Bush Tetras
Encyclopedia
Bush Tetras are an American post-punk band from New York City
, popular in the Manhattan
club scene in the early 1980s but never achieving much mainstream success. Their music combined funk
rhythms and dissonant guitar riffs.
band The Contortions
. With Bush Tetras, Pat continued to pursue some of the musical ideas she had explored in that band, although her distinctive slide guitar is absent from many of the Tetras songs. Sley's vocals were half-spoken, half-sung. In songs like "Too Many Creeps" and "Can't Be Funky," she repeated simple phrases over and over again, creating a hypnotic monotony similar to Place's guitar rhythms.
Place appeared in some of Vivienne Dick
's movies co-starring with Lydia Lunch
and other musicians from New York's thriving, late-1970s and early-1980s music community, an off-shoot of No Wave. These appearances contributed to the band's prominent position in downtown New York in the early 1980s. At present there has been a resurgence of interest in this period, and the band's influence can be heard in many younger bands.
The group scored two dance hits in the U.S. in the early 1980s, with "Too Many Creeps" peaking at #57 Dance in 1981, and "Can't Be Funky/Cowboys In Africa" peaking at #32 in 1982.
Cynthia Sley joined up with Ivan Julian of the Voidoids in 1988 to form the Lovelies. They put out one percussive post-punk album called Mad Orphan (109 Records).
Bush Tetras briefly reformed in the mid-1990s. In 2005, they resumed performing in New York City, and toured Europe in summer 2006.
Laura Kennedy, original bassist for the Bush Tetras, died on November 14, 2011 after a long battle with liver disease.
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
, popular in the Manhattan
Manhattan
Manhattan is the oldest and the most densely populated of the five boroughs of New York City. Located primarily on the island of Manhattan at the mouth of the Hudson River, the boundaries of the borough are identical to those of New York County, an original county of the state of New York...
club scene in the early 1980s but never achieving much mainstream success. Their music combined funk
Funk
Funk is a music genre that originated in the mid-late 1960s when African American musicians blended soul music, jazz and R&B into a rhythmic, danceable new form of music. Funk de-emphasizes melody and harmony and brings a strong rhythmic groove of electric bass and drums to the foreground...
rhythms and dissonant guitar riffs.
History
Lead guitarist Pat Place and vocalist Cynthia Sley produced the most distinctive aspects of the Tetras sound. Place's guitar lines were rhythmic and distortion-filled. She had been the original guitarist and one of the founding members of the No WaveNo Wave
No Wave was a short-lived but influential underground music, film, performance art, video, and contemporary art scene that had its beginnings during the mid-1970s in New York City. The term No Wave is in part satirical word play rejecting the commercial elements of the then-popular New Wave genre...
band The Contortions
James Chance and the Contortions
James Chance and the Contortions, led by saxophonist and vocalist James Chance, were one of the original punk jazz groups of the New York No Wave music scene. Their first recording, credited solely as Contortions, was on the 1978 compilation, No New York, produced by Brain Eno...
. With Bush Tetras, Pat continued to pursue some of the musical ideas she had explored in that band, although her distinctive slide guitar is absent from many of the Tetras songs. Sley's vocals were half-spoken, half-sung. In songs like "Too Many Creeps" and "Can't Be Funky," she repeated simple phrases over and over again, creating a hypnotic monotony similar to Place's guitar rhythms.
Place appeared in some of Vivienne Dick
Vivienne Dick
Vivienne Dick is an Irish experimental and documentary filmmaker.She was born in Dublin but moved to the United States in the 1970s. In the U.S., Dick became active in No Wave film culture and produced a series of Super8 short films. Many of her films were staged around well-known New York City...
's movies co-starring with Lydia Lunch
Lydia Lunch
Lydia Lunch is an American singer, poet, writer, and actress whose career was spawned by the New York No Wave scene...
and other musicians from New York's thriving, late-1970s and early-1980s music community, an off-shoot of No Wave. These appearances contributed to the band's prominent position in downtown New York in the early 1980s. At present there has been a resurgence of interest in this period, and the band's influence can be heard in many younger bands.
The group scored two dance hits in the U.S. in the early 1980s, with "Too Many Creeps" peaking at #57 Dance in 1981, and "Can't Be Funky/Cowboys In Africa" peaking at #32 in 1982.
Cynthia Sley joined up with Ivan Julian of the Voidoids in 1988 to form the Lovelies. They put out one percussive post-punk album called Mad Orphan (109 Records).
Bush Tetras briefly reformed in the mid-1990s. In 2005, they resumed performing in New York City, and toured Europe in summer 2006.
Laura Kennedy, original bassist for the Bush Tetras, died on November 14, 2011 after a long battle with liver disease.
