RED KRAYOLA C/D

Message Bookmarked
Bookmark Removed
Not all messages are displayed: show all messages (147 of them)
and I just looked at photos, I guess it was Hurley.

Dan Selzer (Dan Selzer), Tuesday, 21 September 2004 15:45 (nineteen years ago) link

I forgot about it! Also, I like teh RK but it's been a few years since I've seen them and it wasn't really on my radar this time.

hstencil (hstencil), Tuesday, 21 September 2004 15:45 (nineteen years ago) link

Funny thing about the singles compilation: they couldn't get the rights to "Wives in Orbit" and "Yik-Yak" (like the 'Soldier Talk' LP, some legal wrangling with Radar/Warners that's never been resolved), so what they did is put fake applause at the beginning and end of those two tracks and claimed they were "live versions from an unreleased single". Haha.

The singles comp. is pretty damn necessary, if you're into the Red Krayola at all.

Lefty, Tuesday, 21 September 2004 15:45 (nineteen years ago) link

also I've seen RK be amazing one night and not so good the next. Happens (tho the last time I saw them at the KF, back in '96, they were amazing - directly after a crap show the night before at Bard).

I need the singles comp. but goddamn am I ever broke and not able to buy records these days.

hstencil (hstencil), Tuesday, 21 September 2004 15:47 (nineteen years ago) link

what they did is put fake applause at the beginning and end of those two tracks and claimed they were "live versions from an unreleased single". Haha.

that's great.

how do people rate RK's drag city records? not the reissues, the newer stuff.

amateur!!st, Tuesday, 21 September 2004 15:47 (nineteen years ago) link

I'm sure they could've just put it out and nobody at Warners would've noticed...

Dan Selzer (Dan Selzer), Tuesday, 21 September 2004 15:47 (nineteen years ago) link

The Red Krayola, s/t (Drag City, DC52CD) CD - New, 1990s version featuring (at the time) Chicago Illuminati Grubbs, O'Rourke, McEntire (I think he's on it, anyway). Some songs are recycled from older lyrics Mayo wrote in the 80s, but it's a solid rec.

Amor and Language 95 (Drag City, DC53) EP - Probably my favorite thing by the "new" RK lineup.

Hazel (Drag City, DC98) LP - Here's where they start to drag...

Fingerpainting is good, but I never bought it. There's a few holes for me, I need to get more stuff...

-- hstencil (hstenci...), November 22nd, 2002.

hstencil (hstencil), Tuesday, 21 September 2004 15:48 (nineteen years ago) link

hstencil, you should come over later this week and burn my collection. I have the week off from work to go to the dentist and clean my house and watch TV.

Dan Selzer (Dan Selzer), Tuesday, 21 September 2004 15:48 (nineteen years ago) link

you should burn copies for meeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

amateur!!st, Tuesday, 21 September 2004 15:49 (nineteen years ago) link

(i probably have less money than hstencil!)

amateur!!st, Tuesday, 21 September 2004 15:49 (nineteen years ago) link

Dan, I'm down with that but you should make some requests for stuff from me that I can bring over to burn in exchange, too.

xpost - am let's not speculate.

hstencil (hstencil), Tuesday, 21 September 2004 15:50 (nineteen years ago) link

That Goodbyes and Hellos EP was, I think, their last release of new material. It's got to be up there with the worst records of all time. Intentionally so, it would seem.

Tim Ellison (Tim Ellison), Tuesday, 21 September 2004 15:53 (nineteen years ago) link

when was that? it's not listed here:

http://www.dragcity.com/bands/rk.html

I remember not liking Malefactor, Ade. I don't have any of the 90s stuff except for the 14 single, though I remember liking some of the early Drag City stuff.

Dan Selzer (Dan Selzer), Tuesday, 21 September 2004 15:59 (nineteen years ago) link

90s Drag City stuff:

'The Red Krayola': One of their finest LPs, I think. Rememeber the much ballyhooed "Chicago scene" of the mid 90s? This album has all the luminaries (Grubbs, O'Rourke, McEntire, etc.) and is about the only artifact from that scene that holds up today. Mayo keep their excesses firmly in check and, for once, hook them up with memorable music. (Do you really want to listen to a Gastr del Sol LP today?!)

