No Motive, by 3 Teens Kill 4

No Motive

by 3 Teens Kill 4

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3 Teens Kill 4 was born in the summer of 1980 in the East Village of New York City. They took their name from a New York Post headline. The group consisted of Doug Bressler, Brian Butterick, Julie Hair, Jesse Hultberg, David Wojnarowicz. There was a conscious decision not to have a front person or lead singer. David made cassette tapes with voices and sounds that he held up close to a microphone, fast-forwarding and rewinding. Julie tried different rhythms on a Korg rhythm machine. Brian played a Casio drum machine and Jesse was on bass. Doug joined the group in time to make the debut album. He was a music lover who understood how to avoid covering over the band’s non-musicality.

Their debut 7-song mini-album “No Motive” was recorded in Fall 1982 and self-released in 1983. Utilizing rhythm boxes, tapes of news reports, odd percussion tools, snatches of song, they chanted political narrative ideas about the modern mess at the time. The album is an amalgam of urban life, a twisted, anti-rhetorical approach to social issues. Songs weave together to create an intelligent, jarring sound. Razor sharp guitar licks and hauntingly ominous bass lines create a tense, oblique abstraction of pain and chaos. For this reissue we’ve added 3 previously unreleased bonus tracks. Doug says, “These songs are very deliberately an experiment in Postmodernism. Sound bytes were stolen from the airwaves and recorded onto bargain cassette tapes. We were stripping the structure of the popular song to the bone. A sort of sonic Duchamp. And throughout it all, runs a childlike sense of play: the judicious use of toys, the schoolyard chants. All of this was happening during the dark and soul-numbing Age of Reagan, with the AIDS crisis looming on the horizon.”

All songs have been remastered for vinyl by George Horn at Fantasy Studios. The jacket features a replica of the original front cover with a black and white photo by Seiji Kakizaki and updated back cover featuring a never before seen collage by David Wojnarowicz. Each copy includes a 12-page booklet with liner notes from each band member, photos, lyrics and press clippings. We’ve also printed a special 12”x24” fold out diptych painting by David Wojnarowicz whom this reissue is dedicated to. “We were representative of our time and place. East village, New York City, 1980s. All-night, after-hour busboy jobs in trendy nightclubs, early morning breakfast at Veselka’s diner. Drugs and no-drugs. Gay and not-gay. New York.” - Jesse Hultberg

