The Shirts -

The Shirts were an American new wave band from New York that emerged on the mid-Seventies Bowery scene. They appeared in the NY punk film The Blank Generation and landed three songs on the 1976 scene document Live at CBGB’s.

Between 1978 and 1980, they released three albums: The Shirts, Street Light Shine, and Inner Sleeve. Championed by Peter Gabriel, their mix of new-wave rock and intricate musicianship caught on in Europe, where “Tell Me Your Plans” became a Dutch hit. Singer Annie Golden later gained renown as an actress.

Members: Annie Golden (vocals), Ronald Ardito (guitar, keyboards, vocals), Arthur La Monica (guitar, keyboards, vocals), Robert Racioppo (bass, vocals), John Piccola (guitar, keyboards, vocals), John Zeek Criscione (drums, percussion, vocals)

Background

The Shirts germinated from the musical partnership of Brooklyn musicians Artie Lamonica (guitar) and Robert Racioppo (bass), who started jamming circa 1970. Over the next three years, their band grew to a nine-piece with aspiring actress/singer Annie Golden at the mic.

In 1975, The Shirts became a regular act at CBGB on New York’s Lower East Side. They are one of thirteen acts (along with Blondie, Television, Talking Heads, and Richard Hell) featured in the 1976 docu-film The Blank Generation, which chronicles the nascent Bowery scene with silent B&W footage paired to out-of-sync demo recordings of each act.

The Shirts made their vinyl debut on the Atlantic Records double album Live at CBGB’s – The Home of Underground Rock, released in 1976. It features three Shirts originals: “Operetico” (4:26), “Poe” (5:12), and “A.V.M.” (6:24). By now, the lineup stabilized with Lamonica, Racioppo, Golden, guitarist/singer Ronnie Ardito, keyboardist John Piccolo, and drummer John Criscione.

In late 1977, EMI A&R Nick Mobbs signed The Shirts to EMI Harvest. They recorded their first album with producer Mike Thorne (Soft Machine, Wire).

The Shirts

The Shirts released their self-titled debut album on July 14, 1978, on Harvest (UK) and Capitol (US). The album contains ten originals, including the group-written opener “Reduced to a Whisper” and the singles “Tell Me Your Plans” and “Running Through the Night.”

Robert Racioppo wrote “Empty Ever After” and “They Say the Sun Shines” and co-wrote songs with “Tell Me Your Plans” writer Arthur La Monica (“Lonely Android”) and two with “Running Through the Night” author Ronald Ardito (“Teenage Crutch,” “Poe”). Side A wraps with “10th Floor Clown,” a three-way composition. John Piccolo collaborated with La Monica on “The Story Goes,” the winding, soaring Side B opener.

La Monica and Ardito play primary guitar and secondary keyboards. Bassist Racioppo and keyboardist Piccolo both double as guitarists. Everyone, including drummer John “Zeeek” Criscione, sing backing vocals behind Annie Golden.

A1. “Reduced to a Whisper” (3:28) is a mid-tempo rocker with a circular four-note guitar theme (in B major), harmonized verses, a multi-movement middle, and a modulated finale. The narrator sees visions of a much different future, possibly for the better (“I walked on the water, transfigured at 33”) or worse (“I fall through tomorrow, I saw what should not be seen”).
A2. “Tell Me Your Plans” (3:10) is a medium-slow ballad with unison female/male vocals and a prominent harpsichord-synth theme (in D major) and a Fifties shuffle rhythm (3/4 within 4/4). Annie has mixed emotions about the undisclosed intentions of a love interest.
A3. “Empty Ever After” (3:52) is a dark bass-driven number (in A minor) with encroaching sonic winds. Annie swears not to “change or rearrange” to “live like [they] say everybody should.” As a cautionary tale, she points to a “brighty-eyed boy” who “wound up among other vacancies.”
A4. “Teenage Crutch” (3:00) is a punk song with angular chord twists (augmented fifths) and heightened pogo-pulse intensity. Annie copes with adult labor (“Dreams I cut, from quarry’s where, you’ve got to fight for breath”) but clings steadfast to youthful ideals and pastimes (“From dust I come, to dust I go; in between, I rock and roll”).
A5. “10th Floor Clown” (4:24)

B1. “The Story Goes” (4:00)
B2. “Lonely Android” (3:55)
B3. “Running Through the Night” (3:46)
B4. “They Say the Sun Shines” (3:29)
B5. “Poe” (3:47)

Sessions occurred in North London at Wessex Sound Studios, where Mike Thorne produced the album in sequence with titles by Wire (Chairs Missing) and Soft Machine (Alive and Well Recorded in Paris). Wessex staffer Gary Edwards engineered The Shirts amid albums by City Boy (Book Early), Dr. Feelgood, Grand Theft, Trevor Rabin, and the Badfinger-spinoff Dodgers. The Shirts recorded overdubs at Chiswick’s Eden Studios with engineer Roger Bechirian, a concurrent soundman for The Jam (All Mod Cons) and Lene Lovich.

