1980's 12-year-old post-punk sensation Chandra sings "Concentration"
Chandra Oppenheim's story is one of the most innocent but interesting stories to come out of post-punk NYC.
After glam moved into punk and punk moved into post-punk/new wave/no wave/noise/outsider disco/mutant disco/art punk/etc/etc, it was a musical free for all. So it makes sense that an unassuming 12-year-old from Brooklyn would enter the scene backed by a post-punk, outsider disco group under the name Chandra.
Chandra Oppenheim was just twelve years old when her debut album 'Transportation' was released. Musically encouraged by her father from a young age Chandra was writing songs by age nine.
Her father was conceptual artist, Dennis Oppenheim, who caroused with the artists and musicians of the late '70s Lower East Side. Dennis was friends with Eugenie Diserio and Steven Alexander, who had been playing the NYC post-punk circuit with the Model Citizens.
The Model Citizens signed to John Cale's Spy Label and then broke up to take things in another direction with their new band, The Dance, featuring drummer Fred Maher (who later joined Material)
Chandra Oppenheim had been writing music and performing for some time, often doing songs and performances at her father's parties. Having met Chandra when she was 11, Diserio, Alexander and Maher formed a band with Chandra and started to rehearse in a studio in Hell's Kitchen. The result of these rehearsals was their debut EP 'Transportation' on the band's own record label GOGO/ON; a mix of dissonant weird disco, bass-heavy dance grooves and Chandra's unmistakable chant-singing.