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Naked City
1,146,981 plays (60,587 listeners)
(1988 – 1993, 2003 – 2003)
Naked City was an avant-garde music group led by saxophonist and composer John Zorn, performed from 1988 to 1993. The ensemble was notable for remaining unconfined to any musical category, juxtaposing unrelated styles of music often within individual compositions at breakneck speed. Its music incorporated recognizable elements of jazz, grindcore, surf, classical, thrash, country music, punk rock and other genres. Carl Stalling has been cited as an influence on Zorn and the work of Naked City.
An embryonic version of Naked City appeared on Rubaiyat: Elektra’s 40th Anniversary (1990). Zorn was joined by singer Yamatsuka Eye, guitarist Robert Quine, bass guitarist Bill Laswell and drummer Ted Epstein, for a spastic, caterwauling version of The Stooges’ “T.V. Eye”.
In Naked City’s characteristic early style, songs were often performed at astonishingly fast tempos, drawing heavily on thrash metal and hardcore punk’s emphasis on extreme speed. Many songs were quite brief, and typically switched musical genres every few measures, perhaps comparable to spinning a radio dial at random and hearing the same band performing on every station. One critic described Naked City’s music as “jump-cutting micro-collages of hardcore, country, sleazy jazz, covers of John Barry and Ornette Coleman, brief abstract tussles — a whole city crammed into two or three minute bursts.” This fast-change tendency was inspired in part by Carl Stalling — a Zorn favorite — who wrote music for many Warner Brothers cartoons (featuring Road Runner, Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck and others); music that featured frequent shifts in tempo, theme and style.
An embryonic version of Naked City appeared on Rubaiyat: Elektra’s 40th Anniversary (1990). Zorn was joined by singer Yamatsuka Eye, guitarist Robert Quine, bass guitarist Bill Laswell and drummer Ted Epstein, for a spastic, caterwauling version of The Stooges’ “T.V. Eye”.
In Naked City’s characteristic early style, songs were often performed at astonishingly fast tempos, drawing heavily on thrash metal and hardcore punk’s emphasis on extreme speed. Many songs were quite brief, and typically switched musical genres every few measures, perhaps comparable to spinning a radio dial at random and hearing the same band performing on every station. One critic described Naked City’s music as “jump-cutting micro-collages of hardcore, country, sleazy jazz, covers of John Barry and Ornette Coleman, brief abstract tussles — a whole city crammed into two or three minute bursts.” This fast-change tendency was inspired in part by Carl Stalling — a Zorn favorite — who wrote music for many Warner Brothers cartoons (featuring Road Runner, Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck and others); music that featured frequent shifts in tempo, theme and style.
Top Albums
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Torture Garden
Naked City
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Grand Guignol
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Radio
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Naked City Live Vol. 1 - Knitting Factory 1989
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Shoutbox
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Overspeculated wrote:
Well, many same the same of their favourite band. ;) (I had a huge list with each word linking to a different artist but then I realised that this doesn't work.)
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WillOtheWisp666 wrote:
Obviously the best project EVER. No exceptions. This IS the GREATEST BAND. EVER. Anybody who disagrees is completely wrong.
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schoenburger wrote:
This is obviously John Zorn's best project.
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Overspeculated wrote:
I, for some reason, can't seem be able to move on from the self-titled. I have Torture Garden but I just can't seem to find it in me to put enough effort into listening to it attentively.
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WillOtheWisp666 wrote:
They also need more fucking listeners! I'm hoping that the reason they have so little is because lots of people are tagging them as "John Zorn" (which I did for a while). But this band is literally the greatest band ever. Please, people, don't just listen to the Self-Titled, I don't care if you go and download "Grand Guignol", "Radio", "Heretic", and "Absinthe"... even buy the Box Set off Tzadik... just LISTEN TO THIS BAND.
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WillOtheWisp666 wrote:
Why why why why why why why the fuck WHY is Heretic and Radio so fucking UNDERRATED???? FOOLS! Those albums are complete masterpieces by the greatest band EVER.
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Hannibal_K wrote:
Taz-Mania singing!
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Begravelse wrote:
jazz snob eat shit
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RoMiLu wrote:
damn! I feel so great! naked city rock!!! \m/(-_-)\m/
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rights_reserved wrote:
They sound like an autistic kid with rabies and ADD.
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Monty__ wrote:
Just finished with Absinthe for the first time now, and wow, I'm impressed!
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anagel1 wrote:
What the hell... Why did they take so many tracks out the net?
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Blodnatt13 wrote:
Fucking love this shit, damn
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The_Night_Head wrote:
TG is a compilation of all the hardcore bits on NC and GG , so if you want the full experience you should listen to NC and GG instead of just TG, right?
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CuntTechnician wrote:
Naked city gets me high.
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rotted-in-hell wrote:
Torture Garden is a total pleasure.
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ibreatheoxygen wrote:
Yeah, maybe if this band was grind that might actually fit.
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Undulaten wrote:
Great band!
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rights_reserved wrote:
Hopefully they will grow on me....talk about changing tempos, wow.
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dubbed_undacavo wrote:
Grand Guignol is the shit.
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Recent Activity
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AlfredPMcLovely, SizzlePecs and leroleso added Naked City to their libraries. 4 hours ago
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Hexoctahedron tagged Naked City with ‘avantgarde and progressive’. yesterday afternoon
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pabloalfaro and dzhimm added Naked City to their libraries. Sunday evening
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Caesar1981 tagged Naked City with experimental, avant-garde and jazz. Sunday morning
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lokilokust and olafsatur added Naked City to their libraries. Sunday morning
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fridafan tagged Naked City with noise and grindcore. Saturday evening
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jlmagick added Naked City to jlmagick’s library. Saturday afternoon
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Ritchie_Lewis tagged Naked City with modern classical, fusion, grindcore and 4 other tags. Saturday afternoon
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fru-n-quiz connected Naked City to the group perv's club. Saturday afternoon
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wakaba26, Waes-GOD and 1 other person added Naked City to their libraries. Saturday morning
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