- The Coachmen
The Coachmen were a lower-Manhattan "progressive garage-rock" band that performed from early 1978 to their final gig at White Columns in August, 1980 featuring guitarists
Thurston Moore and J.D. King, bassist Bob Pullin, and Danny Walworth on drums, replaced by Dave Keay (ex-Harry Toledo). Briefly, Mary Lemley was vocalist. If nothing else, they're notable as Thurston's first band, his first times performing in N.Y.C. clubs and in an artistic milieu.They played at CBGB's, Max's Kansas City (once), Tier 3 (once), A's (often), The Botany Talk House, and other spots including The 80's and S.N.A.F.U., as well as loft parties thrown by Jenny Holzer.
Their second to final performance was at Giorgio Gomelsky's N.Y.C. loft, he the one-time manager of The Rolling Stones and The Yardbirds. It was there that Kim met Thurston.
Some sympatico bands The Coachmen were billed with were: The Green Scene, Paul McMahon's A Band, Phoebe Legere's Monad, Harry Toledo, as well as Flux, a band that included guitarist Lee Ranaldo who would wind up in Sonic Youth with Thurston.
A demo tape of material from those days was released in all three formats on New Alliance in 1988 and titled, "Failure to Thrive."
Shortly after The Coachmen's breakup Moore went on to form
Sonic Youth along with his girlfriend, bassistKim Gordon .J.D. King began an award winning illustration career, and restarted the band with new members in 1997, putting out two recordings, so far, on Moore's Ecstatic Peace label: "Ten Compositions: New Frontiers in Free Rock" in 2000 and "American Mercury" in 2006, the later being reviewed favorably online in Next Big Thing and Blog to Comm, and in print in Wire #276, February, 2007. "American Mercury" also got a fair amount of alternative radio airplay, most notably on WFMU.
The band is now known as J.D. King & The Coachmen, renamed to differentiate it from other bands, old and current, with the same name. The band name was J.D.'s idea, an ironic homage to a typical 1960's garage-rock band name.
Dave Keay is the drummer for the avant-rock band The Day Care Centre. Their double LP, "A Jumpin' Jackpot of Melody," was released in 2007.
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