OTHER MUSIC FOR UPLIFTING GORMANDIZERS
A well known ‘Country, Bluegrass and Blues” venue that has been resounding with the bellowing sounds of punk and metal since its inception, is now realizing its intended moniker and singing the blues. The eviction blues, that is. Since 2001, the essential NYC nightclub, CBGB’s, has been in and out of court responding to litigations that find the club’s owner Hilly Kristal, responsible to his landlord, the Bowery Residents’ Committee, to the tune of $300,000 in back rent. (Although much of that has now been paid, the club faces eviction over remaining debts of about $75,000, both parties say.). Large gaps in invoicing, on the part of the BRC over the course of the last few years, is said to have accounted for the somewhat unexpected surfacing of this backlash. But ‘whosever court the ball was dropped in’ is less of the issue than the mounds of monies it would take to resolve the impending battle within the building.
The BRC offered to renew the lease with Kristal in which case, however, the rent would increase from nearly $20,000 to $40,000 a month. (In addition to the nearly $80,000 a year he pays for liability insurance!) But Muzzy Rosenblatt, the BRC’s Executive Director, admits that renewing the lease is not really up for discussion when the club has enough problems settling up for what is already due. On the other side, Kristal feels that 30-some-odd-years of back rent may be the only foothold he has on saving this invaluable establishment. “My position is, give me 10 more years at a rate we can pay, and I’ll get you the money now,” says the 73 year-old, "I can't run the club at a deficit. We'd have to charge a lot more for drinks, we'd have to charge a lot more for admission, and I don't know if it's worth it to people. If it's gone, I don't see that anybody's going to replace it. We're not a big moneymaking machine." CBGB Fashions, a company Mr. Kristal set up to sell T-shirts and other merchandise, grosses about $2 million a year, he said. It’s important to realize that the intake from the bar would never be enough to support the venue.
**side note: one of the main draws of CBGB’s is, and has always been, its surprisingly low cover charges and cheap drinks. If this changed, it just wouldn’t be CBGB’s any more**
This August is the official expiry date of CBGB’s lease. There’s not a lot of time left.
Read on to find out what you can do to SAVE FERRIS CBGB’s.
BUT FIRST… A BRIEF HISTORY:
In 1973 Hilly Kristal rented the store front of the Palace Hotel, an infamous Bowery flophouse, and opened CBGB’s intending its namesake to reflect the music therein showcased. The rent was $600 a month. Acts could audition for gigs as long as they prescribed to the rule that they could only play their own music. When the likes of Richard Hell of Television stumbled upon this offer, the career of one of the planet’s most influential venues for live music kicked-off. On a stage built of scraps of wood, and with no initial PA system, the lineups of starter bands tumbled in…. Television, The Ramones, The Heartbreakers, The Stilettos, reformed later as Blondie, The Patti Smith Group, The Talking Heads, The Marbles, , the Dead Boys, The Mumps, Mink De Ville, the Laughing Dogs, Orchesta Luna, The Planters, the Sorrow, the Miami’s, The Sic F*cks, The Tuff Darts, The Shirts, Milkwood, later known as The Cars… and the list expands upon itself.
In 1993, after the flophouse above CB’s flopped, The Bowery Residents' Committee signed a 45-year lease on the building, subleasing CBGB its spaces, 315 Bowery - the main club, and 313 Bowery - its quieter Gallery and basement space next door, for 12 years.
So, exactly what is this Bowery Residents’ Committee anyway? The organization houses 175 homeless people in the floors above the club. It has vans that traverse the city offering help to the homeless, and operates 18 rehabilitation centers and shelters. CBGB is the organization's only commercial tenant.
NOW… ANSWER MY QUESTIONS!
So why is CBGB’s being gentrified by a homeless shelter? Good question. Perhaps it’s as good a question as why NYC Mayor Bloomberg is doing little to support the NY institution, legally or financially, even though he is using the CBGB façade along side Yankee Stadium, the Statue of Liberty and the
Successful Olympics bids are typically accompanied by a grand movement to sweep the homeless people from a city’s sparkling image… and here we have a homeless people’s co-op trying to sweep away a
To ask ourselves why this is happening is almost counterproductive. We have no choice but to accept that the iniquitous consumption of cultural mainstays is happening all the time. For example, Luna Lounge, on Ludlow Street in Manhattan, and Fez, under Time Café, have both announced that they're shutting down, at least for the moment, and the future of Tonic, on Norfolk Street, has also recently been in question.
