N.E.M.B. – Green Records – 1981

Torture

The Middle Room

Non Erotic Male Bonding N.E.M.B. has to be one of the weirdest names for a post punk group around. I have no information at all on this outfit, except the record sleeve tells me they are from Baltimore and the record label is based in Tampa.

Does the band name suggest they are part of the gay scene over the pond, or does the ‘Non’ part of the name suggest the exact opposite? I neither know nor care which way the band members (all male) swing, but I DO hear The Gang Of Four, I also hear a touch of Classix Nouveaux, or perhaps ‘Pornography’ era Cure mixed up with Big Black. Can you imagine such a sound?

Only Nic can help with this post as I know nothing more of any value to add…sorry!

7 comments
  1. Penguin
    Penguin • Post Author •
    February 7, 2009 at 1:33 am

    Nic, do you know anything about this band at all?

  2. Nic
    Nic
    February 7, 2009 at 11:52 am

    I’m afraid not, Penguin: they’re a bit of a mystery…

    A quick Google only reveals this…
    Lee Warren had a band called The Jetsons in Tampa (around 1980), before he moved to Baltimore and started NEMB…
    He moved to New York after that and started a group called King of Culture…

  3. Charles Freeman
    Charles Freeman
    September 11, 2010 at 12:25 am

    Hi Nic,

    I was briefly a member of NEMB in Baltimore in 1980/81. I played bass and keyboards with Lee Warren on vocals and George Poscover on bass and keyboards. We had a funky Roland drum machine. I wasn’t involved in the recording, that happened after I left, but played on some incredible Lee Warren songs like, “Fight Like a Girl” and “The Importance of Making it Big”. Some members of the band were gay and there was some connection to the gay punk thing going on at the time.

  4. vivienne westwood
    vivienne westwood
    October 15, 2010 at 3:01 am

    Non Erotic Male Bonding N.E.M.B. has to be one of the weirdest names for a post punk group around.

  5. Elihu Vedder
    Elihu Vedder
    May 2, 2011 at 12:55 am

    I worked with Lee Warren at Strand Bookstore, NYC in 1988. He gave me a copy of a King of Culture record from 1983, and when I knew him he lived in Jersey City and would hold these large scrap metal jams outdoors. Got to be the same guy.

  6. robert
    robert
    November 21, 2012 at 6:27 pm

    Lee was in the Artholes in Tampa, not the Jetsons. The Jetsons became the Stickfigures – Bill Carey and David Bowman were in the Stickfigures, along with Sid Dansby, Robert Dansby & Rachel Bowman.
    Bill & Lee & briefly Rachel were in King of Culture and Bill & Dave were also in Crash. Both Bill & Dave lived in London for awhile recording with Creation.

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