New Orleans
new-wavers
RZA
(before the rapper)
RZA MySpace
During high school and while attending NOCCA (New Orleans Center for the Creative Arts), I found myself hanging out with the New Orleans art and music scene-sters. I got in trouble for saying my friends had "acid eyes" in the press and that our 'manager' had stolen our gig money. I learned a lot about not making enemies during that time...yeah, I was young.
Our friend "Big Mike" would come on stage in a leather jacket and flog our other friend Chuck (who would wear a kimono) during our song "Daddy Don't". Our first gig was with Julian and Gretchen then I met Jimy & Charlie through Barbara Hoover. I was very influenced by The Normals although we could never achieve the muscularity and cleverness of their trailblazing sound. I was however lucky enough to play with Chris Luckette later on. RZA also played with The Cold. ALOT! We also played w/ The Red Rockers, Johnny J and the Hitmen, Steffie and the Whitesox, The Models, and many others!
RZA was Becky Kury, Jimy Negrotto, and Charlie Wehr during the most popular years, but also included an array of other members.
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RZA (named long before the rapper) got pretty popular and we were lucky enough to open for touring acts such as U2, Iggy Pop, 10,000 Maniacs, Aztec Camera, XTC, Ultravox, Ian Hunter, The Romantics, Little Steven, Stevie Ray Vaughn, The Replacements, Lords of the New Church, Ellen Degeneres, Marshall Crenshaw, Chequered Past, The Kingbees, Gang of Four, The Selecter, and X (who compared us to Jimmy Buffet ??). NME (England's New Music Express), described us in their review of our opening spot for U2 as "...the toothsome, but Ramone-sy RZA..." We were big fish in a small swamp. Other bands that came out around that time and after were Cowboy Mouth, Wayward Youth, the Singles, The Sluts, The Models, Red Rockers, and Dash Rip Rock, the subDudes, Continental Drifters, the Mechanics, Little Queenie, and of course The Normals, oh so many -- it was the "NO Music scene". We coulda been Seattle 1990. Here's a really comprehensive list of New Orleans bands back then.
Ultimately RZA was no more but some other bands I was in (Pop Combo, Mink Bikini) carried on with some RZA covers. There was a reunion sometime in 1990 of which a video tape exists somewhere!
You can still hear remnants of RZA in my newest band Without Misty.
Photo and layout by Skip Bolen
RZA
| Email Lenny
| Now available for purchase RZA 5 song CD. Including
original recordings of "Regina", "Hey Sweetheart",
& "Daddy Don't" ! Featuring Becky Kury, Jimy
Negrotto and Charlie Wehr Hear "Hey Sweetheart" on MP3 |
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| Send check or m/o for $8.00 incl. s/h PayPal also accepted |