Gang Of Four.

I can see how Gill was struck by the distressing and "misuse" of familiar elements in the music of Beefheart, maybe especially as a guitarist---also, if he's serious about The Band--or not---certainly the sense, especially on Music From Big Pink, of what xgau called the music's "sprung"quality: something to the effect that if you took away one piece, the whole thing would go flying apart: ah, those self=taught hillbilly mechanics! (My Granpaw, who attended a mechanics' school in St. Louis, started by Henry Ford, went home to the hills and found he had all kinds of competition from consumer-hackers). Prob not really---the Hawks/Band were always known for their chops, and Garth for one was formally educated), but Go4 tapped into that sense of suspenseful tumult under the hood.
And yeah the first times I read about "punk" (in Creem, natch), Bangs was already agitating for distress, misuse, extension of the term: he tried applying it to James Taylor, Helen Reddy, and saying why they were that.
A kid wrote in to say he considered punk not only to be the Seeds and the Dolls, but listening to Sun Ra while doing orange sunshine, and Eugene Ormandy with Dubonnet on ice: Bangs agreed; "The chief criterion is excitement." Surely the 60s roots-continuity-ongoing lives of Patti Smith, Televsion, Voidoids, Joey Ramone (the former Jeff Starship) was had to do with the spirit, not the letter of punk (also all the young geezers Mark cites below), before the rise of Taliban hardcore.
without getting too het up abt two of my bugbears (ancient: "stop saying influence and use better words please", less ancient: "no one called it post-punk at the time and its use now is distorting") the move in the UK to move BEYOND PUNK was strongly afoot as early as 1977, when sounds ran their themed double issue called new musick (also a bad name lol but way better than "post-punk" sorry if this offends), featuring (from memory) kraftwerk, devo, the residents, throbbing gristle, siouxsie and the banshees, plus essays on dub and disco (possibly also pere ubu and cabaret voltaire?)*

i think the notion of a split within punk is just utterly basic to its sense of identity: it was always about forcing splits within a movement, not just the counterculture at large as a movement, but within punk as a movement -- and in some ways within ourselves. identify the contradiction and make it the hook! so it's less a "bullshitty vibe" really than a basic element in the make-up of many of those drawn to it -- we were always drawing paradoxical lines and insisting on impossible definitions, it was our thing! i wish the loudersound interview had called gill out on that a bit -- half his statements seem to me to be screaming "call me out on this! it'll be fun! open for a surprise!"

*with the exception of the banshees all these folks pre-existed punk, this is one (small) reason why i dislike "post-punk"
Also the split had to do, within factions and some bands and some individuals, between break on through/back to basics.

(and "basics" could incl. several kinds of constriction)

Speaking of distressed knowns/"knowns", David Johnson, host of the invaluable Night Lights, reminds us:
Jazz writer Dan Morgenstern once compared the sound of tenor saxophonist Albert Ayler's 1960s avant-garde groups to "a Salvation Army marching band on LSD." Now that's what I call post-punk.
https://indianapublicmedia.org/nightlights/holy-ghost-albert-ayler.php

x-post-- Am curious about the "Red Set: The History Of Gang Of Four" book too. I see there was also a 33 1/3 book on the Entertainment album, but the one review excerpt thing I read about it online just says that the 33 1 /3 book author Kevin Dettmar focuses heavily on (and "beats one over the head with") the Situationist and Marxist aspects of the lyrics

That reminds me: when I went to see Gang of Four back in 2015 (at a local venue!), during a lull in the performance Andy riffed about French Situationism for a little bit. Also, he was still pretty gorgeous.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wMlhWvIh7U4

Thanks for that Wilko Johnson video.

still intrigued by simon reynolds' claim that gill's and wilko's fingernails are "hardened" -- are (or were) they? how?

Lots of fingerstyle guitar players use artificial nails, not sure if that’s what he is referring to, tend not to think so.

Simon Reynolds doesn't how guitar playing works - shocker!

