Social Climbers - Social Climbers (1981)

Got a non sequitur from New York's No Wave scene for you guys today. The more ardent followers of this blog might recognize this band's song "Hello Texas" as being featured on the first volume of Homework. Really bizarre and tangential lyrics and singing with some thick synths and other fun instruments that come together to form a formless meandering mess of an album. I of course mean that in a good way, out of the mess comes this impressionistic variegated psuedo-drone a-la A.R. Kane or The Fall. Very unique and overlooked album from the scene.

Back to when I was a teenager
Lusting for life I'd see you in those magazine

Your scrawny body laid out on some cheesy rug
In some slimy studio in Midtown Manhattan

Various Artists - Peripheral Vision (1982)

Obscure and delicious no wave compilation released around the time the scene was coming to a close. Features some great acts like Mofungo and the highly underrated The Scene is Now. A few of the bands on this albums definitely have a more avant-proggy feel and offers a different, but still just as interesting view of what was going on in NYC in the 80s.

I looked out in the day and the days not there
I looked out in the night and the nights not there

The Scene Is Now - Burn All Your Records (1985)

Now here's an interesting band. You might know this band because Yo La Tengo covered their song "Yellow Sarong," The Scene Is Now were a weird band from mid 80s NYC so they often get lumped in with no wave. But trust me they aren't anything like your Circle X or your Swans or Y Pants or any of that. In fact it's really hard to tell what genre they are. They're sometimes defined as "postmodern jug music" but I prefer just calling them jangle pop, really schizophrenic and disoriented jangle pop. The album consists of 20 relatively short tracks that are poppy but also dissonant. In some tracks its almost as if they try to sound bad, and it ends up giving it a really endearing and cute sound. This album might take a few listens to click but I ~highly~ recommend this album.

A man in the moon
Taps on the window
How will we know your silhouette
How will we reach you (Are we real?)