XX/XX/92 - Brooklyn, NY, Bicycle

XX/XX/92 - Brooklyn, NY, Bicycle

Line-up: Chan, Glen Thrasher, others

By September, Chan had moved to New York, with Glen Thrasher coming with her. Soon after moving to New York, Chan began working at The Levy on First Avenue and First Street. This was apparently the first performance she ever played in New York. Gerald Cosloy (of Matador Records) was in the audience.

Gerald Cosloy (knew Glen through his Zine, "Lowlife"):

I had a correspondence relationship with Glen. At first it was kind of adversarial and then over time kind of more, ''Well, this is what you do, and this is what I do, and I kind of like what you do even though I wouldnt do it myself." I got to know him that way and he moved to New York and I remember hearing from him that he moved here and that he had a band. And his band was called Cat Power. So I was instantly curious. 

Chan's connection to New York remains to this day (''New York, New York", "Manhattan"). 

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From the 5/2/97 Cool Beans Interview:

When did you first cross the Mason/Dixon line? 

When I moved to New York. I visited once, and then I moved here. I wanted to get out of Atlanta, and I knew I could live here. It was difficult financially for about a year. Actually for the first six months it was okay, and then the next six months were really hellish. 

Why? 

It got cold. And I got fired. I couldn't find work. It sucked. 

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From the XX/XX/96 Puncture Interview:

I didn't really play musician until I came to New York later, when I was 20. An old boyfriend had a guitar and I started making up songs. I think I played a show in Brooklyn where people saw me. 

Mainly, I was alone in New York, except for a close friend. It could be such a weird, silent place, really. Everyone with their eyes down. It almost reminded me of the South, the stillness of everything. My main memory of the South, growing up, is visual; a still landscape, very beautiful. We had this old run-down graveyard behind our house. I remember running over a mud bridge trough a tobacco patch in bare feet. God, now that's pretty Southern. 

I came to New York to get away from things that were happening there with me. I had a friend pass away, and other people were just so crazy. I still love going back. It's a part of me and I don't even realize it when I'm gone.

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From the 4/XX/97 London Interview:

I had about 10 songs and I was still teaching myself guitar when I moved to New York. 

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From the Autumn 1996 Weedbus Fanzine Interview:

I moved to New York with my friend Glenn, who was a drummer who was editing a fanzine called Lowlife. We did a few shows with musos, a lot of jazz crap in squats and lofts...

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From the 9/XX/98 Davie Piesner Interview:

In the early '90s, fed up with the heroin problem that plagued Atlanta's music scene, Marshall left for New York City. After much prodding, she began playing shows, initially as a duo with her drummer friend Glann Thrasher. Struck by unimaginable stage-fright that has only recently begun to fade, her story derails momentarily as she describes her first gig ever. 

"I was completely terrified," she says, her big brown eyes widening as she talks. "We played in an art gallery and everybody was a part of the old No Wave scene in New York. So they're all experienced and intellectual and talented and I'm really dumb. I don't know anything about music. So it was pretty miserable actually. Then [Thrasher] introduced me to his friend named Gerard from Matador [Cosloy, who co-owned the label]. But I didn't know anything so I was just like 'Nice to meet you.'" 

From Douglas Wolk:

The one I think was her first NYC gig was at Bicycle, the warehouse space in Brooklyn that Vicky Wheeler ran--so named because there were dozens of bicycles hanging from the ceiling. I believe there were like six guitarists in the band at that point, plus Chan and Glen.