We’ve mentioned Model Citizens’ upcoming re-issue of their John Cale produced EP from 1979 along with live sets to flesh out a full album; giving us a glimpse of their other material, to be released by Modern Harmonic this Friday, April 7th. We’ve been living with the promo version of it for a few weeks now and it bears further Monastic scrutiny as it hits the treasured Art Students Go Multimedia vibe that stands as an effective snapshot of NYC ca. 1978-1979 as anything.

Model Citizens: NYC 1978-1979 – US – CD [2023]

1. Shift The Blame
2. Animal Instincts
3. I Am Honest
4. You Are What You Wear
5. My TV Is On (Hurrah 1979)
6. Foreign Tongue (Hurrah 1979)
7. Even You Can Be Somebody (Max’s 1979)
8. You Are What You Wear (Max’s 1978)
9. I Am Honest – Tschinkel (Max’s 1979)
10. Do Like It Matters (Hurrah 1979)
11. Animal Instincts (Hurrah 1979)
12. Shift The Blame (Hurrah 1979)
13. Do Like It Matters (CBGB 1979)
14. Real Time (CBGB 1979)
15. Who Do You Think You Are (CBGB 1979)
16. I Really Like You (CBGB 1979)

“Shift The Blame” was in retrospect, a surprising title for a song that would seem to have even greater currency in the zeitgeist 40+ years hence. The angular number sported what was the ethos of Model Citizens; the perpendicular harmonies of vocalists Gloria Richards and Eugenie Diserio swooping and juxtaposing against each other with a free-wheeling girlish abandon while the intellectual lyrical content was the furthest thing from child-like.

Meanwhile the instrumentation was leading with marimba and steel percussion from Ms. Richards while guitarist Tomek Lamprecht conspired with drummer Robert Medici and bassist Billy Robertson to ground the song rhythmically while the pixelated melodies and counter melodies wove themselves into the complex, but airy fabric of the song.

The abrupt and jarring “Animal Instincts” dropped the listened into a maelstrom of chitterings, wild ululations, and frantic screams as this song bolted from the starting blocks in fifth gear with little regard for their bearings. Making the contemporaneous work of The B-52’s in comparison, sound like the work of relative shrinking violets! Truth be told, the influence of Yoko Ono; particularly from these grad students of art, could not have been overlooked.

The frantic tempo gave Ms. Diserio plenty of niche for vacillating stabs of 16th note electric organ to pummel our ears into submission with. The only respite being the half-speed middle eight before the largely non-verbal song continued to its explosive climax.

The format shifted for “I Am Honest” with Lamprecht sending a volley of meaty [for this band] guitar riffs into battle with the marimba while Ms. Diserio contributed an oscillating violin riff that see-sawed back and forth to provide maximum anxiety. Following the intro, the song snapped into stasis, like a freeze-frame on videotape, stuck between two fields of video. Lamprecht featured on the lead vocal this time, occupying the same sort of jittery, declamatory space as David Bryne was famous for.

The last track from their 1979 EP began almost like a Johnny Cash song at double time with the rhythm guitar pitted against stabs of organ and marimba at half the tempo. This was music unafraid of attaining hyperstimulation. Steven Alexander [12-string guitar, organ] and Tomek Lamprecht and the women in the band all alternated on the lead vocals of each verse this time. The whispered chorus at twice the tempo of the rest of the song was a unique sound for sure.

The middle eight consisted of scales rising and falling while the guitars indulged in Django Reinhardt-like ostinatos before the drop where the stark, single repeated chord of Lamprecht seemed to take a page from the “Larks Tongues In Aspic” playbook! Well, with their other songs all under 2:15 in length, “You Are What You Wear” was, if nothing else, the practical Prog opus of this album at 4:40 in length. And the dramatic head of steam it built before the cold ending was certainly on par with King Crimson.

The rest of the album consisted of eight live tracks recorded at various NYC clubs of renown: Hurrah, Max’s Kansas City, and CBGB. Here we got a wider perspective of the Model Citizens vision. Live, the band leaned heavier on their rhythm section to attain something much closer to Rock than the four EP tracks had. After all, live, you are the entertainment for the night. And everything gets a little more emphatic on a club stage. Mr. Alexander sang lead on the dark and foreboding “My T.V. Is On,” with far more in the way of muscular drum fills from Mr. Medici and the marimba of Ms. Richards holding her own in the tumult.

A huge change of pace was the almost jaunty Ska-beat of “Foreign Tongues.” With the wild organ skank locking in with the rhythm section, complete with steel drums from Ms. Richards. The live version of “Animal Instincts” was such a shower of sparks, that I can hardly imagine the women singing it not bursting into flames as their outpouring of frenetic vocal energy must have surely sapped them fully by the song’s end. It boggled my mind to think that they went on to sing more material after giving the 200% necessary for that song to get across.

All of these live sings were typically brief as the John Cale produced EP had been, with only “You Are What You Wear” crossing the four minute mark. The fidelity of the live material varied with the Hurrah tapes sounding crisp and tight as a front of house mix with the Max’s material sounding like a strong acoustic recording. With that in mind, the decision to make the CBGB songs bonus tracks on the CD was sensible as these came closer to archival recording status. A pity, because three of the eleven songs here came from that session. That said, the mastering of all of this music was impeccable, with outstanding dynamic range and no brickwalling in sight.

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Model Citizens only held together for under two years, with previously an EP to account for their time, but this new album showed them positing an anxious Art Pop that was fully redolent of the NYC of the late 70s. After this period that resulted in these recordings, the band split into several factions. Bass player adjunct Billy Robertson got his band Polyrock off the ground. Guitarist Tomek Lamprecht would link up musically with vocalist/percussionist Gloria Richards in the band 2Yous, who didn’t have a vinyl profile but there exists a music video here to review.

But back in the day, I was not aware of The Dance, or Chandra. I first heard Diserio and Alexander in 1983-1984 with the music they wrote to collaborate with TwinArt; video artists Ellen and Lynda Kahn. Identical twins whose work was featured on the unsorted kitchen drawer of late-night cable entertainment; Night Flight. I remember seeing a profile on them where their “Double Shot Of Love” clip, with music by the two was played in full. As shown below. It’s very Bauhaus, but I’m not talking the goth band.

Amazingly enough, all of the TwinArt music [which had never has been issued on records] was recently yet another Modern Harmonic reissue as shown below.

As I’ve said before, Modern Harmonic is clearly intending to cover the NYC Art Scene/Band Scene crossover authoritatively. To that end they will soon be reissuing a solo project by Mr. Lamprecht where he dove into sampling on a Fairlight, but we’ll return to that later. In the mean time. the LP and CD of Model Citizens is currently on pre-order until Friday with $2.00 off of the list price at the Modern Harmonic website. There is also a DL option at the Modern Harmonic Bandcamp store for those of an immaterial persuasion.

RED VINYL LP

CD WITH BONUS TRACKS

DOWNLOAD VERSION

OR MAYBE YOU CAN GET IT FREE…

¡PPM ALBUM GIVEAWAY!

Stop the presses [does anyone say that anymore?]!!! We have received fresh copies of this album as promo in CD and red vinyl LP format. I only have so much room in my Record Cell, so I thought, why not give away the Model Citizens LP in a drawing for the readers of PPM?

You’re welcome. But I have limitations. Shipping an LP around the world costs from “ouch!!” to “arrrgh!!!!” these days, so the contest is limited to readers in America that I can ship via media mail to since I am footing the bill myself here. This is a non-commercial website and that’s the best that I can do.

CONTEST OVER: thanks to all who entered

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