Cover of 3 Teens Kill 4 record album “No Motive” featuring photo by Seiji Kakizaki, 1982.
The band 3 Teens Kill 4 was made up of David Wojnarowicz and friends Doug Bressler, Brian Butterick, Julie Hair and Jesse Hultberg in the early 1980s.
The name of the band (and their first and only album “No Motive”) was inspired by a New York Post headline suggested by Danceteria bartender and poet Max Blagg.
“Evocative of a larger but then-nascent East Village sensibility, in which alienation and menace were sugarcoated with infantile regression,” cultural critic Carlo McCormick explains, “among the most distinctive attributes of 3TK4 was that they often used toy instruments, partly because David never had learned to play anything.”
The band made a conscious decision not to have a front person or lead singer. In listening to these samples, you’ll hear: found audio David recorded on cassette tape; Julie Hair on Korg rhythm machine; Brian Butterick on Casio drum machine; Jesse Hultberg on bass and Doug Bressler on his Les Paul (the only trained musician on the only real instrument).
In 1982, Pyramid Club co-founders Bobby Bradley and Alan Mace produced “No Motive” at Crossfire Studios with engineer Peter Darmi distributing all 2,000 copies. David left the band later that year and was replaced by Bill Gerstel.
Listen to samples from the 2017 re-release of 3TK4’s album “No Motive,” below.
