JOY DIVISION: Book by Kevin Cummins

Kevin Cummins, Joy Division, Rizzoli New York, 2010
Kevin Cummins the NME Magazine Photographer who put out the monograph Smiths and Beyondand Manchester: Looking for the Light Through the Pouring Rain has recently put out a new monograph on the band Joy Division titled Joy Division published by Rizzoli New York. Cummins 30 plus years body of work as a rock photographer seems iconically timeless capturing the ebb and flow of the Manchester music Scene and most notably his work with the short lived band Joy Division. His Latest book Joy Division, Cummins shares an essential series of iconic black and white photography of the band both on and off the stage. Joy Division defined the look, sound and energy of the post-punk era and Cummins was given full access during this period to document what we now know as one of the most influential bands from the 80's. Spanning 200 pages, Cummins photographs show the landscape, the mood and the intensity of Ian Curtis and introspective moments of the band as well as a smattering of memorabilia including lyric sheets, Factory Records posters, and concert tickets. The photos immortalize and stretch full page giving the gripping essence of the environment from which the iconic band existed for such a short but influential time.  

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The Raincoats

The Raincoats were one of the most experimental bands that immediately followed the initial burst of punk rock in the late '70s. With their minimalistic approach to guitar-driven folk-rock, the band developed a distinctive, jagged sound, punctuated by a shrill violin. The Raincoats were also one of the first all-female post-punk bands, which wasn't common in the late '70s and early '80s. When they were recording, the band gained a small cult following in their native England and an even smaller audience in America; they broke up in 1984. (AM)


The Raincoats, released in 1979, was the debut album by The Raincoats. The album is perhaps best known for its off-kilter cover of "Lola" by The Kinks. The album was re-released on 9 November 2009 in vinyl with a free MP3 download and an extra track "Fairytale in the Supermarket" and as a special edition enhanced digipak CD including live footage from 1977 and 1979 and a video of "Fairytale in the Supermarket" on We ThRee, the band's own label in the UK and on the Kill Rock Stars label in the USA. (wikipedia)


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   Odyshape, released in 1981, was the second album by The Raincoats.





 




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James Chance & The Contortions Buy

One of the original punk jazz groups of the New York No Wave scene, the Contortions were led by saxophonist James Chance, aka James White. Their first recorded appearance, credited solely as the Contortions, was on the 1978 compilation, No New York. The following year, two albums were issued almost simultaneously on the ZE label, Buy the Contortions (an extreme jazz-punk LP) and Off White (a disco/standards hybrid released under the moniker James White and the Blacks, with one side vocals, the other side instrumentals). The same line-up recorded both records, although no one aside from Chance appears or is credited on the jacket of the Buy album. Following Chance and manager Anya Phillips' acrimonious break with many of the original Contortions, the line-up changed frequently.(wikipedia)

Jean-Michael Basquiat = Art Punk

Jean-Michel Basquiat (December 22, 1960 – August 12, 1988) was an American artist and the first artist of African descent to become an international art star. His career in art began as a graffiti artist in New York City, and in the 1980s produced Neo-expressionist painting. Basquiat died due to a heroin overdose on August 12, 1988, at the age of 27.
While a high school student, Basquiat and Al Diaz started spray-painting graffiti on buildings in Lower Manhattan, working under the pseudonym SAMO. The designs inscribed messages such as "Plush safe he think.. SAMO" and "SAMO as an escape clause". In December 1978, the Village Voice published an article on the graffiti. The SAMO project ended with the epitaph "SAMO IS DEAD," inscribed on the walls of SoHo buildings.
SAMO© Graffiti appeared in New York City from 1977 to early 1980. They were short phrases, in turns poetic and sarcastic, mainly painted on the streets of downtown Manhattan. The tag SAMO© (pronounced Same-Oh) has been primarily associated with the artist Jean-Michel Basquiat, but was developed mainly as a collaboration between Basquiat and Al Diaz, with help from a few friends. Diaz had previously been part of the New York graffiti scene, using the tag “Bomb I”. Later Basquiat took on the tag himself, creating some non-graffiti work on paper and canvas using that tag, just before and after killing off the SAMO graffiti by painting “SAMO© IS DEAD” around the streets of downtown in early 1980. Basquiat claims the name was first developed in a stoned conversation with high school friend Al Diaz, calling the marijuana they smoked “the same old shit,” then shortening the phrase to "Same Old", then "SAMO".The character of SAMO was first developed by Basquiat, Diaz, and Shannon Dawson (artist) while they were fellow students at City As School high school.(wikipedia)

THE OFFS

Originally from San Francisco and eventually New York City, The Offs were punk/funk band from the late 70's. The Offs counted among their fans and friends numerous people in the downtown New York art/music scene, including artists Jean-Michel Basquiat, Keith Haring, musician and actor Richard Edson, who played trumpet with the band, and Glenn O'Brien, the peripatetic chronicler of the scene for Andy Warhol's Interview magazine. In 1984, David Ferguson's label CD Presents released a full length album for the band called "The Offs First Record", with artwork by Basquiat.


The Offs were major players in the early days of the San Francisco punk rock scene. Their first record was a self-released 7" single featuring a cover of the Slickers' "Johnny Too Bad" with the Billy Hawk-penned "624803" on the B-side. Subsequent releases include the singles "Everyone's a Bigot" (which appeared on the Alternative Tentacles hardcore/art punk compilation Let Them Eat Jellybeans) and "You Fascinate Me." Lead singer Don Vinil was known for his outrageous on-stage behavior. Fellow San Francisco punk group, Dead Kennedys had their first show with the Offs in 1978. They frequently played at San Francisco's famed Mabuhay Gardens.

NEU!

Neu! was formed in 1971 in Düsseldorf as an offshoot from an early line-up of another seminal Krautrock band, Kraftwerk


Neu! was a German band formed by Klaus Dinger and Michael Rother after their split from Kraftwerk in the early 1970s. Though the band had minimal commercial success during its existence, Neu! are retrospectively considered one of the founding fathers of Krautrock and a significant influence on artists including David Bowie, Brian Eno, Iggy Pop, PiL, Joy Division, Gary Numan, Ultravox, Simple Minds, Negativland, Stereolab, Radiohead, The Horrors, and much of the current electronic music scene.


http://www.myspace.com/neu1