Studio albums
- Wild Things [cassette only], 1983, ROIRROIRROIR , or Reach Out International Records, is a New York City-based record label founded in 1979 by Neil Cooper.ROIR was founded the same year that the Sony Walkman launched, and initially, the label exclusively distributed its releases in cassette format...
- Beauty Lies, 1997, Polygram Records
- Very Very Happy, 2007, ROIRROIRROIR , or Reach Out International Records, is a New York City-based record label founded in 1979 by Neil Cooper.ROIR was founded the same year that the Sony Walkman launched, and initially, the label exclusively distributed its releases in cassette format...
Singles
- "Too Many Creeps" / "Snakes Crawl" / "You Taste Like the Tropics" [7-inch EP; #99-02], 1980, 99 Records99 Records99 Records was an independent record label active from 1980-1984. 99 was run out of a record store with the same name, located at 99 MacDougal Street in New York City's Greenwich Village, and owned by Ed Bahlman...
- "Things That Go Boom in the Night" / "Das Ah Riot" [7-inch single; #FET 007], 1981, Fetish Records
- "Can't Be Funky" / "Can't Be Funky (instrumental)" [7-inch single; #FE 15], 1981, Fetish Records
- Rituals EP: "Can't Be Funky" / "Funky Instrumental" / "Cowboys in Africa" / "Rituals" [12-inch EP; #FE 16], 1981, Fetish Records
- Rituals EP: "Can't Be Funky" / "Funky Version" / "Cowboys in Africa" / "Rituals" [12-inch EP; #TEES 12-07], 1981, Stiff RecordsStiff RecordsStiff Records is a record label created in London in 1976, by entrepreneurs Dave Robinson and Andrew Jakeman , and active until 1985. It was reactivated in 2007....
- Better Late Than Never: 1980-1983 [cassette only], 1989, ROIRROIRROIR , or Reach Out International Records, is a New York City-based record label founded in 1979 by Neil Cooper.ROIR was founded the same year that the Sony Walkman launched, and initially, the label exclusively distributed its releases in cassette format...
- Boom in the Night (Original Studio Recordings 1980 - 1983), 1995, ROIRROIRROIR , or Reach Out International Records, is a New York City-based record label founded in 1979 by Neil Cooper.ROIR was founded the same year that the Sony Walkman launched, and initially, the label exclusively distributed its releases in cassette format...
- Tetrafied: Previously Released Recordings, 1996, Thirsty Ear
- Page 18 [EP], 1996, Tim/Kerr Records
Compilations
- "Too Many Creeps" appears on Rough Trade Shops - Post Punk Vol. 1 (2003, Rough Trade Records)
- "Can't Be Funky" appears on New York Noise (2003, Soul Jazz RecordsSoul Jazz RecordsSoul Jazz Records is a British-based record label. The label started in the 1990s, releasing compilation albums of predominantly black music, including reggae, soul, ska, Dub and jazz...
) - "Cowboys in Africa" appears on I [Heart] New York Punk! [free with Mojo issue 144]
- "Punch Drunk" and a cover of John LennonJohn LennonJohn Winston Lennon, MBE was an English musician and singer-songwriter who rose to worldwide fame as one of the founding members of The Beatles, one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music...
's "Cold TurkeyCold TurkeyCold Turkey is a song written by John Lennon, released as a single in 1969 by the Plastic Ono Band on Apple Records, catalogue Apples 1001 in the United Kingdom, Apple 1813 in the United States. It is the second solo single issued by Lennon, and it peaked at #30 on the Billboard Hot 100 and #14 on...
" appear on Start Swimming (1981, Stiff RecordsStiff RecordsStiff Records is a record label created in London in 1976, by entrepreneurs Dave Robinson and Andrew Jakeman , and active until 1985. It was reactivated in 2007....
), a live record documenting a one-night showcase of New York bands at the Rainbow in London on 20 February 1981. - "Sister Midnight" appears on We Will Fall (1997)
- "Too Many Creeps" appears on Totally Wired
- "Too Many Creeps" appears on New Wave Dance Hits of the '80s: Just Can't Get Enough (Rhino Records)
Members
- Cynthia Sley (vocals)
- Pat Place (guitar)
- Laura Kennedy (bass)
- Dee Pop (drums)
- Bob Albertson (bass - 1983)
- Don Christenson (drums - 1983)
- Julia Murphy (bass - 2005-2008)
- Jimmy Joe Uliana (circa 1979)
- Adele Bertei (circa 1979)
External links
- Too Many Creeps video.
- PUNKCAST#1076 Live video from Knitting Factory NYC.
- Photos of the Bush Tetras at the New York No Wave Photo Archive
- thisisoffset Photos, videos and biog of the Bush Tetras.
- Bush Tetras discography, comprehensive 'Discogs' discography.