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1.	Hold Up 03:55	lyrics	buy track
Walked into the bank I walked into the bank Pushed through the revolving doors Past the guard Up past the customers Up to the counter Said : ladies and gentlemen listen to me This is a robbery I’ve got a very high powered explosive Give me all your valuables Give me all your money Angel arrive on lower level of port authority Enters the city’s madness Mythology Enters on a one way avenue Holly Woodlawn bury your father Holly Woodlawn bury your father I walked into the bank I walked into the bank Pushed through the revolving doors Past the guard Up past the customers Up to the counter I was so fucking nervous I was pissing my pants Wetting the floor Said : ladies and gentlemen, listen to me This is a robbery Give me all your power explosives Give me all valuables Give me all your money Angel tearing me down To where he knows will come true And pure and love as blues And pure and love as blues Angel caught up in the Hollywood Caught at the ballrooms downtown Angel arrive on lower level Angel arrive on lower level I walked into the bank I walked into the bank Pushed through the revolving doors Past the guard Up past the customers Up to the counter Said : ladies - gentlemen listen to me This is a robbery Ah... sit down, stand up Lie down with your face to the ground Stand up with your hands to the wall Give me all your money Give me all your valuables Give me all your money Angel in the swimming pool Did not count the sleeping pills Floating he, floating he pales Flies to Puerto Rico Holds up holds up holds up the bank Smiles when the picture hits his face Smiles when the picture hits his face Hold-up, hold-up, hold-up, hold-up, Smiles when the picture hits his face...
2.	Tell Me Something Good 04:28		buy track
3.	5/4 05:49	lyrics	buy track
Valleys become back alleys War zone surfacing Interrogation Interrogation Interrogation I am the young man who disappears suddenly off a street corner in the middle of the afternoon And I am the young man who's taken into a room in a police station I get inside and there's all these men standing around They tell me to get against the wall legs spread palms flat I am the young man who is beaten on the kidneys with clubs This wasn't punishment for refusing to answer certain questions They didn't ask me any questions I didn't know what the hell was going on I am the young man who is taken into another room It's painted this sick color of lavender Concrete floors Concrete ceilings Cinderblock walls Behind the walls I can hear the sound of these screams Some are familiar – the sound of people screaming A child screaming – a woman screaming And I am told this is my family My mother My brother My sister My father They're screaming And I'm told they'll die if I don't answer certain questions And I am the young man who is put on a table and stripped of all my clothes My legs are held open and a soldier comes over with a hammer and nails I got eight guys holding me down I got two guys on each arm – two guys on each leg This soldier comes over and he's got a handful of nails and he's got a hammer He nails my testicles to the table and a wire is wrapped around my penis And they laugh and two fine wires are strung between my teeth A couple of wires are placed inside of my ears and a bucket of water is splashed all across my body And a generator is turned on and the soldiers crank it up and it releases electricity and it releases electricity And I am the young man who is pissing blood and water And you thought I was just newsprint You thought I was just photos You thought I was words and pictures you'd seen a thousand times
4.	Crime Drama 02:49	lyrics	buy track
There are things which are and should not be. There are things which are not and should be. What is now cannot now be otherwise. What is now cannot now be otherwise. Mankind today versus mankind tomorrow Caught up by passions we seize opportunities. Technological advances or breakdowns. New dimensions of the struggle with nature. Choice of tyranny and slavery made difficult Essential conditions of freedom & happiness. Moral progress, the ethical ideal Irrelevant, irrelevant! There are things which are and should not be. There are things which are not and should be. What is now cannot now be otherwise What is now cannot now be otherwise. Particularities of time and place As a matter of political convenience De-limit the boundaries of what ought not to be As a matter of political convenience Man is viewed as an historical animal History as single and unlinear Sensitive to changes overtaking his species A responsible agent in bringing them about Whether he cares or not he will be judged By future generations, there is no escaping. In light of rationality, apparent incompatibility Difficulties and contradictions Reason is becoming inhuman. There are things which are and should not be. There are things which are not and should be. What is now cannot now be otherwise What is now cannot now be otherwise.
5.	Stay and Fight 05:04	lyrics	buy track
You owe it to the youth of the world. You owe it You owe it You owe it to the youth to the youth of the world. You owe it to the youth to the youth of the world world world Poison gas into your eyes eyes And then I think then this is the point where it I think then this is the point where it I’ve chosen to stay and fight This is the point where it stops Where it stops this is the point where it stops where it stops point where it stops Chosen to stay and fight and fight Stay and fight I’ve chosen to stay and fight I’ve chosen to stay and fight Do you think that they generally get some sort of sexual thrill out of wielding weapons and guns Weapons and guns Because Do you think that they generally get some sort of sexual thrill sexual thrill sexual thrill Out of wielding weapons and guns Yes yes yes because the guns and grenades are great equalizers it used to be think that a revolver Made all men six feet tall now it makes women equally with men And I do think that women in particular get a sexual thrill with this in the way that so many of them Do when they go to a pop concert and swept away by the passion of the moment Think that women in particular get a sexual thrill Beaten out in a lot a lot of poison gas into your eyes A lot of poison gas into your eyes I’ve chosen to stay and fight I’ve chosen to stay and fight Sexual thrill Wielding wielding weapons Out of wielding weapons and guns A revolver made all men six feet tall A revolver made Poison gas into your eyes Poison gas into your eyes I’ve chosen to stay and fight I’ve chosen to stay and fight Sexual thrill Wielding wielding weapons Out of wielding weapons and guns Stay and fight and fight Generally get some sort of sexual thrill Get a sexual thrill with this A lot of poison gas into your eyes I think then this is the point where it stops where it stops Stay and fight I’ve chosen to stay and fight and fight And fight and fight To stay and fight This is the point Out of wielding weapons and guns Wielding weapons weapons Sexual thrill
6.	Circumscript 03:44	lyrics	buy track
You and I circle round the room And I stumble round the room And I stumble to the floor Circumscript And we know In circling’ round the room Facing off Go backwards out the door Facing off Go backwards out the door Facing off Don’t be scared Just stand under the light Don’t be scared The light that is too bright Don’t be scared Just stand under the light Don’t be scared Circumscript Facing off Don’t be scared
7.	Hut / Bean Song 07:49	lyrics	buy track
