Adele Bertei (No New York, Contortions, the Bloods)
"It was our town to do whatever we wanted with, and that felt magical. It felt like a weird dystopian fairy tale."
Walk on the Wild Side NYC
A deep dive into New York City's music history
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Bob Bert (Sonic Youth, Pussy Galore, Chrome Cranks, Bewitched, Lydia Lunch, BB Gun)
"If you would have told me in 1985 that I would still be talking about Sonic Youth in 2020, I would have thought, 'What are you, fucking nuts?'"
Deb O'Nair (Fuzztones, Tina Peel, Das Fürlines)
"Ari Up did not like me. She said, 'You’re a woman, why are you playing this stupid music?' I said, 'You are a woman playing stupid music! I’m having fun."
Ronen Givony: Us v Them
"Part of the fun of being a concert promoter…was walking down the street and seeing a cool, old church, and it was almost a challenge to find out who booked it. There was always a new stone to turn."
Little Annie aka Annie Anxiety Bandez
"I wasn’t like, 'I want to be on stage.' I just didn’t want to be in Yonkers."
Joshua Fried (Pyramid Club, CBGB, TMBG, Radio Wonderland, Hattie's Dance)
"Pyramid was so hot, so popular, that they would book what they thought was cool, and the crowd would come anyway."
David Garland
"I always had these simultaneous [interests in] songwriting, improvisation, and composition...and I figured the place they could all best come together would be New York."
Alice Cohen (The Vels, Die Monster Die, Shag Motor Pony, Karen Young)
"The [music] business is completely different now, they don't send you to the Bahamas anymore with a budget of $80,000"
Pat Noecker (Liars, N0 Things, These Are Powers, RAFT)
"It’s like in Star Trek: The Next Generation when the Borg comes through and just wipes out everything in its path - that’s what the property market did to the music scene."
Joe Schick (Blue Rock Studios: Dylan, NY Dolls, Bette Midler, Ed Sanders, etc.)
"I always thought that Dylan pretended to write 'When I Paint My Masterpiece' in the studio to really freak Leon [Russell] out."