New York City’s China Shop are a cult band’s cult band (so to speak), with a brief and star-crossed career (or lack thereof) spent mining their hometown’s extremely fertile Punk Rock and No-Wave movements in order to ‘alchemize’ a distinct and idiosyncratic Post-Punk style of their own.
China Shop was formed in 1980 by vocalist/guitarist Juan ‘Naux’ Maciel and bassist Steve Cohen; two sonic soul mates unexpectedly well met in the wee hours of the night at a Soho record store where the former was then working, and the latter was shopping. “We connected on a musical level,” remembers Naux, and “it wasn’t long before we started writing original compositions and, shortly thereafter, formed a band. We decided to call it China Shop, as in ‘bull in…’ I think I ended up being the bull and Steve was the china shop.”
Sure enough, China Shop gigs at famous NYC underground music Meccas such as CBGB's, the Peppermint Lounge, and Maxwells, would often descend into full-blown chaos; both intentionally (should the band abruptly decide to try out their repertoire in a different key, for instance) and unintentionally, when alcoholic consumption took care of the job for them. In either case, the group arguably became more notorious for these seeming acts of self-sabotage and their abrasive mindset than the angular art punk nuggets in their repertoire, which were at times disturbing and oppressive, at others quite jangly and elastic. Couple that with a Spinal Tap-like...
New York City’s China Shop are a cult band’s cult band (so to speak), with a brief and star-crossed career (or lack thereof) spent mining their hometown’s extremely fertile Punk Rock and No-Wave movements in order to ‘alchemize’ a distinct and idiosyncratic Post-Punk style of their own.
China Shop was formed in 1980 by vocalist/guitarist Juan ‘Naux’ Maciel and bassist Steve Cohen; two sonic soul mates unexpectedly well met in the wee hours of the night at a Soho record store where the former was then working, and the latter was shopping. “We connected on a musical level,” remembers Naux, and “it wasn’t long before we started writing original compositions and, shortly thereafter, formed a band. We decided to call it China Shop, as in ‘bull in…’ I think I ended up being the bull and Steve was the china shop.”
Sure enough, China Shop gigs at famous NYC underground music Meccas such as CBGB's, the Peppermint Lounge, and Maxwells, would often descend into full-blown chaos; both intentionally (should the band abruptly decide to try out their repertoire in a different key, for instance) and unintentionally, when alcoholic consumption took care of the job for them. In either case, the group arguably became more notorious for these seeming acts of self-sabotage and their abrasive mindset than the angular art punk nuggets in their repertoire, which were at times disturbing and oppressive, at others quite jangly and elastic. Couple that with a Spinal Tap-like succession of drummers (including future Konk and Sonic Youth member Richard Edson) and an extremely close, yet volatile, relationship between its two principals (“Between Steve and I there was no room for another asshole,” quipped Naux), and by the time China Shop’s material finally began making sense to sluggish critics, Maciel and Cohen had agreed upon a ‘break’ from which, alas, they never returned.
In the end, all that remained from China Shop’s short and erratic run was a 1983 EP called Atomic Notions, whose tracks would occasionally crop up on indie compilations, but, frustratingly, appeared to represent the sum total of their recorded body of work. That is, until now, thanks to Anthology Recordings’ resurrection of a veritable treasure trove comprising of no less than 21 original compositions – many previously unreleased in any form – recorded during the group’s brightly mercurial existence. ~ Eduardo Rivadavia
Juan “Naux” Maciel
My name is Juan J. Maciel: aka: Naux: aka: John Crawlin’ Snake Mac: aka: Johnette Se Qua (sometimes Valerie): aka: Dr. Doom. I first met Steve Cohen in 80’ something. I was working in a record store in Soho. My fellow cash register button pushers were Anthony Coleman (who I did my first New York performance with on a piece for Merce Cunningham). My other co-workers were John Zorn and Zev? Something?
I met Steve one night working late and we talked well past closing time, going through the record collection at our disposal. We connected on a musical level and agreed to get together to play.
It wasn’t long before we started writing original compositions and shortly thereafter formed a band. We decided to call it China Shop, as in bull in… . I think I ended up being the bull and Steve was the china shop.
I was actually very surprised that it was so easy to work with someone on such a productive level. The music just wrote itself and we were the conduits. We found a drummer in Richard Edson who was basically a good time keeper, which Steve and I did not appreciate until a few months after we fired him.
Next came Doug Bwone. A drummer’s drummer. To me, Doug was, up to that point one of the best drummers I had ever had the pleasure of knowing. Unfortunately he came with a train load of opinions. Between Steve and I there was no room for another asshole.
Our next drummer was Jimmy Allington who brought some discipline into Steve’s and my rampant lives. Jimmy and I met through working with Nona Hendryx, who I was working with at the time. I think I was referred to her by Richard Hell if my memory (Ha!) serves me right. I had just finished an album with Richard, “Destiny Street”, of which I contributed one or two songs along with Robert Quine (guitar) and Fred Maher (drums).
It took 2 years for the critics to discover us and by that time Stevie and I needed a break from each other. The day of our last gig I remember getting a phone call from Steven Holden of the NY Times wondering what was up with the band. Well needless to say by this time I was totally frustrated with the lack of attention I felt we so richly deserved (operative word being rich), that I blew my so called carrier in that moment…that is to say I made a very precarious decision, to say the least, and told him to go fuck hisself. “I’ve been trying to reach you guys for 2 years and you’re so insulated you won’t even return my calls? Fuck you, this is our last gig, you missed the damn boat.” Good riddance. The rest is his story.
- Naux Maciel, 2006
Words from Steve Cohen
China Shop was formed by the association of Steve Cohen and Naux Maciel. Steve met Naux in 1979 when Naux worked at a Soho music Gallery. Naux first played on some of Steve’s multitrack compositions. Naux dropped over to Steve’s loft in the financial center of New York and knocked out a couple of tracks playing guitar on the empty track that was open. They formed the first band with drummer Dick Edson, a trio. Naux’s friend, Mike Allison, had recently arrived from California and they played with Jimmy Allington in Nona Hendrix’s band, Zero Cool. So Jimmy and Mike joined China Shop and gave Richard Edson his start in Konk, Sonic Youth and Stranger Than Paradise, which goes to show that you are better off being kicked out of China Shop than not.
This form of the band lasted until 1982, can’t remember quite when. The group put out one EP thanks to the help of John Ezrine, then manager, and a bunch of the bands friends. It was called “Atomic Notions” and is included in this set. The 4 songs were “Monkey Talk”, “Walk On Lightning”, “Kow Tow” and “If It’s New”. There was a video shot of “If It’s New”. John Ezrine worked at a studio and made the film for the band. The band played at clubs like CBGB’s, Peppermint Lounge, Maxwell’s, Irving Plaza, Tracks, The 80’s and some others that were popular at the time, but can’t remember their names. The band tended to play in accordance to the venue. If seemed to have two facets to it. One being that the guitars tended to be out of tune, and this was helped to some degree by having multiple tunings. The other was when the guitarists spontaneously rewrote the tunes live, and this usually happened when they were playing out of tune. It didn’t always go that way though, you see if they played at a dive like A7 then it didn’t matter who else played cause they basically owned the joint. 3 other shows of note were an early Inroads show, and a show at Tracks where China Shop played with DNA and took all the air out of the room opening for that band. My favorite was a benefit for CB’s when we had all our gear stolen. It was a multi day and multi band experience. Why was China Shop so good for this show? Because the band didn’t set up the stage with they’re own equipment. You see if the band had done it, they would have sabotaged the set as usual. From the first 3 notes you knew it was going to be special. CB’s made a t-shirt and had a poster with China Shops name at the apex, sort of.
The band fell dormant until 1988, when it was reformed with Jeff Baker on drums. Eventually, the band settled with John Fell on drums and it was kept a trio until 1991. China Shop was at it’s best in the recording studio. There the band would knock out the agenda in a minimum of takes, often times on a first take. In general the backing tracks were live performances with the vocals being over-dubbed. Most of the early material was recorded at pre-Kramer Noise New York. In these sessions the band would record anywhere from 3 to 5 songs in about 4 hours. The vocals and slight additions would be added later. Later, China Shop material was recorded at Naux’s apartment in Jersey City. With the very last recordings being done at the band’s rehearsal studio. With the exception of the 4 song EP, all of the material for this compilation was recorded from the cassette tapes gathered shortly after each of the original recordings. There were in many cases, multiple versions of the same song to choose from. In most cases they were actually duplicate versions of the original, with the addition of something Naux added. An example of this can be found on “Fraction Of A Second”, which was often the opener live in the early going. The original version is a trio with a vocal overdub. I chose to use the version which added the drone/wah guitar part, which while being a simple event, added a new dimension that lifted the piece to a new place. The original recording is actually superior. There are aspects of the original that sound better, like Naux’s guitar sounds more texturally vibrant. Also, on this version I added this extra bit of verbiage from a movie. So this version had the most extra’s added to it. I did find, however, that Naux had systematically added these little events to many of the pieces. While these changes did not change the overall presentation, I preferred the additions.
Michael Allison
My name is Michael Allison and I joined China Shop shortly after it's formation in Autumn 1980. Steve and I doubled on Bass and shared guitar duties as well. I also sang lead and contributed ideas for compositions etc.
Memories fade with time but as I remember it:
Naux and I were intensely writing, recording and touring with Nona Hendryx & Zero Cool during this period but along with Steve we managed to form one of the most interesting groups to come out of New York in the early 80's.
Being a bit frustrated with Richards time keeping he was replaced by Doug Bowne who after only one gig was replaced by Jimmy Allington.
The stories are true regarding the intake of mass quantities of adult beverages as well as psychedelic substances and what not. While this made for some very funny and memorable times it didn't help our career as a band.
I believe that in the studio it enhanced our creative output but on stage it was our downfall.
Tracks 1-14 available here were written by Naux, Steve and myself with sporadic input by Richard and Jimmy and were mostly recorded at Frank Eaton's Noise New York Studio. These tracks include the very rare EP titled "Atomic Notions". I feel this music is incredibly unique and full of intense passion. Naux being such an original songwriter and Steve's wonderful sense of structure and arrangement helped make this collection such a joy to listen to. Many of these tracks I haven't heard since we split up in 1982.
I've since gone on creating my own music as a solo artist recording under the name Darshan Ambient and I'm just thrilled that the music of China Shop is finally being made available to the public.
Michael
October 2006
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
User Reviews
There are currently no User Reviews. Add yours below!
Write a User Review