I’ve posted about –- let alone alluded to –- both CBGB and Cop Shoot Cop entirely too many times here (see unwieldy list of links to same below). So many other notable NYC landmarks of cultural significance have also vanished since CBGB’s demise, that it seems somewhat needless (and bit clichéd) to keep invoking it. Likewise, apart from a fleeting reunion-of-sorts back in January (minus Tod [A], who currently resides over in Turkey) at an event celebrating Martin Bisi’s Gowanus stronghold, BC Studios, Cop Shoot Cop haven’t been a functioning band since the comparatively carefree, balmy days of 1996. But still … here we are again.
On the CBGB front, as I’ve mentioned laboriously before, lots of folks immediately associate the venue with the storied inaugural class of Punk Rock; Television, the Ramones, Richard Hell & the Voidoids, Patti Smith, Talking Heads, Blondie, the Dead Boys, etc. Some others might lump CBGB in with the No Wave gang; Lydia Lunch, James Chance, Arto Lindsay et al. Further still, a latter generation invariably equates CBGB with all things hardcore and NYHC; Kraut, Bad Brains, Agnostic Front, Murphy’s Law, Cro-Mags, etc.
All three of those eras are rightly celebrated, but – somewhat obviously – there was so much more to the story than simply those respective scenes. Personally speaking, I’m still waiting for an authoritative tome or oral history that addresses some of the less-celebrated alumni of CBGB.
Cop Shoot Cop was one of those bands. Informed by all three of the afore-cited eras, Cop Shoot Cop utilized the arty clamor and disdainful attitude of Punk and No Wave, smeared with a no-bullshit approach honed in hardcore (‘low-end’ bassist Jack Natz served time in the ranks of proto-hardcore bands like the Undead and Virus). But C$C ditched most of the latter sub-genre’s somewhat provincial parameters and tribal signifiers in favor of incorporating elements of so-called industrial music (along with the initial gimmick of eschewing guitars in favor of a dual-bass attack). But more akin to industrial’s originators like Einsturzende Neubauten, Test Department and Throbbing Gristle than to the then-percolating Wax Trax mob, C$C’s strain of industrial was more utilitarian, completely jettisoning the chirpy synths, danceable rhythms and spooky sci-fi theatrics of bands like Ministry, Skinny Puppy and Nine Inch Nails in favor their own, NYC-hewn aesthetic. Sure, Cop Shoot Cop may have counted samplers and percussive metal implements in their arsenal, but they played them like punks. It wasn’t much of a fashion show.
By the same token, a direct line can certainly be drawn to Cop Shoot Cop from No Wave-inspired forebears like SWANS and Foetus, artists who’d periodically borrow and/or poach members from C$C. Those two names were palpable influences on Cop Shoot Cop’s sound and aesthetic, and that doesn’t even begin to touch on their similarly inclined peers like Pussy Galore, Helmet, Surgery and even outfits like Prong and Missing Foundation.
But parsing Cop Shoot Cop’s music as some sort of intricate composite is to miss the point. The end results sounded like precious little else; a clanging, chugging machine of whirring pistons and grinding gears, punctuated by grimly poetic one-liners steeped in black-humored snark. If you came lookin’ for good-time party anthems, you weren’t gonna get’em from Cop Shoot Cop, unless your idea of a party involves invocations of urban squalor, moral decay and insurrection.
Anyway, the only reason I’m bringing any of this back up is because I recently walked by 315 Bowery earlier this week (after I’d spotted the Mars Bar light fixture alluded to here). Purely out of curiosity, I ducked my head in --- vainly hoping to have some of my embittered preconceptions upended. `Twas not to be, however. The John Varvatos boutique that occupies CBGB’s former address pretty much embodies everything all the bands I cited above sought to destroy. But hey, if you want to go pay literally hundreds of dollars for a fashionably pre-distressed Ramones t-shirt, go treat yourself.
The video at the bottom of this post is the entirety of an official bootleg released by Supernatural Organization (who also released the band’s brilliant Headkick Facsimile), capturing the nascent four-person line-up of Cop Shoot Cop onstage at CBGB in July of 1989. This particular recording, to my mind, really finds the band at their strongest, ripping through deliberately difficult tracks from Headkick Facsimile, the “Piece, Man” e.p., the then-still-to-be-released Consumer Revolt and even a dark little ditty called “Dachau Hilton” that would never see the light of day on any other release.
Contrasting the feral hurky-jerk sturm und drang of their music, Tod [A] and Co. come across as a gaggle of wiseacres, lobbing between-song quips from the stage – when not complaining about the venue’s fabled sound system -– belying their frowny reputation.
The photos of the band around this post, meanwhile, were shot by noted photographer Butch Belair, and find the same line-up of the band just a couple of years after the below recording. These photographs were actually for an unlikely spread in a strenuously incongruous, glossy periodical called In-Fashion. Through an association with The New York Review of Records (which I detailed just recently here), the editor drafted me to pick a band for a regular feature that portrayed artists "chilling out" on there "home turf." For better or worse, I suggested Cop Shoot Cop. Initially, the band weren't entirely enthused, but we somehow talked them into it.
I penned some riotously overwritten text to accompany Butch's pics that was swiftly (and unsurprisingly, in retrospect) shot down by the twitchy fashionistas at In-Fashion. The resulting piece ended up being largely photo-driven, featuring Butch's great shots of the boys skulking around the East Village and pre-gentrified Williamsburg, finally ending up at CBGB (see shot at the top). We ended up getting a bit of pushback from the band's label for portraying the boys smiling. God forbid.
Anyway, enjoy some vintage Cop Shoot Cop, raising an unholy ruckus on the fabled stage of CBGB in 1989. It’s hard to reconcile that this was recorded in the same room where ludicrously overpriced, bespoke duds are being hawked today.
More about Cop Shoot Cop on Flaming Pablum.....
In Praise of White Noise by Cop $hoot Cop
Copped Out
The Antidote to Optimism
Let There Be Piece, Man: Looking Back at Cop Shoot Cop
'Back Then, Nobody Went to Brooklyn'
More about CBGB on Flaming Pablum (and this may not even be all of it)....
Back to the Bathroom
The Lunachicks Location Divination
Trash at CBGB
Lacking Guidance on the Bowery
Back to CBGB as Debbie Turns 70
Cramped in the Men's Room
Back to the Indie 90s
Matinee Memories Redux: Back to Drew's Studio
Back Again to 315
Puttin' on the Blitz: Redux
Back to the CBGB Record Canteen
John Varvatos Just Doesn't Get It
Already Gone
Matinee Memories Deluxe
Christmas with Letch Patrol
It's a Shame About Sam
Let it Go!
Once Upon a Time on the Bowery
7 Seconds for Sunday
The Only Thing Missing is the Smell
Punk's Dead
Vanishing NYC on Film: CBGB in 'Stayin' Alive'
Last Words on 315 Bowery
Some Perspective
CBGB Rally Wrap-Up
...and there are probably a few others, if you really give a damn.
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