James White is a name used by James Chance, musician and singer in New York, says Wikipedia. He played with the Contortions, whose shows often ended with a fistfight. Contort Yourself is the first song on the record. Lydia Lunch appears on the album as Stella Rico. The Blacks turned into Defunkt, which has 20 albums in its discography. See how playful this bunch is—a band that has been together a long time is named’ defunct.’ Lunch and White use pseudonyms. As I recall, Rolling Stone said sometimes the band played as James Black and the Whites.
[Tropical] Heat Wave is easy to like; it starts at 11:42 on the album. Side B is mostly jazz. For those of you who missed New Wave, White’s pose on the cover is classic. He wears a white dinner jacket, continuing the playing on words.
converselyspeaking 