peter laughner/rocket from the tombs

(and definitely no plans for a European release afaik)

some more good stuff -- laughner's bootleg of television at CBGB in January 1976 (peak doom & gloom) i think, PLUS a really well-researched essay about Laughner's relationship with the band... http://doomandgloomfromthetomb.tumblr.com/post/140031747872/television-cbgb-new-york-city-january-1976

― tylerw, Friday, 26 February 2016 bookmarkflaglink

Just started reading this (and listening to RFTT for the first time too)

THat The day The Earth Met RFTT is pretty essential, wish there was more of it.

Do love The Shapes of Things by Pere Ubu from 76 too. Still not really investigated teh Dead Boys.

Yeah 'The Day..' is what I've been listening to. Real good stuff after deciding to dutifully listen to some Sabbath and Zeppelin.

https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0075/9892/products/SV147COVER_large.jpg?v=1602094220

Adele Bertei "Peter and the Wolves" book
THIS ITEM IS AVAILABLE FOR PRE-SALE THROUGH NOVEMBER 9, 2020. DURING THIS PRE-SALE PERIOD, ENJOY FREE SHIPPING IN THE UNITED STATES!

USE CODE AT CHECKOUT TO GET FREE SHIPPING IN THE USA: SV147

I said I wanna walk on down the alley
down where the light shines so very dimly

I wanna shake hands with all the creatures that I meet with Miss Cinderella Backstreet

--Peter Laughner

Peter… I’m listening to your voice and guitar on Pere Ubu’s “Final Solution,” hearing the rusted heart of our town beating inside the tenderness of your reach. And in there too, the foreboding that comes when we can’t make the pieces fit… –

--Adele Bertei

Smog Veil Records is pleased to announce the first paperback edition of Adele Bertei’s infamous, long-out-of-print memoir, Peter and the Wolves.

ADELE BERTEI is a poet, writer, actor, performer, singer, songwriter, and filmmaker. She entered the downtown New York scene of the late 1970s as organist for musical insurrectionists, the Contortions. Bertei appeared in lead roles in several indie films, notably Lizzie Borden’s Born in Flames, and has toured with, written songs for, and recorded as a vocalist for artists as diverse as Tears for Fears, Sandra Bernhard, Culture Club, Scritti Politti, Whitney Houston, and Lydia Lunch. Bertei’s first solo recording “Build Me a Bridge” on Geffen Records was a dance hit, as were singles “Just a Mirage” and Thomas Dolby’s “Hyperactive!”. She debuted new material in 2017-18 at MoMA, Club Salo Paris, and in Florence at La Compagnia Cinema. Adele has facilitated songwriting workshops for homeless youth at My Friend’s Place in Hollywood, and volunteered with Wayne Kramer’s Jail Guitar Doors. Bertei’s book Why Labelle Matters will be published in 2021 by the University of Texas Press.

Adele’s memoir, Peter and the Wolves, recounts her friendship with the late great Peter Laughner, Cleveland’s answer to all things underground and punk in the 1970s. Adele and Peter’s collaborations appear in Smog Veil’s groundbreaking 2019 box set. The book is Bertei's intimate recounting of the musical education she received from Laughner; of their complex artistic kinship, and the vivid trajectory of the ‘live fast die young’ ethos that extinguished the light of a radiant rock and roll heart.

This first paperback edition contains newly discovered photos, a new forward, and an epilogue penned by original Pere Ubu bassist Tim Wright all contained in 93 pages.

THIS ITEM SHIPS ON OR ABOUT NOVEMBER 10, 2020.

SPECIAL PRICING IS AVAILABLE WHEN YOU BUY THIS BOOK AND THE Peter Laughner box set. Click HERE for details.https://www.smogveil.com/collections/frontpage/products/adele-and-peter-powerpak

$18.98

"There are, as Bertei calls them, unholy incantations. Electric guitars, drugs, books of poetry, bullets, queer love, adventures, and misadventures. Real life and sounds that refuse to fade, all wrapped in the most stunning prose." - Camilla Aisa/Shindig

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7YGfh3Ve2TE

Or even
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RaPgJt2Il2U

“Ain’t it Fun” to keep finding versions of song “Ain’t it Fun”

OTMAIF

Really liked that Adele Bertei/Luc Sante thing in the Brooklyn Rail the other day

Have you read it yet?

