John Cale S/D

Vintage Violence is my fave.

And of course there is "Songs for Drella."

x-post... OTM

I'm not at all familiar with his other albums (the only other thing of his I've got is the "Seducing Down The Door" comp.) but I think "Hobo Sapiens" is wonderful - and it's making me want to explore the rest of his back catalogue further - I was thinking I'd probably start with either "Paris 1919" or "The Island Years"

I've been meaning to pick up Hobosapiens but haven't just yet, the 5 Tracks ep which came out a few months earlier is great though and if that's a taster of what the album will be like then it should be great.

x-post: The Island Years is the double album I mentioned.

This is actually the only Cale album I own. Did he ever do any other records like this one?

Paris 1919 is probably the next best to approach, it's gentle and accesible. Somehow I think it's nice to get this one in before going to Church of Anthrax / New Society, which if you heard them completely out-of-the-blue would sound like the flailing piss of a coked-up bag of bellybooze. Which they are. The secret is to learn to love the bag, and that takes a while.

The 80's ones, Carribean Sunset in particular, are shit. Think about it. It's a solo album from a 60's guy in the 80's called Carribean Sunset. More than any of the one's that were mentioned up to go for Fear next. It's got a fairly decent mix of material and the 70's bar-rock boogie is at it's least annoying. Slow Dazzle has it's highlights, as has Honi Soit.

Hobosapiens I still can't get into for some reason. It sounds like your old Geography teacher berating you from the next room about subways and somesuch. I'll reserve my opinion of that as I haven't quite listened to it enough yet.

S: Fear; Slow Dazzle: Guts; Paris 1919. (Fear, Slow Dazzle, Helen of Troy, and a few singles were reissued on a twofer called "The Warner Bros. Years" a while back, and it's the way to go.) Paris 1919 is very good indeed but I think "Slow Dazzle" is the greatest John Cale record, sort of brutalist Brian Wilson...

D: Vintage Violence (never liked it except for "Gideon's Bible"); all his '80s shit; all his '90s shit (I do like his last one but it's hardly essential).

I also have three CDs of his early noise stuff in NYC, nice room-clearing music but again hardly essential.

Honi Soit is an honorable attempt at a comeback around '81, and there are some nice moments, but by that time he had really started to lose his voice, and it sounds a bit stillborn. Worth getting for a few bucks.

Sabotage & Even Cowgirls Get the Blues - Great for die-hard fans, but probably not for beginners.
John Cale is Alive - More accessible, but less good.

Walking on Locusts - I absolutely love this one, but no one else seemed to.

Mid 70s albums terrific, Animal Justice terrific (Hedda Gabler!!!!!), New Society terrific, most other stuff patchy, I am fond of Sabotage but never actually listen to it, Fragments is lovely but I get embarrassed listening to it for personal reasons, I would love to assert that Caribbean Sunset is good but I can't honestly remember anything about it, it's better than Artificial Intelligence though surely.

i.e. what everyone else said.

I was about to say. They need to fix the star ranking though!

Christgau is right; the "Peril" track "Days of Steam" does remind of the Ernie Kovacs theme.

Yeah that 'Island' comp really is terrific - all the hits and none of the shit (well, some) - glad someone mentioned 'Ski Patrol', a real fave of mine

Sabotage really is a fantastic noise thing on the rock-meets-avant-jazz tip.

Artificial Intelligence is getting way underrated here as pretty-pop.

But orchestral cale hits his peak, as far as i'm concerned, with "words for the dying" which is one of the few where the studio recorded versions so clearly top the fragments... versions.

I saw him live in a very small bar like 4-5 years ago, and it was wonderful. A lot like the Fragments of rainy day CD. All he had was a piano and acoustic guitar on some songs and vocals.

Did you see yourself in the audience?

http://www.ovationtv.com/

Hail Bop! –
Whereas the ’80s were fraught with gauche displays of wealth and “conspicuous consumption,” the ’90s fashion houses and museums have made a political statement by shifting toward the pared-down simplicity which has defined the decade. Composer John Adams makes political statements through his work as well, from controversial operas, such as Nixon in China and The Death of Klinghoffer (which deals with the hijacking of the Achille Lauro), to electronic compositions and sometimes minimalist modern orchestrations, still largely considered avant garde by classical music purists. Filmmaker Tony Palmer profiles Adams as he premieres two works commissioned in commemoration of his fiftieth birthday: Gnarly Buttons and Slonimsky’s Earbox.

