The Meth Genies "Normandy"  ©Fogerty/XYZ.  Recorded 1984 or 85 NYC by Alex Silberman. Vincent Fogerty, guitar; Chris Schiavo, bass; Rob Schecterson, drums; Emily XYZ, vocal.

Normandy by the Meth Genies

Emily XYZ - vocals, lyrics
Virgil Moorefield - drums

The poem was written on New Jersey Transit commuter train into New York. It uses a very beautiful African rhythm called adowa, which comes from Royal Hartigan's book "West African Rhythms for Drumset." 

Electric Magistrate

This is one of the best tracks from my old band, the Meth Genies. We recorded this probably 1985 in New York.

Mary Says Its OK

This is one of two demos that were the first recordings we did with Chris Schiavo, in probably 1985. Alex Silberman recorded this on a 4-track in his apartment on East 7th St. Chris came up w/ the bass melody & everything was built out from there. Chris Schiavo, bass; Vincent Fogerty, guitar; emily xyz, vocals & lyrics.

Tami

Demo of Meth Genies "Ms Christ," recorded on a 4-track by John Gullo at his brother Steve's apt. on E 7 St., NYC, probably 1985 or 86. Steve became our drummer soon after this. Emily XYZ plays drums on this track, Vincent Fogerty, guitar, Chris Schiavo, bass. There is a cleaner version recorded about a year later, by Alex Silberman, but I think I like this one better - it sounds more like the song was meant to sound.

Ms Christ

This was the first spoken-word poem I ever recorded. I had been writing poems intended to be read aloud/performed rather than published & read silently for about a year when I wrote this.  When I heard about the killing of Anwar Sadat, I was walking home from work and the phrase went thru my mind, I wonder who shot Sadat? And it just grabbed me, it was silly and cool and musical all at once, and I wrote the poem when I got home. I did both vocals and "percussion" (sheet metal and some wooden thing) on this track. Recorded at The Outlook Studio in Bethel, Maine, by my friend Ted St. Pierre in summer 1982. Ted and his wife Connie were fans and supporters of my early work.  Robert Christgau named one of two "indie singles of the year" in his famous Pazz & Jop Poll in the Village Voice in December 1982; the other was Grandmaster Flash's The Message. 

Who Shot Sadat (1982)

This is the first of a series of voice memo poems, fragments of word-music that come into my head usually while I'm walking somewhere. 

Goes To The Sybil - VoiceMemo Poem 1

This is a very long poem, one of the first two voice pieces I did, dates back to I guess 1987, then worked on in performance for a couple more years after that. We don't read this one live anymore, it is retired.

She Promised Me

This is a live performance by the Meth Genies (Vincent Fogerty, guitar; Chris Schiavo, bass; emily xyz, vocals & percussion)at the club 8BC in New York, in probably 1984, maybe 85. We were "between drummers" at this point, which turned out to be much better for this song. These words were inspired by a poem fragment by David West, an East Village artist friend. The song at this point was a work-in-progress; later, we streamlined it into a regular song form, with different, concise lyrics; that version is simply called Tami (elsewhere on this site). 8BC was an amazing 
performance-art club on East 8 St. between Aves B & C.

Tami of the Sea

This is the first studio recording we did of "Club Song," on Alex Silberman's 4 track. A later studio version, for Anne-Sargent Wooster's video Carmen (1986, I think) was maybe technically better, but lacks the crunch and attitude of this one.  Personnel: Vincent Fogerty, guitar; Rob Schecterson, drums; Alex Silberman, bass; emily xyz, vocals. Song copyright Fogerty/XYZ.

Club Song (Alex production)

Snakecharmer is an instrumental that Vincent wrote, spring or summer 1986, for a video one of our friends did. This is one of my favorite Meth Genies songs. On this recording: Vincent Fogerty, guitar and bass; Josh Katz, drums; emily xyz, tambourines.

emily xyz

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