CD Reviews

The Bongos

Drums along the Hudson | Cooking Vinyl

By TED DROZDOWSKI | August 20, 2007

4.0 Stars

Cooking Vinyl Twenty-five years after its initial release, this cornerstone of American ’80s post-punk/new-wave sounds both innovative and quaint. Frontman Richard Barone has a quavering, uncalculated deer-in-the headlights quality to his voice that no major label would package today. And the upbeat playing is both artful and rickety, propelled by angular, jittery guitar and primitive drumming. There’s also a hopefulness in many of the Bongos’ lyrics. In the wake of punk’s first wave, independent artists were setting out to reclaim the cleverness of good pop songwriting from the slick strictures of corporate rock. And some, like the Bongos (who were born in the vital Hoboken scene), were breaking out internationally, paving the way for the likes of the Pixies and the eventual mainstream success of R.E.M. The consumerist rant “Video Eyes,” the presciently metrosexual “Zebra Club,” and the tribal ode to lust “In the Congo” still surprise. Noisy little solos detonate like bombs; harmonies threaten to crash yet manage to soar, elevating the choruses. Just-okay vintage live tracks and a new recording of “The Bulrushes” produced by Moby round the disc’s original 15 tracks up to 27.

Related: Crossword: ''You can look it up'', Fresh legends, All in the Fam, More

Crossword: ''You can look it up''
Eight entries from eight decades of the OED.
Fresh legends
Nine out of 10 rap legends prefer People Under the Stairs. (The holdout is a crackhead.) That's no joke — in my hundreds of interviews with dudes who brought the noise and funk before the big ship sunk ( circa 1997), California underground heroes Thes One and Double K have been as popular a subject as the exploitation of old-school luminaries.
All in the Fam
Halfway through my interview with the Allston-based alt-hop collective Fameless Fam about their upcoming showcase at Wonder Bar this Tuesday, Will from the posse's glitch-minded duo Time Crisis mentions that he went to high school in Pittsburgh with rising rap sensation Wiz Khalifa.
Arty crashers
Fucked Up's career is a game of dares they're winning. Over the past few years, the Toronto band have trashed a bathroom on an MTV broadcast, played a 12-hour set in a NYC boutique, reeled in random notables like David Cross, Bob Mould, and Nelly Furtado for Christmas charity singles, landed their vocalist Pink Eyes appearances on Fox News, and won the 2009 Polaris Music Prize.
The IFC Soundtrack
The bridge between independent film and indie rock has been getting easier and easier to cross with the rise of a new generation of directors weaned on music videos and the multimedia underground.
The Big Hurt: Crashing Pumpkins
I recently had the "was that real, or did I dream that?" feeling about the upcoming Spider-Man musical featuring songs by U2, and I happily concluded that it was a dream.
The ignorami
Mission of Burma formed in Boston 30 years ago — the year Joy Division, Gang of Four, and the Pop Group released notorious post-punk releases in the UK.
Bully for Woolly
If U2 played regularly at late, lamented underground mill spaces like Fort Thunder, they’d be lucky to sound something like Honeyhander
Vital overtones
Five essential Byrne-Eno collaborations
Adrian Sherwood
Have no fear: Real World’s reissue of producer Adrian Sherwood’s second solo album from 2006 is a fantastic choice for dubdorks and dubnewbs alike.
WFNX's top 101 songs in 2009
Videos of the 101 most requested songs on WFNX in 2009
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Topics: CD Reviews , Moby (Musician)

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