Next Showing:
Wednesday, November 23 2:00 AM EST

I'm surprised how many people have cited Honi Soit. I love that record, even as weak as it is.

I recently watched the Drella video on the big screen again .. still fantastic... and the Cale songs are superior, but maybe that's just me being a little sick of Lour Reed.

Lol

Today, the legendary John Cale releases a new single/video, “Shark-Shark,” from his new album, POPtical Illusion, out June 14th via Domino. Following lead single “How We See The Light,” “Shark-Shark” is a slightly menacing, yet wholly delightful, heavy dance jam. Various versions of Cale’s voice cut under and across a throbbing industrial beat made rich with punchy drum machines, before ending with a scabrous guitar solo as mean as something Cale might have made in the inchoate days of punk. The video sees Cale collaborating once again with director Abigail Portner.

“Sometimes you write a song purely for a mood,” Cale explains. “‘Shark-Shark’ has two versions - both a nod to finding humor in music. When you’re feeling too much of the real world, the best diversion is something that puts a grin on your face. I don’t know how Abby & team kept this shoot together - being ‘unserious’ was a lot of fun!”

Of the video, Portner states “When I first heard this song the first thing that struck me was this vibe of gentle chaos, a chaos that's not dangerous but a playfulness that happens at a sleepover party or in an '80s comedy. I was in Oslo last summer with John and I had taken a bunch of pictures of the band in the National Museum standing in the hall of busts, looking very stark and cold. This idea popped into my head of what if the chaos in this song was sculptures coming to life and breaking all the rules! The concept of taking something like the National Museum or Swan Lake and having the art itself turn it upside down seemed fitting for this song.”

thanks, this sounds great, my fave thing I've heard from him in years

what do people think about the new one? i was overcome with the desire to every song-oriented cale album from vintage violence to now, so i'm just getting around to it

caribbean sunset is a vastly underrated record btw. people really judged that one by its cover

glad there have been a lot of posts on ilm over time saying caribbean sunset is good because it is

i feel like i should like artificial intelligence more than i do. i mean i am kind of obsessed with it. like a creepy minimal '80s-synth album by john cale??? sounds made up just so that i would later write an ilm post about how good it is. and the first four tracks are incredible. as is "black rose." honestly it's all good, i just think "chinese takeaway" kinda derails it by being a joke that's only sort-of funny the first time

I like the new one a lot. Possibly a bit of an easier listen than the previous album but I think they complement each other.

Caribbean Sunset isn't bad, and I'm not one of those listeners who normally dismisses or praises album on production, but...the crappy self-production lets down the songs.

idk what i think about POPtical Illusion -- i made it about 4 songs in before i bailed. i def would not introduce someone to his work with this album but there are things about it that I found enjoyable in an oddball way, like the song about all the things he and his friend from out of town are going to do on the friend's visit. but mostly i feel like i appreciate the effort more than i like the songs on the album.

and the canned beats did not appeal to me -- why rely on canned beats when you are JOHN CALE?!?!

The combo of very lazy sound design in the drum programming dept and his insistence on autotuned vocals really makes the two recent albums a challenge for me.

looking forward to the new one as I think Mercy is joining stuff like B12's Electro-Soma in my cocoon-of-lostness canon

i only discovered Artificial Intelligence recently. Always followed some conventional wisdom against some of those 80s albums. Finally listened to it and fell in love a few months ago. Wrote something about how it's such a beautiful 80s sound and how amazing Cale is at expressing anxiety.