'Amour & Language' EP (mini album?): In the same vein as above; very tight.

'Hazel': A mixed bag. Some great stuff here, but this has always seemed to me more like a grab-bag of tunes than a unified album. It sprawls all overe the place. Great songs, though, like "Jimmy Two Bad"

'Fingerpainting': I love this record. I've never read anything good about it, though. Terrific concept: take 60s Red Krayola demos and fuck with them relentlessly. A psychic version of 'Parable of Arable Land' perhaps?

'Blues, Hollers, And Hellos' (EP? Mini album?): Their latest "new" recording. What's been the hold up since then, I wonder? Also one of their best records.

In other words, all of their Drag City stuff has something to recommend about it. Some people find 'Fingerpainting' to be extreme unlistenable shit. I disagree, but each to her/his own.

Lefty, Tuesday, 21 September 2004 16:01 (nineteen years ago) link

I would like to hear Fingerpainting again, it's been so long I can barely remember it.

hstencil (hstencil), Tuesday, 21 September 2004 16:02 (nineteen years ago) link

If the third guitarist was a white-haired guy, he was indeed Tom Watson, of Overpass/Slovenly.

morris pavilion (samjeff), Tuesday, 21 September 2004 16:03 (nineteen years ago) link

Tom's got white hair now? Wish I hadn't lost the slide I let him borrow.

hstencil (hstencil), Tuesday, 21 September 2004 16:03 (nineteen years ago) link

i'll add tom to the list of indie musicians hstencil has related anecdotes about. are we at 100 yet?

amateur!!st, Tuesday, 21 September 2004 16:09 (nineteen years ago) link

yeah, gee, sorry that I've had and made friends with people, amateur!st.

hstencil (hstencil), Tuesday, 21 September 2004 16:11 (nineteen years ago) link

Blues, Hollers, and Hellos was the one I was referring to. It's got a couple of songs that at least come close to other decent Drag City era RK material, but there are these codas on a couple of the songs that consist of "somnambulistic guitar noodlings." On one of these songs, it goes on for thirteen minutes. It's like, OK, it's conceptual, but it's not really all that great of an idea.

That "14" single is my favorite of the Drag City records.

Tim Ellison (Tim Ellison), Tuesday, 21 September 2004 16:11 (nineteen years ago) link

sorry, hstencil, let's drop it

amateur!!st, Tuesday, 21 September 2004 16:13 (nineteen years ago) link

how about you drop it since you brought it up? Sheesh. Don't blame me for your own boorish behavior.

hstencil (hstencil), Tuesday, 21 September 2004 16:14 (nineteen years ago) link

On a related note, my take on Fingerpainting was just wishing they would have played the songs and recorded and mixed them normally. Again, it was a conceptual approach, but there's this sour irony to it, like our record is conceptual because we did this intentional bummer stuff.

Tim Ellison (Tim Ellison), Tuesday, 21 September 2004 16:16 (nineteen years ago) link

All that said, I kind of still like them OK (including the super bummer Blues, Hollers, and Hellos EP)!

Tim Ellison (Tim Ellison), Tuesday, 21 September 2004 16:19 (nineteen years ago) link

ok, i'll drop it

amateur!!st, Tuesday, 21 September 2004 16:19 (nineteen years ago) link

(i tht boorishness was the soul of noize, but anyway)

amateur!!st, Tuesday, 21 September 2004 16:20 (nineteen years ago) link

btw, lefty, I still listen to some Gastr Del Sol! The first, Serpentine Similar, has a place in my heart, I like the Mirror Repair EP for the most part and some stuff off Upgrade and Afterlife, and a few other tracks here and there. I'm no David Grubbs or mid 90s Chicago scene fanatic, but those are some good records!

