Mars: Live At The Village Gate 1977 LP

An incredible live capture of the No Wave scene's earliest band, who had just months earlier changed their name to Mars from China. This visceral live recording blisters with edges you hadn't even considered and echoes the frayed VU rhythmic savagery that would soon form the backbone of The Feelies a few years later. This set was recorded in the summer of 1977 at a series of shows put on by the late Terry Ork at the Village Gate, a renowned jazz club in Greenwich Village. All eight songs have an urgent bounce, which is clearest in the caffeinated energy of the vocals, usually delivered in the pungent wail of either Sumner Crane or Connie Burg. Mark Cunningham's rubbery bass and the chopping guitars of Crane and Burg shoot flares as if they were running a fireworks display. Add Nancy Arlen's nonstop drumming - roughly echoing Mo Tucker if she had extra limbs and "Live At The Village Gate" becomes a dizzying rush of tunes that zooms by in a taut 24 minutes.