How many bands on the Nurse With Wound List have you actually heard?

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The Nurse with Wound list is a list of musicians and bands that accompanied Chance Meeting on a Dissecting Table of a Sewing Machine and an Umbrella (1979), the first album by Nurse With Wound. The list was expanded with Nurse With Wound's second album, To the Quiet Men from a Tiny Girl.

The list was compiled by the original Nurse With Wound trio of Steven Stapleton, John Fothergill, and Heman Pathak. It was intended as a homage to the obscure artists which influenced the Nurse With Wound project. It has since become a type of 'shopping list' for collectors of outsider music. The list only included group names, and collectors have speculated on the specific albums which would have influenced Nurse With Wound. In a 1997 interview in UK magazine The Wire, Stapleton boasted that some of the names on the list were invented, a statement absolutely refuted by John Fothergill in David Keenan's book England's Hidden Reverse, published in 2003. Keenan, having researched the matter, declares Fothergill to be correct.

The full list is here : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nurse_With_Wound_list

This is "heard" as in heard at least one album / a few tracks by, not just a 5 second blast or something. Be truthful now!

Poll Results

OptionVotes
51-75 24
31-40 19
21-30 10
41-50 9
11-20 8
76-100 8
101-150 5
1-10 3
200+ 2
151-200 2
0 0
All of them0


Matt #2, Tuesday, 13 May 2008 16:15 (fifteen years ago) link

About 100 I think.

Matt #2, Tuesday, 13 May 2008 16:19 (fifteen years ago) link

quick tally sayyyys.... 85.

ian, Tuesday, 13 May 2008 16:19 (fifteen years ago) link

97! (xpost)

Tom D., Tuesday, 13 May 2008 16:19 (fifteen years ago) link

77

sexyDancer, Tuesday, 13 May 2008 16:20 (fifteen years ago) link

72 or 73, I kind of lost count of one in the middle.

Pashmina, Tuesday, 13 May 2008 16:21 (fifteen years ago) link

oh wait, 87. missed floh de cologne and michael mantler on the first pass.

ian, Tuesday, 13 May 2008 16:23 (fifteen years ago) link

23 (skidoo)

bnw, Tuesday, 13 May 2008 16:25 (fifteen years ago) link

Counting up again it's exactly 100, although a couple of those I've only heard their post-list recordings. Does that count?

Matt #2, Tuesday, 13 May 2008 16:25 (fifteen years ago) link

95

briania, Tuesday, 13 May 2008 16:27 (fifteen years ago) link

31-40
which i thought will win but now i see i'm on the minority

Zeno, Tuesday, 13 May 2008 16:27 (fifteen years ago) link

Oh hold on, I've recounted and ended up with 107. That can't be right.

Tom D., Tuesday, 13 May 2008 16:28 (fifteen years ago) link

146. I never noticed Negativland was on there.

matinee, Tuesday, 13 May 2008 16:28 (fifteen years ago) link

76-100.
My friend and bandmate's mother plays on the Anal Magic record. Dwight asked her to be the cover model, but she declined.

Trip Maker, Tuesday, 13 May 2008 16:29 (fifteen years ago) link

didn't finish yet but I think i'll end up in 51-75. a lot of that is in the past year (<3 internet)

dmr, Tuesday, 13 May 2008 16:31 (fifteen years ago) link

Good move that.
xpost

http://www.stalk.net/paradigm/images/06.jpg

Matt #2, Tuesday, 13 May 2008 16:32 (fifteen years ago) link

106 certainly. and probably another 20 or so i've heard something by but cant recall exactly what it was...

though, at the end of the day, i don't much care for nww...

bb, Tuesday, 13 May 2008 16:32 (fifteen years ago) link

i keep thinking i like that anal magic record more than i do

bb, Tuesday, 13 May 2008 16:33 (fifteen years ago) link

99, after a second recount

Tom D., Tuesday, 13 May 2008 16:34 (fifteen years ago) link

70. or thereabouts. i'm surprised it's that many. but there are more normal people on that list than i remember. i'm pretty normal actually. there's tons of out-there weirdo stuff i've never heard.

scott seward, Tuesday, 13 May 2008 16:34 (fifteen years ago) link

maybe i should recount too

Zeno, Tuesday, 13 May 2008 16:35 (fifteen years ago) link

"White Noise" seems a major omission.