Dan Selzer (Dan Selzer), Tuesday, 21 September 2004 16:24 (nineteen years ago) link

"Amor and Language" is a record everyone ought to check out - it's pretty fabulous. I'm not so big on the rest of the '90s stuff. "Hazel," in particular, seemed to fall into the kind of deliberately arch and somewhat sour "arty" maneuvering that the band had always been wonderful about avoiding. (But then I haven't listened to it in a long time.)

morris pavilion (samjeff), Tuesday, 21 September 2004 16:26 (nineteen years ago) link

I feel like Mayo maybe fell off a bit from some sort of balance between the "pop" world and the "theory" world, once he entered that '90s scene (though I think maybe it also started to slip toward the end of the '80s, when he started working with Albert Oehlen, etc.). Part of what's so amazing about those records with the Art & Language people is how the band recorded all these wonderful pop songs about Marxism, art, etc., without seeming at all "pretentious" (I don't like that word, but I guess it is more or less what I mean).

morris pavilion (samjeff), Tuesday, 21 September 2004 16:33 (nineteen years ago) link

I think he's always walked that line, sometimes too far towards the arty, sometimes striking a perfect balance. Last night he knew what had to be done to put on a great show and they were practically a punk band. Power chords, screaming vocals, everything played faster than usual...

Dan Selzer (Dan Selzer), Tuesday, 21 September 2004 16:35 (nineteen years ago) link

It's their new concept!

Tim Ellison (Tim Ellison), Tuesday, 21 September 2004 16:37 (nineteen years ago) link

Has anyone heard that "Girl Friday" EP - a band led by a singer named Alexis Hall, with songwriting by Hall, Mayo, and Watson (and music by them and others)? It's totally poppy, clever, and full of personality - a great little CD.

morris pavilion (samjeff), Tuesday, 21 September 2004 16:39 (nineteen years ago) link

http://www.alexishall.com

Dan Selzer (Dan Selzer), Tuesday, 21 September 2004 17:05 (nineteen years ago) link

I have to credit Corky's Debt as being the one thing to make me realise I was spending way too much money on records. So for that, I guess, I give thanks to Mayo Thompson.

Still haven't picked up the Tom Watson solo record that came out a couple of years ago. Think it's got Mayo and Mark Mothersbaugh on it too. Plus JO'R IIRC. Anyone else heard it?

NickB (NickB), Wednesday, 22 September 2004 07:31 (nineteen years ago) link

four months pass...
I just wanted to revive this thread because I've been listening to Red Krayola recently since I found out that "Victory Garden" on On Fire and "Transparent Radiation" on The Perfect Prescription (two awesome songs on two of my favorite albums) are covers of Red Krayola songs. Anyway, they own. Why are they so obscure*?

* - Oh yea, I hereby declare anything that my ignorant ass had not heard about until recently, "obscure."

poortheatre (poortheatre), Monday, 14 February 2005 07:57 (nineteen years ago) link

They're not that obscure to anyone who is into Texas psych (via the International Artists label, 13th Floor Elevators et al) or the 80s Rough Trade Scene. If you like those two songs definitely pick up the first two albums Parable of Arable Land and God Bless the Red Krayola and All Who Sail With It. Absolute classics.

walter kranz (walterkranz), Monday, 14 February 2005 08:13 (nineteen years ago) link

Thanks, Walter. You're in a very didactic mood this evening haha. I'll put them in my Amazon cart (which is actually kind of starting to resemble the Amazon since I started taking reccs from this crowd).

poortheatre (poortheatre), Monday, 14 February 2005 08:16 (nineteen years ago) link

Sorry about that. Just a bit drunk over here.

walter kranz (walterkranz), Monday, 14 February 2005 08:24 (nineteen years ago) link

BTW, has there ever been another act whose two first albums were so wildly different?

walter kranz (walterkranz), Monday, 14 February 2005 08:29 (nineteen years ago) link

Defibite classic.

I've been on a bit of a Red Crayola kick recently: I've had The Parable of Arable Land and God Bless the Red Krayola and All Who Sail With It for a while and thought theye were OK but didn't realy set me alight; but more recently I picked up their Singles comp and was blown away by some of it and this gave me the impetus to actively track down Kangaroo? and Soldier Talk (both of which I'd been passively whining about the non-availability of for a while anyway, because of the respective Raincoats / Lora Logic and Pere Ubu connections).

Based on comments on this thread) I've now also got Mayo's solo album Corky's Debt To His Father on order.

Stewart Osborne (Stewart Osborne), Monday, 14 February 2005 09:51 (nineteen years ago) link

I listened to Parable of Arable Land yesterday. Along with the Godz, these guys were basically inventing the NNCK/Sunburned/out&free psych scene.

