Express 5: 'No Wave' Author Marc Masters

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IN 1978, BRIAN ENO decided to document a burgeoning and boundary-pushing New York City art scene — somewhat by chance.

The British star producer was in town to record the Talking Heads' second album and he attended a five-day festival in May 1978 featuring 10 bands, including James Chance and The Contortions, Teenage Jesus and The Jerks, Mars and D.N.A.

Those four groups were included on the "No New York" LP, the recording touchstone for the music, art and film movement dubbed "No Wave."

But did these Lower East Side art-punks see this glammy Limey as a no-good interloper swooping in on their gritty movement?

"When we talked about the record, that's kinda how they came off," said Marc Masters, author of the scene's new definitive history book, "No Wave" (Black Dog Publishing), which gets a release party Saturday at the Velvet Lounge. "But I would be surprised if that's how they thought of him then. I'm sure they were happy he was recording them — nobody turned him down.

"It's not so much that they resented [Eno], or that they didn't like him," he continued. "I just don't think that at the time they thought [the album] would be that big of deal. ... They all just though of it as another record they were going to do. They didn't expect it to be the only one that would survive, legend-wise."

Although we knew at least one of his answers, we asked Masters to Express 5 essential No Wave recordings:

1) Various Artists, "No New York" (Antilles/Island, 1978)
The record that helped birth No Wave originally had 10 groups slated to participate, but the final product offered only four: Contortions, Teenage Jesus & The Jerks, Mars and D.N.A.. Brian Eno's production slightly flattens the groups, but the radical dissonance of each still shines through — especially James Chance's hyper quintet Contortions, who peak with a spastic, unrehearsed version of James Brown's "I Can't Stand Myself."

2) Mars, "Mars EP" (Infidelity, 1979)
Formed in 1975, Mars was the first No Wave band. The quartet began by jamming on Velvet Underground tunes, but quickly forged a chaotic mix of scraping guitars, oblong beats and shrieking vocals from China Burg and Sumner Crane. Their outward-bound sound culminated on this five-song miasma, filled with stark dissonance and possessed yelps. Lester Bangs rightfully called it both "psychotic noise" and "their masterpiece."

3) Teenage Jesus & The Jerks, "Teenage Jesus & The Jerks" EP (Migraine, 1979)
Teenage Jesus & the Jerks were headed by Lydia Lunch, who wrote short, sharp songs centered on pounding beats, raging slide guitar work and desperate screams. This record, commonly known as the "Pink" EP due to the color of its sleeve and vinyl, collects two blistering seven-inches and two live tracks. The highlight is "Orphans," a nightmare tale of mauled children and bloody snow that captures Lunch's violent worldview with bludgeoning force.

4) D.N.A., "A Taste of DNA" EP (American Clave, 1981)
D.N.A. was Mars' brother band, led by Brazil-raised guitarist and singer Arto Lindsay. They started as a skewed avant-rock trio with Ikue Mori on drums and Robin Crutchfield on keyboards, but when bassist Tim Wright replaced Crutchfield, their sound got funkier and snakier without losing its gnarled edge. "A Taste of DNA" is nearly perfect, especially the track "Blonde Red Head," a fractured slice of sloping art-pop that's both noisy and hummable.

5) Theoretical Girls, "U.S. Mille" / "You Got Me" 7-inch (Theoretical, 1978)
The "No New York" groups were all from the Lower East Side, but No Wave flourished in the artier SoHo too, primarily in the form of Theoretical Girls. Their sole single displays the two sides of their schizophrenic art-rock personality: "U.S. Millie," penned by the classically trained Jeffrey Lohn, is a joyous mix of pumping keyboards and a goofy near-rap, while Glenn Branca's "You Got Me" is a bombastic slam that Branca reworked into his very first guitar symphony three years later.

» Velvet Lounge, 915 U St.; with performances by Kohoutek, Dark Sea Dream and Vapour Theories a Bardo Pond side project), plus a No Wave DJ set by Mark C (formerly of Live Skull), Sat., 9 p.m., $8; 202-462-3213. (U St.-Cardozo)

» Click here to see a 1976-1982 photo archive of the No Wave movement.

Mars photo by Dan Asher, courtesy Black Dog Publishing; Marc Masters photo by Clare Shipley; James Chance by Maripol, courtesy Power House Books & Black Dog Publishing