3.27.2009

Y Pants- Little Music

99 Records
1980

No Wave from the golden age on the venerable 99 Records.  Y Pants are often associated with Glenn Branca with whom Barbara Ess had a long standing personal and musical relationship- the two played together in both Theoretical Girls and The Static and Branca produced this single and released a full length on his Neutral label.  If No Wave sought to reduce "Rock" music to it basest elements, Y Pants took it one step further by jettisoning the usual rock instrumentation in favor of a battery of little instruments such as toy piano, ukulele, and toy drums.  The effect is a sort of naif primitivism that sits well with many of the other early 99 releases (Liquid Idiot, Bush Tetras) and at the same time hints at the more outright funky direction the label (and scene in general) would begin to move in with groups like ESG and Liquid Liquid.  Kicks off with a cover of the Stones' 'Off The Hook'.