Gang Of Four.

renounce all sin and vice (city)

― am0n, Tuesday, November 2, 2010 6:37 PM (2 months ago) Bookmark

lol

I've been listening to Entertainment and Solid Gold a few times in the past few weeks. The production puts it in it's time, but the tunes are just as fresh now as they were 30 years ago. I've always thought that "What We All Want" was the prototype for a whole lot of 90s rock.

Doug Carrion who was the bassist at one point in both The Decendants and Dag Nasty was the guy who tuned me onto the Gang of Four working at a record store in Bloomington way back around 1990.

Listening to it on NPR: strong first track, second's more of a slog, some other tedious sections of some other tracks, but could be a killer EP, at least. The other voices are always welcome, and should be used more often, but King shows no vocal strain, and as long as the whole thing's not too lyrics-centric, and the guitar gets to shape the groove, it works, as in days of yore. But speaking of days of yore, check their BBC sessions, those grabbed me even more than Entertainment.

PS: Content has a stronger finish than start, always appreciated.

Admittedly I'd had a few ales officer, but I was listening to the album (not the stream, streams are horrible) last night and thought it was sounding pretty good. It's kind of a given that they're not going to ever top their early stuff, but I was actually enjoying it more than the new Wire...

I think the ales have impaired your judgement. The new Wire is far, far better than the new Gang Of Four, and I lurve both of them to death but _Content_ just doesn't deliver consistently. The opener and closer and "Pay For The Farm" are the only ones that stick in my head.

I reviewed Content for BurningAmbulance.com, and Dave Allen got in touch with me on Twitter to tell me how much he agreed with my criticisms of the record.

Good review, it explains what I hear. The funny thing is, they put out a single a couple of years ago, "Second Life" which included Dave Allen on the recording or at least in the development, and it's an ace tune. Ah well.

Without going back to compare to the brand name's prime time product, I still think the best tracks stand on their own, and the worst tracks fall on their own (fairly clunky rhythm section,yeah). Not surprising departed Dave wouldn't agree, though.

x-post

Unperson, agree with you re Content but then at the end you say that Gill and King did not need this one to pay their rent--- are you their accountant? Or were you speaking metaphorically, or do you know how much they got from the x-box commercial and other things?

I wasn't speaking metaphorically; Gill is a producer, and King is, of all things, an advertising executive.

lol @ king's bio on that site

Jon was lead singer, co-writer and producer for the legendary "Gang of Four". His music has been widely used in film and TV, including "Marie Antoinette" (1997), "the Manchurian Candidate" (1996), "The OC" and "The Karate Kid" (1984), among others. He won Mojo magazines' "Inspiration to Music" award in 2005 & Deisel/U's "Lifetime achievement in Music" award 2005.

the most important highlights of Go4's career: being featured on bad movie soundtracks, winning a Mojo award, etc.

not that surprising really

what's he supposed to say in an advertising website bio? That the band refused to play Top Of The Pops? That Franz Ferdinand liked them? That he still does a Frogger dance around the stage while wearing a suit jacket with no shirt underneath?

He is supposed to quote the phrases on the cover of the first album as well as Situationalists(however you spell that--paging Griel Marcs)

The matador is saying, 'You know, we're both in the entertainment business, we have to give the audience what they want. I don't want to do this, but I earn double the amount I'd get if I were in a 9-to-5 job.' The bull is saying, 'I think that at some point we have to take responsibility for our actions.'

Yep, and I meant Situationists and Greil Marcus.

Having listened a bunch of times sans ales, I still like this album quite a bit. Long-term, new Wire probably has more staying power. It's tasteful, catchy, and generally avoids mistakes. But...best bits of Content (and there are more than a couple) played at volume (nice bass sound, regardless of who's playing it) get my pulse racing. And I was around for the first coming of Go4. It's odd reading reviews that presume that people will only know the bands influenced by Go4...I guess that's inevitable, but it still seems odd. That sort of thing doesn't happen to the Beatles.

A lot of the best aspects of the album are visceral, so again, the stream just doesn't cut it. Spoon had the same problem last year...

I thought the new Wire was overly placid and boring. Loved the first two Read & Burn EPs, saw them live in 2000 and enjoyed it, but everything since has been kind of a letdown.

Not that I'm not mildly sympathetic, but Dave Allen doesn't seem like the most neutral party, especially after reading:

http://iamdaveallen.com/thinking/2011/1/14/rick-moody-and-me-a-conversation.html

I'm liking Content more and more...

i think dave allen's otm in his complaints & glad he left

lol @ this, though

The new Kanye West album My Dark Beau­ti­ful Twisted Fan­tasy is a remark­able piece of work, an “event,” an expo­si­tion on early East coast rap deliv­ered in 2010 just as pop­u­lar music was fad­ing in its cre­ativ­ity.

Yes, just the other day I was talking to a fifteen year old pop fan who was bemoaning the fact that there isn't good footage of Gang of Four working in the studio in 2008...

"To have cap­tured our efforts and work­ing meth­ods and then pushed that raw footage live to the Web, I believe, would have cre­ated quite a stir. Footage like that lives for­ever and if it were only avail­able after­ward on YouTube, the only place it could be seen over and over again, the traf­fic would have been huge."

Honestly, he's well spoken and all, but his attempts to be "delicate" are pretty indelicate. I do like that he gets his music from Amazon and not eMusic. God, actually there's a lot in the interview to like...

weird to hear them in a commercial for Kinect :/

so, he used to work for eMusic?

