Desi Desi and Desi

Desi Desi Desi played around New York hardcore clubs and art spaces from 1980 to 1985. During one long stretch during the 80-81 period, they became a virtual house band at the remarkable and notorious A7 club. The name had nothing to do with South Asians, though it did have a connection to Desi Arnaz; Desi, Desi and Desi was an obscure pun on the 60s act Dino, Desi and Billy. After a while they just sort of lost the "and."

The Desis played an eclectic mix of genres (which won them no fans in the punk clubs): surf and movie soundtrack instrumentals, girl-group songs, some straight-ahead punk selections, and Tammy Wynette covers. Their best tunes, perhaps, were hypnotic groove pieces with disturbing, elliptical raps on top, surrounded by lots of guitar noise. That's when Enright did his Airto Lindsay shtick, stalking the A7 crowd with a '63 Strat, lacerating his strings with a mic stand or the broken end of a beer bottle while Fran and McShane pounded out the grooves on Kill the Dogs or Destroyer Girlfriend.

Until quite recently, these torn fragments to the left — part of a contact sheet made by photographer Sara Barchus — was the only known photographic record of the Desis. While going through boxes of tapes for a projected Ed Davis Band LP, however, an ancient PortaPack video of a performance at A7 was found; in the same box were two almost indecipherable color slides of the Desis in A7's back room at a rehearsal. The version of the Desis in both slides and video included Fran Slater on bass, Mike McShane on drums, and Mike Enright on guitars. At various times Byron Stevens, Mick Poast, Dennis DeMeo, and Eric Darton also played with the band, but the power trio was the one that lasted longest and recorded the best material.

Destroyer Girlfriend is one of the best surviving Desi cuts, though the original 4-track recording is badly deteriorated. This version is taken from a master mix recorded on a Type I cassette when the original was still in good shape. The drums and bass guitar were recorded in stereo one afternoon at the A7 club; the remaining multiple-bounce overdubs were added in the living room of 256 E. 10th Street, Apt. 4B. Byron Stevens (from The Ed Davis Band) plays the more melodic guitar lines in this version; Enright supplies most of the noise. Play It

You Only Live Twice is a typical example of the wall of sound approach the Desis took in the studio (a four-track Tascam 3340 studio in this case.) This cover of the Barry-Bricusse theme is based on the guitar-heavy Billy Strange version that's the flip side of the Nancy Sinatra/Lee Hazelwood single, "Jackson". Play It

I Still Hate the Nuns is one the punks liked; Dave (the owner-operator of A7) used to come in while the Desis were playing and ask for "that one about the nuns." Another 4-track recording with guitars on three of them. Play It

Kill the Dogs (Like China Did) closed all Desi sets. Live versions usually lasted about ten minutes and showcased the band at their demented best. (Go to the 4-track section of this site to hear the original demo version and read a description of its lyrical genesis.) It's just a groove with a chorus; whoever happened to be along for the gig was thrown in on top. Kronk guitar solos (Arto Lindsey of DNA was the model) were common; Enright's vintage Strat was tortured with beer bottles, mic stands, and audience body parts. This version includes Byron on one of the two lead guitars, and may have also featured Dennis on rhythm; it was recorded live to 4-track (no overdubs) at Legal Tender studios in Manhattan sometime in 1985. Play It

Telstar (vocal) is star-crossed Joe Meek's instrumental masterpiece with lyrics by Enright. "Telstar" was chosen as the A side of the first Desi 45, a record that was never released. It was recorded in 16 channels at J&J Studios in midtown New York (mixed by engineer Claude Achille) after the band was thrown out of another studio for arguing with owner-asshole Moogy Klingmann. Stevens and Enright trade parts on the main themes with Stevens taking the solo. Play It

Poto and Cabengo is an extremely long song—over 8 minutes—that had its genesis in Jean-Pierre Gorin's documentary of the same name. The film-makers followed two little girls in Southern California who had invented their own language. Linguistic analysis later showed it to be a mixture of German, English, and nonsense, but it triggered a thread about the difficulties of communicating even with those we know very well—a longtime lover, for instance. Featured are Punque and Black Carl, two sweet Siamese cats who just wanted the damned cat food. Play It

Avenue A is a sentimental song about what was happening to the Lower East Side in the early 1980s. A certain percentage of art/punk audiences really hated it; maybe they were right. The Desis were romantic; it's what they did. There's no other band from that time and place that even tried romantic. Were they wrong? Were they just — I don't know — bad? See what you think. Play It

Music From the Ituri Forest After years of grinding poverty, nowhere office gigs, and night-shift NYC taxi-driving — both McShane and Enright worked for years as cabbies — the Desis had developed a narrow Marxist perspective on all the partying they were watching during the go-go Reagan 80's. They thought about how the pygmies worked 18 hours a week to keep things together, and wondered why they were working 60. The title comes from a Nonesuch field recording of these same lucky Africans. Play It

Saturday Night in Durango is a genre tune in the style of the great Billy Sherill-Tammy Wynette collaborations. This in-club recording features the largest Desi ensemble ever to hit the stage: in addition to the core trio, the gig had Eric of the Bontons on the accordion and Dennis of Open City on the pedal steel. This live performance comes from the very last Desi Desi Desi gig—April 20, 1985, on the Congo Bill floor of Danceteria. Play It