No New York

NO NEW YORK is one of the definitive compilation albums not only of the post-punk era, but of rock-&-roll history. It is perhaps the only album to completely define a musical subgenre by itself. While James Chance & the Contortions, Mars, Teenage Jesus & the Jerks, and DNA made later recordings (in fact, Lydia Lunch and Arto Lindsay, leaders of the latter two bands, would have long and prolific careers), the 16 songs on the Brian Eno-produced NO NEW YORK encapsulate the No Wave movement. Its defining lack of musical sophistication--or even basic instrumental competence--could not be sustained for long. The Contortions, led by Chance's stuttering, squawking saxophone and hectoring vocals, were like a bizarre parody of 1970s funk, right down to their demented cover of James Brown's "I Can't Stand Myself." Teenage Jesus & the Jerks were arguably the closest to a conventional punk band, with the 35-second blurt "Red Alert" sounding like an early precursor of what would become hardcore. The artsy minimalism of Mars and DNA strips the music down to basic building blocks of rhythm and noise, to very different ends. Together, they sound both of their moment and timeless.