into quasi-no wave blurts of tunefully cacophonous joy. Even today, their songs bristle with cheerfully antagonistic energy.

"Get Up and Use Me" epitomizes Fire Engines' ability to construct repetitive guitar/bass riffs that are naggingly memorable and sublimely clangorous. "Meat Whiplash" and "Discord" are totally wired, like the most exciting passages of "Sister Ray" accelerated into ecstatic overdrive.

Although it lacks the scope of Rev-ola's 1992 compendium, Fond, which contains the essential Beefheartian orch-pop gem "Candyskin," "Lubricate Your Living Room," and swinging swansong "Big Gold Dream," Codex is crucial for both novices and FE completists... until someone reissues Fond. DAVE SEGAL

recommended recommended recommended recommended Brown rice recommended recommendedJerry Rice recommended recommended Rice-A-Roni recommended Condi Rice