The entire main floor of the house was like one giant room with a kitchen and a half-bath hanging off it. It was, therefore, conducive to hosting massive parties. Good thing, too, because the place was such an energy sieve that we had to throw monthly massive parties just to generate enough cash to pay the heat bill.
On the Saturday nights that we weren't nearly breaking a floor joist because so many people were dancing to "Police & Thieves" or "Janie Jones", we were probably huddled around the TV trying to warm up by the sickly glow of Night Flight on the USA Network. There might be a Cheech & Chong movie, or some combo of weird animation and videos they'd never show on that brand new thingie they called MTV.
And, about the time of day we were either putting down the beers and firing up the bong, or putting down the bong and cracking open the beers, something called New Wave Theatre would catch our gnat-like attention spans. One thing New Wave Theatre was not, was boring. It was hosted by the annoying Peter Ivers, whose stream-of-consciousness raps about gherkins and Ginkels made us almost wish someone would bludgeon him to death. Then someone did. Sorry, Pete. You're still missed after all this time.
Here's a clip from New Wave Theatre by the Suburban Lawns that I've been obsessively watching over and over again. The song is called "Janitor," the lyrics of which came from a real-life conversation between lead singer Sue Tissue and a friend trying to converse in a noisy room when they first met.
She asked me what I did for a living. I said, "I'm a janitor," and she thought I said, "Oh my genitals."
All action is reaction...
expansion...
contraction...
Man the manipulator.
Underwater
Does it matter?
Anti-matter
Nuclear reactor
Boom boom boom boom
Who's your mother?
Who's your father?
I guess everything's relative.
The Suburban Lawns are/were:
Sue Tissue, vocals
John McBurney, lead guitars & vocals
Vex Billingsgate, bass & vocals
Frankie Ennui, guitars & vocals
Chuck Roast, drums
4 comments:
Pete, followed your comment to your blog at the Twilight zone. I'm the one who posted The Big Hits comp for Ryp. I just wanted to say thanks for the memories of New Wave theater. Lots of
things flash back in my mind. Always remember Peter Ivers asking the band members the most inane questions after their songs like " what is the meaning of life?" Two things always pop in my head - one was the time when The Blasters actually played live there and Ivers started asking those absurd questions to them and everybody in the band looked at each other and started laughing.
Another highlight was when a group called Dead Hippie played and after their song the
singer had hand written some sort of manifesto that took 5 minutes to read that only Peter Ivers understood. (Actually it made sense too most of us guys watching because of the usual drunken stuper we were usually in at the time) One of my friends actually found and bought a Dead Hippie LP.
Although I see we're at opposite ends of the political
spectrum we do share the same musical tastes and nostalgia that connects guys like us forever.
Thanks again
Philo
Philo,
Thanks for taking the time to post the comments -- we definitely saw the same episodes of New Wave Theater. I remember seeing Dead Hippie, too -- and it was my first chance to see the Blasters (among many other bands. I suspect we were also in the same state of mind while we watched.
I heard someone had recently bought the rights to Night Flight -- who knows -- maybe we'll see some of this again someday, if they can accommodate all the publishing rights issues...
theres a comp of new wave theatre recordings around...good for nostalgia purposes only...nothing i consider too mind bending...
ana...
http://eekshop.com
Buy an all in one figurine watch.
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