Ian John50n (orion), Monday, 14 February 2005 19:02 (nineteen years ago) link

BTW, has there ever been another act whose two first albums were so wildly different?

-- walter kranz (kranz_walte...), February 14th, 2005 3:29 AM. (walterkranz)

and then their third one, Coconut Hotel, is a total ???????er.

eman (eman), Monday, 14 February 2005 21:05 (nineteen years ago) link

Classic for the 60's/Mayo's Debt/70's/80's stuff. The more Marxist diatribes the better.

Less classic is the 90's Drag City stuff. Perhaps one has to already have a soft spot for those serious young Americans helping out?

Nag! Nag! Nag! (Nag! Nag! Nag!), Monday, 14 February 2005 21:54 (nineteen years ago) link

dont blame godz or crayola for contemporary free psych -- they don't deserve that onus.

jack cole (jackcole), Tuesday, 15 February 2005 01:53 (nineteen years ago) link

Right. I was a little underwhelmed by the second album the last time that I listened to it. Parable of Arable Land is great, though.

Tim Ellison (Tim Ellison), Tuesday, 15 February 2005 01:57 (nineteen years ago) link

i think right now i like god bless the best, especially with short short songs and all. then again, i like them both, the favorite picked by the mood im in or what state my attention span is in. long live the familiar ugly.

jack cole (jackcole), Tuesday, 15 February 2005 01:59 (nineteen years ago) link

I think I like Corky's better than god bless.

Tim Ellison (Tim Ellison), Tuesday, 15 February 2005 02:00 (nineteen years ago) link

i like 'em all, pretty much.

hstencil (hstencil), Tuesday, 15 February 2005 04:20 (nineteen years ago) link

fuck, now that i have a job, maybe i should get that singles comp.

hstencil (hstencil), Tuesday, 15 February 2005 04:26 (nineteen years ago) link

I was really impressed with Mayo's playing on last year's re-reissue of Ubu's One Man Drives. Thought his rhythm as lead showed how he was listening to Texas soul-rock in the 60s, and also Nile Rodgers (very of the moment when One Man was recorded, so not just about the good old)

don, Tuesday, 15 February 2005 05:31 (nineteen years ago) link

FYI, he’s doing this again in Chicago, in March:

https://www.instagram.com/p/B7ocEkRgkdw/?igshid=13vhma8ks4m7n

dad genes (morrisp), Saturday, 25 January 2020 20:28 (four years ago) link

bought a ticket! thanks!

na (NA), Monday, 27 January 2020 17:57 (four years ago) link

I should go to this

chr1sb3singer, Monday, 27 January 2020 20:19 (four years ago) link

I am going to this

chr1sb3singer, Thursday, 30 January 2020 14:44 (four years ago) link

one month passes...

chicago show cancelled :(

na (NA), Wednesday, 4 March 2020 17:53 (four years ago) link

That's too bad. I wonder if it's b/c Mayo's mobility is limited (he was using a cane at the L.A. show).

tamagotchi revival artist (morrisp), Wednesday, 4 March 2020 17:58 (four years ago) link

I am not going to this

chr1sb3singer, Wednesday, 4 March 2020 18:19 (four years ago) link

two years pass...

I happened to visit the Drag City website, for the first time in ages; saw this featured, snapped it up - https://www.dragcity.com/products/keep-all-your-friends

Bob Dylan's iconic Ray Ban sunglasses (morrisp), Monday, 23 May 2022 02:46 (one year ago) link

I'm not the world's biggest Kangaroo? stan, but I found that 'zine entertaining and informative. A real labor of love.

InternationalWaters, Monday, 23 May 2022 13:32 (one year ago) link

two weeks pass...

The interviews (and photos) in the zine are so great... it's really a dream come true if you're a fan of this era. Highly recommended!

Just thought I'd share this, as it really made me laugh:

MAYO THOMPSON: I loved the record. I loved that sound. I think it's a very successful record and I now understand why it was not a hit. I had never thought the content would be counted as controversial. It didn't ever occur to me until when I saw my father in Houston. He had been at a golf game with his legal cronies and one of them asked, "How's your Marxist rock band going, Mayo?" I didn't know that people saw it that way. I thought people just listened to music.