The crack of a whip & a baby crying Seven common steel nails pounded into the floor A 357 Magnum fired three times... Hut! He placed himself in a hole in the corner of the prison yard and covered himself with a patch of dry earth and grass. Meanwhile other inmates in the high security prison placed a dummy he had fashioned from paper maché and human hair onto his bunk and covered it with a blanket. In the early hours before dawn he left his hiding spot and made it over 3 fences; 2 lethal barbed wires and one electrified. Hours later he found himself in a motel on main street standing before a fluorescent lit mirror combing black shoe polish into his hair. When his disappearance was discovered an all-states alarm was issued by the authorities. Some believe he was on his way to Venezuela, others thought he was hiding in Soviet Russia, others thought he was hiding in the mountains of the Northeast. He occasionally called his family long distance. The Xerox machines in Russia Are as closely guarded as the missile sites. Xerox, xerox, xerox, xerox Russia, Russia Russia, Russia I thought you said you’d pay for half. I distinctly remember you saying you’d pay for half. BEAN SONG I’ll bet you wish you could shake a can of beans as well as me I’ll bet you wish you could shake a can of beans as well as me I like to shake a can of beans Every now and then I like to take a can of beans and shake it up and down and Sometimes I like to take a can of beans and shake it around and around and Every now and then I like to take a can of beans and shake it up and down We must We must increase our bust The bigger the better The tighter the sweater You know those boys depend on us Lies they tell us Lies they live What is it that lies can give? Who will lie the most this year? Bang bang you’re dead Brush your teeth and go to bed Peace or hatred love or fear who will lie the most this year Bang bang you’re dead brush your teeth and go to bed (thank you to Rachel Wolf for words)
8.	Hunger 01:47	lyrics	buy track
We are non-essential laborers you will die soon enough I will not live long All things will change and move on This course of history This living and non living It happened on the street below In the midst of falling rain A series of cars collided Impact of motors and glass A bum was struck in passing A bum was struck in passing All civilization Was at the wheel I see these things everyday Television candidates with singular vision Grey images of freezing homes People combing through garbage reefs So we continue so we consume Unearthing cars and factories And thirst is continuous And thirst is continuous You can drink wine from crystal glasses You can drink wine from paper bags You can put a gun to your head Or you can turn it on_ the guilty party Or you can step in front of a car Erasing the sliding world of fact.
9.	Visitation 04:52	lyrics	buy track
Right over here are you shittin’ me? Right over here are you shittin’ me Are you shittin’ me? No I don’t want to sit down Hell no I want you guys to go Cause I’m panhandling out here ok? My wife’s been dead for six years And man I went to hell for six years But thank god I got two beautiful daughters And they both own their own homes Their husbands are independent And I’m a disabled veteran And I’m out here doing what I want to do No one really knows just where you been It’s like a visitation Seeing a black dog Lying in the snow Blood like red poppies A bloody glyph that starts to grow We were buying milk and eggs We were walking down the street This quiet day, quiet light over the river This car careened around the corner and burst into flames No one really knows just where you been It’s like a visitation A man dressed in red and white Crawling through a dark tunnel In the middle of broad daylight You know that man has got a disease I dream my anger at the fascist regime that I know exists somewhere lurking. No one really knows just where you been It’s like a visitation He puts a revolver to The base of your skull Pushes you down on your knees He blows it apart like a porcelain bowl We were down on 2nd Street and Ave D Looking for a friend of ours All of a sudden there was this bright flash in the sky People in uniforms sense of steel We didn’t understand what was happening No one really knows just where you been It’s like a visitation He sticks all his fingers in He washes them like laundry He washes them like sin Oh man I’m weary, weary We left the club at 4am, We were walking down the street This quiet night, this car careened around the corner and burst into flames Things had been so easy up till then I am just a young boy Take away the atom bomb Don’t treat me like a science toy Fascist regime Light over the river Burst into flames
10.	Desire 04:18	lyrics	buy track
So I’m sitting here in this room and it’s around dawn It’s seems to be dusk it seems to be There’s no light Just these traces of blue in the sky And far over the edges of the tenements And if I look down the street At this angle that looks like something out of a De Chirico There’s these white clouds that are so faint so gray And this strong moon Ahhhhhhhhhhhh I’ve walked this hall twenty-seven times And all I can see are the cool white walls A hand rubbing slowly across a face My mind is a pounding ship a long red road My hands are empty My hands are empty Small town laborers creating excavations That other men spend their lives trying to fill In this storm in this storm I can’t separate my breathing from the sound. My hands are empty My hands are empty I wanted you to walk me down the stairs to the street so I wouldn’t hear the lock turn or the door close or the lock turn Across the street in the apartment window there’s a man pacing back and forth Before the shades - the dim lightbulb And he’s combing his hair now And he’s pacing again And he has no shirt on And he looks to be about 45 And it’s cold out and this afternoon it snowed And I was walking around in the streets and I was feeling this Tension that I thought was unexplainable but I knew was explainable It’s something I knew what - I knew what caused it It’s because I met this guy recently I met him in the park up around 15th Street and Second Avenue And we started getting it on in the park and it was just another anonymous Joe There was something interesting about him I mean I was attracted to him and It was sort of one sided as we were getting it on but After I came I asked him his . . . with him and then he invited me back to his place And what I realize is that when I don’t know somebody or when I don’t… When there’s not like this incredibly strong attraction to them You know something that that’s like beyond desire that Where there’s where suddenly I had this fear that you know that I might not ever get to know them Like a fear of rejection or fear of – that this is just like a one night stand Which I mean I – I find myself having uh, sex a lot with men that you know are desirable But that I never see it beyond you know that moment I never see myself getting back together with them Unless there’s some sort of offer made on their part I’ll never express any direct interest in words – mostly just in gestures And so I talked to him as honestly as I talk to anybody As honestly as I talk to myself And it felt really good and we continued talking And we talked and we stayed up most of the night And I felt really happy about that I left him some time in the morning because he was tired He had been doing mescaline and he had to get to sleep and get up at 7 for work So I sort of cut short conversation and I left And he scribbled the number and a name on a piece of paper And uh, I might have done the same for him I can’t remember now The next night i bumped into him in a bar down on Second Avenue And he seemed pleased to see me. He talked quite a bit to me I was with Brian but I had just walked in when he came over to me And I just ended up talking to him for about a half hour – on and off And he invited me back to his place again So after seeing him and staying there that night and staying up all night And falling asleep and waking up and making love again

