We're Not Crazy — Robert Longo, ZG magazine and the long tendrils of No Wave

Mapping underground connections with past periodicals...

Back in the late-ish 1990s, I put out a one-shot zine called Majestic Carnal Backwash. On the front and back cover, I reappropriated images from Robert Longo. I can’t remember from where I cut them out, but on the front I used one that featured a woman in the throes of a violent spasm, or perhaps dodging a bullet, and on the reverse was a man in a suit being hung from an invisible noose (the necktie remains innocent). I placed these striking images in fields of visual static. [I’m not sure if I’ve ever scanned them, but I’m 99% sure I have the originals, still.] At the time, I didn’t know the name of Longo’s series (Men in the Cities), just that these images struck a nerve deep inside. Within these pictures, there is a sense of rapture achieved, but only through violence—the arching panic of avoidance, the sudden movement of escape, but also an acceptance of pain, of discomfort and the reality of being targeted. 

The life of a woman in the city. The life of a human throughout history.

The twisting woman is as evocative as Magritte’s shrouded lovers, the distance between the viewer and the viewed has been constructed in the space she carves out around her. A whirling dervish, mere seconds away from accessing the hidden mysteries. Majestic Carnal Backwash (and its sequel Silent Invisible Conversation) was made of scenes, poems, and spurts of fiction embedded in punk-dada collages. I sent it around the country to other weirdos, hoping for correction (sic).

I have since found out that this pair is Meryl and Jonathan.

What the hell does this have to do with 1980s post-punk New York City?

Much as I had, London-based art mag ZG used Longo’s Men in the Cities images to frame their own zine. ZG had a good run in the first half of the 1980s (go here for some context), quickly establishing an NYC connection firmed up by the installment presented here, issue #5 (it says #3 on the cover because it was the third issue of 1981). Released the same year, Glenn Branca’s solo debut, The Ascension, showcases Longo’s Cities-esque cover art featuring Branca in what could be a still from a classic noir flick. All of that makes the below photo kind of amusing—Longo on the right, playing guitar in one of Rhys Chatham’s ensembles (he also did cover art for Chatham’s 1987 LP Die Donnergötter). Chatham of course was Branca’s foil and creative frenemy, the two dueling with the guitar-as-composer’s sword over the course of the decade. 

You’ll also note Wharton Tiers on drums, fresh from Branca’s Theoretical Girls. Don’t pass over Jules Baptiste on the left, as he is about to enter our picture as well. So much art and musical ground is covered by these four black-clad men. The way line-ups were constantly shifting and the manner in which a small coterie of avant-punk artists bounced around and off each other is one of the quirks that gives this era of downtown such a frenetic edge. At times, it’s slapdash, but that condition somehow only raises the stakes on the limited amount of material that escaped the airtight seal that surrounded these neighborhoods. A few more connections between Robert Longo and this music scene: He was in Built On Guilt, a short-lived band that also featured Brian Hudson from Cleveland’s the Pagans (brother of singer Mike). Built On Guilt played the Thurston Moore-curated Noise Fest at White Columns in 1981. ZG magazine was so invested in this scene that they released the compilation cassette for Noise Fest, which is some of these bands’ only surviving document. 

Longo also played a role in another crucial compilation, but this one almost completely Mistake on the Lake-based. Cleveland Confidential came out in 1982 on Mike Hudson’s Terminal Records and features classic tracks from Defnics, Jazz Destroyers and Easter Monkeys. Despite its inherently local provenance, Cleveland Confidential still has time for two cuts from NYC, including the fantastic “Even Lower Manhattan” from Menthol Wars, which both Longo and Brian Hudson played in. I wish actual power-pop was this grimy and weird. Menthol Wars make vacant alley pop, kicking up trash on the edge of punk. We deserve at least a two-song 45.

In addition to the Womanhaters who open up the record, Hudson also turns up on the one track on CC that shows the influence of the downtown New York scene, Red Decade’s “Scars Of Lust” (a shorter version appears on the Noise Fest tape). Red Decade was a New York band, but by virtue of drummer Brian’s family resemblance to the label owner, they made it on to the comp with an 8 minute slice of prog-no wave (it’s actually like if Raybeats dropped the hammer).

In 1982, Red Decade put out a 12”, one of the first records on Glenn Branca’s label Neutral (the first stop for Sonic Youth, Swans and Eric Bogosian). And who was the leader of Red Decade? That would be Jules Baptiste.

Glenn Branca conducting Lee Ranaldo, Ned Sublette and others.

I can’t remember exactly where I scored this issue of ZG. I wanna say it was more than 10 years ago, but less than 15. It might have been at this odd little store on, or near, Canal, kind of a general purpose/junk store but with some cool cultural artifacts. I remember there was an issue of Slash for like $75 that I couldn’t afford. I think ZG was 40 bucks. Probably dollar slices for a few days after this purchase. 

It wasn’t easy to scan, so not everything looks great. But I did some contrasting and saturation to try and bring out some details for my own amusement (for instance, the woman below, I made her pitch-black dress double as the night sky, revealing the stars twinkling beneath; cuz I’m a romantic).

Feast your eyes on some choice cuts from ZG #5.

Noise annoys eh?

Avant-garde models in an avant-garde lingerie fashion shoot. Eat yr art out Vice & Vogue.

MTV wasn’t the only game in town, aight?

Art costs money.

Richard Prince…Menthol Pictures…Menthol Wars, it’s all coming together in a really cool way.

This is not the image I refer to in the opening paragraph, but it captures what is so captivating about Longo’s vision. Cosmospolitan, stumbling into the next dimension. A faceless person, drunk in the afternoon.

Earlier this week, Bandcamp Daily published a feature I wrote about the no wave-adjacent Tape #1 compilation and some other bands that fell into the same overlooked trenches (including Y Pants on the aforementioned Neutral Records).

[the half image below is a link, click it, or HERE]