(from 41-50 person)

Mark G, Tuesday, 13 May 2008 16:36 (fifteen years ago) link

"a lot of that is in the past year (<3 internet)"

see, this is one reason why i haven't heard a lot that stuff. i don't download music at all. and i can't afford the records. someone has to start NWWL Records and put out vinyl reissues of everything on there that isn't already in print or easily found.

scott seward, Tuesday, 13 May 2008 16:38 (fifteen years ago) link

with so many blogs out there getting these records available, im surprised numbers arent higher

bb, Tuesday, 13 May 2008 16:38 (fifteen years ago) link

Not as many saddoes out there as I thought obviously

Tom D., Tuesday, 13 May 2008 16:39 (fifteen years ago) link

with so many blogs out there getting these records available, im surprised numbers arent higher

That's because most of these records are nothing more than conversation pieces for noise kids.

QuantumNoise, Tuesday, 13 May 2008 16:43 (fifteen years ago) link

In a bad way?

I wanna hear the Hairy Chapter albums.

gnarly sceptre, Tuesday, 13 May 2008 16:48 (fifteen years ago) link

43. Just when I thought I was running out of things to download...

Colonel Poo, Tuesday, 13 May 2008 16:50 (fifteen years ago) link

'bout 70, or samthung.

t**t, Tuesday, 13 May 2008 16:50 (fifteen years ago) link

Huh - only 59 for me and I'm not so sure that's a bad thing - there's some just plain god-awful racket in about ten of those 59, so I can only assume the same would 1/6th rule would be true for rest of list.

BlackIronPrison, Tuesday, 13 May 2008 16:51 (fifteen years ago) link

(I understand what you mean, QN. I'm just playing devil's advocate. I was just thinking it wouldn't be a bad thing if the word noise was subtracted from your statement.)

gnarly sceptre, Tuesday, 13 May 2008 16:51 (fifteen years ago) link

I think a much more interesting poll would be how many of these people could you include on a compilation, and then the winner would actually make the comp.

libcrypt, Tuesday, 13 May 2008 16:53 (fifteen years ago) link

I wanna hear the Hairy Chapter albums.
"Can't Get Through" is awesome.

Trip Maker, Tuesday, 13 May 2008 16:53 (fifteen years ago) link

only ones I know:

Art Bears
Cabaret Voltaire
John Cage
Can
Captain Beefheart
Chrome
Crass
Faust
Flying Lizards
Fred Frith
Gong
Hampton Grease Band
Henry Cow
King Crimson
Kraftwerk
Steve Lacy
Mothers of Invention
Negativland
Neu!
Nico
Yoko Ono
Evan Parker and Paul Lytton
Pere Ubu
Plastic Ono Band
Public Image Ltd
Red Krayola
Steve Reich
The Residents
Sonny Sharrock
Soft Machine
Stooges
Tangerine Dream
Throbbing Gristle
Velvet Underground
James White and the Contortions
Robert Wyatt
La Monte Young
Frank Zappa

nicky lo-fi, Tuesday, 13 May 2008 16:55 (fifteen years ago) link

Mutant Sounds = NWW List Turbo Edition

gnarly sceptre, Tuesday, 13 May 2008 16:56 (fifteen years ago) link

Gave up on that place after a while

Tom D., Tuesday, 13 May 2008 16:57 (fifteen years ago) link

as conversation, every record ive heard has been great. as what i actually put on less than half would find their way from the stack.

hmmm perhaps i should do a nww mix later tonight...will post if done...then we can play the is that ghedahlia tazartes at 22 minutes game. will also force me to listen to a lot of this again and perhaps delete a few more

bb, Tuesday, 13 May 2008 16:58 (fifteen years ago) link

I can verify that I have owned records by 67 of the folks on that list. How many I have heard, I dunno.

libcrypt, Tuesday, 13 May 2008 17:01 (fifteen years ago) link

I haven't downloaded that much of it at all. In fact, I have no idea how much stuff is listed there in total. Seems enormous. And maybe I'm giving it more credit than it's due. It just seems like anytime I see discover something obscure looking and interesting and old in the store or on eBay, it's already posted there. All of 'em! But maybe some of it is obscure and unremarkable, rather than obscure and unmissable.

gnarly sceptre, Tuesday, 13 May 2008 17:01 (fifteen years ago) link

xpost re Mutant Sounds

gnarly sceptre, Tuesday, 13 May 2008 17:02 (fifteen years ago) link

Around 60. I'd heard of this list, but never bothered to look it up before. So, thanks!

augustgarage, Tuesday, 13 May 2008 17:03 (fifteen years ago) link

70

Herman G. Neuname, Tuesday, 13 May 2008 17:05 (fifteen years ago) link

21, and what's sad is that I thought this would be average...

Pete Scholtes, Tuesday, 13 May 2008 17:17 (fifteen years ago) link

I come in somewhere between 65 and 70. (I was scrolling fast.)

