JON LANGFORD
''HERE BE MONSTERS''
APRIL 1 2014
39:29
1 Summer Stars 04:45
2 Weightless 03:33
3 Gone Without Trace 02:31
4 Mars 03:57
5 Sugar on Your Tongue 03:45
6 Drone Operator 05:22
7 Don't Believe (Viv Albertine) 04:09
8 If You Hear Rumors 03:28
9 What Did You Do in the War? 03:53
10 Lil' Ray of Light 04:02
Tracks By Jon Langford & Skull Orchard, Except 7
Joe Camarillo/Drums
Jean Cook/Piano, Sound Effects, Violin, Vocals
Alan Doughty/Bass, Vocals
Jim Elkington/Electric Keyboard, Guitar, Piano
Greg Hicks/Horn
Jon Langford/Guitar, Vocals
Craig Klein/Horn
Barkley McKay/Hammond B3
Mark Mullins/Horn
Tawny Newsome/Vocals
ABOUT THE ALBUM/OFFICIAL WEBSITE
Acclaimed musician and visual artist Jon Langford will be releasing his newest album with Skull Orchard, titled Here Be Monsters, on April 1st. Best known for his work in the The Mekons and the Waco Brothers, Langford has been a leading pioneer in the assimilation of folk/country music into punk rock since the genre’s first evolution over 30 years ago. This album will feature a unique piece of artwork specific to each track on the album.
Langford, describing the new record, says “the subtext of the album is maybe the things our civilization thinks of as fixed and immovable might actually be redundant/obsolete/discredited and it’s up to us to question and find new rocks to be washed up on…” For this new album, Langford called in Mekons/Waco Brothers veteran Mike Hagler (My Morning Jacket, Wilco, Neko Case, Billy Bragg) to record at Chicago’s Kingsize Sound Labs. ”Skull Orchard used to be a fairly solitary activity” says Langford, “but this is much more of a band project than any of the solo things I’ve done before.”
“This album really brings the art and the songs together – a chicken/egg which came first situation. The songs are very visual and in some cases came directly from the paintings.”
**********
REVIEW/AMG
by Mark Deming
Since his earliest days in the Mekons, there's always been a certain purposeful sloppiness in Jon Langford's music, as the rough textures and blunt corners reflected the hard lives and mean circumstances of the people he most often wrote about. But as one of the busiest music men in Chicago, a city full of prolific musicians, Langford has had to face the hard truth that he and his colleagues have gotten better with the passage of time, and his 2014 album with his band Skull Orchard is the point where he and his bandmates reveal that yes, they're actually a great band that not only has great ideas, but can execute them very well indeed. Here Be Monsters is, like many of his albums before it, a snapshot of the world at the time it was made, and once again, Langford and his crew have offered us a handful of well-rendered sketches of young men waging war like it's a video game, older men making a fortune from life and death conflicts, regular folks struggling to get by as mere survival becomes a greater burden, and the despair or casual hopelessness that sinks so many. The messages on Here Be Monsters are painful and timely, but the music is more eclectic and better sculpted than the ragged whiskey-fueled rants of the Mekons or the cranked-up honky tonking of the Waco Brothers; this is smart, dynamic indie rock, mature but passionate and unpretentious, with Langford and his partners bringing a tough but artful sound to these addresses on the state of the union in 2014. He's also brought together an especially good band for this edition of Skull Orchard, particularly Jim Elkington on guitar and keys, Jean Cook on violin, and Tawny Newsome on vocals. Langford's view of the world may not be optimistic, but Here Be Monsters never strives to be despairing, simply honest, and the music is rich and pleasurable while carrying messages more people need to hear. Langford may have lost a tiny bit of ragged glory, but he's gained plenty along the way that makes this album a must, whether they're longtime fans or not.
**********
BIOGRAPHY/AMG
By Mark Deming
There's a jolly absurdity in that one of the most important figures on the independent Americana scene and one of the most prolific figures in Chicago's musical community is a guy from Wales who helped found an enduring U.K. punk outfit. But since the mid-'80s, Jon Langford has been a key figure in the nexus between country and punk rock, as well as a vital collaborator with a wealth of musicians from around the world.
