D Generation Celebrate Comeback Album At Irving Plaza – July 30, 2016

“We always liked bands that had melodic kind of pop songs; groups like The Replacements and Cheap Trick and T-Rex. You’re taking something really nasty with the melody and the two are fighting against each other and you get something out of it. Some of our favorite bands live always had a little more edge than their records. They stepped it up, the rawness, the underproduction of a live show…” – Jesse Malin

Sitting down with Jesse Malin, Danny Sage, and Howie Pyro shortly before they took the stage at Irving Plaza on Saturday, I asked if they had any rituals that they employed while writing the first new D Generation album in seventeen years. Jesse immediately countered with, “Is fighting a ritual?” There then are the twin tensions, musical and interpersonal, that are the heartbeat of this essential New York City band.

Even though they broke up in ’99, Malin, Sage, and Pyro – along with Richard Bacchus and Michael Wildwood – continued to guest on each other’s albums and remain in each other’s lives. These were the five who made their self-titled debut in ’94 and whose roots together went back to Queens in the early 80s. Malin and Sage, based in the Whitestone neighborhood, made their first marks on record and on stage together in the hardcore outfit Heart Attack. The five had done a one-off reunion in 2008 and a tour in 2011/2012. However sessions for a new record in 2012 with Ryan Adams producing were aborted and months on the calendar kept flipping by.

The new album was recorded in the most appropriate place imaginable, a bar in the East Village. A tiny studio exists within Hifi on Avenue A and that’s where the fellows captured, Nothing is Anywhere. It was done with a lot of bleed and a lot of blood as Sage, who produced it, remarked. Malin noted that they had learned a lot from guys like Ric Ocasek and Tony Visconti (who produced No Lunch and Through The Darkness respectively) but getting back to the garage so to speak resulted in something more raw and more real. The tracks recorded at Hifi were originally planned to be demos but Sage, working with the group’s front of house engineer Mark Lewis, recognized the album was done and that it’s what we’ve been waiting for.

Stephin Merritt topped an impressive lineup at Le Poisson Rouge in the West Village and offered a handful of Magnetic Fields’ faves to celebrate the release of the third issue of Radio Silence, a San Francisco based magazine whose stock in trade is the cross-fertilization of authors and musicians. It’s got kind of an artist collective spirit. I spoke with editor and founder Dan Stone together with Stephin Merritt who made an on-camera remark about writing horoscopes that may lead to fruition in future issues of the publication. Merritt, who is a Scrabble nut, has a new book called 101 Two Letter Words. He also confessed to accidentally stealing some of the Scrabble tiles at Bryant Park.  (I’m sure he’s since returned them!)

I’ve always been mad about Tanya Donelly and met her once during the Belly days. It was a treat to speak to her as well and confirm that she still sparkles. She’s promised vinyl and CD pressings of her ongoing Swan Song series of EPs – probably in the Spring – that so far have been available digitally only. After releasing very little new material over the last decade, the first of the series came out in the summer of last year.  She was joined by Rick Moody – most famous for his novel The Ice Storm but a musician who has frequently collaborated with TD over the last decade – on harmony vocals.

I shot video of both Merritt and Donelly’s performances and bumped into a few of the other talented artists populating the joint. James Murphy was a last minute addition to the bill. He joined author Sam Lipsyte for the first-ever reunion of Sam’s old band Dungbeetle. It was honest and loud.

Jim White turned in a strong set. He’ll unleash a new album with the Packway Handle Band, Take It Like A Man, on January 27 via Yep Roc Records. The gentleman Jim is speaking to in the the picture is Matthew Friedberger of Fiery Furnaces fame. Matthew took the stage for a strange interlude with rock scholar Greil Marcus whose latest book is called The History of Rock n’ Roll in Ten Songs.

[See image gallery at hollandude.com]