Friday fanboy

In my aforementioned misspent youth (lasting all the way through my mid-twenties, unbelievably) I was in a bunch of bands whose one common link was that we all worshiped the Gang of Four. If you know them, you'll know why. They defined post-punk's jagged guitar rhythms, raw funk-influenced bass and subversive political lyrics. (Okay, those politics don't go much deeper than art-school Marxism--as singer Jon King said in a recent interview, "you're either in opposition or you're a collaborator"--but they sounded very Right On when I was young.). And their live shows totally rocked. They're the inspiration for the current crop of very cool post-punk bands such as LCD Soundsystem, the Rapture and Bloc Party.

So I was unreasonably thrilled to hear that they were reforming for a tour this year. And, when I saw them in San Francisco, they were as good as ever. Now they're getting ready to release a new double album, which will be one CD of original songs re-recorded (apparently at least partly an effort to regain the rights to their music, which they had lost to their former label) and one of remixes by such bands as Ladytron, The Yeah Yeah Yeahs and the Dandy Warhols. For those of you who share my Go4 fanboy obsession, here's more:

Start with the Gang of Four website, where you can hear a few tracks already and pre-order the album at a slight discount.

Did you know that after leaving the Go4 and founding Shriekback and a few other bands, bassist Dave Allen had quite the tech career? From his bio:

In 1999 he became General Manager, Los Angeles Division, of Emusic.com, the world’s first pay-for-download music service offering open format MP3 files for end users. In 2000 Dave was hired by Intel Corporation to become Director, Business Development for their Consumer Digital Audio Services Operation (CDASO) in Beaverton, Oregon. CDASO was an internal start-up at Intel charged with developing consumer internet-connected products such as MP3 players, Home Entertainment Servers and wireless devices to deliver internet files to legacy hi-fi systems within the home. In 2003 Dave joined the Overland Agency where he created the Overland Entertainment Division and its online music store, OEbase.com.

He now runs a online music consultancy in Portland called Pampelmoose that sounds, well, pretty Long Tailish:

Our team believes that the current music recording and distribution system is broken. With the vast array of new technologies now available providing musicians and labels with the means to market, promote and distribute their products via the internet, new eco-systems have been created, rather like Nerve-nets that spawn from each other and keep growing exponentially. With that in mind we consider the music recording and distribution system as a carte blanche on which we can impose our ideas. Everything is possible.

He's even got a blog.

Meanwhile, guitarist Andy Gill has had a strong career as a producer. More on his site.

Comments

[Ethan Kaplan]

Couldn't agree with you more about GO4. I got into them quite late (as I was 5 when they brokeup basically) and mostly because REM were such fervent fans.

I think what separates Go4 from their modern equavelents is that records like Entertainment! don't have a design-by-committee feel. It was organic, visceral and terribly difficult at the same time. A lot of times the tendencies toward this get watered down through signing, advances, production, etc. Entertainment! will always stand as something that (to quote Michael Stipe) is "to the source."

[Dave Allen]

Thanks to Chris and Ethan for the kind words. I have discovered that Long Tail has quite the reach as my email inbox rapidly filled up with questions about Pampelmoose and Gang of Four. Music and technology and its confluence has been a passion of mine since the early 90's and now that GO4 is back in the public eye it has been fun educating journalists about its ever increasing potential as we go from city to city. I'll keep an eye on Long Tail as we travel around the world - the next leg of the tour starts in NYC next Thursday. Any one interested in our activities will be able to track them through Podcasts on my Pampelmoose site.

[chris anderson]

And I should have mentioned that Hugo Burnham, the drummer, is now an English teacher (among other things) at the New England Institute of Art. (bio here

Not quite sure what Jon King's been doing, but whatever it is it's treated him well. He seemed remarkably un-aged in the reunion tour.

[Andrew]

What bands were you in? Any info online?

[Britt]

Gang of Four was also one of my favorite bands in the 1980s and I was thrilled when I learned of their reunion tour. I saw them in Portland and was impressed by how much energy they put into their performance. They took the stage and never let it go. It made me realize the difference between true performers and musicians who just have live shows.

[Marketing Headhunter.com]

Gang of Four rocks. Whew! Whatta band. Caught them live @ Legion Field in Athens, GA in 1984. I can sum the whole affair up in one word: Ferocious.

[regina]

Hey - thanks for the down low on GO4. Was a big fan in the eighties when I actually loved a man in a uniform!

Three phrases should be among the most common in our daily usage. They are: Thank you, I am grateful and I appreciate.