Jonathan Denis Langford was born in Newport, Wales on October 11, 1957. From an early age, he had an artistic bent and an interest in politics, and when he relocated to Leeds, England to study art at the University of Leeds, he fell in with a group of fellow students who had been emboldened by the burgeoning punk/new wave scene. With Tom Greenhalgh, Langford co-founded the band the Mekons; Langford was originally the group's drummer, but as various members dropped out and were replaced, Langford moved to guitar, and became one of the group's vocalists and songwriters. Originally a purposefully sloppy punk band fascinated with the politics of daily life, the Mekons began to expand creatively by the time they released their debut album in 1979, The Quality of Mercy Is Not Strnen, exploring folk and electronic sounds before they went on hiatus in 1982. Langford soon formed a new combo, the guitar-and-drum machine provocateurs the Three Johns, who released seven albums and co-existed with the Mekons after they returned to duty in 1985, having become involved in the movement to support striking miners in the UK. Langford's passion for classic country music had caught on with the new Mekons lineup, and their next three albums -- Fear and Whiskey (1985), The Edge of the World (1986), and Mekon's Honky Tonkin' (1987) -- would fuse raucous roadhouse country with angular rock music and clever, booze-soaked political observations. During this period, the Mekons developed a cult following in the United States, leading to a short-lived alliance with A&M Records, and the band's own Sin Records label was bankrolled by a fan in Chicago; not surprisingly, several members of the band (though not all) relocated to the United States, and in the early '90s, Langford settled in Chicago, marrying a woman he met there.
In 1993, after deals with A&M and a Warner Bros.' alternative subsidiary crashed and burned, sapping the Mekons' energy, the group struck a deal with Quarterstick Records, a side label of the venerable Chicago indie imprint Touch & Go, and the Mekons had a stable stateside label at last, who released 1993's I (Heart) Mekons as well as a variety of new projects and reissues. The following year, Langford would team up with another Chicago indie, Bloodshot Records, who specialized in what they called "Insurgent Country." Langford contributed two songs to Bloodshot's debut release, the 1994 compilation Insurgent Country, Vol. 1: For a Life of Sin, and his latest side project, the Waco Brothers, cut their debut album, To the Last Dead Cowboy, for Bloodshot in 1995. Langford quipped that he'd formed the Waco Brothers so he and his friends (mostly U.K. expatriates) would have a band that could play for beer in their Windy City hometown, but the Wacos, fusing rowdy rock and high-kicking country with blue-collar leftist lyrics, soon became one of Langford's most popular projects, a potent live draw that racked up respectable sales for albums such as Cowboy in Flames (1997) and Electric Waco Chair (2000). In 1995, Langford released his first solo album, a collection of Johnny Cash covers titled Misery Loves Company, credited to Jon Langford & the Pine Valley Cosmonauts. Langford would revive the Pine Valley Cosmonauts handle for a series of records in which he and a floating crew of players would collaborate with other musicians or pay homage to artists they admired, including 1998's The Pine Valley Cosmonauts Salute the Majesty of Bob Wills, 2000's Beneath the Country Underdog (with Kelly Hogan), and 2013's Stranger in My Land (with Roger Knox, a celebrated Australian Aboriginal country singer). Langford also performed and recorded with Katrin Bornfeld, aka Kat Ex, the percussionist with the experimental rock band the Ex, in a duo called Katkonband. And in 1998, Langford released the album Skull Orchard, which would lend its name to another loose ensemble that would help Langford cut 2010's Old Devils.
When not occupied with the Mekons, the Waco Brothers, or his other side projects, Langford frequently guests on albums by like-minded artists, ranging from Alejandro Escovedo and the Old 97's to the Sadies, Richard Buckner, and Gary Lucas. Langford is also a political activist who campaigned to end the death penalty in Chicago, and who works with labor groups. Langford is an honorary board member of the Chicago-based group Rock for Kids, which provides music education for disadvantaged youth, and he's performed with the children's rock band Wee Hairy Beasties. Langford is also an acclaimed visual artist whose work has graced album covers by Buddy Guy, Jim Lauderdale, Hound Dog Taylor, Rosie Flores, and Waylon Jennings; Langford included a portfolio of paintings with his 2014 album with Skull Orchard, Here Be Monsters.
**********
OFFICIAL BIOGRAPHY
Jon Langford born October 11, 1957, Newport, Monmouthshire is a Welsh-born musician and artist who is presently based in Chicago. He is the younger brother of science-fiction author and critic David Langford
Langford was originally the drummer for the punk band The Mekons when it formed at the University of Leeds in 1977, but he later took up the guitar as other band members left. Since the mid-1980s he has been one of the leaders in incorporating folk and country music into punk rock. He has released a number of solo recordings as well as recordings with other bands outside of The Mekons, most notably the Waco Brothers, which he co-founded after moving to Chicago in the early 1990s. He is involved with the Chicago-based >independent record label >Bloodshot.
Langford is also a prolific and respected visual artist best known for his striking portraits of country music icons including Hank Williams, Johnny Cash, and Elvis Presley. His multimedia music/spoken-word/video performance, “The Executioner’s Last Songs,” premiered at Alverno College in 2005, and has been performed in several other cities. He illustrated the comic strip Great Pop Things under the pseudonym Chuck Death. Since 2005 he has co-hosted a weekly radio program, “The Eclectic Company,” broadcast on WXRT 93.1 FM in Chicago. He has contributed to This American Life.
