original house band at CBGB

From 1975 to 1977, Mink DeVille was one of the original house bands at CBGB , the New York City nightclub where punk rock music was born in the mid-1970s. “We auditioned along with hundreds of others, but they liked us and took us on. We played for three years … [D]uring that time we didn’t get paid more than fifty bucks a night”, DeVille said. In 1975, CBGB was the epicenter of punk rock and what would later be called new wave , but Mink DeVille didn’t necessarily fit in the scene. “Onstage, Willy’s band, Mink DeVille, had nothing in common with the new wave CBGB bands that the press had lumped them with,” wrote Alex Halberstadt . “Unlike Television , The Ramones , or Blondie , at heart Mink DeVille was an R&B band, and Willy an old-fashioned soul singer …” Wrote Mark Keresman, “Mink DeVille’s earthy, streamlined sound, rejecting the mainstream high-gloss that ruined much of 1970s rock, was accepted by the same folks who’d go to see Blondie , The Shirts , and Television .”