Secret History of Rock. The Most Influential Bands You've Never Heard (41 page)

King Coffey, Butthole Surfers:

The punk rockers would gather at my house and we would literally spraypaint the walls and get drunk on pink champale while listening to Trouble Funk. I’d say Trouble Funk were really influential, in the whole sense of rhythms and funk. With the Big Boys, who were huge locally in Austin, and
Minor Threat
, there was a whole crossover. Trouble Funk exposed a lot of suburban white kids to go-go music and funk in general. The whole sense of rhythm and heavy percussion, it was one of the reasons the Buttholes were excited to have two drummers in the band, just to have those extra polyrhythms.

But while Trouble Funk and other go-go bands have occasionally flirted with mainstream crossover, a large scale go-go explosion never came. Mostly, this had to do with the music’s appeal in primarily a live format, and its inability to translate into hit records. With 1987’s
Trouble over Here / Trouble over There
, Trouble Funk attempted to move in a more radio-oriented direction, toward R&B and song-based funk. When it was a dismal failure, the group stopped recording altogether. As a live band, though, Trouble Funk has continued to tour the U.S. and Europe, where the group’s rousing shows have converted and inspired new fans. Particularly well loved in England, Trouble Funk are cited as an influence on the rhythmically complex electronic dance music known as jungle, or drum ‘n’ bass. While go-go remains a popular sound in and around D.C., younger styles like jungle are applying Trouble Funk’s beats to new technology and introducing it to new worlds.

DISCOGRAPHY

In Times of Trouble
(D.E.T.T., 1979; 1983)
; the rare debut album was reissued as a half live double album.

Drop the Bomb
(Sugar Hill, 1982)
; the group’s breakthrough, significant for its success in capturing a live sound in the studio, as well as for its release by a rap label.

Saturday Night Live from Washington, D.C.
(Island, 1985)
; a terrific live album that effortlessly captures the spirit and energy of go-go.

Trouble Over Here / Trouble Over There
(Island 1987)
; a largely unsuccessful attempt to expand the group’s sound into more song-oriented R&B.

Live
(Infinite Zero, 1996)
; an obscure, independently released live album from 1981, reissued and nationally available for the first time 15 years later.

Early Singles
(Infinite Zero, 1997)
; a compilation from the group’s beginnings.

ESG

Kate Schellenbach, Luscious Jackson:

ESG’s first EP; I swear, has been sampled more than any other record. These sisters from the Bronx that looked like kids created this catchy funk, so intuitively and to the capacity of their skills. I remember going to their shows, sweating and dancing, singing and clapping. They were like some friend of the family’s band playing at a prom. When Jill [Cuniff, of Luscious Jackson] was putting together the band, she asked me, “Would you be interested in playing in an ESG cover band?” And I said, ‘Yeah, that sounds really cool.” For us it was the same thing: a heavy bassline, a simple, funky drumbeat, and simple guitar lines. When we first started writing music for Luscious Jackson, ESG was a really big influence as far as approaching the music.

ESG took a do-it-yourself approach to dance music, which by the late ‘70s had become incredibly slick and prefabricated. In doing so, they captured the attention of artsy downtown New Yorkers who wanted music that was as real and exciting as punk, but that could also move them on the dance floor. With a pure and natural musical vision, and an ability to stretch stylistic boundaries, ESG offered a New York analogue to the adventurous female post-punk being made in England by groups like the
Silts
and
Raincoats
. Because their simple and repetitive dance grooves made perfect raw material for hip-hop DJs and rappers, ESG has long been a favorite source of samples for everyone from Big Daddy Kane to Wu-Tang Clan. And at the same time, their honest, unadorned funk tunes inspired a young and eclectic early ‘80s New York music scene that would produce acts like the Beastie Boys, Moby, and Luscious Jackson.

Moby:

ESG have been sampled in millions of hip-hop and house records, and they have a couple songs that are such classics that pretty much any disco in New York could play them and everyone would scream and blow whistles.

The Scroggins sisters grew up in a South Bronx apartment that was filled with the jazz and blues music of their white father, a struggling musician, and black mother, a former singer. By their early teens, their mother had become increasingly concerned about keeping the girls off the neighborhood streets, which had become a dangerous place for teens. To keep them occupied, she bought her daughters instruments and encouraged them to play. Sixteen-year-old Renee Scroggins took to the guitar, while younger sisters Deborah and Valerie began playing bass and drums, respectively. They learned quickly, and around 1976, the sisters formed a family group named after their birth-stones (emerald, sapphire) and favorite color (gold), which they abbreviated as ESG.

Though the Scroggins sisters were fans of everything from classical music to Queen, ESG was most closely impacted by the funk and early disco music they heard in the neighborhood; it was these sounds the girls tried to recreate in their own songs. But given their limited skills and small group format, what came out was something very different. The music had the essential elements of dance music – the funky beats and basslines, with disco-styled vocals – but it moved with the simplicity and amateurism of a garage rock band. When ESG developed far enough to play live, they began appearing in various talent shows around the Bronx. Their combination of naive charm and memorable hooks was immediately appealing.

David Pajo, Tortoise /
Slint
:

ESG were a huge influence, because their songs are so simple. They were one of those bands that when you see them you get really inspired to make your own music. What they do looks like anybody can do. I love when I get that feeling.

Among those who happened to catch an early ESG talent show performance was Ed Bahlman, proprietor of 99 Records in Greenwich Village. Impressed by the teenagers, Bahlman began getting the group gigs in downtown Manhattan clubs like Hurrah’s and the Mudd Club. From the start, they felt little connection with the club-hopping, coke-sniffing SoHo art scene of the early ‘80s. The Scroggins sisters kept their distance – even to the extent of bringing their own food and drink to clubs. Richard McGuire, who as a member of
Liquid Liquid
often shared bills with ESG, says, “I always felt that they didn’t understand what the hell they were doing in this scene. Everyone would love them, but they were very kind of closed to themselves. We did shows with them, and I remember their mother would come down with them and make sandwiches. It was a real family outing.”

