The Naked and the Dead

Vintage deathrockers from New York City, NY, USA, The Naked and the Dead were cult figures in Gotham's small but fervent mid-1980s post-punk/proto-goth scene. The predominantly teenage quartet mixed pulsing, acrobatic basslines and waves of dark, piercing guitar, with tribal drum tattoos and sirenlike vocals. Constructing complex songs full of unusual time changes, they nonetheless avoided the dour and gloomy in favor of a kinetic, punkish intensity with its own brand of moody power. The band reformed in 2002 with new vocalist Julia Ghoulia, and performed that December for the first time in 17 years at Great Lakes in Brooklyn, NY. In celebration of the band's 20th Anniversary, The Naked and the Dead (Christopher Bollman, Greg Fasolino, and Julia Ghoulia, joined on drums by Julia's bandmate from The Brides, D.W. Friend) performed a special reunion concert at the 2005 Drop Dead III Festival at The Knitting Factory in NYC. Arisen from their premature burial in 1985, The Naked and the Dead were like ghosts reborn from a distant, poorly-known sonic era of the citys music history, from a time when there was no internet, when alternative rock was not a viable consumer commodity, when making music with a dark edge was an act of faith and iconoclastic passion. Christopher Bollman and Greg Fasolino moved on to perform in Bell Hollow. In 2007, The Naked and the Dead CD collection (complete set of 1985 material; 19 tracks; Moorleichen Recordings) was made available by mail order only via Lulu.com. In 2009, The Naked and the Dead made their 1985 recordings available digitally via iTunes, etc. Lorianne Oakley - Vocals (1985) Christopher Bollman - Bass (1985, 2002, 2005) Greg Fasolino - Guitar (1985, 2002, 2005) David Patti - Drums (1985, 2002) Julia Ghoulia - Vocals (2002, 2005) D.W. Friend - Drums (2005) Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.