Allen (l) and Burnham (r) in happier times, May 5th 2005 backstage at Portland’s Crystal Ballroom (pic: Jamie Francis)
GANG OF FOUR MINUS TWO
The original and best-loved line-up of famed post-punk icons Gang of Four reunited in 2005 to great acclaim and success - unfortunately all good things must come to an end. Bassist Dave Allen and drummer Hugo Burnham are moving on, although singer Jon King and guitar-player Andy Gill will continue, focusing on writing and recording new music as Gang of Four. Burnham last performed with the band at All Tomorrow’s Parties in the UK in December 2006, while Allen played a few shows alongside drummer Mark Heaney in 2007, and recently worked on new material with King and Gill.
Allen says, “At the beginning of April, I decided that I could no longer continue to be a member of Gang of Four. My ability to give 100% to the band is limited and I feel that if I can’t do so, then I shouldn’t continue. As I expand my research and thinking about contemporary music distribution on Pampelmoose.com, and as I focus on online technology and social networking at Nemo Design here in Portland, I find myself conflicted about how the band’s new music should be released. To retain any credibility for Pampelmoose.com about what the future of music distribution will look like, I have to move on and not hold back Jon and Andy’s music plans. I have had a side project for a while now with John Askew of Tracker and Menomena’s drummer Danny Seim called Faux Hoax (pronounced Folks), and I look forward to fun times finding ways to get our music into peoples’ hands in unique ways.”
Burnham writes, “It was a great couple of years of intermittently reminding people old and new, far and wide just how powerful the original four of us were together. Age only increased our power and focus onstage, and it was a rare pleasure to work with the original band once again. Being in a band requires handling the business side of it too, and that became boring and the constant travel became debilitating. I am soon to start my Doctorate, as well as broadening my teaching at more than one college here in Massachusetts, so my free time has become increasingly limited, making it difficult to be involved with them going forward. Musically, I am recording and writing with members of Boston noise-merchants, The Bags and I have also been doing some recording lately with Mike Watt. I wish Jon and Andy luck with their new musical endeavours; I am sure they will be interesting.”
I spent Sunday afternoon out in Washington state, near Battle Ground actually. Portia from Kill Rock Stars and her husband Slim held a BBQ at their house and invited many people who had at least a tenuous connection to the indie music scene. Mecca Normal performed and for me that was a first as I had never seen them and I know they have had a heavy influence on many musicians in the Northwest indie rock/riot grrrl movements. Amongst the crowd were Hutch and Kathy of The Thermals, Carrie from Sleater-Kinney and Rachel Blumberg who was telling me about touring with Bright Eyes and working with M Ward and how she really enjoyed his She and Him project with the actress Zooey Deschanel. And as you can tell by the video, Horsefeathers performed a set too. I also edited some footage from the day to a Horsefeathers song Hardwood Pews - watch it here.
I just can’t resist stating the obvious: not only does recent addition to the band Ehren Ebbage play spanky lap steel + crisp acoustic guitar while adding another shot of bourbon-sweet vocals to an already bourbon-sweet mix. He also bears a striking resemblance to Lou Diamond Phillips. At least I think so. So are The Dimes Portland’s Young Guns of pop? Yes. You’re damn right, they are. And they’re starting a dusty West Coast tour this week. How perfect is that?
I became a fan of Australia’s Cut Copy through their online mix tapes which have been made available here and there. Their album Bright Like Neon Love came out in 2004 and this March you can now get Lights and Music which is a remix ep by the look of it. Visit the Cut Copy blog to get a free download of a track from their upcoming new release ‘In Ghost Colours.’ I overheard someone at the party say “why’s it taken so long for a band to come along and pick up where New Order left off?”..true, true a fine compliment.
The boys are extremely personable and very clear about their situation but they still foolishly allowed themselves to be interviewed by me. Because of the background noise and their thick Australian accents they may have got off lightly during the Moose interrogation….two takeaway quotes from the interview for me when I asked them about the internet and the ability to get music into peoples hands were “The powers gone back into the hands of the bands” and “It’s time for the labels to try and catch up.” That must put a chill into the hearts of the folks at their label, Interscope.
Watch the YouTube version here or right-click/control click to download your own iTunes/iPhone version here. And you can get their rather fabulous mix tape here.