(I understand what you mean, QN. I'm just playing devil's advocate. I was just thinking it wouldn't be a bad thing if the word noise was subtracted from your statement.)

The reason why I poked fun at the noise kids is because I've heard so many rave about this 'n' that rare record on the NWW list. Then they give me their latest cassette, and it sounds like the last cassette I was given -- pure static! What I dig about this list is its diversity in sound. Sure, a lot of it is uber-obscure, but it's all over the map, sonically.

QuantumNoise, Tuesday, 13 May 2008 17:27 (fifteen years ago) link

179. and not one of them wasn't worth the time/effort.

Mr. Hal Jam, Tuesday, 13 May 2008 17:36 (fifteen years ago) link

can we pick favorites? I will rep for DEBRIS STATIC DISPOSAL

http://www.anthologyrecordings.com/images_cat/45_1_300.jpg

digital reissue w/ sound clips:
http://www.anthologyrecordings.com/release.asp?album=vJhj3ZB2IzM

dmr, Tuesday, 13 May 2008 17:36 (fifteen years ago) link

That might be mine, too!

QuantumNoise, Tuesday, 13 May 2008 17:38 (fifteen years ago) link

70 or so.

Alex in SF, Tuesday, 13 May 2008 17:42 (fifteen years ago) link

hmm, I got 118. and that's without a couple that are probably slam dunks for most (I don't think I've ever heard Cabaret Voltaire, for example.)

and I don't think I ever sought out any of these records simply for being on the list. it's usually due to obsessive interest in a number of different specialist areas (Thud Rock, euro-improv, Krautrock, 20th century composition, etc)

Stormy Davis, Tuesday, 13 May 2008 17:49 (fifteen years ago) link

heard: 70
enjoy: 40-ish

nerve_pylon, Tuesday, 13 May 2008 17:51 (fifteen years ago) link

thinking about starting my own trangressive tribute act, nonce with wind

john wahey (NickB), Thursday, 2 October 2014 19:07 (nine years ago) link

sound would be kind of like gary glitter on ex-lax

john wahey (NickB), Thursday, 2 October 2014 19:08 (nine years ago) link

plz don't go telling me that william bennett has got there first

john wahey (NickB), Thursday, 2 October 2014 19:09 (nine years ago) link

I think that back in the days before downloading/album blogs/Spotify I had probably only heard a handful of these acts. I didn't know what a NWW list was back then either. It would have been cruel to know such a thing.

Yo Gotti Nutter Ting Hummin' (President Keyes), Thursday, 2 October 2014 19:13 (nine years ago) link

lol

C21H23NO5 (nakhchivan), Thursday, 2 October 2014 19:17 (nine years ago) link

exackly, its fkn sadistic

Ƹ༑Ʒ (imago), Thursday, 2 October 2014 19:20 (nine years ago) link

I've never even seen this list

please delete outrageous tanuki crappyposter (wins), Thursday, 2 October 2014 19:22 (nine years ago) link

I feel like I must've seen this list before. If not, then I'm still in the dark as to how I stumbled upon that Anal Magic album.

Portly Backgammon (Old Lunch), Thursday, 2 October 2014 19:23 (nine years ago) link

I don't think it's inherently cruel or sadistic -- I think that says more about your approach(es)

sarahell, Thursday, 2 October 2014 19:25 (nine years ago) link

oh no, I think the list is great. But if I had come across it in 1999 I would have spent a fortune tracking down oop albums that would be widely available by 2005 or so.

Yo Gotti Nutter Ting Hummin' (President Keyes), Thursday, 2 October 2014 19:33 (nine years ago) link

Napster started in 1999!

sink floyd (GOTT PUNCH II HAWKWINDZ), Thursday, 2 October 2014 20:00 (nine years ago) link

I remember spending hours waiting to download Moving Gelatine Plates or whatever from dudes in Europe on dialup.

sink floyd (GOTT PUNCH II HAWKWINDZ), Thursday, 2 October 2014 20:01 (nine years ago) link

I spent years in the mid-90s looking for a bunch of obscure-at-the-time records I'd made a list of from the 2nd edition of the Trouser Press Guide with no illusions or need to be a completist

sarahell, Thursday, 2 October 2014 20:03 (nine years ago) link

Heard: 56
Seen live: 6
Stayed at their house: 1
Actually a really big fan of: approx 15

everything, Thursday, 2 October 2014 20:12 (nine years ago) link

Napster started in 1999!

oh yeah, possibly that's why there are 5 cop cars across from my house right now

Yo Gotti Nutter Ting Hummin' (President Keyes), Thursday, 2 October 2014 20:18 (nine years ago) link

oh no, I think the list is great. But if I had come across it in 1999

Probably came across it in 2000 or so and I love a lot of the music but I wasn't that into tracking everything down. Also as I said I really think there is a sense of black humour to the thing. What would people in 1980 have felt? At least we had a search engine etc. and some mailing lists to ask about. I used to be a member of an old S3 list and the guys there were knowledgeable as hell.

