User:Donbodo/divebarrock

The term street rock refers to an American music genre that originated in several dive bars of major U.S. cities, especially New York City, during the 1970s. This musical movement turned out to be, in retrospect, the first phase of the American alternative music scene (before it took on the name "alternative") and is the immediate precursor to postpunk. It is made up of a two primary subgenres, punk rock and New Wave, both of which developed side by side in the same venues. Street rock is the American equivalent of pub rock in the UK, and like its British counterpart, was largely an anti-corporate reaction against much of the popular rock music of the era, which tended to be dominated by highly polished, supposedly over-produced 'AOR' progressive rock sounds. Street rock was an attempt to 'get back to basics' by playing a stripped-down form of rock (e.g., without solos or showing off musical abilities) in live performances in small clubs. Many dive bar rock acts such as The Ramones went on to find fame in the first wave of American punk, while groups such as Talking Heads became the vanguard of American New Wave.

New York
In New York City, the centers of this movement were the CBGB club and Max's Kansas City II, both in Manhattan. CBGB opened in December 1973 under the ownership of Hilly Kristal. Max's II opened in 1975 under the ownership of Tommy Dean Mills.



As the scene at New York's CBGB club attracted notice, a name was sought for the developing sound. Club owner Hilly Kristal called the movement "street rock." Although "New Wave" and "punk" were the more common names applied to this type of music, because these terms would end up referring to two different musical genres, the name "street rock" now is an appropriate designation for the entire movement.

CBGB and Max's featured bands like Television, Patti Smith, Cherry Vanilla, The New York Dolls, Johnny Thunders and the Heartbreakers, Suicide (band), Talking Heads, Blondie, The Ramones, The Cramps, Mink DeVille, Steel Tips, The Misfits, The Dictators, Wayne County, The Dead Boys, The N. Dodo Band, Cheap Perfume, The Blessed, The Fast, The Fleshtones, Klaus Nomi, Elliott Murphy, and The Voidoids, as well as out-of-town bands in the same vein such as The Runaways, The Damned, and Pere Ubu. After the breakup of the Sex Pistols, Sid Vicious played many of his solo gigs there. Devo played several shows at Max's in 1977, including a show where they were introduced by David Bowie as "the band of the future."

On June 5, 1974, Patti Smith recorded the single "Hey Joe"/"Piss Factory", featuring Television guitarist Tom Verlaine; released on her own Mer Records label, it heralded the scene's do it yourself (DIY) ethic and has often been cited as the first punk rock/New Wave record. The first album to come out of this downtown scene was released in November 1975: Smith's debut, Horses, produced by John Cale for the major Arista label. The inaugural issue of Punk appeared in December. The new magazine tied together earlier artists such as Velvet Underground lead singer Lou Reed, the Stooges, and the New York Dolls with the editors' favorite band, The Dictators, and the array of new acts centered around CBGB and Max's.

Other U.S. cities
In 1975, Suicide Commandos formed in Minneapolis. They were one of the first U.S. bands outside of New York to play in the Ramones-style harder-louder-faster mode that would define punk rock. Detroit's Death self-released one of their 1974 recordings, "Politicians in My Eyes", in 1976. As the punk movement expanded rapidly in the United Kingdom that year, a few bands with similar tastes and attitude appeared around the United States. The first West Coast punk scenes emerged in San Francisco, with the bands Crime and The Nuns, and Seattle, where the Telepaths, Meyce, and The Tupperwares played a groundbreaking show on May 1. Rock critic Richard Meltzer cofounded VOM (short for "vomit") in Los Angeles. In Washington, D.C., raucous roots-rockers The Razz helped along a nascent punk scene featuring Overkill, the Slickee Boys, and The Look. Around the turn of the year, White Boy began giving notoriously crazed performances. In Boston, the scene at the Rathskeller—affectionately known as the Rat—was also turning toward punk, though the defining sound retained a distinct garage rock orientation. Among the city's first new acts to be identified with punk rock was DMZ. In Bloomington, Indiana, The Gizmos played in a jokey, raunchy, Dictators-inspired style later referred to as "frat punk".

Like their garage rock predecessors, these local scenes were facilitated by enthusiastic impresarios who operated nightclubs or organized concerts in venues such as schools, garages, or warehouses, advertised via inexpensively printed flyers and fanzines. In some cases, punk's do it yourself ethic reflected an aversion to commercial success, as well as a desire to maintain creative and financial autonomy. As Joe Harvard, a participant in the Boston scene, describes, it was often a simple necessity—the absence of a local recording industry and well-distributed music magazines left little recourse but DIY.

Notable acts

 * The Blessed
 * Blondie
 * Cheap Perfume
 * Cherry Vanilla
 * Wayne County
 * The Cramps
 * The Dead Boys
 * The Dictators
 * The N. Dodo Band
 * The Fast
 * The Fleshtones
 * The Ramones
 * Mink DeVille
 * The Misfits
 * Elliott Murphy
 * The New York Dolls
 * Klaus Nomi
 * Patti Smith
 * Steel Tips
 * Suicide (band)
 * Talking Heads
 * Television (band)
 * Johnny Thunders and the Heartbreakers
 * The Voidoids