These days I got aware of a compilation called Blacklist Bar: Androgyns and Deviants - Industrial Romance for Bruised and Battered Angels and just because of the title I made some further investigations. It is a compilation I only can listen to because of it is a document from musical history. This are further information the releasing label gave to us:
From June 1992 to March 1995, in the mist of the AIDS crisis in NYC, an extraordinary thatrical collective emerged fro the queer underground. Blacklips Performing Cult, initiated by ANOHNI and joined a cabal of fellow artists, drag queens, punks, nightlife veterans and students, performed a new play every Monday night at 1:00 a.m. at the Pyramid club on 101 Avenue A. Blacklips never courted mainstream attention. However the group left a sustaining impression within New York's late night subculture by melding hysterical drag, surreal horror and diconcerting tenderness.
Listening to the songs I understand that they didn't got much critical acclaim because they will only work live at this place. Some individual covers like Lou Reed's Satellite of Love will work well when you can see the artist, others are good electronic experiments and others are shouted out lyrics with obscene contents. After all it is nothing more or less a document of a scene that was only alive for a few years and it is more punk than many thing else that was released.
1 Kommentar:
Such was the mid 90s in NYC that I attended two of those performances at The Pyramid, but have little to no recollection of the nights beyond knowing I had to be there. You are right about the melange of musicians and artists that got together in those years to reinvent a new Art Punk. NYC was changing, cleansing itself of the grit, grime and glam that seemed to survive the 80s, but was then being swept up to make way for Corporate Advertising Disneyland NYC.
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