Women’s History Month: Musicians who rocked the 80’s Hoboken Sound

Mayor Ravi S. Bhalla and the City of Hoboken, Monty Hall and WFMU present

In Honor of Women’s History Month:
Musicians Who Rocked the 80’s Hoboken Sound
Celebrating their Past, Present and Future

No one in Hoboken ever talked about "the Hoboken Sound.” That was a term the media came up with to explain the extraordinary group of musicians who flocked to the Mile Square City (and specifically Maxwell's) in the early Eighties, looking for cheap rents and a hospitable place to play. They came from as far away as Louisville, Cleveland, and Winston-Salem, or from right up the block; and from the beginning, women played an important role in what was happening there: Karyn Kuhl, Alice Genese and Tia Palmisano from Gut Bank, Myrna Macarian in Human Switchboard, Deena Shoskes in the Cucumbers, Janet Wygal in The Individuals, Georgia Hubley (who'd form Yo La Tengo with her boyfriend, Ira Kaplan,) Jane Scarpantoni and Donna Croughn of Tiny Lights and so many more.

Their music was made and inspired by the Amer-indie rock scene and made by friends and neighbors, influenced by each other, rather than the outside world of top 40 radio and Arena rock.

Join us as we Celebrate their contributions to that “sound" and the path that each of them took as they continue to make inspiring and exciting music.

Tickets are $15.00, doors open at 7:30pm

Featuring performances by:
• Karyn Kuhl Band
• Wygalator featuring Janet Wygal with special guest Jane Scarpantoni
• Brenda Sauter & friends: Wild Carnation, The Feelies and Speed the Plough.
• Long Neck

Karyn Kuhl
Post-punk pioneer, Karyn Kuhl, was a founding member of acclaimed Hoboken bands Gut Bank & Sexpod. She continues to blaze a trail as a powerhouse, triple threat singer, songwriter, guitarist and leader of the Karyn Kuhl Band.

Brenda Sauter
became a part of the Hoboken music scene in 1983, after joining the NJ-based band, The Trypes, as bassist. By 1984 she was playing with other Trypes-related bands, such as Yung Wu, The Willies, and The Feelies. She resided in Hoboken in 1984. After The Feelies stopped playing in 1991, she joined Speed the Plough (a band which was originally comprised of some founding members of The Trypes), and she joined Patricia Shaw to form a duo called Evaluna. In 1992 she met drummer Chris O’Donovan and then guitarist Rich Barnes, and Wild Carnation was formed. Anne Hopkins joined the band as keyboardist in 1999.

Janet Wygal
is a songwriter, singer, and musician who has been playing indie rock since before anyone called it indie rock. She is best known for her work with the Individuals, the Wygals, Splendora, Wygalator, and for writing and recording, with Splendora, the theme song for MTV's Daria.

Jane Scarpantoni
is a classically trained American cello player who has played on a number of alternative rock albums. She was a member of Hoboken, New Jersey's Tiny Lights in the mid-'80s, then went on to play with other musicians especially those associated with the Hoboken underground rock scene of the 1980s and early 1990s, including Silverchair, Bruce Springsteen, Sheryl Crow, Patti Smith, Richard Barone, R.E.M., Indigo Girls, 10,000 Maniacs, Throwing Muses, Kristin Hersh, Lou Reed, Chris Cacavas, Bob Mould, John Lurie's Lounge Lizards, Boo Trundle, Train and many others.

 Also, special performance by Long Neck

Lily Mastrodimos has been recording songs as Long Neck since 2014, first as a solo project while she was a member of Jawbreaker Reunion and now as a fully realized rock band, with drums and electric guitars and everything. Mastrodimos writes the kind of personal, introspective songs that might be expected of someone who recorded her first album “Heights” alone in her room with a single mic and an MBox. The strength of her voice and her convictions lend Mastrodimos’s songs an urgency and energy that is only amplified by the addition of, well, amplifiers. As a full band, which now includes Kevin Kim, Alex Mercuri, and John Ambrosio, Long Neck makes music that’s somewhere between indie rock and pop punk--louder and faster than Mastrodimos’s solo output, but no less thoughtful.

This program is made possible by a grant from The New Jersey State Historical Commission, a Division of the Department of State and administered by the Hudson County Office of Cultural and Heritage Affairs, Thomas A. DeGise, Hudson County Executive and the Board of Chosen Freeholders.