Creature Catcher (Live) (morrisp), Wednesday, 8 June 2022 21:27 (one year ago) link

Hahaha. The Rough Trade era is just about the Marxist-est thing I can think of in all of popular music.Bless.

Nag! Nag! Nag!, Wednesday, 8 June 2022 22:01 (one year ago) link

nine months pass...

From Drag City News"

WHAT COMES AFTER ART, MYSTERY? DO THE MATH!

“After Math begins where Art, Mystery, the first installment in Mr. Thompson’s two-part novel, left off. The chrome trader Perlat Tile has just witnessed the criminal Pablo Palbon attempt to smuggle a small erotic bronze by Pollaiuolo out of Tirana disguised as a funeral urn. The ensuing trial — described in After Math — pits the gallerist Ms. Jasmine, who wants to acquire the work legitimately, against the state of Albania, which also claims ownership of it. Written in the impeccable prose that we have come to expect from Mr. Thompson, After Math proves that what happens after a plot is foiled can be just as delightful as the action itself.”

— Michael Sanchez

A new novel from the mind of Mayo Thompson is upon all who travel with us! Best known for his work with the psychedelic band, The Red Krayola, After Math is the sequel to Thompson's 2018 novella Art, Mystery. After Math retails what becomes of the cast of characters introduced in Art, Mystery, joint and severally pursuing an erotic Rinascimento statuette attributed to Antonio Pollaiuolo, a pursuit that lands them in court. On the way, their collective and singular fates are unfolded and accounted for, the consequences of the truth of matters for them are brought to bear and a kind of rough justice is seen to have been done, as is appropriate in rough trade.

Pre-order your hardcover copy or audiobook (as read by Mayo himself!) before the publication date of September 1st.

Mayo Thompson Online:

Drag City -https://www.dragcity.com/artists/mayo-thompson

Pre Order- mayothompson.lnk.to/aftermath

dow, Tuesday, 4 April 2023 19:02 (one year ago) link

Oh man. I saw him read a big chunk of this at the Kitchen. Had no idea what to expect. I don't know that anybody did. It was just billed as Mayo Thompson at the Kitchen or something. All the cool kids were there and he read and I was totally lost. I did not notice until now that Drag City published that first novel in 2018.

dan selzer, Tuesday, 4 April 2023 19:16 (one year ago) link

Cool, I gotta read these (I hate that Mayo is at an age where my heart skips when I see this thread revived).

hypnic jerk (morrisp), Tuesday, 4 April 2023 19:21 (one year ago) link

Worried Worried

Ward Fowler, Tuesday, 4 April 2023 19:29 (one year ago) link

two months pass...

Mayo Thompson and the Corky Band are adding more shows, this time on the West Coast! With a NYC date already in place, Mayo Thompson will also be performing Corky's Debt To His Father in both Los Angeles and San Francisco later this August.

Celebrate over fifty years of Corky's Debt To His Father this summer and get your tickets fast!

TOUR DATES:

8/12/23 at (le) poisson rouge in New York, NY

8/30 at The Chapel in San Francisco, CA

8/31 at Zebulon in Los Angeles
Mayo Thompson Online:

Drag City -https://www.dragcity.com/artists/mayo-thompson

For more information and interview requests please contact:
kathryn at dragcity.com

dow, Thursday, 22 June 2023 00:08 (nine months ago) link

Zebulon show doesn’t seem to be posted yet.

Bittern Storm Over My Hammy (morrisp), Thursday, 22 June 2023 04:16 (nine months ago) link

two months pass...

Mayo was awesome tonight! He seemed revitalized, compared to the last few times I saw him. And the band was hot! Such a great show.

Stoned Wheat Thing (morrisp), Friday, 1 September 2023 06:43 (seven months ago) link

three months pass...

rescheduled Corky's Debt to His Father show finally happened tonight. damn I love this album. anyone know who's in "the Corky Band"? not seeing in rudimentary searching.

bulb after bulb, Saturday, 2 December 2023 13:44 (four months ago) link

It was a bunch of young-ish folks I didn’t recognize (in L.A.)

This field is required (morrisp), Saturday, 2 December 2023 15:32 (four months ago) link


You must be logged in to post. Please either login here, or if you are not registered, you may register here.