The Golden Palominos

We used to live in the same apartment building on 4th Ave in Brooklyn. I hardly ever saw him. Every now and again somebody would leave some amazing records outside on the street, for free, for the neighbourhood, and I always assumed it was him. Stuff from the late 70s and early 80s like Telex. It might not have been him. But I like to think that I have a few of Anton Fier's records.

awesome street find whoever left them there!

Ok, I posted about those changes on the Spotify thread glenn posts on.

nytimes obit...

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/10/07/arts/music/anton-fier-dead.html

wow, rough story.

Several motorists at red lights gawked at me 10 mins ago as I sang "Clustering Train."

nytimes obit...

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/10/07/arts/music/anton-fier-dead.html🕸🕸

playing on the seminal 1978 EP “Datapanik in the Year Zero” by Pere Ubu

Surely the New York Times has confused the 1978 EP with the box set of the same name from 1996, which includes Fier's contributions to the Song of the Bailing Man album from 1982?

the ep's has a dedication to fier on the sleeve but the drummer was scott krauss as far as i know

Yeah I figured that was a mistake. David Thomas didn’t start mucking about with the lineup until Art of Walking, their fourth album with Mayo Thompson.

It must have been a good experience tho as Fier was part of that power trio with Tony Maimone that formed the basis for Bob Mould’s Workbook and Black Sheets of Rain.

what's odd is that workbook is such a laid back album that you wouldn't think those guys were the band on it. Black Sheets is another story (and IMO a better album though I think I'm the only person that thinks that).

In Chris Stamey's book, Bob Mould tells him that he hired Fier after hearing how subtle his drumming was on one of Stamey's songs: "I didn't have the heart to tell him I'd used a drum machine on that track".

I don’t actually know Workbook that well but I was a big fan of Black Sheets of Rain. There is a string of songs in the middle of that disc—One Good Reason, Stop Your Crying and Hanging Tree—that I find heavier and more tuneful than almost any of his Husker Dü work (Dying from the Inside Out kind of brings it together on the Palominos’ Drunk with Passion a few years later).

Especially as we are looking back now on the 30th anniversary of Copper Blue, it seems the heavier playing Mould did with Anton and Tony clubbing away in the background helped him mature as a songwriter (and perhaps also as a singer). I wonder if Mould would agree.

Interesting that the Herbie Hancock Rockit Band was apparently a big drug-fest. A bunch of those guys look like session dudes who wouldn’t profile as big partiers.

i dunno, this looks like a real party:

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

I stand corrected.

_playing on the seminal 1978 EP “Datapanik in the Year Zero” by Pere Ubu_


Surely the _New York Times_ has confused the 1978 EP with the box set of the same name from 1996, which includes Fier's contributions to the _Song of the Bailing Man_ album from 1982?

Yeah I figured that was a mistake. David Thomas didn’t start mucking about with the lineup until _Art of Walking_, their fourth album with Mayo Thompson.

It must have been a good experience tho as Fier was part of that power trio with Tony Maimone that formed the basis for Bob Mould’s _Workbook_ and _Black Sheets of Rain. _

Drummer Scott Krauss quit the band following the Art of Walking tour. Anton Fier (Lounge Lizards, Feelies, Voidoids, Golden Palominos), who had filled in for Krauss the first time he quit the band briefly (right before The Modern Dance) dutifully stepped back in. This album was intended to be very precisely formulated and constructed; the exact opposite of its immediate precursor. At the encouragement of Geoff Travis, head of Rough Trade Records, they brought in Adam Kidron as a producer. However, tensions between Fier and Thompson made life miserable for everyone in the band, and after touring this album, nobody in the band wanted to talk to anybody else. There was never a formal break up, according to Thomas; Pere Ubu just disappeared for a while.

meaning that krauss is credited as drummer on datapanik bcz he was (and would again be) the primary pere ubu drummer, but that fier is thanked on the datapanik sleeve because he actually played on a track or two despite not technically being a full band member? (if krauss was given to quitting best not make this entirely public in case he does it again over the crediting on the ep)

if this is the argument the NYTimes is making it shd probably be a bit more upfront abt it

All the songs on the Datapanik EP have individual credits on the Terminal Tower compilation, Fier is not credited. Anyway, all five of those songs date from 1975 and 1976, if Fier played with them "right before The Modern Dance" that would be late 1977.

And the EP was released in Spring 1978, which is why they might have felt a need to thank Fier.

it's odd to me that i first was pretty (quite) into feelies and pere ubu in the early 80s, then well knew of gp and anton fier late 80s to now, and didn't like realize duh he was IN THE FEELIES. pre internet music nerding was all blind spots. rip fier.

He’s right there on the left!

https://f4.bcbits.com/img/a1047235130_10.jpg

It’s also nuts that from 1980-1984 the dude is in The Feelies, Lounge Lizards, GPs, Pere Ubu and the fucking Rockit Band. That’s just nuts, particularly when you consider how often he was described as personally difficult and not necessarily the most skilled drummer.

^this, 100%!