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I always like the broader definitions of genre descriptives more than the narrow ones.
Once the name of a new genre begins to catch on, the genre is already on its way to becoming homogenized by and large, as a second wave of artists and subsequent later-comers mostly just mimic the elements of their favorite pioneers which they enjoy most.
Yet, the pioneers who conceived or prefigured the new genre were singled out as different somehow on account of their altogether different set of inspirations, musically, aesthetically, politically, and/or technologically. Their influence funnel included such diverse elements, but the bands of the subsequent zeitgeist always mimic only "the guitar sound" and "the skeletal rhythms" and the "confrontational or nonsensical lyrics." With just one or a few hero pioneer bands looming so large as an influence, these new bands can't see past them in their rear view mirror.
The reception of "No New York" when it came out was not very good, but it did have its effect on certain bands and artists immediately. When I interviewed Bruce Licher of Savage Republic in 1995, he told me that "No New York" dominated his turntable when he was making early music, and that the only music he was aware of that was stranger yet just as compelling to him was the music of the L.A. Free Music Society, which included Smegma, Le Forte Four, Doodoo-ettes, etc. You can hear hallmarks of LAFMS and no wave all over early Bruce Licher music: Them Rhythm Ants, Neef, and the first Savage Republic album.
This is a link that reveals a similarity between NY no wave, the music of LAFMS, and music going forward in the 1980's.
Later, you'd read things that Steve Albini said about the "Tragic Figures" LP, and you might take note of the fact that Chicago's most immediate answer to "No New York" was the band Silver Abuse, and Big Black would include a member of Silver Abuse, and then also figure that the first Albini production that resulted in an actual record that wasn't one of his own band's records was the "Ward" LP by a Chicago band called End Result, who were admittedly very deeply touched by NY no wave.....and no wonder Steve Albini doesn't play his guitar like an ordinary guitar.
No wave in NYC in the late-70's was a small milieu that had a reputation for keeping to themselves and alienating each other. A lot of extreme pompousness, for sure. There was a high rate even among the pioneers of dropout and disavowal. It was a rare case of a musical genre that came and went without much, if any, of a homogenizing zeitgeist and the pathetic-ness of hangers-on. Inasmuch as the whole scene was paradoxically über-punk in its ethos and very much against punk rock a scene that could achieve assimilation in droves and a culture that could be ridiculed or despised, the later activity of no wave pioneers into 1979 and beyond largely embraced punk's anathema, disco. Hence, the Bush Tetras, Dark Day, et al. Stylistically, these bands naturally fit into postpunk or other genres, and thus, many historians signal this as the death of no wave.
But aside from the fife and drum music of Carolinian Appalachia which died when the last dude doing it couldn't convince any of his descendents to give a rat's ass about their musical heritage, just about every style and movement that has ever existed still has its hangers-on, and they're not all pathetic revisionists. Not if they're authentic in every way, from the aura and texture to the moral or political or artistic convictions at the artist's heart, and into their bone marrow.
Relationships between genre ghettos are more interesting to me than their borders.
AIDS Wolf are also a helluva lot more than a DNA record sped up. They're certainly a lot friendlier than the offputting attitude of the bands of "No New York," and while the style of the music is certainly an influence on AIDS Wolf, I don't think that the band tries too hard to define itself as "no wave" or "neo no wave" or whatever. I think it's okay for people to be disappointed in a record like the split 7" or "The Lovvers," but that is a pretty dynamic and diversely influenced band, and if you sleep on them, you may miss out on something really rad later.
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