Byron Coley helped tame the frenetic 1980s into comprehensible indie
canons through corrosive wordplay that unfurled with the energy it
sought to describe. Interviews, reviews and features in epoch-making
mags like Forced Exposure and Spin evolved into
collabs and friendships and Coley’s words have appeared on liner notes
for everyone from Dinosaur Jr. to Sonic Youth. He co-writes a column for
Arthur magazine with Thurston Moore, a listicle-style
breakdown of their joint knowledge of underground culture. In 2008,
these encyclopedic insights manifested as a co-authored book, No Wave: Post-Punk. Underground. New York 1976-1980.
Now, in 2014, Coley’s joining the dots from that point to the present
tense. There’s no one better placed to pick apart our cultural landscape
and drop a peg on the people and places that still embody the No Wave
way.