Not that this list is that diff when looking through a record guide or reading a book on music and coming up with a list of tens of records to investigate. sarah otm.

xyzzzz__, Thursday, 2 October 2014 23:01 (nine years ago) link

dude i spent like three years on napster trying to find the (then) long-out-of-print "faust so far" and all i ever found was a crappy xing-encoded mp3 of "it's a rainy day sunshine girl" with diginoise everywhere. finding sphinx tush on napster? forget it!

rushomancy, Thursday, 2 October 2014 23:48 (nine years ago) link

how did u know it was xing encoded

C21H23NO5 (nakhchivan), Thursday, 2 October 2014 23:51 (nine years ago) link

krautrock was all labeled "Weird Al"

Yo Gotti Nutter Ting Hummin' (President Keyes), Friday, 3 October 2014 00:23 (nine years ago) link

is it ok to like most of what i've heard (a bit more now than my number above) of this list but not NWW? despite the efforts of some i still don't get it at all

outback bumfuc (electricsound), Friday, 3 October 2014 00:25 (nine years ago) link

hell yes! and I say that as a big NWW fan

sleeve, Friday, 3 October 2014 00:28 (nine years ago) link

OK I dug up this ancient interview, partial transcription:

"As Steve puts on a cassette of the second NWW album, a list is produced from somewhere. This is, I'm told, a provisional tally of what the Nurses consider to be the thirty most original records. The bulk are already chosen, all that remains is to debate over a few of the more contentious ones. I scan the list, and though I pride myself on my ability to stay reasonably abreast of what's going down (I'm not the world's greatest collector but I'm an inveterate fax'n'info gatherer), I've only heard of half a dozen or so of the names, and probably only two or three of the actual records. Most of them are before my time - long lost obscurities from all over the place. There is very little I can offer in the way of mediation - but, and it's a big but, this list is of great significance because it's already becoming clear to me that NWW's music has arisen precisely for the reason that these records no longer circulate (or records like them), and the key to understanding the motivation behind NWW is to probe a bit deeper into the mentality of the collector, as represented by these three particular specimens."

(the article later notes that, since the interview, "there has been much more activity from the group")

Face Out magazine, March 1981

sleeve, Friday, 3 October 2014 01:19 (nine years ago) link

I'm surprised nobody's put out a book based on the list. Would expect something detailing who the band was, where from, discography and review of essential works. May be something similar is online but I don't remember seeing much detail. & I for one would like a physical copy to peruse.

I think I came across the list around the time I was first using the internet back around the milenium. I think there were already soundfiles posted for a lot of the music. Seemed to be a number of sites with the list decoded at least.
I'd come across some of the list contents earlier through other sources independent of the list. There are some not so obscure bands listed. Surprised how early they'd heard of a couple though. DAF for one.

Stevolende, Friday, 3 October 2014 07:55 (nine years ago) link

I want to hunt down some magma on youtube but all I did was go down memory lane with the Dead C. what are you going to do!

xyzzzz__, Friday, 3 October 2014 08:02 (nine years ago) link

I've heard around 100 of these and they're among my favorite artists/records of all time. I should really check out the rest.

Nurse With Wound is one of those artists I like more for the idea behind instead of the music. I think I'd enjoy more talking and geeking out to this albums with him instead of listening to his music. Also the name of the band is top 10 band names of all time for me.

Reminds me of a famous mexican poem (cant remember the poet) about a drunk neurosurgeon with a blade in his hand.

Moka, Friday, 3 October 2014 08:38 (nine years ago) link

Hadn't counted the number of artists I've definitely listened to on there before and I think it's 175 and I have soundfiles and cds by a load of those..

I'm not that familiar with Stapleton's work and should have caught up with that much better than I have. I met him at an art college exhibition here in Galway back around 11 years ago. He lives in the Burren down in the next county down the Irish coast, or certainly did for years.

I liked the 2cd sampler that Sanctuary put out of his work with a lot of edited tracks on, Living Fear of James Last. I don't know how good an intro to his work it makes though

Stevolende, Friday, 3 October 2014 09:19 (nine years ago) link

I want to hunt down some magma on youtube but all I did was go down memory lane with the Dead C. what are you going to do!

I was listening to Magma's "Udu Wudu" album on Youtube a few days ago. Surprisingly funky!

