BY SUE LASHLEY | In the early 1980s, the art-rock band Disturbed Furniture cast a large shadow on New York’s Downtown club scene. They shared stages with many now-iconic, local, national and international acts, including the Psychedelic Furs, Stranglers, The Waitresses and the GoGos. They toured regionally, and released well-received music and videos. They were even asked to open for the Clash.
Disturbed Furniture’s sound was born from both the noir cabaret vibe of the East Village scene and the sensuality of contemporary urban sounds merging art world and punk sensibilities with grittier dance aesthetics. Now the band is back in the East Village for one of their rare shows at 8:45 p.m. on Tues., July 30, at Parkside Lounge, at 317 E. Houston St. Doors open at 7 p.m. with great, local bands. Free.
An integral part of the vibrant arts and music scene that animated storied New York City venues such as Club 57, Mudd Club and the Peppermint Lounge, Disturbed Furniture reunited in 2019 to record new music and perform annual shows. The impetus to reactivate the band came from MoMA’s major 2017 retrospective documenting the band’s old stomping ground, “Club 57: Film, Performance, and Art in the East Village, 1978-1983,” which opened on Halloween that year. After meeting with the curators, lead singer Alexa Hunter agreed to contribute the group’s music videos and their 45’s cover art to the exhibition and appear in the accompanying catalogue. MoMA not only acquired Disturbed Furniture’s music videos proper, but also a series of Hunter’s Super 8 films and other footage shot in 1979. Their 7-inch 45 rpm record, “Information/Alors Allez,” is now sought after by record collectors. The disc was produced, engineered and mixed by Grammy-winner Steve Remote, who runs Aura Sonic Ltd.
“I can’t believe we’ve received big offers from collectors for an original pressing of our single of ‘Information/Alors Allez’ in mint condition,” Hunter said. “And that was before it became part of MoMA’s permanent collection. The cover photo was taken in my tiny East Village tenement two buildings down from the Hell’s Angels clubhouse.”
Galvanized by museumgoers’ enthusiastic reaction to the band’s vintage output, Hunter began tracking down band members still living in New York City and assembled a core lineup of original members, featuring guitarist Jorge Arévalo Mateus, now in Brooklyn, and drummer Mick Oakleaf, who is still an East Village resident. Special guest bass players include Shin Sakaino, Felice Rosser and Juan Sebastian Monsalve.
In 2019, Disturbed Furniture released a new five-song EP on CD and vinyl, “Continuous Pleasures,” on Arevarc Records. Produced by the core group of Mateus, Hunter and Oakleaf, it was recorded at Mighty Toad Recording and The Honey Jar in Brooklyn, with additional tracks done at Blighty Music Studios in Los Angeles. “Continuous Pleasures” features new recordings of some of the group’s ’80s material, as well as several new songs. The cover art is by famous artist and Alexa’s friend Kenny Scharf, who got his start as a New York City graffiti artist and was an important part of the Club 57 scene.
This year, the 45 single “Information/Alors Allez” was reissued by a German label, Mad Butcher Classics, using a reproduction of the original cover art, and is still highly sought after by ’80s music aficionados. Currently, the band is recording new songs for future release.
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