Still, ESG’s stripped-down approach to groove-based music fit right in with the post-punk dance sounds at the time, and the three teenage sisters, plus a friend on percussion, became a downtown hit. In 1981, ESG met and performed for Tony Wilson, the head of well-known British indie label Factory Records. Impressed, Wilson introduced the band to producer Martin Hannett, who had planned to record Joy Division before the group’s singer Ian Curtis committed suicide. With Joy Division falling apart, Hannett brought ESG into the studio instead. The result became ESG’s debut U.K. single,
Moody
/
UFO
, which was bolstered to six songs for their first American EP on 99 records.

Tim Gane, Stereolab:

I bought this 12” because I liked the sleeve, and it was one of those records where you’re just laughing because it’s so good. I think it was the most focused record ever. You break down the parts and it was so simple, everything is unbelievably sparse, yet it was completely realized. There’s no waste on it at all.

In no time, both the single and a follow-up 12-inch remix of
Moody
became club favorites in New York and London. The tracks were not so much songs as linear funk grooves, with echo-heavy dub percussion, a steady throbbing bass, and Renee’s simple, repetitive vocal line (on
Moody
). After a second EP on 99 Records, ESG released their first album, 1983’s
Come Away with ESG
. In addition to Renee, Valerie, and Deborah, the record featured a fourth sister, Marie, who joined the group on percussion. The band soon expanded even further to include the sisters’ neighborhood friends, bassist Leroy Glover and guitarist David Miles, and all of the sisters shifted to percussion and began sharing vocals.

At the peak of ESG’s popularity they were on the front lines of dance and punk music’s intermingling, and found themselves opening for acts like Joe Jackson and the Clash. By 1984, though, as 99 Records became embroiled in legal battles unrelated to the band, ESG fell into their own disputes with Bahlman. For ESG’s second album, Renee formed her own label, Emerald Saphire & Gold Records. Though they earned a club hit with the song
Standing in Line
, internal problems soon split the sisters and ESG became largely inactive.

Mark Robinson, Unrest / Air Miami:

ESG was just bass and drums, with very sparse guitar. In most bands today bass is kind of a background thing, but I’ve definitely thought of the bass as an instrument that could carry the song.

Although the Scroggins women withdrew to raise families and work other jobs, their music was steadily heard – in the form of samples. Tupac, TLC, Big Daddy Kane, Public Enemy, LL Cool J, P.M. Dawn, and even nonrap artists like Unrest and Miles Davis are just some of the artists who’ve acknowledged sampling ESG (mostly
Moody
or
UFO
), and many more have done so without permission. In the early ‘90s, Renee and Val reemerged, releasing the appropriately titled EP,
Sample Credits Don’t Pay Our Bills
. Recently the two sisters have enlisted their daughters – both in their teens – as the newest members of ESG, and a second-generation ESG seems to be on the rise.

DISCOGRAPHY

ESG
EP
(99, 1981)
; the debut 12-inch single, featuring their best known songs
Moody
and
UFO
.

ESG Says “Dance” to “The Beat” of “Moody”
EP
(99, 1982)
; a 3-song 12-inch single, with a remix of
Moody
.

Come Away with ESG
(99, 1983)
; the group’s first full-length studio album.

ESG II
(ESG Records, 1985)
; a second, self-released album.

ESG
(Pow Wow, 1991)
; an album-length compilation of older material.

Sample Credits Don’t Pay Our Bills
EP
(Nega Fulo, 1992)
; a five-song EP of new material.

ESG Live!
(Nega Fulo, 1995)
; newly recorded and featuring a mix of older stuff with new songs.

LIQUID LIQUID

Sasha Frere-Jones, Ui:

You could say Liquid Liquid showed me where the door was. They were taking funk rhythms and exporting them out of the party/disco context, magnifying and celebrating elements without destroying the partyness of those elements. It was art funk that didn’t sacrifice either. In Liquid songs, tiny syncopations could make enormous differences. Their way of balancing thick and thin lines, of using space – rather than more sound – to make something bigger, made an impression on me.

Though Liquid Liquid never produced a full-length album and lasted for only a few years, the dynamic minimalist funk it created has imparted everything from early hip-hop to modern art rock. The group’s accessible dance grooves have been frequently sampled (by the likes of Dee-Lite and the Jungle Brothers), its instrumental textures and primitivist rhythms have inspired indie and post-rock bands such as Tortoise, Ui, and King Kong, and acts like De La Soul and LL Cool J have invoked its surreal mantras. While Liquid Liquid like to call their songs “big beat” or “body music,” a better label is simply “visionary.”

Before Liquid Liquid, there was Liquid Idiot. Formed in 1978 by New Jersey college students Richard McGuire and Scott Hartley – one studying art, the other philosophy – Liquid Idiot was a punk-inspired ensemble featuring untrained members and an ever-changing lineup. For each performance, the band invited audience members to bring their own instruments and play along with McGuire’s guitar or keyboard and Hartley’s drums. When the two graduated and moved to New York City the following year, Liquid Idiot focused itself into a more guitar-driven power trio. On bass and vocals they added Sal Principato, a fellow Jerseyite who was doing experimental poetry in the city.

Thurston Moore, Sonic Youth:

Sonic Youth probably played their first gig ever at this performance space called A. We used to hang out there, and another group that played a lot was Liquid Idiot, before they changed their name to Liquid Liquid. They were extremely rhythm-based, more sort of ethnic-influenced rhythm music, which New York bands were always influenced by, even us.