#robert christgau

[flankingmanoeuvres]

Visit Original Link

Sound d'Afrique II: Soukous [Mango, 1982] "Soukous" is a word understood throughout French-speaking Africa (the source of this album). It simply means: going out, checking the music, dancing and, cool or passionate, having the Best Time." As in juking, say. But also as in the slang term for the Congolese style that dominates the continent's pop--which this features, thus avoiding the eclectic distractions of Mango's first Afropop collection. Salsafied stuff with vocals that sometimes float sweet and high and sometimes twist and shout, none of it by big-name stars. In short, an African disco compilation. Nice. A-

Jeff Louna (born Joseph Lounana, 1948–2018) was a legendary Congolese guitarist and singer known for blending jazz with traditional rumba. A pioneer who co-founded the Jungle Trio, he captivated audiences across Africa and Europe before spending his later years performing and teaching in France.

[vinylspinning]

The Fugs: Golden Filth (At Last, Alive at the Fillmore East) (1970)

Here's another reminder that comedy and politics are both topical and timely -- they rarely age very well.

Back in the late '60s, The Fugs were championed by the counter-culture for their politicized blend of poetry, satire, and comedy set to raunchy, almost pre-punk rock 'n' roll; but today no one even remembers the group ... unless they were there.

I most certainly was not, so please take this unenthusiastic "shrug" of a review with a grain of salt ...

Despite its 1970 release date, Golden Filth (At Last, Alive at the Fillmore East) was recorded in June of '68, by which time The Fugs had evolved from primitive folk and garage rock origins (sometimes dubbed "holy anarchy") into some sort of avant-garde performance art ensemble.

Founded in 1964 by a couple of Lower East Side beat poets, Ed Sanders and Tuli Kupferberg (also known for his work as a cartoonist), the group took its name from the euphemism for "fuck" in Norman Mailer's World War II novel, The Naked and the Dead.

Fittingly formed in a bookstore, where they initially rehearsed and performed, The Fugs featured a rotating cast of musicians that included guitarists Danny Kortchmar, bassist Chuck Rainey, and fiddler Peter Stampfel, among others.

But no matter how talented their backing band, Sanders and Kupferberg made sure that The Fugs maintained a deliberately raw and unsophisticated sound, topped by a line-blurring fusion of highbrow poetry and lowbrow obscenity.

This juxtaposition permeates this collection of songs, chants, poetry, and surreal spoken extracts while blurring the intent of either extreme.

Sometimes its cheap and vulgar, as in "I Couldn't Get High," "Saran Wrap," "Supergirl," and "Slum Goddess":

"First time that we balled it nearly drove me insane; Next time that we balled it ripped me out of my brain; The third time that we balled you know I fainted nearly dead; I woke up she was on her knees and sucking my head."

Sometimes its cerebral and poetic as in "I Want to Know," "Nothing," (which at times recalls vintage Mothers of Invention) and "How Sweet I Roamed":

"How sweet I roam'd from field to field; And tasted all the summer's pride; 'Till I the prince of love beheld; Who in the sunny beams did glide!"

The one thing both strains had in common 55 years ago was their ability to separate the hip from the square, but most of the necessary context has been irretrievably lost over time, and surely aren't worth the effort to re-contextualize now.

We've got bigger problems in this country ...

So maybe we should content ourselves with the following assessment of The Fugs' live document provided by legendary Village Voice critic Robert Christgau, who called this LP "a mess, but a purposeful mess."

That sounds about right to me ...

More Comedy Albums: Barnes & Barnes’ Voobaha, Cheech & Chong’s Cheech & Chong, Douglas Adams’ The Hitch-Hikers’ Guide to the Galaxy, Dread Zeppelin’s Un-Led-Ed, Lenny and The Squigtones’ Lenny and Squiggy Present Lenny and The Squigtones, Eddie Murphy’s Comedian, Ruben and The Jets’ Cruising with Ruben and The Jets, Spinal Tap’s This is Spinal Tap, Steel Panther’s All You can Eat, Tenacious D’s Tenacious D.

[omg-hellgirl]

What I'm doing is a sexual thing. I dance, and all dancing is a replacement for sex. What really upsets people is that I'm a man and not a woman. What I do is very much the same as a girl's striptease dance.

Robert Christgau, "The Rolling Stones", quoting Mick Jagger, cited in Anthony DeCurtis (ed.), Illustrated History of Rock and Roll.

[ruiraiox]

Not Nothing: The Remains of No Wave, Three Decades Later

The five-night music festival in May 1978 at the legendary gallery and performance venue Artists Space, at 105 Hudson Street in Tribeca, had

The five-night music festival in May 1978 at the legendary gallery and performance venue Artists Space, at 105 Hudson Street in Tribeca, had no title. The flyers on the fences around vacant lots in Lower Manhattan said only “BANDS” with a lineup: Terminal, Gynecologists, Theoretical Girls, Daily Life, Tone Death, Contortions, DNA, Mars, Teenage Jesus and the Jerks. In the audience were The Village Voice’s Robert Christgau, John Rockwell from The New York Times and Brian Eno, in town to produce the Talking Heads’ second album. The Contortions’ set on Friday night was halted when James Chance, the group’s singer, and Mr. Christgau got into a fistfight. Tickets cost $3.

The Artists Space festival was No Wave’s apogee. Theoretical Music: No Wave, New Music, and the New York Art Scene, 1978-1983, an awkwardly titled three-day event last week at Issue Project Room in Gowanus, organized by Branden Joseph and David Grubbs, was the latest in a series of critical reconsiderations of the movement. If punk was nihilism sprung from political and economic turmoil, No Wave rose from the ashes of such gloom, when even nihilism had expired. The style disregarded melody and tone in favor of rhythm and texture. Its influence remains in the sounds emanating from the ever healthy population of makeshift clubs in New York, but the movement was little more than a cultural blip in New York history: the brief harmony of music, visual art and film in downtown Manhattan, showcased nightly at New Cinema on Astor Place, at small venues like CBGB and quasi-legal spaces like the Mudd Club. 

[everythingloureed]

Review of Lou's November 13, 1976, show at The Palladium in NYC. Robert Christgau again goes for the insults, mixed with attempts at a compliment, using the obligatory - and predictable - quote from Rock & Roll.

It's easy to see why Lou hated him so much.

Photo by Wendi E. Lombardi.

Village Voice - November 15, 1976

[no-reply95]

Robert Christgau describing How Do You Sleep as "the kind of public act committed by a lover who wants to make sure he will never return in momentary weakness to the one who has rejected him so cruelly" lives in my head rent free.

[seanhowe]

Robert Christgau on The Feelies, Village Voice, December 18, 1978

“Fier made his debut with the band at Hurrah on December 12. Maybe Mayor Koch (or Governor Byrne) will declare that date Feelie day”

[thirtytwoelvismovies]

How well do critics hear? As well as they have to

Oui Magazine, April 1974. Lester Bangs, Christgau and co. opine on their sound systems. Bangs: “You know, I never understood Exile [on Main Street] until I listened to it on a $13 portable that I think came from Sears.”