Pope.L's (Open) Secret Life in Music: Jon Waine Afro Nu-Wave Band

Saturday, September 19, 4pm. Free admission.

As a student at Montclair State University in New Jersey, Bill Pope met and teamed up with guitarist Brian McCormack. From 1975 to 1980, they worked as a duo called Jon Waine, recording privately and performing at cafes and student centers, pursuing highly experimental music that featured found text, drum machine, synthesizer, and a growing corpus of songs, most of them sung by Pope, or Pope.L as he was by then known. At the beginning of the new decade, Jon Waine solidified into a band, inviting drummer Franc Palaia and bassist Ellen La Forge. This configuration played every conceivable venue in the New York/New Jersey independent music world, from CBGBs, Danceteria, and Maxwell's to the My Way Lounge, Negril, and the Dirt Club, as well as colleges and radio stations. With a subtitle that shifted from Provocation Band or the Whoreses to the definitive Afro Nu-Wave Band, Jon Waine combined rock, punk, and funk, with politically charged, often humorous, biting lyrics and inventive music that reflected five years of exploration by the Pope.L/McCormack duo.

Pope.L's career as an artist had just started to flourish when Jon Waine called it quits, in 1983, just after releasing their only record, a self-produced flexidisc. Pope.L went on to work with other musicians in his performance artworks, including Tom Miller and Richard Robinson, and the members of the band pursued their own artworld paths. Palaia and McCormack created the world's largest boom box, which they unveiled on the street in Manhattan, inviting break dancers to do their thing in front of the giant artwork. La Forge pursued her interest in art and tech and new media.

In this event, which takes place in the context of the exhibition Pope.L, No Thing Skin Sets, Hamza Walker (Director, The Brick, Los Angeles) and John Corbett will discuss Pope.L's music, the band Jon Waine, and the new double CD released by CvsD, Second Skin (1975-1983), which surveys the duo and the band in scrupulous detail.

As a special bonus, the two living members of the core Jon Waine configuration, Franc Palaia and Ellen La Forge, will play some of the band's songs. In the McPhee, CvsD presents a special exhibition focused on Jon Waine presents rare and unique ephemera, personalized instruments and equipment, and original pages from a 'zine made by Jon Waine charting the travails of a working band. The gallery has reprinted the 'zine, which, like the CD, is available on site.

An afternoon in celebration of Pope.L (1955-2023) and Brian McCormack (1953-2024). Viva Jon Waine.