The new album sounds great and I reckon will sound even more amazing played loud in my kitchen while I am drunk

he played "Satellite Walk" when I saw him, remember finding it hilarious at the time

I'll just note here that the two uncredited drummers on "Church of Anthrax" are Bobby Colomby (from Blood Sweat & Tears), and Bobby Gregg (of "Like a Rolling Stone" fame)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EzM7_lWLre8

this is fucking amazing

Another vid:

He has a sage insistence that change is yet possible. “If you’ve done things you’d wished you’ve never done,” he sings during the irrepressible “Davies and Wales,” a buoyant bit of New Wave-meets-Brian Wilson joy, “think of the things you’re going to do tonight.”

Today, Cale releases the video for “Davies and Wales,” directed by the Emmy-nominated Jethro Waters, who also directed the “STORY OF BLOOD” video from MERCY. "'Davies and Wales' is such a perfect example of the kind of things that only John Cale can do all at once: upbeat, melancholic, happy, shapeshifting, nostalgic, modern, beautiful heartache,” Waters says. “There is such a melange of feelings packed into this song - his youth in Wales, his time in NYC and California - and I wanted to try and translate that time travel in a joyful, purposeful way."

Watch the video for “Davies and Wales”

John Cale Tour Dates
Mon. Mar. 3 – Paris, FR @ Le Trianon
Tue. Mar. 4 – Brussels, BE @ Cirque Royal
Thu. Mar. 6 – Karlsruhe, DE @ Tollhaus
Fri. Mar. 7 – Munich, DE @ Alte Kongresshalle
Sun. Mar. 9 – Stuttgart, DE @ Theaterhaus
Mon. Mar. 10 – Esch-sur-Alzette, LU @ Rockhal
Wed. Mar. 12 – Nurnberg, DE @ Markgrafenhalle
Thu. Mar. 13 – Leipzig, DE @ Haus Auensee
Fri. Mar. 14 – Berlin, DE @ Columbiahalle
Sun. Mar. 16 – Hamburg, DE @ Laeiszhalle
Mon. Mar. 17 – Utrecht, NL @ TivoliVredenburg
Tue. Mar. 18 – Cologne, DE @ Carlswerk Victoria
Thur. Mar 20 – Nottingham, UK @ Playhouse
Fri. Mar 21 – London, UK @ Royal Festival Hall
Sun. Mar. 23 22 – Birmingham, UK @ Town Hall
Mon. Mar. 24 – Glasgow, UK @ Pavilion
Tue. Mar. 25 – Newcastle, UK @ New Tyne Theatre
Thu. Mar. 27 – Bexhill on Sea, UK @ De La Warr Pavilion
Sat. Mar. 29 – Cardiff, UK @ Wales New Theatre
Sun. Mar. 30 – Liverpool, UK @ Philharmonic Hall
Mon. Mar. 31 – Dublin, IE @ Vicar Street

ooh this is nice, thanks

booo no US dates there

Bexhill-on-Sea though.

I was fortunate enough to catch all three of his last NYC shows (two of them were on back-to-back nights with the first night focused on the Velvet Underground and the second night on his entire post-Velvets career), and IIRC they were one-offs. I wonder if it means he's done touring the U.S.?

Woo-hoo!

John Cale Announces Paris 1919 Deluxe Editio and The Academy in Peril Reissues, Out November 15th on Domino

Following the release of POPtical Illusion earlier this year, John Cale announces the Paris 1919 Deluxe Edition and The Academy in Peril reissue, out November 15th via Domino. Both remastered by Heba Kadry, this is the first artist sanctioned reissue of these beloved records. Paris 1919 includes previously unreleased outtakes and liner notes by Grayson Haver Currin, and features a brand new recording, “Fever Dream 2024: You’re a Ghost,” and The Academy of Peril includes bonus track, “Temper.” Both will be available on CD, vinyl and digitally.

