Representative Albums: "Better Late Than Never, 1980-1983", "Beauty Lies", "Very Very Happy
Representative Songs: "Too Many Creeps", "Cowboys in Africa", "Rituals
Biography
New York's Bush Tetras had a no wave link, via guitarist Pat Place's association with James Chance, but the band's sound was neither frantic nor disjointed enough to be properly categorized with those bands. They played scrappy post-punk, with fellow Americans Pylon and Konk and Brits Delta 5 and Au Pairs as close contemporaries. If there's any one song the Bush Tetras are known for, it's 1980's "Too Many Creeps" -- the band's most representative song and also the catchiest, made by the kind of jagged rhythms, slicing guitars, and sniping vocals that were used throughout their short lifespan. Perhaps the song wasn't quite insistent or hypnotic enough to become a smash single of the new wave era (released on the small 99 label, its reach was limited), but it could be argued that Romeo Void wouldn't have become popular without knowing about it. That band's "Never Say Never," a genius single in its own right, seemed to take a couple cues from the Bush Tetras; during a 2003 episode of VH1's Bands Reunited series, Romeo Void guitarist Peter Woods matter-of-factly confessed to being inspired by the sound of Place's guitar.
After Place, bassist Laura Kennedy, drummer Dee Pop, and singer Cynthia Sley made their debut with an EP centered around "Too Many Creeps," signed with the U.K.'s Stiff label, and recorded another EP, Rituals, produced by the Clash's Topper Headon. The live cassette Wild Things, which included a cover of John Lennon's "Cold Turkey," was released by ROIR in 1983. By this stage, the Bush Tetras -- along with Konk, fellow New Yorkers Talking Heads, and Manchester's A Certain Ratio -- went outside the realm of Western music for inspiration. African and Caribbean influences played a significant role in their sound. This same year involved the exits of Kennedy and Pop and an eventual split.
Post-breakup, most of the members went on to short-lived groups. Pop, his Tom Verlaine/John Cale-associate wife Deerfrance, and former 8-Eyed Spy member Michael Paumgardhen formed Floor Kiss; Sley and ex-Voidoid Ivan Julian had the Lovelies; Place helped out spoken word artist Maggie Estep. A while after these less significant projects dissolved, ROIR compiled all of the Bush Tetras' studio recordings and threw in some demos for Better Late Than Never. ROIR being ROIR, it too was a cassette-only release.
The original lineup got back together in 1995. Boom in the Night, another retrospective on the by-then-evolved ROIR, functioned as a CD version of Better Late Than Never, with all but one track from the earlier release included. It came out just before 1996's Beauty Lies, an album of new material that came and went without much notice. It had the bad fortune of predating the rocketing interest in post-punk that took hold during the early 2000s. ~ Andy Kellman, All Music Guide
Bob Albertson
Don Christenson
Laura Kennedy
Jimmy Joe Uliana
Adele Bertei
The Bush Tetras were an American post-punk band from New York City, popular in the Manhattan club scene in the early 1980s but never achieving much mainstream success. Their music combined funk rhythms and dissonant guitar riffs.
Lead guitarist Pat Place and vocalist Cynthia Sley produced the most distinctive aspects of the Tetras sound. Place's guitar lines were rhythmic and distortion-filled. She had been the original guitarist and one of the founding members of the No Wave band The Contortions. With the Bush Tetras, Pat continued to pursue some of the musical ideas she had explored in that band, although her distinctive slide guitar is absent from many of the Tetras songs. Sley's vocals were half-spoken, half-sung. In songs like "Too Many Creeps" and "Can't Be Funky," she repeated simple phrases over and over again, creating a hypnotic monotony similar to Place's guitar rhythms.
Place appeared in some of Vivienne Dick's movies co-starring with Lydia Lunch and other musicians from New York's thriving, late-1970s and early-1980s music community, an off-shoot of No Wave. These appearances contributed to the band's prominent position in downtown New York in the early 1980s. At present there has been a resurgence of interest in this period, and the band's influence can be heard in many younger bands.
The group scored two dance hits in the U.S. in the early 1980s, with "Too Many Creeps" peaking at #57 Dance in 1981, and "Can't Be Funky/Cowboys In Africa" peaking at #32 in 1982.[1]
The Bush Tetras briefly reformed in the mid-1990s. Beginning in 2005, they again began performing in New York City and (in the summer of 2006) in Europe.
"Can't Be Funky" appears on New York Noise (2003, Soul Jazz Records)
"Cowboys in Africa" appears on I [Heart] New York Punk! [free with Mojo issue 144]
"Punch Drunk" and a cover of John Lennon's "Cold Turkey" appear on Start Swimming (1981, Stiff Records), a live record documenting a one-night showcase of New York bands at the Rainbow in London on 20 February 1981.
"Sister Midnight" appears on We Will Fall (1997)
"Too Many Creeps" appears on Totally Wired
"Too Many Creeps" appears on New Wave Dance Hits of the '80s: Just Can't Get Enough (Rhino Records)
