Golden Palominos: C/D

When This Is How It Feels came out, I was blown away — and positively flummoxed as to why it tanked: it had beats and basslines, tunes, one of Fier's best killer lineups (Bernie Worrell, Bootsy), and shades of Graham Greene's End of the Affair for lyrical inspiration. Upon further review, though, it's less impressive, and the breathy/whiny tone of the thing hasn't aged very well in the post-Tori/Garbage era.

Pure was This Is How It Feels redux but without the tunes — I gather Fier's relationship w/ Carson had hit the skids by then. I actually had an Anton Fier solo album from Japan that was LITERALLY This Is How It Feels redux, with Phew singing over that record's backing tracks — in some respects it's better, actually. But I don't listen to it anymore either.

Visions of Excess is still the classic, tho'...

who is Phew?

I met Lori Carson around the time "everything I touch" came out and she told me she absolutely loved "This is How It Feels," but that Pure was really strained to make because Fier didn't tell her he was going to have someone else sing half the record.

The format of Visions of excess was refreshing and Blast of Silence, while uneven, contains pure gems that should not be missed. Why hasn't Syd Straw gotten the love she deserves?

To all This is How It Feels haters, get over yourselves. The album is brilliant and the lyrics are breathy not whiny. If you think they are whiny, it is no wonder you don't understand love (or sex).

so these guy(s) are touring now?!

?!? I know they did a gig last year with Syd Straw, but are they doing something more now?

Now that the Victory Cafe is closed, Anton has a lot of time on his hands.

I only find a mention of a concert in Ghent, Belgium in June

Line up:
Kevn Kinney vocals, acoustic guitar, harmonica
Lianne Smith vocals, acoustic guitar
Tony Scherr slide guitar, bass
Jim Campilongo fender telecaster
Chris Morrissey bass
Anton Fier drums

I don't understand Dutch but in case someone does:
http://www.uitinvlaanderen.be/agenda/e/the-golden-palominos/0afed8b2-c031-4ff4-8fd2-a3e2baabf688

Goddamn if this isn't one of the best things Sir John ever did:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=czVMa6wSNx4&feature=youtube_gdata_player

numbers band version of the song is like the best thing ever

?? Linky?

Check it out, Jack Bruce vocal instead of John Lydon: https://soundcloud.com/filmcode/the-animal-speaks-jack-bruce

Just put this whole Lori Carson era on this morning – and after reading a few articles, Fier comes off as a massive, possibly abusive control-freak who was banging at least one of his female collaborators and playing mind games in the name of "art." This interview, which is ostensibly while Fier was still on good terms with Carson and producing her solo work, puts their whole relationship in a pretty disturbing light, with Fier playing the role of the ever-unsatisfied perfectionist, playing people off one another and canceling tours at the last minute and Carson trying to please him by writing "pornographic" lyrics and comparing the new collaborator situation on Dead Inside to "having your ex-husband make this really incredible baby with his new wife." It's pretty fucked up:

http://innerviews.org/inner/carson.html

It all seems an awful lot of drama for what, in retrospect, was ultimately little more than über-sensuous dance music that took more than a little inspiration (and performers) from Bill Laswell's ambient dub experiments of the 90s (which themselves didn't exactly change the world). There's a heavier emphasis on sampling – some of which were more obvious than others (TIHIF had a super prominent Orb sample tho one of the remixes from Dreamspeed actually uses a Fred Frith sample from Guitar and another Sly Stone sample from Fresh which is kind of interesting). And the tunes w Carson are generally pretty solid. But it's not like these guys were conquering the world here.

The Lori Carson era def wasn't the same kind of 'band' that it was before. I love those two records and her solo albums as well. She wrote a book recently, haven't read it. She obviously really soured on the music industry after Everything I Touch Turns Wild, probably something to do with Fier.

"But it's not like these guys were conquering the world here"

Laswell has no shortage of ego.

Although in that interview, Laswell comes off rather sweet to Carson – almost as if he felt a little badly about how she was treated.