“Revisiting work from the past is a double-edged sword for me. Of course, it’s bound to happen when you've been making music for 60 years or so. . . What's unique about this process with Domino, is their desire to get it right. Not merely re-issue something for the sake of an anniversary or racking up a catalogue favorite - but finding new treasures and highlighting what made it special in the first place. After hearing the test pressings, it occurred to me that the new mastering was a major part of how these works will be presented, rather than simply being preserved. There are moments of clarity and even a laugh or two had by revisiting not only the music, but recalling the sessions (and antics) that made up what became these two recordings. It is my pleasure to share these with you . . . again.”
– John Cale, September 2024

John Cale was never very kind to his solo debut, Vintage Violence. Released in early 1970, Cale had been out of The Velvet Underground for less than two years, and had been wanting to prove he could be the songwriter behind which a band could work. “I was masked on Vintage Violence,” he wrote much later. “You’re not really seeing the personality.” Indeed, Cale’s personality as a polyglot seemingly interested in everything emerged more and more on his next two solo albums and only two for Reprise: 1972’s bracing and exploratory classical sojourn, The Academy in Peril, and 1973’s masterclass in anxious but accessible songcraft, Paris 1919. By reissuing both records in tandem, Domino—Cale’s home now for a dozen years—affirms the artistic fearlessness Cale then fostered at the edge of 30, when all of music seemed like one inviting playpen.

When Cale arrived in Los Angeles from New York in the early ’70s, he was a pinball in the world; out of The Velvet Underground, out of a marriage with designer Betsey Johnson, no longer a vital piece of a New York scene. He had just kicked heroin, too. In California, he entered a chaotic new relationship, starting his new industry gig, and found his West Coast drug of choice, cocaine. Despite its reputation as Reprise’s first classical album, The Academy in Peril indulges that extreme upper energy, bouncing among ambitious ideas with unguarded zeal. Warner Brothers spent $120,000 on The Academy in Peril, and Cale even enlisted the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra to play on several of its tracks. Still, there is an early punk energy to it all, with a frantic pace of making from idea to execution, where he created his own secret fusion and ignored the strictures of expectation.

The frantic pace of making The Academy in Peril, though, taught Cale an important lesson: take the time you need to make the album you want to hear. And that is precisely what he did on Paris 1919. Arriving at the studio with songs already written, he worked with Little Feat and bassist Wilton Felder at Sunwest Studios in Hollywood, and fully relinquished production duties to English producer Chris Thomas. This remastered and expanded reissue of Paris 1919 is a testament to the progress and the patience that engendered it. In previously unreleased tapes, Cale teases his new chemical habits as he tries to find his way through “Half Past France,” then attempts new vocal arrangements for its beginning in an alternate version. A brilliant “Drone Mix” of “Hanky Panky Nohow,” with Cale’s viola seesawing in hypnotic waves, shows just how much he and Thomas were willing to tinker with these tunes and test the bounds of songcraft. Appended at the end of these extras, “Fever Dream (You’re a Ghost)”—a new Cale composition that perfectly flows out of yet another mix of “Hanky Panky Nohow”—shows that he’s still doing just that into his 80s.

Pre-order Paris 1919 Deluxe Edition
Pre-order The Academy in Peril

As previously announced, John Cale’s POPtical Illusion tour begins in Europe on February 28th.

John Cale POPtical Illusion Tour Dates
Fri. Feb. 28 – Groningen, NL @ De Oosterpoort
Sat. Mar. 1 - Maasmechelen, BE @ CC Maasmechelen
Mon. Mar. 3 – Paris, FR @ Le Trianon
Tue. Mar. 4 – Brussels, BE @ Cirque Royal
Thu. Mar. 6 – Karlsruhe, DE @ Tollhaus
Fri. Mar. 7 – Munich, DE @ Alte Kongresshalle
Sun. Mar. 9 – Stuttgart, DE @ Theaterhaus
Mon. Mar. 10 – Esch-sur-Alzette, LU @ Rockhal
Wed. Mar. 12 – Nurnberg, DE @ Markgrafenhalle
Thu. Mar. 13 – Leipzig, DE @ Haus Auensee
Fri. Mar. 14 – Berlin, DE @ Columbiahalle
Sun. Mar. 16 – Hamburg, DE @ Laeiszhalle
Mon. Mar. 17 – Utrecht, NL @ TivoliVredenburg
Tue. Mar. 18 – Cologne, DE @ Carlswerk Victoria
Thu. Mar. 20 – Nottingham, UK @ Playhouse
Fri. Mar. 21 – London, UK @ Royal Festival Hall
Sun. Mar. 23 – Birmingham, UK @ Town Hall
Mon. Mar. 24 – Glasgow, UK @ Pavilion
Tue. Mar. 25 – Newcastle, UK @ New Tyne Theatre
Thu. Mar. 27 – Bexhill on Sea, UK @ De La Warr Pavilion
Sat. Mar. 29 – Cardiff, UK @ Wales New Theatre
Sun. Mar. 30 – Liverpool, UK @ Philharmonic Hall
Mon. Mar. 31 – Dublin, IE @ Vicar Street
For more information, contact:
-
jessica at pitchperfectpr dot com, patrick at pitchperfectpr dot com