I've heard stories of particularly bass players using super glue to reenforce calluses.

hardened skin absolutely! i used to play double bass in orchestras so i know exactly how that works -- but i don't think you can't callus fingernails

brb researching nail art, i already discovered tippi hedren is why so many US nail bars are vietnamese-run

gang of four shd write a song abt it tbrr

Maybe he imagines that said nails were gradually vulcanized into steely talons as a consequence of their owners' picking style?
(That's not what happens, no.)

Yes, I believe that is exactly what he thinks

That's not what happens indeed. I love this part in an episode of a Matt Sweeney series, in which James Williams talks about the Fake Fingernail Mojo
https://youtu.be/9OvB-wDt7mA?t=521

rules that legendary stooge james williamson basically confirms my not-entirely serious nail-bar theory

Catherine Mayer, Andy Gill's widow, has a new piece up about his passing. There is a strong possibility -- though as the piece clearly states, no specific evidence -- he was an early victim of COVID-19

https://www.catherinemayer.co.uk/post/2020-vision-14-may-16-00

Many thanks for posting that.

My brother has just texted me, "Respiratory illness after touring Asia". I think I'd hold fire on that one.

― (includes digression on farting) (Tom D.), Saturday, 1 February 2020 21:08 (three months ago) bookmarkflaglink

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/jun/01/spate-of-possible-uk-coronavirus-cases-from-2019-come-to-light

The trajectory of Gill’s illness, which took medics looking after him in January by surprise, is now familiar – sudden deterioration, low oxygen levels and organ failure. He had fallen sick after his band returned from a trip to China in late November. A short time later, his 26-year-old tour manager was taken to hospital in Leeds with a severe respiratory infection.

Knowing what we do now it does seem likely it was covid, although apparently the band cancelled last spring's Chinese dates after he was hospitalised with another chest infection.

MATADOR RECORDS TO OVERSEE CLASSIC
GANG OF FOUR ALBUMS

ENTERTAINMENT!, SOLID GOLD, SONGS OF THE FREE, AND 14 LIVE SHOWS
NOW AVAILABLE TO STREAM

LISTEN TO A CURATED PLAYLIST OF LIVE TRACKS

We are pleased to announce that Matador Records will now oversee a number of key catalog titles by legendary Leeds, UK band, Gang of Four, including the classic albums Entertainment! (1979), Solid Gold (1981), and Songs of the Free (1982).

These records are once again available across streaming services and are joined by 14 live releases capturing performances between 1979 and 1984. Find a curated playlist of highlights from the live tapes.

“Ether,” the introductory track on Entertainment!, was recently sampled by Run The Jewels, who used the song’s core riff to form the backbone of their track “the ground below” on the recently released RTJ4.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mCQtCj39TN0

More to come.

yay!

W/r/t live tracks playlist, the entire Mpls gig used to be up on youtube (seems to have been taken down, natch) and it is a fucking scorcher

Ah-ha, I see the whole show is up already up on the various streaming services, nice, I thought they were just doing the playlist

Songs of the Free never gets the love it deserves. "Call Me Up" and "We Live As We Dream...Alone" are as good as anything from Entertainment.

"We Live As We Dream...Alone" is a good one

On the August 1979 Toronto show they cover the Mekons and Rezillos!

I think about "We live.." all the time. it does something powerful to me.

“The Problem of Leisure: A Celebration of Andy Gill and Gang of Four”

http://musicglue-images-prod.global.ssl.fastly.net/gang-of-four-usa/product/the-problem-of-leisure-limited-edition-cd-pre-order?u=aHR0cHM6Ly9tdXNpY2dsdWUtdXNlci1hcHAtcC02LXAuczMuYW1hem9uYXdzLmNvbS9vcmlnaW5hbHMvZWM4MDFkNjgtNmEzNi00MDc1LWIxMDEtYjBjZGY3ZWU0ODU3&mode=contain&width=800&v=2

