James White & The Blacks: Contort Yourself

James Chance died yesterday. It is very likely that you have never heard of Chance, but he was an integral part of the New York scene known as No Wave in the late ’70s and early ’80s. Even though you’ve never heard of him, there is at least one song you know that sprung from this movement, and you hear it every year – “Christmas Wrapping” by The Waitresses. You also may be familiar with Was (Not Was) and their song “Walk the Dinosaur” and possibly Kid Creole and The Coconuts. Artists such as these all got their start on a small label called ZE Records, and one of the most prolific ZE artists was James Chance. He recorded with groups such as James White & The Blacks, Teenage Jesus & The Jerks, and James White & The Contortions. The music of Chance and his No Wave contemporaries was virtually ignored outside of New York and college radio at the time, but it is now recognized as an influential movement on future artists. The music of Chance is easily identified by its dissonant, atonal sound, featuring Chance’s trademark off-kilter saxophone. On first listen, Chance’s vocals and saxophone can be off-putting, but if one lets themself move beyond the surface they will find an incessant groove that pulls them in and doesn’t let go. It makes sense that Chance covered artists like James Brown on his releases because he was a groove machine. He was a geeky, white, avant-garde groove machine, but a groove machine nonetheless. Rest in peace you fucked up genius, and thanks for the great music.

To learn more about James Chance, check out his Wikipedia article. If you want to see what the downtown NY No Wave scene was all about, watch this live performance of “Sax Maniac” from 1981.

To listen to all of the songs of the day, check out the Radio Faux Show Song of the Day playlist.

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