Liked most of it, although a few times they came across as cranky old old old people.

I wonder if Bertai’s statement is accurate : “Segregation didn’t exist in gay culture in the 1970s.

His cover of «Slim Slow Slider» is heartbreaking

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d_5jwr0tykU

I guess «rewrite» might be a more precise description than «cover»

There's a review for theis book by Adele Bertei on Peter & the Wolves Peter laughner's mid 70s band in the most recent Ugly Things
https://www.smogveil.com/products/adele-bertei-peter-and-the-wolves-book

apparently a shorter middle book between a memoir on her growing up and moving to NYC I think. Which she has covered in longer books.
Sound like things i want to read anyway. hope SmogVeil is easier to get hold of than Hozac books are. Though a European outlet for Hozac would also be good. I thik there have been some books from them on the Cleveland scene too, Hozac that is.

I wonder if Bertai’s statement is accurate : “Segregation didn’t exist in gay culture in the 1970sehhh, think---going by interviews w people of color and whitss in Tim Lawrence's histories of NYC dance culture in the 70s-80s-90s, also his examination of documents, it depended on where you were and when---the old Fire Island gay subculture was being modified from some of its insular, even politically conservative, incl. color-wary, shall we say, POVs, but still there was some of that, and some venues were there---also, there were certainly club-owners who *tried* for a whiter, or white-only, clientele, along w a richer one, especially as the most relevant parts of NYC became more gentrified in early 80s, but even way before that to some extent, with a place intended from its launch to be a celebrity-magnet, for instance, or some little place that just *caught on*, so prices go up and maybe there are other filters, so a a place like The Gallery was something of a grassroots, multi-racial,multimedia, trans-genre etc counter to that---and the punk drag Pyramids was an explicit counter to largely white, affluent, "clone," "lookist" The Saint (though evidently there were people of color who went to The Saint, it just wasn't known for that...)
The whole thing was more fluid than some wanted it to be, but could be dicey. Lawrence's books don't have that much to say, so far (I haven't gotten all the way through the one that delves into the 80s), about lesbian-exclusive or lesbian-centric scenes, maybe those had fewer racial "filters," at least that she might have been aware of as a white woman---? And looking back through the mists of time etc.

One that delves into the *90s*, I meant to say.

In his Fresh Air interview, archived on npr, RuPaul talks about the Atlanta punk drag scene of his youth; he and his crew prob knew about Pyramids (and the self-described "gay street gangs" aspect of the drag houses crews in Paris Is Burning), but either way, it could cut across racial lines as much as dance music, to some extent, at least in gay and gay-inclusive scenes (though also, of course, Lester Bangs said: https://www.villagevoice.com/2020/01/05/the-white-noise-supremacists])

Originally published 4-30-79.

https://brooklynrail.org/2021/05/books/Adele-Bertei-with-Luc-Sante

This is the piece James Redd and I were referring to. Bertei & Sante did a chat in NY recently also, and she's been making the rounds re her Laughner book and her new Labelle one.
She was also on Mike Watt's interview show podcast awhile back.

From Smog Veil newsletter:

PLUS, ENJOY FREE SHIPPING IN THE USA.

And, we do mean everything on the Smog Veil site is 40% OFF so, enjoy special pricing and shipping savings on Adele's book and/or pair it with the Peter Laughner box set for even more savings.

Adele Bertei readings and author talks. Mark your calendars for these events and check out these podcasts:

STREAMING NOW (click on the link to be magically transported):
Adele Bertei with Lydia Lunch http://lydianspin.libsyn.com/episode-89-adele-bertei

UPCOMING DATES
June 3: Sandra Bernhard interviews Adele on XM Radio, 1:30 PM, eastern, details HERE.
(actually not, and haven't found them on the Sirus site yet)
Maybe they'll fix the link---whole newsletter is here as webpage, so I'll check again sometime:
https://myemail.constantcontact.com/Smog-Veil-Records-Clearing-The-Air--174-JUNE-2021.html?soid=1102941868062&aid=oKPggqljO7M

Still love The Day The Earth Met…, thinking of taking a deep dive into the box set.

Such fun.