The Shirts sports an upper-garment illustration by Connie Jude, a prior Jam illustrator who did subsequent visuals for The Cure (Three Imaginary Boys) and Sugar Minott. The back-cover shows an outdoor group pic by British rock photojournalist Peter Vernon, who recently documented London’s punk scene. UK and South African copies appeared on limited-edition blue vinyl. Capitol copies show an actual guitar-strapped empty shirt and a group-pic by New York photographer Ebet Roberts.

The band’s logo was designed by Robert’s brother, Larry Racioppo, a photographer known for his edgy monochrome street subjects.

In May, Harvest lifted “Tell Me Your Plans” as an advance single, backed with “Cyrinda,” a non-album track that Racioppo and La Monica wrote with Zeek Criscione.

B. “Cyrinda” (2:52) appears on The Rare Stuff ?, a 1979 Harvest compilation with cuts by The Banned, The Flys, Rich Kids, The Saints, and Wire.

The Shirts mimed “Tell Me Your Plans” for the sixth episode of Revolver, a short-lived ITV new-wave music program hosted by comedian Peter Cook. Members of the program’s teenage punk audience slow-danced to the Shirts’ number, slotted between segments by The Motors and Ian Dury & The Blockheads.

They also mimed “Tell Me Your Plans” amid triangular fixtures for the September 16, 1978, broadcast of the Dutch music program TopPop, where Annie sat at the foot of their dual keyboard arsenal and looked innocently into the camera. “Tell Me Your Plans” reached No. 4 on the Dutch Singles chart.

On October 20, Harvest lifted “Running Through the Night” as the second UK single (b/w “Lonely Android”). In the Netherlands, “Reduced to a Whisper” became the second single (b/w “The Story Goes”). Peter Gabriel chose The Shirts as the opening act on his autumn 1978 European “scratch” tour. On December 17, the tour hit Geneva, where Gabriel introduced the Shirts’ set to the Italian audience.

The Shirts performed “Teenage Crutch” on the Season 9, sixteenth episode of The Old Grey Whistle Test (broadcast December 18, 1978). Meanwhile, Annie Golden portrayed the character of Jeannie Ryan in Hair, director Miloš Forman’s big-screen adaptation of the 1968 counter-culture musical.

Street Light Shine

The Shirts released their second album, Street Light Shine, in August 1979 on Harvest and Capitol. The album contains ten originals, including the UK single “Out On the Ropes” and the Dutch single “Laugh and Walk Away.”

Arthur La Monica wrote three songs (“Don’t You Hesitate,” “Can’t Cry Anymore,” “I Feel So Nervous”) and co-wrote others with Robert Racioppo (“Laugh and Walk Away,” “Outside the Cathedral Door”) and Ronald Ardito (“Starts With a Handshake”). Drummer John Criscione contributed “Kensington Gardens” and collaborated with Racioppo and La Monica on “Ground Zero.” Annie Golden wrote lyrics for songs by Racioppo (“Love Is a Fiction”) and John Piccolo (“Triangulum”).

Ardito composed “Out on the Ropes,” which features veteran jazz flutist Harvey Estrin and violinist Diana Halprin. The Shirts group-wrote “Milton at the Savoy,” a Tin Pan Alley jazz-pop number arranged by veteran trumpeter Lyle “Rusty” Dedrick with saxist Dave Tofani and trombonist Urbie Green.

Bassist Racioppo doubles on ‘prepared guitar” while keyboardist Piccolo doubles on bass and guitarist La Monica does likewise on keyboards. Ardito plays piano and occasional guitar on Street Light Shine, which mixes their progressive new wave style with pre-rock idioms.