As for the book, hadn't heard it but it def. sounds more than a little influenced by her relationship with Anton based on the Amazon description:

At 24, Lisa Nelson is a waitress in a New York City diner and a hopeful singer-songwriter with a talent for the guitar and a gifted voice. She is in love with Gabriel Luna, a famous musician and elusive playboy more than a decade her senior. When she becomes pregnant, and he doesn’t want her to have the baby, she faces a monumental decision. What will happen if she goes against his wishes and raises their child alone in a world of poverty and struggle? Alternately, where will her life go if she puts her career and her desire to please Gabriel first? Lisa decides to have an abortion, but many years later, famous in her own right, she looks back and records this story of what-ifs as a message to the child she never had. In this first novel, Carson, herself a singer-songwriter, commits her artistry to paper, creating a lyrical story of love, longing, and acceptance. Beautifully imagined and authentically told, the result is a deeply meaningful exploration of an often painful subject. --Cortney Ophoff

i bought the s/t yesterday on a whim and it sounds pretty good so far but i have some questions

1) the above dramatic anecdote about carson/fier -- is that for real? maybe i'm naive or maybe nobody gives interviews like that anymore but it sounds really melodramatic and fucked up and disappointing
2) numbers band version of the song is like the best thing ever

― puff puff post (uh oh I'm having a fantasy), Thursday, December 20, 2012 9:19 PM (2 years ago) Bookmark

what is the relationship between the numbers band and this band? i ask because when i was a kid, iirc my bff's mom dated a guy in the numbers band and i remember seeing the golden palominos name but i only remembered it because i was going through my horse phase (palominos, appaloosas, animals with cool names lol)

for some reason went down a Palominos hole this afternoon, kind of forgot my old guitar teacher Jim Campilongo was part of the final lineup of the band (who put out an album with the guy from Drivin N Cryin, which I never listened to) but found some good videos a guy took of a show in 2010 with Jim in the band, Robert Kidney doing a song, Syd Straw, etc (there's also a video from a few years later of Lori doing a song with them in NYC, which is surprising; that horrible situations mentioned above must be water under the bridge). Bummed I missed this and apparently it won't happen again; Syd Straw said on her FB page last fall that Anton has quit playing drums. Who knows what he does now.

also to answer la lechera's questions above:

1) which anecdote? Lori is very credible so if she said that I believe that's true. Whether or not her book is actually about him I don't know, I think maybe not? It's never been super clear whether they were in a personal relationship or just some kind of intense creative one. Either way as I noted Lori did do a show with GP a few years ago so whatever happened is probably forgiven.

2) GP covered "animal speaks" by Kidney/Numbers Band on their second album. I'm not sure if there was much involvement between the two earlier than that. AFterward Robert Kidney was involved in a few GP albums as a songwriter and vocalist, primarily on the overlooked "a dead horse". If you check youtube you can see him doing a few songs with GP at what appears to be one of their final shows.

Last thing I knew about Anton was he worked at the Victory Cafe on Hoyt and State, which has been closed for several years now. Maybe this is posted already upthread.

wow akm thank you for answering those questions! i had this thread bookmarked and kept not looking at it and i am glad that i finally did!

i have no idea what i was talking about wrt that interview -- it was 2015! lol

Bill Laswell's ambient dub experiments of the 90s (which themselves didn't exactly change the world

untrue bcz they made it a tiny bit worse

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LUS3QD9TlzU

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

Here's Lori Carson sitting in for Little Suicides in 2012

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cv_5-9_5pec

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KqXLecQ-YPA

"Visions Of Excess" and "Blast Of Silence" were hugely impactful on my teenage mind, leading me to many great artists. Syd Straw jumped out at me, and though it took me years I eventually discovered the majesty of Robert Kidney's Numbers Band. Lydon, Stipe, Blegvad, Thompson - doesn't get much better than that.

For me, the hidden gem of their catalog is "Drunk With Passion". Opening with a great Stipe track, Amanda Kramer's great and then Mould destroys everything with "Dying From The Inside Out" followed by Bob Kidney closing it out with his inimitable style.

yeah it's absolutely a great album. For me, 1, Visions of Excess, Drunk with Passion, and This is How it Feels are the only necessary albums and I'd have a hard time telling you which one is my favorite, since they are basically four different groups.