‘Not later, baby’

Atlantan Syl Sylvain and the New York Dolls are back in action

“Music’s gotta have one important ingredient,” says New York Dolls guitarist and Atlanta-area resident Sylvain Sylvain. “It’s gotta drive ya to take off all your clothes and run around the house naked. Just dance around the kitchen in your birthday suit. If not, it ain’t worth shit.”

The outspoken and flamboyant guitarist-singer has been making his own brand of “get naked” rock ‘n’ roll since the early ’70s. As a member of the iconic Dolls, a band known almost as much for its legendary excesses as its blues-based rock, he has managed to carve a lasting legacy for himself. And now, despite the deaths of historic founding members Johnny Thunders, Arthur Kane, Jerry Nolan and Billy Murcia, survivors Sylvain and singer David Johansen are back on the road and in the stores with a new album.

But don’t expect Sylvain to be too nostalgic about the past. Calling from a hotel in Portland, Ore., the Jamaica, Queens-bred performer points to the title of the recently released Dolls album, One Day It Will Please Us to Remember Even This. “In other words, don’t blow it now because what you are missing might be the best time of your life,” he explains. “People are walkin’ around saying, ‘Shit man, the world is goin’ to hell in a basket.’ But 10 years from now, they might be in a wheelchair. So in other words, ‘Right here, right now. Not later, baby.’”

The album, released in July on Roadrunner Records, is the first since 1974’s Too Much Too Soon. This time out, Sylvain and singer David Johansen are joined by a new house of Dolls including Steve Conte (guitar), Sami Yaffa (bass), Brian Delaney (drums) and Brian Koonin (keyboards), but the raucous spirit of the band remains in a tough and rollicking set of rough-hewn rock ‘n’ roll. The new album joins a number of recent CD and DVD releases that continue to preserve the band’s legacy.

“The kids, and I call them kids, of all ages, every generation picked up on the Dolls,” he says, briefly reflecting on the group’s influential history. “See, the big myth before we came along was you’d had to be like the Beatles to get a recording contract or a Jeff Beck to have any reason to get up on stage. We broke those walls down.” He cites a string of non-traditional New York-based artists who followed the Dolls’ unconventional success: Patti Smith, Talking Heads, Blondie, Television and the Ramones. “Now that’s art,” he laughs. “If you could hang that in a gallery, shit man, I’d be a Picasso.”

And even though the New York Dolls helped set the framework for both the punk and hair-band movements with their glittery blend of don’t-give-a-shit machismo delivered with a glammy Cabaret-inspired theatricality, don’t call him a punk. “I hate the work ‘punk,’” he bristles, then laughs. “It’s just another asshole label to sell more clothing. It’s so uniform, it sucks. I wish nobody would compare me to that, but OK, I’ll take anything at this point. I’ll take any love.”

Since 2004, the Dolls have been getting heaps of love from a host of unlikely sources. In fact, it was longtime fan and former NYD fan-club president Morrissey who convinced the originally short-lived band to reform and play for a one-time performance 30 years after its implosion. “We thought, ‘it’s only for two shows, so why not? We’ll put the past in the closet — or take it out of the closet.’ It was a stone-gas time. Then from there, we’d write songs at soundcheck and pretty soon, people wanted to sign us. We could have stayed a performing band, but we just don’t work like that.”

Soon garage-rock historian Little Steven came calling, adding the group to the swingin’ tour series that returns to town this Wednesday. “People in Atlanta should really support Little Steven’s shows,” he says. “He single-handedly introduced the 45s to the whole world. And the Woggles and Catfight. He supports us so we should support him.”

Since 2000, most of Sylvain’s time has been spent on the road, but he says he comes to his home in Atlanta often to spend time with his “Georgia Peach” wife, Wanda, his mother-in-law, Nellie, and his son, O’Dell Mizrahi. “I love living there. Everything’s real, man. Even the guitar players, like Rick Richards [of the Georgia Satellites.] The guitar players in New York, they just make-believe, but the ones in the South, that’s the real shit.”

An Atlanta resident since the mid-’90s, Sylvain says the South held a few culture-shock moments when he first arrived. “The lovely Miss Wanda took me all around town. I’d never heard of boiled peanuts, meat-and-threes or pot liquor. The first time we went out to see some bands in Little Five Points, we came home — now I had never seen a possum before — we were driving into the driveway, and one was coming out of our garbage can! I said ‘Holy shit, honey! Look at the size of that fuckin’ rat!’”

lee.smith@creativeloafing.com