The question that Hilly Kristal faces in the coming months is one we are all faced with at some point in our lives. Perhaps, at every twist and turn, at every crossroad at every waking hour… Fight? or Flight? This is the same conundrum that our respective cultural communities face, especially on the lower levels, in the face of the towering conglomerate masticating monster of change. Perhaps if we join the two, we will find the balance in the answer, the answer in the balance. And in this vein, Kristal contemplates his options. He's thinking about trying to continue, but also thinking about going elsewhere: "I know some people want me to put CBGB in
SO, WHAT DO YOU HAVE TO SAY ABOUT ALL THIS?
Well, there's no shortage of rants and opinions all over the internet. Or, is there? Considering its massive fame and the weight it holds in the punk scene, you'd think that a google search would pull out thousands of rants from these millions of supporters over the years. Has CBGB, as an operative word in the live-music circuit, lost its operative nature? Have people let the story of Christ wash away with the guzzling of Christ’s wine? Holding steadfastly only then to the ingrained image on the cross; those four letters in that distinguishable Daniel Gauthier CBGB FONT. My feeling tells me…. all things good must come to an end.
WHAT ARE THE VITAL SIGNS?
Considering that CBGB is listed in the first 6 mentions of influential music venues in NYC, ever; as listed on wikipedia.com….
Having browsed CBGB’s online site extensively, I found that Hilly Kristal offers a detailed historical account of his empire from conception into well, preteens, really; the full story kind of stops just after 1977. The closing line being “1977 was the beginning of a tumultuous period for punk and CBGB’s.” Well this is a tease if I’ve ever seen one. What about that illusive tumultuous period? What about the 80’s hardcorepunk matinee scene? What about the thousands of bands to have graced the stage with their movements? Is this gap in the storyline perhaps a sign pointing to the dwindling of CB’s integral contributions to rock and roll? Where is the CBGB history that includes the mention of Biohazard? Megadeth? D.R.I., Madball, Agnostic Front, Sick Of It All?... And how come the most recent New Wave Rock and Roll movement spawned in NY was not reared on CBGB’s provisions? Interpol, The Strokes, The Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Liars, The Rapture? Perhaps the jumping off point in NYC has widened significantly. I was awfully shocked to find that my favorite music review site had 0 matches in a news search for CBGB’s.
In the same breath? Noticing the decline of an empire is no reason to push its head under water. Did you know that CBGB’s has a thriving recording studio? Or that they are involved in an actual School of Rock? CBGB runs an internship program with New York City public schools where students work four days a week and receive a New York City Board of Education letter grade on their academic transcripts! Now that’s contributing to the community of young upstarts if you ask me!
So whether you care, or whether you have taught yourself the art of detachment, the times are changing, and huge shifts are working themselves into the fabric of inevitable change. So it’s up to you whether you make a difference or whether you stay on the couch watching The Surreal Life on VH1 and play witness to the crumbling of role models and the simultaneous exhaltation of the billboard that reads in flashing lights: “Nothing is Sacred”.
WHAT CAN I DO, YOU ASK?...
Support your local music scene in every way you can. If you live in
Tonic successfully raised the $100,000 they needed to survive in the face of flooding, a sewer-line collapse, and a robbery, and their own threat of eviction by scheduling a series of benefit performances by artists including Vincent Gallo, and Devendra Banhart. They also have paypal on their site: now there’s a good hint for Hilly!!
BUT I WANNA HELP HILLY AND CBGB’S!!
Well, here is one effort that is sweet to the lips:
Chocolate Bar, one of
The confectioner is introducing 2 choices for the punkathetic consumer:
1) the $25 CBGBs Punk Rock Box, a 16-piece truffle compilation that includes the postage-paid petition to save CBGB, a steel logo keychain and a collection of CBGB stickers.
2) $3 CBGB Retro Bars wrapped in a limited-edition CBGB keepsake package that includes the postage-paid petition. Both items will be available in May, but can be pre-ordered through Chocolate Bar’s Web site or by calling 1-800-481-2462. All proceeds will benefit the club's campaign to keep its doors open.
buy the CD! CBGB's and the Birth of U.S. Punk