Among Langford’s musical side projects have been the Three Johns (with John Hyatt and John (Phillip) Brennan), who released several albums of drum-machine-fueled punk in the 1980s; the country-punk Waco Brothers (with Dean Schlabowske, Tracey Dear, Alan Doughty, Mark Durante, and Mekons drummer Steve Goulding), who have been recording since 1995; the Pine Valley Cosmonauts, a revolving assortment of Chicago musicians who have backed both Langford and other musicians such as Kelly Hogan; and Ship and Pilot. He became a father figure to the local music scene, encouraging many of his labelmates on Bloodshot Records and championing anyone he thought worthy of scrutiny, often lending his services as a musician or visual artist or inviting local musicians to guest on his releases. Langford’s first official solo album, Skull Orchard, a look back at his hometown of Newport, Wales, was released in 1998. He followed it with All the Fame of Lofty Deeds, in 2004, Gold Brick in 2006, and Old Devils in 2010.
Langford is an accomplished artist and is renowned for his multi-layered paintings of famous and forgotten figures from the dawn of country music. Nashville Radio, a collection of his artwork and writings, was published in 2006.
In January and February 2009, Chicago’s Walkabout Theater Company and Collaboraction premiered a stage adaptation of Langford’s Goldbrick that featured a live band, two actors and video projections. In November and December 2009, The House Theatre of Chicago staged a production of “All the Fame of Lofty Deeds”, written by rock journalist Mark Guarino and based on Langford’s art and 2004 solo album.
Collaborations with other musicians
Langford initiated a project, the Pine Valley Cosmonauts, which performs the music of other country music groups. Several alternative country musicians have guested on these recordings.
Langford has guested on numerous recordings, including with Dutch punk band the Ex, The Old 97s, Chip Taylor, as well as Austin, Texas legend Alejandro Escovedo, and has recorded joint albums with Sally Timms, Kevin Coyne, Richard Buckner, Kat Ex and Rosie Flores.
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''HERE BE MONSTERS''
APRIL 1 2014
39:29
1 Summer Stars 04:45
2 Weightless 03:33
3 Gone Without Trace 02:31
4 Mars 03:57
5 Sugar on Your Tongue 03:45
6 Drone Operator 05:22
7 Don't Believe (Viv Albertine) 04:09
8 If You Hear Rumors 03:28
9 What Did You Do in the War? 03:53
10 Lil' Ray of Light 04:02
Tracks By Jon Langford & Skull Orchard, Except 7
Joe Camarillo/Drums
Jean Cook/Piano, Sound Effects, Violin, Vocals
Alan Doughty/Bass, Vocals
Jim Elkington/Electric Keyboard, Guitar, Piano
Greg Hicks/Horn
Jon Langford/Guitar, Vocals
Craig Klein/Horn
Barkley McKay/Hammond B3
Mark Mullins/Horn
Tawny Newsome/Vocals
ABOUT THE ALBUM/OFFICIAL WEBSITE
Acclaimed musician and visual artist Jon Langford will be releasing his newest album with Skull Orchard, titled Here Be Monsters, on April 1st. Best known for his work in the The Mekons and the Waco Brothers, Langford has been a leading pioneer in the assimilation of folk/country music into punk rock since the genre’s first evolution over 30 years ago. This album will feature a unique piece of artwork specific to each track on the album.
Langford, describing the new record, says “the subtext of the album is maybe the things our civilization thinks of as fixed and immovable might actually be redundant/obsolete/discredited and it’s up to us to question and find new rocks to be washed up on…” For this new album, Langford called in Mekons/Waco Brothers veteran Mike Hagler (My Morning Jacket, Wilco, Neko Case, Billy Bragg) to record at Chicago’s Kingsize Sound Labs. ”Skull Orchard used to be a fairly solitary activity” says Langford, “but this is much more of a band project than any of the solo things I’ve done before.”
“This album really brings the art and the songs together – a chicken/egg which came first situation. The songs are very visual and in some cases came directly from the paintings.”
