Chicago No-Wave Part 1: Silver Abuse

MP3s below the fold

Weasel Walter, of The Flying Luttenbachers and many other abrasive avant-garde ensembles, offers the best definition of No-Wave:

“I define No Wave as an (anti-)aesthetic demarcation and not necessarily an idiomatic one -- that is to say that I think No Wave had (or has) more to do with a nihilistic, but sometimes totally sardonic outlook than a certain cliched guitar sound or drumbeat, as many would have you think. Simply put, the term could be utilized to define any negatively charged music destroying or disemboweling the tradition of Rock music and its platitudes through intentional noise, abstraction or atavism.”

While the original No-Wave groups in New York defined the term, there were many other bands around the country and across the ocean that shared a similar mindset. While artists on the West Coast such as Nervous Gender and Johanna Went and European weirdos Malaria and Blurt are relatively well known, there isn’t much documentation on the darker, demented and art-damaged side of early Chicago punk-inspired music.

Silver Abuse is sometimes credited as being Chicago’s first punk band. It was founded in 1977 by Santiago Durango (later of Naked Raygun and Big Black) on guitar, Bill Mehan on guitar and vocals, Camillo Gonzales on bass and Bob Damrau behind the drums. The lineup was constantly shifting- starting with Durango leaving to form Naked Raygun in 1978. This opened the door for all manner of Chicago oddballs to serve time in the Silver Abuse ranks- from Jaqui Disler on vocals to Dave Purdie on keyboards and Donnie Krattner squealing on the sax.

The Chicago punk scene at the time wasn't yet segregated with genre-labels...the scene was still small and everyone knew each other. I use the term No-Wave to loosely describe Silver Abuse as they took a more nihilistic “fuck it” approach than the straight-forward punk that dominated the scene at the time. They delighted in irritating crowds with a deliberately experimental and atonal sound that was shat out with intentionally offensive titles. Their songs were mostly Dada-like nonsense (Cuban-Homo Farm, Pink Port Please and Dogs Laughed At Us) which were, as keyboardist Dave Purdie puts it, "mostly inspired by stumbling across three words that rhymed and slapping a few chords around them." Usually singer Jaqui Disler ad-libbed frantic rants based loosely on the song titles. Silver Abuse's conceptual approach to punk was akin to Electric Eels and Flipper; there were few like-minded bands in town at the time aside from Chicago's other head-scratchers, End Result.

Here is a Big Black interview that appeared in Forced Exposure in 1983...Santiago Durango speaks on his embarassing involvement in Silver Abuse.

__________

FE #9: OK, Santiago, what are the skeletons in your closet?

Steve Albini:  Silver Abuse.

FE #9: Silver Abuse?  Do they only have stuff on Busted At Oz, or is
there more?

Santiago Durango: No, that version of Silver Abuse has nothing to do with the original Silver Abuse, which spawned a whole army of inferior versions.

FE #9: So it's like Silver Abuse I, II, III, etc.?

Santiago Durango: Yeah.  Right now it's up to number 575.

FE #9: Which one were you in?

Santiago Durango: Silver Abuse I.

FE #9: Man, you've just been at the forefront of all this stuff. 
(laughter)  Was this before Naked Raygun?

Santiago Durango: Yeah, this is the original punk band in Chicago.

FE #9: Well, tell us about Silver Abuse.

Santiago Durango: Well, we were riotously drunk.  (laughter)

FE #9: How many of you were there?

Santiago Durango: There were five of us.  One was a total acidhead who couldn't do anything more than play one note on guitar at any one point.  He just fed back through everything.  One of the guys was Colao who is the bass player now in Naked Raygun.  The drummer went on to Toothpaste. We were just a bunch of high school kids who got into the Ramones together.  And we used to do a lot of drugs and get very drunk on very cheap wine.  And make noise on instruments, and we got into punk, so we got this band together, with three guitars because we couldn't afford amps.

__________

Although sometimes sharing bills with popular local and touring punk bands, Silver Abuse unfortunately never received the critical acclaim they deserved and usually played to empty rooms. They only released one 7-inch in their five-year life span and had a few tracks on the early Chicago punk compilation Busted At Oz. They then dissipated into obscurity.

