Episode 5 (Spring 2026)
15:00 - 16:00 Sunday February 22nd, 2026
Ayan & Christian
As we discussed last week and the week before, the late-70s/early-80s were ripe with musical innovation in bankrupt New York City. New Wave bands offered a counterpart to the simultaneous disco-dismayed punk-rockers of the time, and "No Wave" acts rebelled against both groups by throwing all standards out the window. Both (New/No Wave) groups however produced some rather danceable tracks during their run (Talking Heads, James White & The Blacks) and were later to be lumped together with acts like Gang of Four, Delta 5, ESG, PiL, Bush Tetras, A Certain Radio, Au Pairs, and Liquid Liquid into "1st Wave" of "Dance-punk."
These punks kept dancing into the mid-80s but ultimately the "movement" died out, as "dance" and "rock" went their separate ways. Dance became less dominated by Disco and heavily diversified, and rock ended moving into grundgier/sleazier directions.
In the earlier 2000s however, the craving for guitar-forward, funk-focused, bratty, pessimistic, malaise-y DANCE-PUNK resurfaced. Bands wanted to "make music for girls to dance to" (Franz Fernidand), or "make house tracks with the band they had" (The Rapture). DFA records, started by hipster-king James Murphy and Tim Goldsworthy, remixed and produced for groups like Radio 4, Le Tigre, and The Rapture. These types held an admiration for those 1st wave dancing punks.
Ayan highlighted some less known groups from the time (see the playlist below) and we had a lively discussion on Murphy, DFA, the socioeconomic/political situation in the early 2000s, and how NYC bands today (like Model/Actriz and YHWH Nailgun) have helped bring back this dance-punk tradition that again had fallen to the wayside post- LCD Soundsystem's This is Happening. The last three episodes were somewhat tied together, but we intend on switching things up next week by bringing on a knowledgeable friend of the show / fellow WREK operator to teach us (and you!) all about the history of the Dunedin Sound in early 1980s New Zealand.
If you have any questions/comments about the show, you can reach me at byrd@wrek.org. We have big ideas for the episodes that are to come, and we're going to try to set up interviews with all kinds of characters associated with the various scenes we're interested in. While you can always listen to the previous episode by visiting https://wrek.org/shows/mise-en-scene and clicking the link next to "listen again," I'm going to try to set up a back-catalogue of every episode we air.
Playlist
"Our Town" (2001) by Radio 4
"Love Is A Number" (2005) by White Rose Movement
"Eat.Drink.Sleep.Think." (2003) by Motormark
"House of Jealous Lovers" (2003) by The Rapture
"Losing My Edge" (2002) by LCD Soundsystem
"Crossing Guard" (2023) by Model/Actriz
After the end of the hour:
"Castrato Raw (Fullback)" (2023) by YHWH Nailgun
"Milky Max" (2024) by Lip Critic
"Let's Not Wrestle Mt. Heart Attack" (2006) by Liars
Sources / Further Learning
[1] Wikipedia - Dance-punk
[2] Something weird is happening in post-punk - YouTube Video by Middle 8
[3] Dance-Punk by Larissa Wodtke