**********
REVIEW/AMG
by Mark Deming
Since his earliest days in the Mekons, there's always been a certain purposeful sloppiness in Jon Langford's music, as the rough textures and blunt corners reflected the hard lives and mean circumstances of the people he most often wrote about. But as one of the busiest music men in Chicago, a city full of prolific musicians, Langford has had to face the hard truth that he and his colleagues have gotten better with the passage of time, and his 2014 album with his band Skull Orchard is the point where he and his bandmates reveal that yes, they're actually a great band that not only has great ideas, but can execute them very well indeed. Here Be Monsters is, like many of his albums before it, a snapshot of the world at the time it was made, and once again, Langford and his crew have offered us a handful of well-rendered sketches of young men waging war like it's a video game, older men making a fortune from life and death conflicts, regular folks struggling to get by as mere survival becomes a greater burden, and the despair or casual hopelessness that sinks so many. The messages on Here Be Monsters are painful and timely, but the music is more eclectic and better sculpted than the ragged whiskey-fueled rants of the Mekons or the cranked-up honky tonking of the Waco Brothers; this is smart, dynamic indie rock, mature but passionate and unpretentious, with Langford and his partners bringing a tough but artful sound to these addresses on the state of the union in 2014. He's also brought together an especially good band for this edition of Skull Orchard, particularly Jim Elkington on guitar and keys, Jean Cook on violin, and Tawny Newsome on vocals. Langford's view of the world may not be optimistic, but Here Be Monsters never strives to be despairing, simply honest, and the music is rich and pleasurable while carrying messages more people need to hear. Langford may have lost a tiny bit of ragged glory, but he's gained plenty along the way that makes this album a must, whether they're longtime fans or not.
**********
BIOGRAPHY/AMG
By Mark Deming
There's a jolly absurdity in that one of the most important figures on the independent Americana scene and one of the most prolific figures in Chicago's musical community is a guy from Wales who helped found an enduring U.K. punk outfit. But since the mid-'80s, Jon Langford has been a key figure in the nexus between country and punk rock, as well as a vital collaborator with a wealth of musicians from around the world.
**********
OFFICIAL BIOGRAPHY
Jon Langford born October 11, 1957, Newport, Monmouthshire is a Welsh-born musician and artist who is presently based in Chicago. He is the younger brother of science-fiction author and critic David Langford
Langford was originally the drummer for the punk band The Mekons when it formed at the University of Leeds in 1977, but he later took up the guitar as other band members left. Since the mid-1980s he has been one of the leaders in incorporating folk and country music into punk rock. He has released a number of solo recordings as well as recordings with other bands outside of The Mekons, most notably the Waco Brothers, which he co-founded after moving to Chicago in the early 1990s. He is involved with the Chicago-based >independent record label >Bloodshot.
Langford is also a prolific and respected visual artist best known for his striking portraits of country music icons including Hank Williams, Johnny Cash, and Elvis Presley. His multimedia music/spoken-word/video performance, “The Executioner’s Last Songs,” premiered at Alverno College in 2005, and has been performed in several other cities. He illustrated the comic strip Great Pop Things under the pseudonym Chuck Death. Since 2005 he has co-hosted a weekly radio program, “The Eclectic Company,” broadcast on WXRT 93.1 FM in Chicago. He has contributed to This American Life.
Among Langford’s musical side projects have been the Three Johns (with John Hyatt and John (Phillip) Brennan), who released several albums of drum-machine-fueled punk in the 1980s; the country-punk Waco Brothers (with Dean Schlabowske, Tracey Dear, Alan Doughty, Mark Durante, and Mekons drummer Steve Goulding), who have been recording since 1995; the Pine Valley Cosmonauts, a revolving assortment of Chicago musicians who have backed both Langford and other musicians such as Kelly Hogan; and Ship and Pilot. He became a father figure to the local music scene, encouraging many of his labelmates on Bloodshot Records and championing anyone he thought worthy of scrutiny, often lending his services as a musician or visual artist or inviting local musicians to guest on his releases. Langford’s first official solo album, Skull Orchard, a look back at his hometown of Newport, Wales, was released in 1998. He followed it with All the Fame of Lofty Deeds, in 2004, Gold Brick in 2006, and Old Devils in 2010.
Langford is an accomplished artist and is renowned for his multi-layered paintings of famous and forgotten figures from the dawn of country music. Nashville Radio, a collection of his artwork and writings, was published in 2006.
In January and February 2009, Chicago’s Walkabout Theater Company and Collaboraction premiered a stage adaptation of Langford’s Goldbrick that featured a live band, two actors and video projections. In November and December 2009, The House Theatre of Chicago staged a production of “All the Fame of Lofty Deeds”, written by rock journalist Mark Guarino and based on Langford’s art and 2004 solo album.
Collaborations with other musicians
Langford initiated a project, the Pine Valley Cosmonauts, which performs the music of other country music groups. Several alternative country musicians have guested on these recordings.
Langford has guested on numerous recordings, including with Dutch punk band the Ex, The Old 97s, Chip Taylor, as well as Austin, Texas legend Alejandro Escovedo, and has recorded joint albums with Sally Timms, Kevin Coyne, Richard Buckner, Kat Ex and Rosie Flores.
WIKIPEDIA
WIKIPEDIA
TO THE TOP