AKA, James Chance and the Contortions, James White and the Blacks, and various other names.
I’m always surprised when people do not know about the Contortions. Even people that I would think would know about them, people versed in 80s new wave and/or no wave, DJs, musicians, people who play music and sound like their main influence would’ve been the Contortions.
Their album Buy is a centerpiece of new wave/no wave perfection and no punk, funk, new wave, no wave, disco, or even jazz collection is complete without it. Seriously this record slays. After this record Chance broke up the Contortions and put out other records with various lineups, but the original Contortions lineup is where its at.
Here’s a clip of them playing at Max’s Kansas City in 1979.
And here’s a tune from the No New York comp by Brian Eno. And a quote from guitarrist Pat Place about the recording session with Brian Eno: “The most significant thing I remember about those sessions is that he said, ‘Why don’t you go in and warm up?’ We warmed up with ‘Can’t Stand Myself,’ which we’d never played before. And Eno recorded the warm-up and that’s what came out. That was the first time we’d played it, and he got it, and that was it.”
And here’s the first track from Buy, Design to Kill.