A1. “Laugh and Walk Away” (2:47)
A2. “Love Is a Fiction” (2:37)
A3. “Don’t You Hesitate” (3:52)
A4. “Milton at the Savoy” (2:53)
A5. “Ground Zero” (2:43)
A6. “Triangulum” (5:35)

B1. “Out on the Ropes” (3:52)
B2. “Starts With a Handshake” (3:06)
B3. “Can’t Cry Anymore” (2:43)
B4. “I Feel So Nervous” (3:29)
B5. “Outside the Cathedral Door” (5:30)
B6. “Kensington Gardens” (3:38)

For Street Light Shine, The Shirts teamed once again with Mike Thorne, who produced the album amid projects with Wire (154) and Plaza, a disco one-off with Softs Karl Jenkins and Mike Ratledge. Sessions occurred at Mediasound Studios in New York with soul-funk engineers Bill Stein (Mass Production, Steve Khan, Zulema) and Harvey Goldberg, a onetime Kool & The Gang soundman with recent credits behind Fatback, Lonnie Liston Smith, and the Mysterious Flying Orchestra.

Urbie Green (a Fifties Blue Note veteran) scored a comeback on CTI Records at the time of his involvement. Halprin also played on 1978/79 albums by Angela Bofill, Dave Valentin, Jon Faddis, Mark Colby, Musique, Ryo Kawasaki, Sadao Watanabe, and Tom Browne.

Street Light Shine appeared in a white-framed sleeve with grainy photos of The Shirts (front, back, inner) on a nighttime group-walk in Central Park.

Harvest lifted “Out On the Ropes” as a UK single, backed with “Maybe, Maybe Not,” a non-album Racioppo/Ardito number placed on Capitol copies of Street Light Shine in lieu of “Can’t Cry Anymore.” The eleven-track Capitol issue also loses “Kensington Gardens” and replaces “Don’t You Hesitate” with “I’m In Love Again.”

A3. “I’m In Love Again” (2:30)
B3. “Maybe, Maybe Not” (3:25)

In September, Harvest lifted “Laugh and Walk Away” as a Dutch single, also backed with “Maybe, Maybe Not.”

In the “Laugh and Walk Away” video, Annie gets carted by white-coated bandmates into a hospital room where a mad doctor (Robert Racioppo) wields a giant needle. She reappears plain-clothed with her band in a white room bedecked with records. Behind the wheel of a British car, the vehicle floats as her bandmates brace for submergence. She reappears in multiple scenarios (bed-back, cage, marionette strings) and cavorts with mannequins as the band keeps frantic pace. Key period effects (odd props, white backdrops, soft focus, slow motion sequences) animate the video.

In February 1980, Harvest issued “Laugh and Walk Away” as the second UK single (b/w “Triangulum”).

Inner Sleeve

The Shirts released their third album, Inner Sleeve, in July 1980 on Capitol (all territories). The album contains eleven originals, mostly lone-written by different members.

Side A contains one Robert Racioppo number (“One Last Chance”) and two songs each by Arthur La Monica (“I’m Not One of Those,” “I Don’t Wanna Know”) and Ron Ardito (“Can’t Get It Through My Head,” “I’ve Had It”), the respective writers of the Side B tracks “Pleasure Is The Pain,” “Hanging Around,” and “Too Much Trouble.”

The second half contains one solo credit each for “Small Talk” co-writers Annie Golden (“As Long as the Laughter Lasts”) and John Piccolo (“Time (Has Seen Me Lonely)”).

A1. “I’m Not One of Those” (3:20)
A2. “One Last Chance” (3:04)
A3. “Can’t Get It Through My Head” (3:54)
A4. “I’ve Had It” (3:19)
A5. “I Don’t Wanna Know” (4:30)

B1. “Pleasure Is the Pain” (3:30)
B2. “As Long as the Laughter Lasts” (3:25)
B3. “Too Much Trouble” (3:02)
B4. “Hanging Around” (3:41)
B5. “Small Talk” (2:35)
B6. “Time (Has Seen Me Lonely)” (2:48)

Inner Sleeve was co-produced by veteran Capitol staffer John Palladino (Bang, Caldera, Sons of Champlin) and Swedish musician/soundman Georg Wadenius, a party to recent jazz titles by Olli Ahvenlahti (The Poet) and Eero Koivistoinen (The Front Is Breaking).

Capitol issued “One Last Chance” as the final Shirts single, backed with “Too Much Trouble” (UK) and “I’ve Had It” (Netherlands).

Discography: