Whatever happened to Go-Go?

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Who remembers Trouble Funk, Junkyard Band etc.? Was listening to a Live Lp of Chuck Brown and the Soul Searchers and it is amazing - like George Benson meets the JBS!

I know there is still a scene in DC but once this music was huge over here in the UK - what happened?

― spread love, Thursday, 14 November 2002 15:18 (twenty-one years ago) link

it went-went.

(sorry)

― michael wells (michael w.), Thursday, 14 November 2002 15:40 (twenty-one years ago) link

There's a loooong history of go-go "almost" making it outside of DC but it never really does--this may be a good or bad thing depending on how you look at it. But there are other really localized musics in the US in similar situations, like some of the brass and drum bands in New Orleans, for example. Maybe none of those have been on the verge so many times as Go-Go has. I've been meaning to check out this book for a while, and it's got a double-album soundtrack, too.

Yeah, of course I remember Trouble Funk and the JYB and that stuff is CLASSIC! Now where can I get a copy of the "Water Dance"??!?

― arch Ibog (arch Ibog), Thursday, 14 November 2002 15:59 (twenty-one years ago) link

I wonder about this as well. Trouble Funk played a concert at Temple U. the year I graduated (if I recall correctly). Also on the bill were the Ramones. Anyway, I enjoyed Trouble Funk, though what I mostly remember is guys in the band with very big arms waving them around a lot.

Does anyone know if Go-Go borrows from Afro-Cuban drumming traditions?

― Rockist Scientist, Thursday, 14 November 2002 16:03 (twenty-one years ago) link

The best record from this scene: Little Benny & the Masters "Who Comes to Boogie".

― MarkH (MarkH), Thursday, 14 November 2002 16:12 (twenty-one years ago) link

I liked "I am an arcade funk machine"

― Jacob, Thursday, 14 November 2002 16:14 (twenty-one years ago) link

Party Time - Kurtis Blow

Put your left hand in the air put your right hand down your underwear!

― spread love, Thursday, 14 November 2002 16:29 (twenty-one years ago) link

henry rollins and rick rubin remember Trouble Funk

they have a reissue label called Infinite Zero that put out some of their albums a few years ago

― JasonD (JasonD), Thursday, 14 November 2002 19:45 (twenty-one years ago) link

go go is still doing well here in DC. even with recent articles in the paper, it is not reaching new ears, though. my friends went to a show on monday night. they said that everyone in the band was trying to buy them drinks because they were the only white people in the audience.
if what I have read is true, then it was hiphop and house that pushed go-go off the map in the uk. again, that is only what I have read.

― Aaron Grossman (aajjgg), Thursday, 14 November 2002 19:53 (twenty-one years ago) link

everyone in the band was trying to buy them drinks because they were the only white people in the audience.

where was this?? I've been (on and off) seeing go-go shows in DC from '85 on and there were always mixed audiences. Last time i was back in DC went to a go-go summit - Chuck Brown, EU & Trouble Funk on the same bill. Transported back to my youth.

― H (Heruy), Friday, 15 November 2002 07:37 (twenty-one years ago) link

check out http://www.tmottgogo.com for the best info on the go go scene

― nat law, Saturday, 16 November 2002 20:25 (twenty-one years ago) link

Trouble Funk is opening up for Galactic at the 9:30 Club on the 22nd. I'm going to it, because basically, being in the military stationed near D.C., if I don't go see Trouble Funk while my wife and I are stationed here, I'm a giant loser. I've been a huge fan of Trouble Funk for about 4 years now. I learned that the only way to eat dinner is with Trouble Funk on the stereo. Just try it. Eating to the beat is way funner than eating normally.

HIT'EM WIT DA SUPERGRIT!

― Helltime Producto (Pavlik), Sunday, 17 November 2002 07:51 (twenty-one years ago) link

two years pass...

So there is a download on soulseek 2pac and the backyard band, live at teh sheraton las vegas - is that the go-go band?

― mentalist (mentalist), Friday, 14 October 2005 04:00 (eighteen years ago) link

three years pass...

go-go bands have amazing names

http://gogobeat.com/Bands

― Ømår Littel (Jordan), Thursday, 21 May 2009 18:41 (fifteen years ago) link

ten months pass...

Pretty great (and also pretty depressing) Natalie Hopkinson piece on the current state of the music; I'm sure curmudgeon would be able to say more too.

― Ned Raggett, Sunday, 11 April 2010 15:55 (fourteen years ago) link

five months pass...

My mini-review of Chuck Brown's new album:

http://www.rhapsody.com/album/we-got-this-2?artistId=16729280#albumreview

And something longer I wrote about go-go, the same week:

http://blog.rhapsody.com/2010/09/gogo.html

― xhuxk, Wednesday, 29 September 2010 19:11 (thirteen years ago) link

So many go-go threads here.

I posted some stuff on this one: the new D.C. Go-Go thread

― curmudgeon, Wednesday, 29 September 2010 19:52 (thirteen years ago) link

Chuck Brown's performing in NYC tonight I think, and did the Jimmy Fallon show last night. He is also making the rounds of DC area Best Buys and other stores, pushing the new cds/dvd package. He and his band did a fun free outside gig in DC last week.

― curmudgeon, Wednesday, 29 September 2010 20:06 (thirteen years ago) link

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