Various Artists - Blacklips Bar: Androgyns and Deviants - Industrial Romance for Bruised and Battered Angels, 1992–1995

Anthology Recordings

£41.38

Format: 2 x 12" Vinyl
Catalogue No.: ARC1141
Barcode: 184923611410
Release Date: 10 Mar 2023
Genre: Alternative

Blacklips Bar: Androgyns and Deviants — Industrial Romance for Bruised and Battered Angels, 1992–1995 is a compilation combining original recordings and select DJ tracks from the vaults of Blacklips Performance Cult, a collective of underground performers, artists and drag queens who took to NYC’s Pyramid Club stage every Monday night at 1 am to perform original plays. The broad spectrum of emotional expression, ferocity, humour and transgression evident in these collected recordings are a further indication of the group’s oeuvre. In 1992, ANOHNI founded Blacklips Performance Cult with collaborators Johanna Constantine and Psychotic Eve. Originally intended as a cabaret and DJ night, the constellation of people drawn to Blacklips soon melded into a late night ensemble in which members took turns writing scripts that were then performed by the group. Blacklips continued a tradition of urban queer subcultural resistance embodied within the writings of Jean Genet, John Rechy, and the post-punk feminist Terence Sellers. Inspired by Lotte Lenya, Candy Darling, and Leigh Bowery, Greta Garbo and Sister Dimension, performers took the stage primarily to entertain and address each other, while entertaining late-night thrill seekers. Staging collectively conceived plays set Blacklips apart from other expressions of creativity in nightlife of the era, aligning the group with predecessors such as The Cockettes, Angels of Light, Bloolips and Theater of the Ridiculous. Blacklips members built sets from garbage and industrial refuse that they found in the streets of the East Village, in homage to Jack Smith and the aesthetics of post apocalyptic punk. The group staged spectacles that were alternately surreal, slapstick, emotional and absurd. This weekly laboratory also served as the first showcase for ANOHNI’s music.

Tracklisting
Disc: 1
1. Shoot Yer Load
2. Double-Barrel Prayer
3. Sister Morphine
4. Good Morning Heartache
5. Punks, Get Off The Grass
6. Natasha
7. You Think You're a Man
8. Ladies and Gentlemen
9. So Disgraceful
10. Satan's Lil' Lamb
11. Janet Vampire
12. Stairs - Uncertain Journey
13. Disrupt Their Lives
14. Rapture Disc: 2
1. Satellite of Love
2. 13 Ways To Die
3. Useless Man
4. Fuck You
5. People are Small
6. My Final Moments
7. Golden Showers
8. Angels in Pain
9. Your Cigarette
10. Love Letters
11. Tenterhook
12. Blacklips
13. Suspecting Mrs. Shyster
14. The Yellowing Angel