Other sites may start their timeline in 1981, yet we are going to begin a few years earlier with a look at what was going on in the lives of our favorite New Yorkers just prior to things really taking off. So, in 1979 we find that Kate Schellenbach is already a fixture in the New York punk scene.
Dave Parsons relocates from his home in Boca Raton, FL to New York. Once in New York he continues to put out his punk ‘zine “Mouth of the Rat.” Before long he opens a record store called “The Ratcage.” Dave Parsons meets
Kate Schellenbach and
John Berry after only having lived in the city for three days. This cosmic meeting took place back in 1979 at a club called Tier 3 following a Pop Group show. It is worth noting that Kate had previously written a letter to Parson’s Florida punk ‘zine “Mouth of the Rat.”
During this time Kate Schellenbach plays in a band called
The Carcinogens which also features Lawrence Caua on vocals, Sarah Cox on guitar, and Alex Brown on drums. Kate Schellenbach starts out as the group's vocalist and but moves behind the drums when the group morphs into Kate's next band, the "Skiples."
The
Walden Jazz Band reformed with new band members, including Jeremy Shatan and Michael Diamond in 1978. In 1979, the band's memebers were still very active in the group and would set aside time to meet and practice once or twice a week throughout the school year. These practices were held with the end goal of perfecting a couple of jazz selections which would later be performed before an audience at the school's annual talent show "A Musical Evening at Walden."