James Chance and the Contortions
American bands (1977-2016)
James Chance and the Contortions (initially known simply as Contortions, a spin-off group is called James White and the Blacks) was a musical group led by saxophonist and vocalist James Chance, formed in 1977. They were a central act of New York City's downtown no wave music scene in the late 1970s, and were featured on the influential compilation No New York (1978).
Recording history
Their first recording, credited solely as Contortions, was on the 1978 compilation, No New York, produced by Brian Eno. The following year, two albums were issued almost simultaneously on ZE Records; Buy and Off White under the moniker James White and the Blacks. The same musicians recorded both records, though none are credited on the album covers. The Contortions appeared in Rosa von Praunheim's film Das Todesmagazin in 1979.
In 2016, Chance released his first single with his original Contortions band in nearly 30 years, titled "Melt Yourself Down". A music video for the single was directed, filmed and animated by 19 year old Dylan Greenberg and is considered the first Contortions music video to make significant use of dramatic digital effects, such as Chance's face being manipulated to appear as if it were melting.
Band members
Original Contortions guitarist Pat Place went on to found the group Bush Tetras. Bass player George Scott played with Lydia Lunch and Michael Paumgarten in 8-Eyed Spy.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “James Chance and the Contortions” is american bands (1977-2016). The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through James, Chance and Contortions, not as a finished interpretation.
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The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated May 6, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q45359. VIAF identifies the subject as 154393037. 2 of 2 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1977, 1978, 1979 and 2016.
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This entry incorporates text from “James Chance and the Contortions” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.