Flaming Pablum

Spray Paint the Walls: Slight Return

Back in the Summer of 2012, you might remember yet another post I put up about the early Beastie Boys (i.e. prior to their makeover as beery partiers, but after their migration from hardcore to hip-hop). It was a great shot of the band — still a quartet, rounded out with future Luscious Jackson drummer Kate Schellenbach — lounging against the wall of a lot between West 22nd and 21st street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues (across from what was then Danceteria). Here’s that photo again.

And here’s another shot of that same tag, courtesy of a July 1985 copy of SPIN. I remember cutting this out and taping to the door of my dorm room my freshman year of college.

Anyway, back in 2012, being that I’d just come across the picture on Tumblr, I regrettably had no idea who shot the photo. I’d assumed it might have been Ricky Powell (whose work I’d also spent time with here). Today, however, around the same time I discovered that photo of Jesse Malin at late, lamented Subterranean Records, I found more shots of the Beastie Boys graffiti shot — evidently also taken by Josh Cheuse (who, it should be noted, also shot THIS photo of the band I once tried to track down).

Anyway, here are more shots from that day. Be sure to check out Cheuse’s work here.

And here are the Beasties from a few years later....

 

Jesse Goes Underground

If I’m being honest, I was never a huge fan of D Generation. I mean, I certainly wanted to like them. After all, they featured Jesse Malin, former singer from proto-NYHC band Heart Attack (a band I’d grown to appreciate thanks to the New York Thrash compilation) and Howie Pyro, resident NYC punk who’s played with Joey Ramone, Glen Danzig and even Genesis P_Orridge. That all said, however, their awkward, kinda cartoony fusion of New York punk and, well, glam metal left a bit to to be desired. Like I said, I wanted to like them, but the songs just weren’t there. In that respect they were simply more of a D Sappointment (sorry, I couldn’t resist).

Anyway, my initial impetus for putting this post together was to ruminate on D Gen’s video(s) for “No Way Out’ (there are two versions, as I understand, as they released the song twice; first on their dead-on-arrival 1994 debut LP and then two years later on No Lunch, which was produced by the Cars’ Ric Ocasek). I was going to do that, as both videos were shot in NYC — surprise. One version shows the interior of what, by that point, was Coney Island High on St. Marks Place. Before officially opening as said music venue, Malin and Pyro hosted parties in that same space as GREENDOORNYC. I was lucky enough to attend a couple of those, and they were indeed the stuff of legend.

Anyway, you can see those vids here and here, and also worth a check-out is are these two clips of D Generation hanging out at long-since-closed East Houston bar Den of Thieves (which later became Idlewild and then White Rabbit) with Gilbert Gottfried and the odd cameo from members of Clowns for Progress.

D Generation ultimately called it quits (although they reunited for a couple of shows in 2011, I believe). Since dissolving the band, Malin has changed course and followed a more singer/songwriter/troubadour vein, albeit still with an endearingly stubborn, punky edge. Doubtlessly as romanced by the NYC of old as I am, you can catch various videos of his new outfit he St. Marks Social, all over YouTube. “The Archer” is a nice one.

While Coney Island High was forced out of business several years back due to quality of life issues (there was a big Village Voice cover story about it, if memory serves), Malin now owns and operates both Niagara on Avenue A (formerly King Tut’s Wah Wah Hut and, prior to that, hardcore mainstay A7….now with a plaque commemorating same) and the Black & White Bar on 10th between Third and Fourth Avenues.

Anyway, blah blah blah… in the midst of looking around for all this stuff, I came across the photographs below, shot by Josh Cheuse, a storied rock shutterbug who has taken some amazing shots of The Clash, the Beastie Boys, Madonna and many more. His work is pretty astounding. See more here.

In case you don’t recognize it, here’s Jesse Malin perusing the wares at Subterranean Records on Cornelia Street. Looks like a cool spot, right? Well, don’t bother looking for it now. Subterranean sadly closed up shop in 2008 (I sloppily documented its demise over a few posts). These photos also evoke another great shot that was taken of Patti Smith here several years back.

Anyway, here’s whats Jesse sounds like more recently… 

That Sumner Feeling

Okay, here's the last word on this quiz, which Bob Egan solved yesterday.

I found myself in Chelsea this afternoon so -- with the aid of a very patient bystander who I handed my camera to -- I was able to replicate the shot. Bob, of course, was correct. It is West 26th Street.

A Pizza PSA

I put this on Facebook, but it's worth sharing here too.

"$1.00 Pizza" is a fucking plague!

It's the Bud Light of the pizza realm. It's disgraceful function-over-form at its worst, and a woeful disservice to this city's culinary reputation. Shun it and patronize your local, long-standing proper pizzerias.

Consider it your civic duty!

Suddenly Lost Sumner

...with apologies to the Motels.

So, I went to the expert about yesterday's quiz, and ....well....at least I got the neighborhood right.