From the Silver Abuse 7" Fall From Grace on Schwa Records (1982):
Rats Tied To Trees | Cuban Homo Farm/Plastic Rows
(sorry...Rats Tied To Trees is from a very scratchy copy)

From the Busted At Oz Compilation:
Anti-Hot Dog / Pink Port Now / Bombshelter

From a live show at Misfit's in Chicago circa 1982:
We Smile While You Pay | BirdBrain | Who Spooked Rodney? | Wag Your Tail | What Ho! Bingo! | Cuban Homo Farm | Jesus Told Me

Special thanks to Dave Purdie for live tracks, additional information and for digging up old flyers and fanzines.

Marie Kanger-Born has an extensive collection of photos and flyers from the early days of Chicago punk.

More info on various Chicago No-Wave acts can be found at Weasel Walter's abandoned Chicago No Wave site.

Comments

[Brian Turner]

Did anyone ever reissue End Result? I lost my LP somewhere down the line.

[Mike Lupica]

Yo Turner, I donated my copy of the End Result record to the FMU Record Fair stock two or three years ago. You blew it, homepiss!!! :P

[WmMBerger]

THANKS FOR THIS!!!

[Geoff Greenberg]

Oh Wow! You just don't know how impossible it is to find this even in Chitown. Rair, rare and rayre. Thanks!!!

[M.G.]

Great stuff. Makes my lunch easier to digest.

[Hoax]

Reminds me of the plastic ono band for some reason . .. Did Yoko invent no-wave ?

[Hell's Donut House]

Autumn Records honcho Terry Nelson has been promising for years to reissue Busted at Oz on CD (perhaps even the complete sessions); if anybody sees him, give him a little nudge for good luck...

[Steve Smith]

I can get you a copy.
middle age crisis End Result is forthcoming.
Get us a gig.
Steve Smith
End Result

[Rick Ele]

I'd cherish an End Result reissue including the album and that gnarly gratefest from the "Master Tape 2" compilation. Someone should get on it!

[bob damrau]

folks,

busted at oz was a hoot - we sucked rope!

peace and love to all...bob.damrau

[Joan G.]

I had the pleasure of seeing Silver Abuse play on several occasions. I was a big fan then and I really appreciate the links to the cuts I have not listened to Cubin Homo Farm in at least 20 years and it still holds up. I am grinnin from ear to ear.

[Camilo Gonzalez]

You guys got it all wrong. Our atonal skronking had nothing to do with No Wave, a movement we preceeded, but by a total inability to play our instruments (save Mr. Durango). We were immensely talented, as history would attest, and we like to think our rantings were beyound mastubatory. The early Silver Abuse was more about a slavish devotion to pure minimalism than to noise.

[John Lundin]

Silver Abuse is a punk band

[Oakleaf]

I'm hurt that my tenure with Silver Abuse is never mentioned. OK, so I was only in the band for about 20 minutes, but still... What's Boppin' Billy up to these days anyway?

[Gantry]

If you want to see all the various lineups of Silver Abuse, go here:

http://punkdatabase.com/wiki/Silver_Abuse

[Dave Purdie]

C'mon Gonz - if our "rantings were beyound mastubatory" you would have shown up to practise more often.

J. Lundin - your tenure with Silver Abuse?? was that the time you pulled the plug on the amps and kicked us out of your loft??? just be satisfied with your 20 minutes with Naked Raygun and leave it at that (whazzup, JL??, long time.. still in Chitonw??).

band reunion on Bosco's birthday 8/18.. details pending.

[marco pezzati]

dave, camilo, et al...can you contact boppin' billy for me? i'll be in chicago friday, september 14th to gig at the empty bottle. i'd like to see bill, the two of you, paul and any others still alive. here's my email: marko@matadorrecords.com
thanks.
i recall being in silver abuse as well -is this true? would have been one of the non-suck lineups of course. and hey, how come no one is talking about the female climateric? that was ROCK. i still have the tapes to prove it.

[bob.d.]

if you want to see and hear what the fuss is about, come to the silver abuse/wayouts/toothpaste reunion show on saturday, december 29, starting at 9:00pm at the lucky gator loft, 1278 n. milwaukee avenue, chicago.

more info about the show and the bands at: http://www.myspace.com/silverabusereunion

info on the opening act, the diamond stretch, making their chicago debut, can be had at:

http://www.myspace.com/thediamondstretch

thanks! bob.d.

[Dave Purdie]

'twas fab!!!

next show - 2032AD... thx everybody!!! see you then.

some pics from 12.29.07 reunion - http://www.pbase.com/tyoung/silverabuse

[liz]

It's not 2032AD but we're doing it again...Sept. 6 at Lucky Gator Silver Abuse with Das Kapital!!!!!