ok, one of the first times that i ever performed in manhattan (nyc) wasin 1986 with a band i was in at the time named ‘gin train’. and not to be immodest, but gin train were great. allard laban on vocals, bob spence on bass, me on guitar, and derek brown on drums. and we performed at a tiny little bar on spring street that is now called ‘sway’ (a very degenerate bar where many very degenerate evenings have taken place). it was a sunday night, and we drove in from connecticut and we performed at 10:30 to our few friends who had made the trip in to the city to see us. and i think that derek and allard actually lived in the city at that time, so we had a few of their new york friends in the audience, too. all in all i think that there were 10 or 11 people in the audience, but we performed with all of the energy we could muster. which was a lot, cos gin train were great. i still think that if we hadn’t broken up in 1987 we would’ve gone on to become quite successful.

ah well. and i don’t think that we ever even recorded anything.i would love to hear a gin train recording. i wonder if any exist? and then after the show we drove back to sarah lawrence university where a lot of our friends went to school. and we all got drunk, as we often did at sarah lawrence. and i think that i slept on my friend julie’s floor and then woke up in the morning and tried to find something vegan in the cafeteria, which should’ve been easy seeing as it was sarah lawrence, but no vegan food was there to be found. and being hung over and having had 2 hours sleep on a cold floor and then having nothing to eat in the morning sucks, as i’m sure that many of you can attest to.

but i can’t remember the very first time when i performed in manhattan…it might’ve been with the vatican commandoes, but i think that itw as probably with awol. that’s right. at a bar where any band who wanted to could play. the bar kept the bar receipts, and the band kept the money that came in at the door. and we had 3 people in the audience. andrew the drummer’s girlfriend,a friend of paul the bass players, and my girlfriend at the time,margaret fiedler. we played for 45 minutes, fueled by our 3 friends in the audience clapping between songs. and needless to say, there are few lonelier sounds than3 people clapping in between songs for their friend’s band.

interestingly enough margaret fiedler since went on to start the band slaika and moonshake, both of whom were terrific. and she also plays guitar with pj harvey (who is, of course, terrific).it’s always odd when margaret and i run into each other now, because we look at each other and can’t help but think of skipping school and eating at chi-chi’s in the stamford town center in 1984, or making nacho’s in her dad’s apartment in connecticut. the last time that i saw margaret was when pj harvey was playing with u2 in manhattan. i saw margaret at the aftershow party. and then, as coincidental as this might be, the aftershow party ended up at sway, where 15 years before i had performed with gintrain to 10 people, margaret being one of them.

ok, enough reminiscing for now.
moby

earlier this evening i was reminiscing with a friend about new york city in the early 80’s. it’s worth pointing out just how remarkable new york was in the early 80’s, in so many ways, but especially as concerns musical development.
i’m not being provincial and arrogant here, but isn’t it remarkable that so many musical genres pretty much began in new york city in the 70’s and 80’s?
to name a few: disco, hip-hop, house music, punk rock, alternative rock, and so on.
sure, people might dispute the fact that all of these musical forms had their seminal roots in new york, but they did.
hip hop started with kool herc and grandmaster flash and grand wizard theodore, and the first hip hop record was ‘rappers delight’, as far as i know.
house music began at the loft with david mancuso and the paradise garage with larry levan (later to be brought from new york to chicago by frankie knuckles, of course, where he played at the warehouse ((thus ‘house’ music)) punk rock began in the 70’s with the new york dolls and the velvetunderground (ok, that’s going back to the 60’s) and the ramones (a nod to the stooges, of course).
alternative rock began in the 70’s with television, talking heads, etc.
i’m not being (well, hopefully not being) provincial and arrogant, but i’m trying to convey just what an amazing place new york was to grow upmusically (obviously my syntax wasn’t helped by my time in nyc in the early 80’s).
and these musical forms have gone from being marginal and underground (hip hop being played at block parties in the south bronx, punk rock being played at max’s and cbgb’s, house music at the loft and the garage, alternative rock at cbgb’s, etc) to becoming unbelievably huge. and they all started small and seminal and exciting in a very brief period of time, right here on this little island.
i love new york for many reasons. the fact that it’s traditionally been such an amazing crucible of musical innovation is just one of them. but one that should occasionally be pointed out lest we forget where all of these musical genres came to life.
that’s it. sorry if i’m being provincial and arrogant.
moby