Y PANTS

Y Pants were three women artists - Barbara Ess, Virgina Piersol and Gail Vachon. They mainly played at art spaces and had their own unique sound derived from the their unusual instrumentation. They based their sound around an amplified toy piano and toy drum set and a ukelele played through a distortion unit. Later they would add an electric bass and a synth. Barbara was well known for her fanzine 'Just Another Asshole' and as well as being Glenn Branca's girlfriend had played with him in The Static and The Theoretical Girls. He produced this debut ep.The lead track from the ep - 'Off The Hook' is a cover of The Rolling Stones song and despite the unusual instrumentation fits in very well with the ESG / Bush Tetras sound. It has a very primitive rhythm but sounds like a blueprint for what would today be called punk funk. Branca did a great production job on it and it has some lovely touches such as the addition of a faked phone conversation. The other songs are more No Wavesque but all the Y Pants songs have a certain unique naive charm to them. They only existed for a couple of years and went on to release an album called 'Beat It Down' on Branca's Neutral label which was produced by another New York legend, Wharton Tiers. After that, they returned to their art pursuits which is what they continue to do to this day. Apparently they still keep in touch and all meet up every year on each other's birthdays.* This is a fan appreciation page *