New York Underground Collection

1984-1993

Richard Kern

Richard Kern (born 1954) is a New York underground filmmaker, writer and photographer. He first came to underground prominence as part of the underground cultural explosion in the East Village of New York City in the 1980s, with erotic films featuring underground rock personalities of the time such as Lydia Lunch, Kembra Pfahler, and Henry Rollins in movies like "The Right Side of My Brain" and "Fingered." Like many of the musicians around Kern, he had a deep interest in the aesthetics of extreme sex, violence, and perversion and was one of the leading lights of Nick Zedd's coined Cinema of Transgression.

Thirteen shorts directed by master of the Cinema of Transgression himself, shot in Super 8, over a ten-year period (1984-1993). From The Right Side of My Brain to Fingered, from The Bitches to My Nightmare, from Submit to Me Now to The Evil Cameraman, galleries of disturbing excursions into sado-masochism. 

Also included is The Manhattan Love Suicides (1985), a series of suicides committed out of love by an array of freak characters. It includes the story of a fan who pursues the great artist and as the young man writhes on the floor, inspires the idea for a new film (Stray Dogs); and a woman who disfigures her face to resemble her deformed lover (I Hate You Now). 

This DVD contains the following:

1. The Right Side Of My Brain (1984)

About the Sexual Misadventures of a Sexually Insane Girl...

2. The Manhattan Love Suicides (4 episodes/1985)

- Stray Dogs, about artist and persistent fan. 

- Woman at the Wheel, about woman fighting with men in order to drive her own car. 

- Thrust in Me, about necrophilia, suicide, and bathtubs. 

- I Hate You Now, about deformed guy and his girlfriend.

3. Submit to Me (1985)

Oddballs dancing, leering at camera, guy shaving a nontraditional part of his body and man ripping his own throat out, woman stabbing herself to death.

4. You Killed Me First (1985)

Typical story of anarchist kid, Elizabeth, rebelling against family's consumerist and religious values. Ends when the disturbed kid guns her family down.

5. The Evil Cameraman (1986)

Another misogynistic piece involving women of all races caught up in rather violent situations.

6. Fingered (1986)

A phone sex operator/prostitute gets together with a guy she's been on the phone with. After a semi-hardcore sex scene, the violence begins. The man cuts someone's throat for looking at Lydia's character, then they go for a drive. The two abduct a hitch hiker and rape her in a junkyard.

7. Submit to Me Now (1987)

Rehash of Submit to Me. Oddballs dancing, leering at camera, guy shaving a nontraditional part of his body and man ripping his own throat out, woman stabbing herself to death.

8. X is Y (1990)

People playing with firearms with telephone sound effects in the background.

9. Horoscope (1991)

Woman dreams of dancing with men after reading horoscope and watching "Studs."

10. The Bitches (1992)

11. Death Valley 69 (1986)

Gory Sonic Youth music video with murdered family and cruise missile imagery.

12. The Sewing Circle (1992

13. My Nightmare (1993)

Extra:

Everyday Life Cannibalizing Art: Docu-fucktion, performance by Helena Velena

Photo Gallery

Biography

Filmography

Cast:Lydia Lunch, Clint Ruin, Henry Rollins, David Wojnarowicz, Bill Rice, Nick Zedd, Karen Finley, Lung Leg, Jap Anne, Ice Queen, Richard Kern, Little Linda, Jackie O, Marty Nations, Cassandra Stark, Audrey Rose, Marta Hoskins, Pete Shore, Jack Natz, Cruella De Villa, Tomoya, Linda Serby, Cristina.

No New York - 1978 - V.A.

No New York is a compilation album released in 1978 by Antilles Records under the curation of producer Brian Eno. Although it only contained songs by four different artists, it is considered by many to be the definitive single album documenting New York City's late-1970s No Wave movement. The album became well-known in underground rock circles; an unrelated album was released in 1979 entitled Yes L.A., featuring many punk acts from the L.A. hardcore scene. In 2003, Criminal IQ Records, along with Brian Costello's Protomersh Records released a CD that paid tribute to the two albums' ethos of scene documentarianism by releasing a compilation titled Maybe Chicago?

In New York, New York, a four day New York underground rock festival was hosted at Artists Space. The final two days of the show consisted of Friday with D.N.A. and James Chance and the Contortions, credited as "Contortions", followed by Mars and Teenage Jesus and the Jerks on Saturday. In the audience for the shows was English musician/producer Brian Eno who originally came to New York to master the Talking Heads second album More Songs About Buildings and Food. Brian Eno was impressed by the bands, and was convinced that the movement should be documented and proposed the idea of a No Wave compilation with himself as a producer.

The recording sessions for No New York were done without much of Eno's stylized producing he's done for previous artists albums. James Chance stated that the Contortions tracks were "done totally live in the studio, no separation between the instruments, no overdubs, just like a document." However, in 1979 Eno's famous lecture "The Studio As Compositional Tool" he is quoted saying "On 'Helen Thormdale' [sic!] from the No New York album (Antilles), I put an echo on the guitar part's click, and used that to trigger the compression on the whole track, so it sounds like helicopter blades.

No New York was released in 1978 on Antilles Records and failed to chart in the Billboard Charts. The album was printed originally with the lyrics printed on the inside of the record sleeve which forced the owner to have to tear apart the sleeve to read them. Critic Richard C. Walls writing for Creem initial review described it as the most "ferociously avant-garde and aggressively ugly music since Albert Ayler puked all over my brain back in - what? - 64." and stated "If you're intrepid enough to want to hear this stuff (a friend, 3/4 into the first side, complained that the music was painful - she wasn't referring to any abstract reaction, she was grimacing), be advised that Antilles is a division of Island Records, which ain't exactly Transamerica Corp. You'll probably have to make a little effort to procure it, because there's no way it's going to come to you."

The album was re-issued in 2005 by Lilith Records on vinyl and digipak form on compact disc. Reviews of the album were positive. Todd Kristel of the online music database Allmusic gave the album four and half stars out of five and stated that "this seminal album remains the definitive document of New York's no wave movement." but also mirrored Creem's statement with "Some listeners may be fascinated by the music on No New York while others may find it unbearable". In December of 2007, Blender place the album at number 65 on their list of "The 100 Greatest Indie-Rock Albums Ever"

Track listing

1 - "Dish It Out" - Contortions - 3:17

2 - "Flip Your Face" - Contortions - 3:13

3 - "Jaded" - Contortions - 3:49

4 - "I Can't Stand Myself" - Contortions - 4:52

5 - "Burning Rubber" - Teenage Jesus and the Jerks - 1:45

6 - "The Closet" - Teenage Jesus and the Jerks - 3:53

7 - "Red Alert" - Teenage Jesus and the Jerks - 0:34

8 - "I Woke Up Dreaming" - Teenage Jesus and the Jerks - 3:10

9 - "Helen Fordsdale" - Mars - 2:30

10 - "Hairwaves" - Mars - 3:43

11 - "Tunnel" - Mars - 2:41

12 - "Puerto Rican Ghost" - Mars - 1:08

13 - "Egomaniac's Kiss" - D.N.A. - 2:11

14 - "Lionel" - D.N.A. - 2:07

15 - "Not Moving" - D.N.A. - 2:40

16 - "Size" - D.N.A. - 2:13