New York Dolls Talk Reunion, New Album

A.D. Amorosi reports:
You're David Johansen. You're Sylvain Sylvain. You're the proud and
the few. The very few. And you ain't the Marines.

You are, instead, the New York Dolls, the world's truly most forgotten
godfathers (with all apologies to Raw Power-era Iggy). Not just of
glam and punk and hair metal, where you staked your claim back when
you started the band in 1971. But of a brand of ballsy, glittering,
androgynous Bo Diddley-esque rock (with thick dollops of
Spector-fueled girl group pop) that guys like Aerosmith would call
their own and make millions off not too long after your first record
in 1973.

You made one more record in 1974, Too Much Too Soon. Stayed around
until 1977. Quit. And that was pretty much that for the New York
Dolls.

Until One Day It Will Please Us To Remember Even This, due out July 25
on Roadrunner Records. It's an album most people thought would never
happen.

rontman Johansen recently talked to Pitchfork from a recording studio
in Manhattan's Chinatown. "After (drummer) Billy (Murcia) and
(bassist) Arthur (Kane) came to my apartment at Sixth St. and First
Avenue, they took me to John's (guitarist Johnny Thunders) house," he
said, reflecting on the band's genesis. "We made music and then we
were a band. I'm not kidding when I say it was that fast and that
simple. Syl showed up a month later."

Billy, John, and Arthur died, as did drummer Jerry Nolan; Billy first,
Arthur most recently. Kane's loss is the saddest, as he stuck around
long enough to see the improbable: a 2004 Dolls reunion, cobbled
together by Morrissey, ex-president of the British New York Dolls fan
club.

"He called, wanted to do a show with us," said Johansen of Morrissey.
"My immediate answer was 'no way.' I even asked him, 'would you do
it?' And he said 'NO.' But then I really did have to think about how
fun it would be to do one show-- one show-- having laughs, seeing the
guys. But then...I had more fun than I ever imagined." So did Kane,
the subject of the recently released documentary New York Doll. But he
died of leukemia not long after that first reunion show.

"He didn't believe in chance circumstance," said Johansen of Kane. "It
was really important for him to come full circle as a Doll."

Weeks later, Johansen and Sylvain joined with Sam Yaffa (of Hanoi
Rocks) and several members of Johansen's solo band and took on Little
Steven's International Underground Garage Festival in New York City.
Somehow, from that point on, Johansen and Sylvain were convinced
they'd found the new New York Dolls. Not just sidemen but a solid
batch of like-minds with whom they could commit to making further
Dolls music in gang fashion. "Whatever we do is the Dolls, nothing
we're doing is based on anything we've done before, but there is that
vibe," said Johansen.

So here we are in a studio listening to the lovely "Beautiful Music",
the punchy "Dance Like a Monkey", and the huffy "Gimme Love and Turn
on the Light", all produced by Jack Douglas, who engineered the first
Dolls album. These songs will all appear One Day It Will Please Us to
Remember Even This.

The record features several high profile guest spots: Michael Stipe
jumps on "Dancing on the Lip of A Volcano", Iggy Pop sings his napalm
heart out on "Gimme Love and Turn on the Light", Against Me!'s Tom
Gabel squeals on "Punishing World", and the Dolls' hero, Bo Diddley,
sings and plays on "Seventeen". David Bowie was supposed to stop by,
but it didn't work out (guess he was too busy with TV on the Radio.)

"We had a reputation of being fuck ups" said Johansen of the talk of
drugs, more drugs and failure. "We want to make this big [and] special
for as long as we can. And rather than do lot of the negative nihilist
shit that came out in our wake, be positive."

* Pitchfork News: New York Dolls Documentary Opens This Week
* New York Dolls: http://www.new-york-dolls.com//
* Roadrunner: http://www.roadrunnerrecords.com/
- bill 4-27-2006 6:45 pm [add a comment]