New York Noise: Art and Music from the New York Underground, 1978-88

by Paula Court, David Byrne (Text)

Between 1975 and 1988 New York City spawned an incredible and wild array of artistic communities that overlapped and interbred with scant heed for generic "purity" (let alone posterity): every musician, it seemed, was also an artist, every artist a filmmaker and every filmmaker was in a band. These heady years saw the births of Punk at CBGB and Max's Kansas City, of Hip Hop in the Bronx, the emerging art music activities of Philip Glass and Laurie Anderson, Free Jazz and the No Wave art/rock scene around James Chance, Lydia Lunch and Mars. "New York Noise" is Paula Court's photographic tour of these colliding worlds. From her arrival in New York City in 1978, Court diligently photographed the likes of Glenn Branca, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Keith Haring, David Byrne, Rhys Chatham, Lou Reed, James Chance, Patti Smith, Afrika Bambaata, John Cage, Robert Longo, Jim Jarmusch, Cindy Sherman and Richard Prince, as well as bands like DNA, Suicide, Bush Tetras, ESG and the Rock Steady Crew. Also captured in these pages are nascent musicians and actors such as Michael Stipe, Steve Buscemi, Willem Dafoe and Madonna, who came into artistic maturity amid these diverse scenes. With over 400 images, many of them previously unpublished, "New York Noise" follows Soul Jazz Records' critically acclaimed CD series, providing an unprecedented visual record of one of New York's liveliest cultural eras.

Genres: Music, Nonfiction, Art, New York, Photography

208 pages, Paperback

First published August 1, 2007

Reviews

[Andy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Paula Court is an outstanding photographer and I'm surprised I never heard of her previously since I'm an old p-rock/new wave fossil myself! All of her shots are brilliant rock-crime scene-combat war zone classics and those that think they've seen it all haven't until they get their hands on her book.

Oh, and my wife (Rebecca Frightwig) is on page 152. Isn't she lovely? Right next to demonic Diamanda Galas.

[Bob Fish · Rating 3 out of 5]

Great scene !

[Christopher · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic document of an overlooked period in popular music - the late 70s/early 80s no wave scene. While relatively few people know of this movement, it spawned the success of artists like Talking Heads, Sonic Youth and even Madonna! This book takes us back and re-introduces us to the major players in this scene, some of whom went on to bigger and better things, some of whom faded into obscurity. Fascinating stuff.

[Ray · Rating 2 out of 5]

Nice pics. There is the occasional anecdote about how cheap it was to live in the lower east side in early 70's. More information about what these people did would be more interesting than what they looked like.

[Wif Stenger · Rating 3 out of 5]

including the late lamented Lou Reed