The Rentals
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Hello Jeff...well, playing with the Clash was fantastic (Bo Didley was also
on the bill), a large crowd at the Harvard Square Theater in Cambridge,
Clash's first USA gig, we were local fave's in the Punk scene, and had two
girls in the band which the Clash requested. Reviews bounced us into many
great gigs and a move to NYC. We also played with such notables as PIL,
Siouxie and the Banshees, Duran Duran, the B 52's, James Chance, Suicide.
It was quite a time. I know some about the New Rentals, but that's not my
history!
Thanks for the note.
Jane Hudson
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THE ORIGANEL RENTALS?
That's right there is not just one Rentals, there is two and the origanel Rentals were around about 20 years before! I ran across this band when I was looking up information about the new Rentals and emailed them and they emailed me back and they agreed that i could do an article on them. I Dont know much about them and i dont feel like typeing right now so here is their history and future plans according to them straight from their webpage called:
START
JEFF AND JANE THE MUSIC HISTORY
Jeff and Jane were two of the three original
Rentals, pseudo Carol was the third member, the
rentals formed in the fall of 1977 in Boston and
they released their first single 'Gertrude Stein'
and 'Low Rent' which were produced by Oedipus.
They opened for The Clash at the Harvard Sq.
theater on Feb. 16, 1979. They signed to Beggars
Banquet Records at Maxs Kansas City in 1980 at four
in the moring in their dressing room. They released
the cult single. 'I Got A Crush On You' that
charted in NME london 1980. The Rentals broke up in
1981.
The Manhattan Project was formed in NYC in
1981. They opened for Suicide in a number of New York
night spots. They never recorded. In 1982, Jeff and
Jane were formed and released one EP 'World Trade' on
Lust/Unlust records and in 83 they released the album
'Flesh'. In 1985 the band stopped performing and
recording. In 1986, Jeff started to direct music videos
and Jane produced video art.
In 1995, Jeff and Jane reformed and are performing
and recording again. The new music sounds original.
The guitars and Jeff and Jane's singing combine to
make the music their own.
Jeff's new project for 1998 is GIGANTOR, a trip-hop
techno 3D video multimedia show. Live shows starting in July.
For info contact jhudson@world.std.com
END
nICE cOVER aRT eH?
Ive been informed the cover photo for this album was done by Mike Morrisro(since deceased)who was well known for photography in the punk scene aswell as being a member of the rentals for a short period of time. The Drummer For Human Sexual Response, Malcolm Travis is the man in the Shower.
GO visit their webpage at
http://world.std.com/~jhudson/music.html
This is an E-mail sent from Jane Hudson About her band and her scene from the time she was in it. They, obviously have been far too important in the history of Music to be barely put behind a band that just used their name.
As you
saw from the blurb(homepage), we've been at the music thing for a quite a long time.
Up until 1977 we were video and performance artists, ran a gallery
(ATLANTIC in Boston) and taught at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts.
My husband (Jeff) won a travelling fellowship in 1977 which took us to
London and to Kassel, Germany for the Documenta art show. During our visit
in London, we were exposed to the Sex Pistols and to some other Punk acts
(Punk was actually on it's last legs there and New Wave was beginning). We
were knocked out by the fury and irreverence as well as the raw musicality
and the fashion of this scene, and came back to Boston committed to trying
it for ourselves. We had both had some musical past, I as a classical
pianist and Jeff as a trumpeter in High School. We found a willing student,
the exciting, talented and wild Pseudo Carol, who had a drum kit and was
learning. We borrowed some equipment from friends, La Peste, and decided on
the name the RENTALS.
I learned bass and Jeff learned guitar (lefty), and
in the early part of 1978 played our first gig. At the time Boston was
fertile ground for music (clubs were Cantone's, The Rat, the Paradise and
many seedy little underground spots in the loft scene), and the bands, DMZ,
Mark Thor, The Neighborhoods, Unnatural Acts, the Girls, Human Sexual
Response, La Peste (and so many more), played all the time.
When the Clash
came to the Harvard Square Theater in '79, on a freezing cold Feb. night,
we opened for them,, much to the surprise and envy of lots of other more
established bands. The crowd was teeming with punks, the real height of the
scene. It was a pivotal time, and from then on for the next five years,
Boston thrived as an indie capital. A review in the Boston Globe of that
concert had as it's headline, RENTALS, Pulverizingly Bad!
They really hated
punk, and we, as art-punkers, defied all the standards of good pop music.
We couldn't have asked for more credibility.
Not long after that concert we moved to New York, having exhausted
the artistic possibilities of Boston, and dove into the Punk scene there.
Robert Christgau (Village Voice) gave us a great review as part of his
piece on the Clash concert (he'd come up to Boston bec. it was their first
USA tour). As a result we had little problem getting gigs in NYC. We played
at Max's (which is where the agent from Beggars' Banquet saw us and we
signed the contract...check out their webpage, we're on it), and
Danceteria, Hurrah, the Mudd Club, Tier 3,
oh, god, there were many more. This was the time of the Bush Tetras, Lydia
Lunch, James Chance and the Contortions, Johnny Thunders, the Lounge
Lizards, ...and as you can see, the beginnings of New Wave. We played some
wild gigs, one I can remember vividly was at an after hours club with sets
at 3:30 and 5:00 AM.! Those were the days! Shortly thereafter, Carol was
drawn away from the band to pursue her own thing (which never materialized
sadly), and the RENTALS were history. There's a new publication of Punk
record covers (produced in Switzerland) with a leader by Malcolm McLaren,
which includes a great pic of "I Got A Crush On You", check it out.
And now, all those years later, we've had a great time, playing as
Jeff and Jane, making early electronica, and later a guitar-based brew
reverting to some of those rentals-like songs (better musicianship for
sure), and some trip hop with 3-D animations called GIGANTOR. We're not
playing now, but you never know what'll pop up as the new Millennium
begins. I'm spending lots of time doing digital video and Jeff is working
on his first feature film. I'm still teaching and always excited by the new
blood that keep inventing music and art anew.
Thanx for responding back to inquery JAne! And as you can see,, this is no minor side note in the history of a moog lovin glassin wearin pop bands life,, it is music in history and makeing! Email JAne at her page if you want further info.
Email: shubopshubop@hotmail.com
