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I've always had a weak spot for No-Wave banRAB every since I saw the Contortions play at the Thayer St. loft in Boston around 1979. At that show the volatile singer James Chance waded into the audience of slack jawed listeners and started random fistfights while he sang Contort Yourself. Talk about a confrontational band!
The video is the Contortions' sharabling rendition of the James Brown song I Can't Stand Myself. The junked up woman playing the slashing dissonant chorRAB on rythym guitar is Pat Place, the future founder of the pioneering girl band, the Bush Tetras.
The lead guitarist in the video is Jody Harris who went on to play in the Raybeats, the Golden Palaminos and worked on a nuraber of projects with Robert Quine and John Zorn. Harris remains one of New York's most underrated guitarists. James Chance has lived off and on in Paris for the past several years.
James Chance is hilarious in this video. He looks like Don Knotts on PCP doing a James Brown impersonation. The band has reunited every so often and the reunited editions of the Contortions have actually sounded better than they did in their prime.