Jeff and Jane Hudson
When The Clash played the Harvard Square Theater on February 16, 1979 on their first American tour, the opening act was Boston punk band The Rentals, fronted by the husband and wife duo Jeff and Jane Hudson on guitar and bass respectively. The Hudsons were Boston-based video producers and teachers at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, where they founded the video studies program. One of their students was Pseudo Carol, who became The Rental’s drummer when the band formed in 1977.
After relocating to New York City in 1979, the band signed a record deal in their dressing room after a performance at Max’s Kansas City. Two singles resulted, “Gertrude Stein,” about the American famed for her Left Bank art-world salons in Paris in the early decades of the 20th century, and “I Got A Crush On You.” Both songs were produced by Oedipus, the WBCN disk jockey and program director.
After The Rentals disbanded in 1980, the Hudsons took a new direction, first as The Manhattan Project and then with their eponymous synth-wave band Jeff and Jane. After cutting the EP World Trade, they self-produced and recorded a full LP, Flesh, featuring tracks such as “Los Alamos” and “Pound Pound.” This trailblazing early-electronica album has become a fan favorite and collectors’ classic; the original was re-released on CD in 2004 and an expanded version with previously unreleased material came out in 2011.
The Hudsons stopped performing and recording in 1985, returning to Boston to continue teaching at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts. Jane focused on her work as a video artist while Jeff produced videos for Boston-based artists, among them Pat Metheny, O Positive and The Neighborhoods. Starting in 1995, they returned to music for a couple of years with a sound that was more guitar-driven and psychedelic, recording the album Zeta Brew. They were back at it again briefly in 2002, returning to their punkier Rentals roots in several club shows. After relocating to the Berkshires, the couple trotted out their synthesizers for a show in early 2012, accompanied by video projections, at the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art. These days you can find them on the MASS MoCA campus running their art, antiques and collectibles shop, Hudsons.
(by Steve Nelson)
Steve Nelson is co-founder and president emeritus of the Music Museum of New England.
