Early performances by some of the best-known "new music" artists are captured in this document of the first New Music America Festival in Minneapolis in 1980. Selections include David Byrne rehearsing a stirring avant-garde composition for string octet; composer Richard Lerman wiring fifty bicycles for sound in Music for Bicycle Orchestra; Laurie Anderson performing O Superman, in an excerpt from her acclaimed performance United States, Parts I-IV; and Charlie Morrow presenting a new wave marching band piece, Slow Reveille.