Archival releases don’t get much sweeter than Live in NYC 1979 by Stare Kits, a stylistically wild outfit formed in the city of their sole album’s title. Burning brief but bright on the outskirts of the nascent No Wave scene, a few members of Stare Kits proceeded on to bigger endeavors, but this vinyl offering is a striking early snapshot, consisting of live material taken from the band’s three live performances at the club Tier 3 plus studio rehearsals. Anyone who admires subterranean punk-adjacent spasms should attune their antennae to this set, a co-release from Feeding Tube and Negative Glam. It’s available now.
The four individuals who comprised Stare Kits during their fleeting existence were singer Angela Jaeger, guitarist Bob Gurevics, bassist Michael McMahon, and drummer Amy Rigby. McMahon is Rigby’s brother (she married Will Rigby of the dB’s). They both went on to Last Roundup, and she later played in the Shams, in duo with Wreckless Eric, and released a slew of solo discs.
Transplanted to London, Jaeger formed Drowning Craze with Simon Reymonde (later of Cocteau Twins) and was a member of Pigbag. It’s only Gurevics who lacks any credits post-Stare Kits. The skinny is that Stare Kits played all three of their shows at Tier 3, a crucial No Wave venue (the very cool and persistently underheard UT played their first show opening for Stare Kits).
Listening to Live in NYC 1979, it’s easy to place Stare Kits in close proximity to No Wave (Rick Brown of Blinding Headache, Information, and later Fish & Roses and Run On, lends saxophone to a cover of The Great Society’s “Grimly Forming”) but writer and Feeding Tube honcho Byron Coley’s observation that the band was honing a distinctive sound is a point well taken. Coley likens their approach to a handful of smart UK bands of the period and to UK DIY in general, and that’s also salient.
The main thing, along with sturdy songs and solid, if wonderfully non-pro (not to be confused with amateurish) execution (Jaeger is a fine singer, and there is no instrumental weak link), is that Stare Kits seemed determined not to be mistaken for any other band. In this, they succeeded mightily.
Some will consider Live in NYC 1979’s long-delayed emergence to be justified by Rigby and Jaeger’s later achievements, but the record stands tall on its own merits. Stare Kits was a band that was onto something, and in their short existence, they found some of it. And those who insist on designating Stare Kits as a footnote should understand that sometimes the footnotes are the best part. For one example, there’s Nicholson Baker’s The Mezzanine. For another, consider the last couple of issues of Forced Exposure.
There are hundreds of bands that existed for merely a moment, just like Stare Kits. A portion of those bands made recordings that are now awaiting discovery from inside a shoebox stuffed in the corner of a closet. Some of those recordings are destined to be comparable in quality to Live in NYC 1979. Realizing this is enough to make another day bearable in this shitty reality.
GRADED ON A CURVE:
A-
