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Command V connects the dots between the NYC of today and of its No Wave Renaissance. Comprised of Cynthia Sley (vocalist for Bush Tetras), Pat Irwin (of The Raybeats, Eight-Eyed Spy, B-52s) and Rachel Dengiz (musician and filmmaker who has worked closely with Jim Jarmusch) the band has developed a sounds and visuals using production techniques that didn't exist in the 80s, but which nonetheless retain the cut-and-paste aesthetic that drove their earlier work. Command V’s members were not peripheral members of the No Wave movement - they were at its epicenter. Cynthia Sley's enigmatic act, The Bush Tetras perfectly captured the primal energy being generated on the Lower East Side, prompting Sonic Youth's Thurston Moore to write "they were, to me, the greatest band in the world." In both The Raybeats and with Lydia Lunch’s 8-Eyed Spy, Pat Irwin's playing included elements of surf, free jazz, and punk. Their bands were key to the mix and match aesthetic for which their generation of New Yorkers is canonized. With the inclusion of keyboardist, vocalist, and songwriting partner Rachel Dengiz, video has become another medium for Command V to translate their art. Inspired and liberated by the digital tools at their disposal, Command V craft music and video that is reminiscent of No Wave while being noticeably more introspective, eerie, and modern. 30 years after its members and their friends rebuilt New York’s art scene, Command V epitomizes the new DIY.
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