Stare Kits Live in NYC 1979 LP
STARE KITS were an enigmatic, art-leaning minimalist punk quartet that operated on the periphery of New York’s late ’70s no wave scene—their first show was actually on a May 1979 bill with the similarly-disposed (and also debuting) UT, two strange and striking flowers simultaneously sprouting from the same overgrown garden plot. It turned out to be an incredibly short-lived project (six whole months and three live performances), with a legacy that has largely survived through the web of what its members would later go onto to do, namely vocalist Angela Jaeger relocating to London and joining DROWNING CRAZE and PIGBAG after STARE KITS’ split and drummer Amy Rigby forming the SHAMS in the late ’80s before a lauded singer/songwriter career. This LP marks the first proper STARE KITS release, with Side A pulled from live tracks recorded at two of the band’s three gigs at the Lower Manhattan post-punk/experimental music hub Tier 3 and rehearsal versions of six of those eight songs making up the flip. The raw, feral energy of the live takes gives them an almost universal edge here—“If It’s Red It Can’t Be Black” is STARE KITS at their most classically no wave, as Angela’s vocals waver somewhere between spoken, sung, and incanted over a completely tumbling and halting rhythm, while the doomed guitar-and-poetry intensity of “I See Them From My Window” almost prefigures MECCA NORMAL, and standout “Strength Accumulate” strips bass-driven, UK DIY-style post-punk to an absolutely paper-thin extreme. A footnote in the grand scheme of things, to be sure, but still one worth investigating.