Artist

New Order

Ron Asheton

Los Angeles, United States • 1975 – 1976

New Order is a music group from Los Angeles, United States, active 1975–1976. Their discography on Gatefold includes 24 records.

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Albums tracked

706

In collections

1975

Since

Biography

Do not redirect to New Order. There are more than one artist with this name: 1) The New Order was a Los Angeles-based hard rock band that existed from early 1975 to October 1976. It most notably included ex-members of Detroit-area proto punk bands The Stooges (Ron Asheton, Jimmy Recca, Scott Thurston) and MC5 (Dennis Thompson). 2) Project with William Bennett of Whitehouse. Released the LP "Bradford Red Light District" in 1982.

The Arc of New Order

The pivots — what forced New Order to reinvent.

The Post-Stooges Fallout
After the Iggy-led chaos finally snapped, Ron Asheton found himself downgraded from guitar god to bassist before being cut loose entirely. He retreated to Michigan to reclaim his identity as a lead player, teaming up with a rhythm section that didn't need any lessons in volume. The early rehearsals were about purging the MainMan management polish and getting back to a raw, dual-guitar attack. You can hear the resentment in the riffs; it's the sound of a man trying to prove he was the soul of the Stooges all along.
The Los Angeles Sessions
The band migrated to the West Coast in '76 to track their only real document at Warner Bros. Recording Studios. Producer Neil Merryweather tried to capture that Detroit friction, but the industry wasn't ready for a band that sounded like a tank idling in a parking lot. The resulting self-titled LP is a strange beast—crisper than a bootleg but still packing that motor-city filth. When the label didn't move the needle, the band splintered, leaving behind a cult record that bridged the gap between garage psych and the looming punk explosion.

Influences

The Stooges — Asheton was the architect of the Fun House sound. You hear the same wah-heavy, nihilistic soloing style carried directly into tracks like 'Rock 'n' Roll Soldiers.' It’s the DNA of the band.
MC5 — Dennis Thompson brought the 'Machine Gun' drumming style straight from High Time. His aggressive, jazz-inflected fills provide the propulsive energy that keeps the New Order from sounding like a standard hard rock act. It's the Detroit high-energy blueprint.
Chuck Berry — Asheton frequently cited Berry as his primary gateway to the guitar. You can hear it in the double-stop riffs buried under the fuzz and distortion on 'Declaration of War.' He took the 1950s foundation and ran it through a Marshall stack.
The Yardbirds — The band’s penchant for minor-key rave-ups and feedback manipulation stems directly from the Beck and Page eras. The New Order used that English blues-rock tension but stripped away the psychedelic whimsy for something more industrial. It’s most evident in their live-recorded covers.
Blue Cheer — The New Order shared the same commitment to sheer physical volume and the 'power trio plus' dynamic. The thick, sludge-adjacent low end on their 1977 debut owes a massive debt to Vince Busbus's distorted bass tone. It’s heavy metal before the term got sanitized.