A new compilation album featuring globally famous names with original artwork by Damien Hirst to be released on May 14, 2021

The Problem of Leisure: CD One

Vinyl One, Side A
1. IDLES - Damaged Goods (UK)
2. Tom Morello & Serj Tankian - Natural’s Not in It (USA)
3. Helmet - In the Ditch (USA)
4. 3D* x Gang of Four feat. Nova Twins - Where the Nightingale Sings (UK)
5. Hotei - To Hell With Poverty (Japan)

Vinyl One, Side B
1. Gary Numan - Love Like Anthrax (UK)
2. Gail Ann Dorsey - We Live as We Dream, Alone (USA)
3. Herbert Grönemeyer feat. Alex Silva - I Love a Man in a Uniform (Germany)
4. LoneLady - Not Great Men (UK)
5. JJ Sterry - 5.45 (UK)

The Problem of Leisure: CD Two
Vinyl Two, Side C
1. La Roux - Damaged Goods (UK)
2. Everything Everything - Natural’s Not in It (UK)
3. Dado Villa-Lobos - Return the Gift (Brazil)
4. The Dandy Warhols - What We All Want (USA)
5. Warpaint - Paralysed (USA)

Vinyl Two, Side D
1. Flea & John Frusciante – Not Great Men (USA)
2. The Sounds - I Love a Man in a Uniform (Sweden)
3. Hardcore Raver in Tears - Last Mile** (China)
4. Killing Joke x Gang of Four - Forever Starts Now (Killing Joke Dub) (UK)
5. Sekar Melati - Not Great Men (live version) (Japan)

Stream the first single - "Natural's Not in It" by Tom Morello & Serj Tankian
http://gang-of-four.ffm.to/naturals-not-in-it

I was just about to say what's with the shitty artwork and then...

All I know is if someone told me Gang of Four was one of the most influential bands ever, and then I saw that track list, I would probably call bullshit.

3. Helmet - In the Ditch (USA)
1. La Roux - Damaged Goods (UK)

I'd fancy hearing these two but that's about it

that certainly is the bloke from System of a Down on that cover version, I'll say that

Box Set Now Due In March (Vinyl & Cassette) and April (CD)

http://www.slicingupeyeballs.com/2021/02/02/gang-of-four-77-81-box-set-rescheduled/

Hope this one does well, so they do a second one. I've held out paying $$$ for _Hard_ on Discogs, and will get the next period's cd box set. _Songs of the Free_ ("I Love a Man in Uniform") and _Hard_ ("Independence", "Arabic") are the two I fell for in college.

so uncool to not include the cassette in the CD version

bit shit that it doesn't include the single versions

maybe the Fast Product EP was a licensing issue?

still owned by Bob Last

At Home He's A Tourist was on EMI though

I mean tbh I prefer the album version so maybe it's not a great loss, just if you're gonna do a big box set, with a disc called Singles, you'd think they'd actually put the single on it

unless I am mistaken, there has been no notice on ILM that David Pajo has joined what is otherwise a completely credible lineup of King, Burnham and Sara Lee… while I feel pretty much like a putz for not seeing the 2004 tour, the idea of Pajo having an opportunity to go bugshit on top of Lee and Burnham seems pretty enticing…

Gang of Four Reunite, Plan January Tour!

thank you ufo!

thank you ufo!

Gang of Four without Andy Gill? Sacrilege!

Yeah, but I'll be tempted to go for this Go4, if they come close enough geographically. How's the box? Good remasters, good prev. unreleased?

Ehhhhh, the stuff on the cassette was mostly uninspiring scraps.

I kinda always thought the NY Dolls put it so well with the title of that late reunion record "One Day It Will Please Us to Remember Even This". Go to the gigs and have fun with what you got, hopefully they will be a good time. I'm sure David Pajo will give it his all to make it work.

Yeah, but I'll be tempted to go for this Go4, if they come close enough geographically. How's the box? Good remasters, good prev. unreleased?