about

3 Teens Kill 4 was born in the summer of 1980 in the East Village of New York City. They took their name from a New York Post headline. The group consisted of Doug Bressler, Brian Butterick, Julie Hair, Jesse Hultberg, David Wojnarowicz. There was a conscious decision not to have a front person or lead singer. David made cassette tapes with voices and sounds that he held up close to a microphone, fast-forwarding and rewinding. Julie tried different rhythms on a Korg rhythm machine. Brian played a Casio drum machine and Jesse was on bass. Doug joined the group in time to make the debut album. He was a music lover who understood how to avoid covering over the band’s non-musicality.

Their debut 7-song mini-album “No Motive” was recorded in Fall 1982 and self-released in 1983. Utilizing rhythm boxes, tapes of news reports, odd percussion tools, snatches of song, they chanted political narrative ideas about the modern mess at the time. The album is an amalgam of urban life, a twisted, anti-rhetorical approach to social issues. Songs weave together to create an intelligent, jarring sound. Razor sharp guitar licks and hauntingly ominous bass lines create a tense, oblique abstraction of pain and chaos. For this reissue we’ve added 3 previously unreleased bonus tracks. Doug says, “These songs are very deliberately an experiment in Postmodernism. Sound bytes were stolen from the airwaves and recorded onto bargain cassette tapes. We were stripping the structure of the popular song to the bone. A sort of sonic Duchamp. And throughout it all, runs a childlike sense of play: the judicious use of toys, the schoolyard chants. All of this was happening during the dark and soul-numbing Age of Reagan, with the AIDS crisis looming on the horizon.”

credits

released July 22, 2017

(P)+(C) 1982 3TK4
All songs by 3 Teens Kill 4 except “Tell Me Something Good” by Stevie Wonder
3 Teens Kill 4 are: Brian Butterick, David Wojnarowicz, Doug Bressler, Jesse Hultberg, Julie Hair
Recorded at Crossfire Studios
Engineer: Peter Darmi
Executive Producers: Robert Bradley and Alan Mace
“Hold Up” Mixed by Ivan Ivan
Thank you, Marnie, Slanny, Carol, Hali, Mic, Tom, Jerry, Mark C. Mare, Advanced television spectra II
Cover Photo: Seiji Kakizaki

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