If you're not familiar with his website, Bob Egan is THE MASTER at pinpointing specific architectural ephemera that will reveal a specific location. While I was postulating that the estimable Bernard Sumner (nee Albrecht) was strolling in suitably mournful fashion down West 21st street, Mr. Egan weighed in and shut my ass down. He writes...

The key was the direction of the cars and the building with the "classical" concrete horizontal stripes on the right.

Check out his findings below.

Sumner in the City?

Been a long time since we did a proper photo quiz. Here’s a toughie.

After spotting a photo online of a certain bit of street art that formerly graced the wall of a vacant lot in SoHo in the 1980s, I started combing the `net for an old picture from SPIN magazine I remembered from the mid-80’s of Bernard Sumner of New Order silhouetted against a similar facade. Well, I didn’t find that, but I did come across the shot below of Bernard shot by one Kevin Cummins. Take a good look.

I could be incredibly wrong, but from the looks of this photograph— presumably taken sometime in the mid-to-late 80’s, given how youthful our Barney looks — I think this picture depicts the New Order frontman and dubious lyricist walking westward on W.21st street, away from 10th Avenue.

I’m not sure, of course. Hell, I’m not even sure it’s New York, but here’s a Google Map shot of that particular strip today. Note the elevated track in the background (today known as The High Line). See what you think.

Though it presumably wouldn’t have existed at this point in time, if I’m correct, Bernard would be walking towards the former site of The Marquee (read more about that venue here).

What do you reckon? Bob Egan...care to weigh in?

Here’s a little New Order to jog your memories.

Burger Destruction

Trying to keep track of changes on 8th Street seems like an exercise in futility, but I couldn't help noticing yesterday that they were clearing stuff out of Burger Creations between Mercer and Greene. Sure enough, despite its jaunty Halloween decorations, Burger Creations looks to be no more.

Can't say it's a great loss, actually. The creations in question left a bit to be desired.

Clash City Rugrats

Okay, just a quick silly one. You may remember a post from summer 2013 wherein I posted a couple of vintage pics of Joe Strummer lookin’ cool around NYC in honor of the fallen Clash leader’s birthday. In one of those pics — repurposed above — we saw Joe standing manfully in front of Carmine Street’s long-standing and endearingly stubborn enclave of vinyl purism, House of Oldies. If I had to wager, I'd suggest that said photograph was taken by long-time Clash pal and storied New Yorker, Bob Gruen, but I cannot be sure.

In any case, in a vain attempt at tiring them out, I took my kids out for another epic march around Manhattan yesterday, and as we were sauntering north on Carmine Street, we passed by House of Oldies, which reminded me of the Strummer pic. As such, here’s our tribute (with my little Charlotte looking suitably fatigued of these sorts of shenanigans)....

BONUS BIT:

I've never really liked this song, but I discovered a new appreciation for "Jukebox" by the Flirts when spied its video, featuring some vintage shots of the Village, Carmine Street and ... yes ... the House of Oldies. I spoke about it at greater length here.

Iggy Over Washington Square Village

You might remember a quick post from 2013 wherein I showcased a photo of Iggy Pop on Houston Street circa 1984. That shot was taken by the late Ken Regan, a great rock photographer who passed away from cancer in 2012. In any case, stumbled upon another great photo of Mr. Pop taken by Mr. Regan, quite possibly shot on the same day. This is it.

Granted, it’s pretty hard to take a boring photo of Iggy, but this one spoke to me because of its location. If my calculations are correct (and this is the veritable QUINTESSENCE of goddamn trivia), Iggy is depicted facing east against the backdrop of the Washington Square Village superblock (which would possibly put him in 231 Mercer Street, but that’s just a guess). By the same token, given the uniformity of the two sides of Washington Square Village, he *could* be on the other side, facing east against the backdrop of LaGuardia Street. I’m leaning towards the former, though.

Sadly, Mr. Regan isn’t here to shed light on such geographical nuances. Visit more of his work here.

Meanwhile, here’s Iggy a couple of years after this picture was taken, performing only a few blocks to the northwest at the old Ritz (now Webster Hall) on East 11th between Fourth and Third Avenue.

New Year’s Day in the East Village: 1995

Remember the earnest post of a couple weeks back wherein I raged against the machine that had tagged me as a flagrant “nostalgia blogger”? Yeah, well, here’s yet another post that only plays right into their hands. What can I do? I’m intrigued by this stuff.

Quibbles aside, here’s an interesting little snippet I happened upon this evening whilst searching for some archival Iggy Pop footage. Evidently shot on New Year’s Day in 1995, this video follows three hirsute hepcats as they walk around the East Village of that bygone age, checking out local landmarks like Two Boots Pizza, the Gas Station and The Toy Tower on Avenue B.

Two Boots is still around (albeit in a different location), but the Gas Station and the Toy Tower are both long gone.

It’s a compelling-but-still-frustrating little clip in as much as I’d have rather they wasted less time and shot more material. Ah well, what can ya do? Enjoy the video...

 

For more about the Toy Tower, might I recommend…

The Tower to Tumble? and The Horrors on Avenue B

For more about the Gas Station, check out…

Out of Gas and Back to the Gas Station