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The Band
Formed
in Philadelphia and solidified in New York City in 1992, this
so-called Victorian punk quartet initially went by the more
compact moniker The Stiffs. Originally comprised of
vocalist Whitey Sterling, guitarist Paul Boering, bassist R.X. Mauser
and drummer Donnie T. Tremors, this band specialized in vintage
70’s punk a la The Damned and Buzzcocks. Before we go
on, think of the times, of the bands, of the popular genre that
was dying (cock rock) and of the angst-filled genre that was
emerging (grunge). No one knew it yet, but rehashing punk like
this, and doing with such reverence was way ahead of the curve.
In 1994,
these sharp dressed men independently released the Destroy
All Art/Chelsea 45 through their own Aluminium Records and
Blown Away Baby through Holy Plastic, the first of which
features a very peculiar picture of the band; suit-clad members
sprawled on the sidewalk with trails of blood coming out of
their heads. Molded after the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre (the
1929 shooting of seven people as part of a Prohibition era
conflict between two criminal gangs in Chicago), the depiction
says a great deal about The Stiffs' fascination with other époques.
Towards the
end of that year drummer Donnie Tremors exits the band, and
time-keeping machine exacto-man Bryn Mars enters the picture.
By 1995 and by recommendation from label American the band
re-christens itself Stiffs, Inc. after discovering a 70’s Brit
band with the name The Stiffs. Nix Nought Nothing
is released to rave reviews, but as is usual with music that
doesn’t reflect the taste of the general public and popular
market trends the record sells poorly. The band tours in
support of the release alongside Jonathan Fire*Eater, and soon
after the band recruits keyboardist Byron Lang and a so-called
master of ceremonies enigmatically named Poison Eve. As time
goes by, the band’s shows get more bizarre, including showgirls,
showing of black & white silent films and gory medical tableaux.
Yes. Scratch your head, that’s right.
The Record
Produced
by the band and Antony (from Antony and the Johnsons) Nix Nought
Nothing opens up with the single “Chelsea”; with awakening
guitar strumming, it sounds as if Boering’s is just getting
acquainted with his instrument. Quickly after the band picks up
the pace in a Buzzcocks fashion and the first lines that are
spewed out of Sterling’s mouth are quite telling; ‘I don’t
believe in New York, and I don’t believe you have to resort, to
turning in you next door neighbor you don’t owe any favors”.
It’s a stance, and it rarely gets punkier than that. From then
on the Stiffs, Inc. sound is clearly established; short 70’s
punk riffs, a hollow drum sound that’s played loose and tight at
the same time and a vocalist with a pitch just a few notches
under high and with a delivery that’s pretentious and disheveled
at the same time. “Sad Song” is also timid during its first
twenty-five seconds, the playing echoes but once it gets the
 punk
rolling it confirms the speed at which the album will be
locked. Sterling even sounds like a Brit for a few lines; but
with lines like ‘Unofficial dedication I won’t have it, a
fictitious inoculation, inoculate eradicate, I won’t eat it’,
it’s hard not to sound British. The chorus shifts from the
phrase ‘sad song’ to ‘bad song’; and the ironic
factor is almost undeniable. At this point, the unfamiliar
could almost assume this band wore suits, instead of jeans,
Chuck Taylor’s and T-shirts; the sound of Stiffs, Inc. is that
elegant. There is a refinement here; and it’s not only on the
music but on the attitude that’s clearly manifested through.
“250624” surprises for its simplicity, if the previous tracks
were basic, this is first-grade music. Mauser’s bass hangs all
over this track, it’s almost as if his strings are hanging
loose. The melody itself, which circles around the number in
the title, is almost childish and is repeated in such an
obsessive manner it ends up sounding like a tongue twister.
Fourth track
“Space Nothing” is a straight ahead rocker, the band’s sound is
still kept, the guitar seems to be played in an escalating
manner, and the track comes to a halt mid-way through the
chorus, right after ‘A void for life’ and before
‘lovely, lovely, lovely’. The fact that these two phrases
are even conjugated says a lot about the band; a dichotomy of
sorts, especially for the times. “Fairy Tales” is perhaps one
of the strongest points of Nix Nought Nothing; to the
untrained ear, the riff might sound like a mere rehash of the
riffs from the previous songs; but this cut is more solid
‘The wolf goes down again and again, the crook gets the chair
it’s alright in the end’; this is wonderful songwriting and
once the chorus is over the beginner’s riff finds certain
comfort level. Is it too clever for its own good? Not anymore.
Perhaps, we were all dumber back during the 90’s; that a song as
good as this could be overlooked by all in general seems to
confirm it. A true punk lover would find this irresistible.
“Generation Crap” is the sixth track and need I say more? The
title screams ‘PUNK’, and the songs spells it. Plus “Fairy
Tales” hasn’t even come to a proper end before that loose as
fuck bass playing of Mauser gives way to the lines ‘I don’t
care about my generation, just the same as your generation’;
the simplest thing would be to laugh at such cynic attitude, but
who's to say their cynicism isn’t our truth? Or the other way
around? At this point the record finds itself in a really
comfortable place; everything before it has not only introduced
but established the band through the most authentic take on
classic punk rock.