Also, did you spot the pomplemoose link?

This thread's reemergence led me to pop on a CD I got in the bargain bin, years ago, "Mall." It kinda sucked... Guess that's why it was in the bargain bin. Any suggestions on a good CD by them?

Entertainment.

Just saw them on David Letterman, performing a new tune. And wow, were they weak! The new song showed all of the Gang Of Four's strengths - agitpop with great hooks, hints of dub and funk and open spaces, catchy-but-minimal lyrical and melodic themes - to have, well, mostly into ether. It's weird that they've chosen to present their revival as highly reminiscent of Entertainment, when they clearly have lost most of the characteristics that made that record great, and when they just plain look silly trying it now. (Why not 'revise' the general sound of Solid Gold, which would probably be more successful, in a sense.

Total embarrassment, I thought. I remember when singing Jon King 'shake it up' on stage was effective, back when it seemed like, hell, this is what he's chosen to do, instead of being a young rising star advertising exec or something. Now he seems like a poorly aging advertising exec just slumming it and looking like a buffoon. I actually spat out my drink when I saw his wedding band, 'cause it made me think, here's another deeply conventional prat, cynically going for the almighty dollar. What a way to smear a great body of work.

I now respect Dave Allen even more, and Hugo's a fine bloke too.

this year's tour should be called Another Day, Another Dollar 2011

Gonna skip their W. DC show tonight but I will always fondly look back on those 2 gigs I saw back when (in 79 to 81)

There's a weird effect on the guitar that isn't on the album. Letterman clip doesn't look particularly bad to me...the video for Farm is much more embarrassing (in terms of stage moves). Look, they're not going to redo Entertainment, any more than YMG is going to redo Colossal Youth, etc. Content is very good, not great. I'm happy with it.

Dave Allen = I got cut out of the finances therefore this sucks. Sorry, but it's pretty damn obvious from his own take on things.

Here's the Farm video...pretty sonically different from Letter Man:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WVQ2Y688dUQ

Stage moves, not good.

Dave Allen = I got cut out of the finances therefore this sucks. Sorry, but it's pretty damn obvious from his own take on things.

nah, pretty obvious he's got his head in the right place! took the last shred of Go4 credibility out the door with him.

I totally don't get that. He quit, not when he decided the music sucked, but when:

"The band’s man­ager helped me reach a deci­sion when he called me one after­noon in early 2008 to dis­cuss the “small issue of the song­writ­ing” as he called it. He pre­ceded to lay out the grand idea that as Gill and King were “writ­ing” the new songs then I would have no claim to any music pub­lish­ing splits. I had already left the band in my mind before I even responded to his ludi­crous claim.

On and off dur­ing 2006, 2007 and 2008 we were cre­at­ing new musi­cal ideas fol­low­ing the same pat­tern of 1977/1978, as described above. To be told by some­one I have absolutely no respect for, that I would have the non-option of take it or leave it with regard to music writ­ing and pub­lish­ing splits, I very eas­ily chose to leave on the spot."

The distinction between "I had already left the band in my mind" and "I..chose to leave on the spot" is just great. I mean, seriously. We're grown ups here. Is it not obvious what the problem was...

"I'm old, nobody appreciates my fluid bassline that *totally* makes Anthrax, and I'm making good money on the side anyway..."

i always thought this band's "glory years" were overrated by critics who liked their dumb sloganeering, but the music was OK. if that letterman performance was an accurate representation of their new music, hoo boy.

"embarrassment" is a good word for it. maybe not strong enough.

Oh hell no, their glory years were NOT overrated. "Entertainment" is still truly astounding and worthy of it's legendary status, with "Solid Gold" just a step below. After that, still great stuff but not on the same level. Dave Allen is a man of integrity, I get from his comments that the writing credit thing was just the last straw.

And they were so great live during those glory years

Holy goddamn.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K19jPwpP5XY

well that made my morning!

okay, wait

what

If what I've been able to deduce is correct, from this page:

http://www.gamelan.org/directories/directoryjapan.html

Here's some backstory:

Name of Ensemble: Sekar Melati
Instruments: Javanese
Repertoire: Traditional, originally composed
Contact: Ms. Hitomi Ozeki
5-12-2 Kaminakaya-cho, Kakamigahara City
Gifu Prefecture 504-0926
email: ✧.✧.hit✧✧✧.o-1✧✧✧@a✧✧.o✧✧.n✧.j✧
Web site:
Narrative:
The group representative Hitomi Ozeki studied Gamelan in Jakarta and then founded Sekar Melati in Gifu prefecture in June 2000. Currently this community-based group has 8 members. It has been introducing Javanese traditional music as well as its original compositions to this region at museums, schools, art galleries and various other locations. Mr. Hiroshi Ietaka (Marga Sari, Osaka) also gives instruction regularly.

That is the coolest thing ever.

Have already sent this video to a bunch of people. Gamelan Gof4 is pretty terrific. I wonder what the rest of the set was?

Un-freakin-believable. The woman on the far left is really grooving to it!

I mean, really... I want to hear what King/Gill/Allen/Burnham think!

Damn, they should open for them on their next tour!

Allen retweeted it so he knows about it, at least!

This is sick

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tUSw_2jkDjM&feature=youtu.be

So skinny, such baggy clothes

Holy cow. One my larger life regrets, never seeing them live in either original or reunion modes.

Was about to say, I'm so glad I saw the original line-up reunion.