Lost Notes S2 Bonus: Teenagers Surfing on the Wave of the Apocalypse

Lost Notes: Groupies

KCRW

Music History, Documentary, Society & Culture, Music

4.7 • 721 Ratings

🗓️ 6 August 2020

⏱️ 39 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Our second of two Lost Notes bonus episodes for this summer. This one is about The Student Teachers. In 1977, a group of music obsessed friends got together and decided to form a band. Most of them were still in high school and almost none of them had even picked up an instrument before, but they lived and breathed the New York City music scene and wanted nothing more than to be a part of it. They worked in record stores, ran fan clubs, and spent every second they could together, hanging in clubs like CBGB’s and Max’s Kansas City — clubs they’d eventually headline.

Soon after they formed the band, they played a practice gig at one of their high schools and took off from there. They spent their days studying for physics tests and practicing for French finals and spent their nights drinking White Russians and rubbing elbows with their rock heroes. In their two years together, they headlined their favorite clubs, went on tour, made recordings, got interviewed on the radio, opened for Iggy Pop and hung with David Bowie in the recording studio. As the decade came to a close and they got a little older, their love for each other dwindled, and the band imploded. But what a beautiful and wild ride it was. This is the story of the Student Teachers, in their own words.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey gang, Nick and Mike here, dropping into your feed for one more summer bonus episode.
0:06.5	Yes, we're excited. And keep in mind, September, season three arrives, Lost Notes, 1980.
0:13.1	It's going to be hosted by the poet and cultural critic, Hanif of Darakeeb.
0:16.6	His stories are new looks at artists like Grace Jones, Stevie Wonder, Sugar Hill Gang, Darby Crash,
0:21.6	a whole bunch of others, and it's a super consequential year for music.
0:25.0	We're really excited to bring that season to you.
0:26.8	It's going to be seven episodes all at once, all on September 24th.
0:30.3	We're putting them all out in one day.
0:32.2	We should probably get back to working on them, right?
0:34.2	And so we shall, but in the meantime, we have a story about a remarkable band from
0:38.7	two of our favorite independent producers. Yes, lots of us tried to be in bands in high school. I know
0:43.0	I did, and it's fun, right? But high school bands don't usually get to play at CBGBs in the late
0:49.2	70s. They don't usually hang out with David Bowie in the studio, but this band did get to do all that.
0:55.4	They're called the student teachers.
0:57.3	If you're music nerds like we are, you may have come across the student teachers before.
1:01.2	Their drummer is Laura Davis-Channon, and she wrote an amazing memoir called The Girl in
1:05.5	the Back about her time with the band, which is completely worth your reading.
1:09.4	And Nacional Records here in L.A LA compiled a bunch of their studio recordings.
1:13.4	It's called Invitation to the Student Teachers, and it's available on band camp.
1:17.4	And this piece is really special, too, and we're kind of excited to add to that wealth of material out there.
1:21.9	It's an oral history with a bunch of the band members, Bill Arning on the Keys, lawyer Reese on bass, Laura Davis on drums,
1:28.8	Philip Shelley on guitar, Joe Katz on second guitar, and their all-star manager, Jody Robello.
	...

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