“Engineering” very first line reads, ‘Maybe I’m my Miles
Archer’; now tell me how many bands do you know that bring
up the name of a minor character from a Dashiell Hammett (The
Maltese Falcon) crime novel and follow it with an almost
robotic chorus that goes, ‘positronic engineering can create
a perfect brain.’? As a track “Engineering” is more paused
and turns things down a notch; the bass sounds like sea waves,
the drums function as an ornament and the guitars of Paul
Boering are relegated to a second plane, except at chorus time
when a new wave sound surfaces. “Blown Away Baby” picks up the
pace once again; and makes you wonder how many Americans were
actually listening to Wire back in 1995. After a slow beginning
the track picks up the pace and bridges to “Work Work Work”
which starts off with a typical drum beat and quickly escalates
to a questioning crescendo. At some point during this tune,
memories of Chaplin’s classic Modern Times come to mind. The
black & white classic films these guys were so fond of,
perfectly matched the direct approach to this material. As
simple as these tracks are, what is remarkable is the linear
continuum this record seems to straddle, yet each tune carries
itself quite nicely.
If during
the entrancing “Engineering” and “Blown Away Baby”, the record
nearly came to a halt, it’s by tenth track “Quick, Watson!!”
that the record closes up the circle first started with the
relentless classic energy of “Chelsea” and “250624”. “Quick,
Watson!!” is another circular track that establishes Nix,
Nought, Nothing’s formula; the beginnings are quite slow and
the songs build up in a matter of seconds; once Sterling takes
over these tracks are quite distinctive. Sterling’s voice has a
great deal of Johnny Lydon in them; but if we were then to
compare this band to the Sex Pistols, then we’d have to equal
their sound to a more skilled Sid Vicious, a monochromatic Steve
Jones, a less lackadaisical Steve Cook and a riddle-talking
Johnny Rotten. To that add the highly literate and
ambiguous lyrics and you have no “Anarchy in the UK”. Fuck no,
think of the Sex Pistols with an English literature degree.
The last
three tracks of the record deserve their own paragraph. The
reason being that they manage to pick up all the debris that the
previous ten tracks have left on their path. “Mary Pickford,
Marry Me” works itself to a beautiful guitar and cello crescendo
with Sterling repeating the phrase ‘quite sane’ to no
avail. The result is of course, anything but sane. It’s stuff
like this that totally distinguishes the Stiffs, Inc. from the
rest. It is definitely hard to get a grasp of what the lyrical
content of Nix Nought Nothing is; words, names,
descriptions, etc are dropped in a hectic manner; they rhyme and
match the energy of the music, and along with Sterling’s cynical
sneer seem like an attack on everything in sight. It’s stuff
like this that could take a personal meaning depending on who
the listener is; as such this is utterly liberating. The last
track is “Fear in the Night”, and like much of the record is
starts shyly; with slow basslines and ringing guitars, it does
not take longer until the idyllic repetition of the word
‘goodnight’ makes of this last song the most appropriate
exit.
The After
Coming
to an end during the end of the 90’s, after independently
issuing
Electric Chair Theatre Presents in 1997; the band's end was
quite uneventful. The cold shoulder of the general public and
the waning interest of the members in the band caused them to
call it quits. There are currently a few pages dedicated to
keeping this band’s ‘memory’ alive; according to one, drummer
Bryn Mars went onto earn money the old fashioned way, ‘becoming
a banker and a corporate ladder repairman’, while Mauser is said
to be now a parapluie, a paralegal and/or a parachute in New
York City so go fucking figure. The other two members have
remained musically active; guitarist Paul Boering went on to
form a ‘cabaret music’ group under the moniker Coke, but has
since re-christened his duo as Beaut while vocalist Whitey
Sterling leads the electronic combo Umbrella Brigade.
Why Should You Care?
Nix Nought
Nothing
is an absolute must for punk enthusiasts. Most people may not be
aware, but it is stuff like this which has made possible for
punk to subsist through the decades. In this day and age; punk
is anything one wants it to be; you have your mall punk, your
mohawk punk, your fishnet stocking punk, your tie and suit punk,
your gothic punk, and really anything you want your punk to be
it is. Nix Nought Nothing is not about tattoos and
Mohawks, it ain’t about OI! rolled up jeans and combat boots.
For Stiffs, Inc, punk was definitely about paying homage to the
past they so revered, it was definitely consummated through
ambiguous lyrics and the youthful aspiration and admiration of
classic revivalism.
The more I
listen to this the more nostalgic I get and I didn’t even like
the band while they existed. It was years later that for some
unknown reason I kept coming back to it. I think I knew that
someday this would grow on me, it is that kind of music that
slowly creeps up on you and finds a place deep within that
remains without time and date. It is my prediction that this
record’s tiny popularity will grow with time; the current
popularity of certain bands validates the Stiffs'
proposition. A few months back I
opened a Decibel Magazine and the record was listed among the
staff’s most played. That doesn’t validate shit, but it goes to
show that somewhere right now someone is listening to Nix
Nought Nothing.
Copies of
Nix Nought Nothing currently go on Half.com for as low
$0.75. You can also find copies of Stiffs, Inc’s second record
Electric Chair Theater Presents (for this one don’t think
of The Sex Pistols, think of Public Image Limited) at CDBaby.com.
Stiffs,
Inc. MySpace Page
Umbrella Brigade MySpace Page
Beaut MySpacePage
A page dedicated to Stiffs,
Inc.
Stiffs, Inc. fan site
Check out our
feature on
THE STIFFS, INC. history
here. |
