Drag City’s 2025 release brings back the voice and sound of Bag People’s fragmented history

Transmission 182: Interview with Bag People

Bag People were a short-lived post-punk/no wave band active in the early 1980s. Originally from Chicago, the group relocated to New York City in 1982, becoming part of the underground scene that revolved around venues such as CBGB’s, A7, the Peppermint Lounge, and the Sin Club. Their line-up included Carolyn Master and Gaylene Goudreau on guitar, Diane Wlezein on vocals, Algis Kizys (later of Swans) on bass, and Pete Elwyn on drums.

The band formed after an earlier project, Lois Lain, a Los Angeles-based all-female group influenced by British rock. Disillusioned with the L.A. scene, the founding members returned to Chicago, where they reassembled under the new name in 1981. Inspired by acts like DNA and the dissonant energy of no wave, Bag People shifted toward a rawer, more chaotic sound. After a brief stint in Chicago, they moved to Brooklyn’s Bed-Stuy neighborhood, then to Manhattan, embedding themselves within the fractured and aggressive noise scene of early 1980s New York.

Although Bag People dissolved in 1984, their recordings were recently recovered from a cache of lost cassette tapes. These sessions, recorded before the abrupt departure of drummer Pete Elwyn, are being compiled and released for the first time in 2025 by Drag City. The album draws from their original sessions, produced during a period of deteriorating infrastructure and cultural volatility in urban New York.

What first pulled you into the chaos of music, and how did that lead to forming Lois Lane and later Bag People?

Diane Wlezein: I was surrounded by music growing up, all types of music. I was heavily influenced by The Who, The Kinks, Led Zeppelin, even Muddy Waters as a kid, so wanting to sing in a band felt very natural to me. So when Carolyn asked me if I wanted to start a band when we were in high school, I didn’t think twice about it.

How did the atmosphere of early-80s NYC shape the sound and attitude of Bag People?

Diane Wlezein: I think it increased our raw sound and energy. It fed into the angst we already had.

Algis Kizys: Like all things one gets surrounded by, there is reaction. We were already reactive—NYC just gave us a new patina. Not shiny, unique.

Coming from L.A. and then Chicago, what drew you to NYC’s underground scene in ’82?

Diane Wlezein: Carolyn had a friend there that encouraged us to bring our music there. Felt it was the place for us to be.

What were the toughest challenges you faced as a band trying to carve out a space in such a fractured, raw scene?

Diane Wlezein: Having enough to eat, having work. Finding places to live. Survival stuff.

Algis Kizys: Adaptation. Existence. Sanity.

How did the transition from Lois Lane to Bag People change your dynamic and approach to songwriting?

Diane Wlezein: We were no longer trying to sound like someone else. We made music that allowed us to experiment and explore our creativity.

How did you connect with Algis Kizys and Pete Elwyn, and how did they shape the band’s rhythm section?

Diane Wlezein: Al and Pete both answered ads in the Reader. Their sound as a rhythm section gave the band the power and strength we were looking for.

The lost tapes of Bag People have now been found—how did it feel to hear those recordings after all these years?

Diane Wlezein: It felt great to hear the music again, to hear how powerful it was.

Algis Kizys: Well, not all the tapes have been found. We had roughly 35 original songs by the end of ’83, and rehearsals were getting a bit cumbersome to the act of creation, which we loved, as running through songs became a crawl due to the sheer number of material we would have to keep sharp.

We needed to document our library so we wouldn’t have to keep playing the material to remember it, which would open time for more writing. After all, new is fun. So of those 35 or so songs, we have recovered about two-thirds of them.

Upon initial listening, the thing I thought was… we were pretty f’n good.

Are there any stories from live shows that have stuck with you, whether chaotic, intense, or completely unexpected?

Diane Wlezein: Our first show in NYC was a street fair, and we were supposed to share equipment with another band. After they finished playing, they took their drum set and left, so Pete used garbage cans off the street to do our set. It sounded fantastic.

Algis Kizys: Of course—too plentiful to document here. Briefly: acid nuttiness in Philly, CB’s light guy advising us how to wear our jackets, Chicago wrongful arrest, Sin Club PA collapse, a dressing room wrestling pantomime, and an exploding mirror opening for The Bad Seeds at the 9:30 Club in DC on their first US tour. That was our last show.

Was there a sense of unfinished business when the band dissolved in ’84, and does releasing this album now feel like closure?

Diane Wlezein: Not necessarily a sense of unfinished business, but the album being released now feels like we are finally being recognized amongst our peers.

Algis Kizys: The sense of unfinished business was in fact the reason I’ve been hunting for those f’n tapes the past 40 years. Closure? Horrible word. There is magic in vindication, and there is magic in luck.

What were the venues or spaces that felt most like home for Bag People?

Diane Wlezein: I loved playing at the Sin Club—it just felt right. And I only lived less than a block away.

Algis Kizys: Our rehearsal/living space on Broadway and Dekalb and Bob Troch’s loft at 202 Classon, both in Brooklyn, were my happy spots—little bits of creative heaven surrounded by danger and insanity.

With this album release, are there any plans for more music, or perhaps playing together again?

Diane Wlezein: We have a lot more songs on those tapes that we would love to release.

Photos courtesy of Bag People

Matteo Damiani

Matteo Damiani is an Italian photographer and author. Curator of the sites Retrofuturista.com; weirditaly.com; china-underground.com and others