Yo Gotti Nutter Ting Hummin' (President Keyes), Friday, 3 October 2014 13:49 (nine years ago) link

attahk is even funkier than udu wudu!

there used to be a super-great clip of the '75 band rehearsing theusz hamtaahk that i was going to link to but it looks like it's gone now. :( so here, take this classic appearance from a 1972 french comedy:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gK0qpTqfqC0

rushomancy, Friday, 3 October 2014 21:54 (nine years ago) link

four years pass...

I think I'm on 54 now, which is 11 more than last time, 11 years ago. so by the time I'm 280 years old I'll have heard the whole list!

Colonel Poo, Monday, 29 July 2019 09:49 (four years ago) link

57. Can't say I'm curious enough to check all of them out though.

pomenitul, Monday, 29 July 2019 10:00 (four years ago) link

How many of them are actually any good is the real question.

Arthur Lowe & Love (Tom D.), Monday, 29 July 2019 10:01 (four years ago) link

Just checked, and I'd heard 99 eleven years ago LOL. Not sure I've added much beyond that.

Arthur Lowe & Love (Tom D.), Monday, 29 July 2019 10:03 (four years ago) link

Depends on your tolerance to practical jokes.

xp

pomenitul, Monday, 29 July 2019 10:04 (four years ago) link

just going through the list, hurrah I've finally found a use for that click counter I bought for no good reason. Never listened to Dubuffet, have seen his work tho.

calzino, Monday, 29 July 2019 10:59 (four years ago) link

60

calzino, Monday, 29 July 2019 11:02 (four years ago) link

oops 61, thought I hadn't heard any of the D's despite owning a DAF album or 2 in the 80's.

calzino, Monday, 29 July 2019 11:09 (four years ago) link

About 50 I think, and about 10 new to me in the last 10 years. One of them being Catherine Ribiero + Alpes, who've moved near the top of my alltime favorites, so I should keep digging.

bendy, Monday, 29 July 2019 18:31 (four years ago) link

Just checked, and I'd heard 99 eleven years ago LOL. Not sure I've added much beyond that.

― Arthur Lowe & Love (Tom D.), Monday, 29 July 2019 10:03 (eight hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

Just checked, I'm up to 176. I need to get out more.

Arthur Lowe & Love (Tom D.), Monday, 29 July 2019 18:38 (four years ago) link

wow I counted exactly 100

brimstead, Monday, 29 July 2019 21:55 (four years ago) link

Conservatively, 59

dan selzer, Monday, 29 July 2019 22:01 (four years ago) link

38 that i can definitively say i have heard and know what they sound like

bookmarkflaglink (jim in vancouver), Monday, 29 July 2019 22:04 (four years ago) link

one month passes...

It is about beginnings for Stapleton in another way, too – he has inadvertently played a long game in record collecting, and is now using the proceeds from selling his rare vinyl to build a house in Clare, Ireland, “near the Father Ted house”.

“I have maybe 1,000 albums left, but most of the rare ones are gone,” he says. “I could not believe the prices of some of them.”

Didn't know he really sold off most of his records!

Le Bateau Ivre, Tuesday, 24 September 2019 11:41 (four years ago) link

How many Chilean avant-garde noseflute LPs does one man need?

funnel spider ESA (Matt #2), Tuesday, 24 September 2019 13:23 (four years ago) link

At least five tbh.

pomenitul, Tuesday, 24 September 2019 13:31 (four years ago) link

Good article! The band that only recorded one song was Sphinx Tush (though there are two different versions of that song). I also appreciated Allan acknowledging that the list is not some comprehensive chronicle of the underground but is honestly fairly limited in scope.

My main hope is that Finders Keepers will somehow finagle the rights for a legit reissue of the Don Bradshaw-Leather LP. I love that record, but the pressing was apparently not very good, and all the online copies floating about sound extremely bad.

Poody Mae Bubblebutt, Miss Kumquat of 1947 (rushomancy), Tuesday, 24 September 2019 13:49 (four years ago) link

NWW That's What I Call Music! If only

bendy, Tuesday, 24 September 2019 16:35 (four years ago) link

"the Don Bradshaw-Leather LP"

The back cover of the album looks like a low-budget community theatre reworking of Zardoz - if only it had been the front cover. But the music is better than I expected, like early Tangerine Dream. And now Youtube's sidebar has me.

Ashley Pomeroy, Tuesday, 24 September 2019 22:37 (four years ago) link

enjoy your Joe Rogan videos

Poody Mae Bubblebutt, Miss Kumquat of 1947 (rushomancy), Tuesday, 24 September 2019 23:36 (four years ago) link


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