Wow

does this guy have boundless energy or ??

Right? I'm pushing sixty and tired all the time. He's more than twenty years my senior, planning to embark on a month long tour NEXT YEAR. Smdh

Like, 23 dates in one month. Come on, man.

Maybe like Cecil Taylor he can handle coke at that age

Didn't you guys read NICO: THE END? He's probably still playing squash.

I vaguely recalled something about Cale being a tennis player and found this interview with Ernie Brooks of the Modern Lovers that's worth reading. Relevant section:

John Cale had a real sense of how he wanted things to sound and was very insistent. So there was a problem in the making there. While working with Cale, things got even more difficult, probably because Jonathan was starting to not want to play loud, powerful, electric music anymore, and that made Cale crazy. One of the songs we tried to re-record and couldn’t quite get right, I think, was “Someone I Care About,” so Cale said to Jonathan, “You gotta sound mean; you gotta sound like you wanna kill somebody!” And Jonathan said, “Oh, I don’t want to hurt anybody—I wanna make a nice, happy-sounding record,” because this was obviously his new sensibility. Jonathan was headed in a new direction, and Cale wanted the angst and the violence in the sound, which really characterized us in our early days.

John Cale was also not in the best shape: He was drinking a lot, though I don’t know if he was taking drugs. I used to go out and play tennis with him at the Burbank tennis courts when he was in a good mood, and Cale was always asking, “What’s going on? What’s with Jonathan? Why can’t we do this record? Why do you have to change the sound?”

My recollection is that in beginning of the Nico book he is drinking crates of ale every day but later on he gets in shape playing squash and running up the stairs with boundless energy

Also recollecting that John Cale dated and maybe married one of the GTOs, with the approval of her parents, who thought he would be a good influence, while David Robinson had a relationship with another one of them that came to a bad end.

Saw this posted on FB:

If anyone here was thinking about going to John Cale in Liverpool later this month, there's a discount code available for tickets right now (don't think the gig is selling well).

After you've selected a ticket on the venue's seating plan and added it to your basket, use SFFCALE in the promo code box and all tickets are reduced to £16 each no matter where they are.

I got a ticket to his Newcastle show for £18.50. Had an email yesterday using code SFF15.

Happy 83rd birthday too!

A new release! MiXology Volume 1 (Poptical Illusion x Mercy)
Can't find any addition info but am really enjoying what I hear!

haha, as I hit submit this arrives in the mail:

MiXology (volume 1) acts as a companion release to the aforementioned POPtical Illusion and 2023’s MERCY featuring previously unreleased songs and alternate versions taken from the albums’ sessions. Tracks 1-4 are from MERCY and in line with the album’s collaborative spirit featuring guest appearances from Tony Allen and Tei Shi; tracks 5-7 are from POPtical Illusion.

The Paris 1919 and Academy reissues have really been a delight for me the last few months. Paris 1919 in particular pulls out a lot of details that have given me fresh ears. Do I love "Hanky Panky" more than the title track now? Does not seem possible, but maybe? "Half Past France" moves me more.

Also acquired a copy of Music for a New Society, and it's the sort of thing where captive listening and many repeat listens brings out a lot of beauty.

I love that the deluxe edition of Paris 1919 kind of makes "Hanky Panky Nohow" the central track of the record in a lot of ways, since it's always been my favorite. The drone mix is the fucking best and makes me want to hear all of his songs rendered with just sawing viola drones in the background.

Digging into MiXology (volume 1) now. My first reaction: we should all age as well as John Cale.

He was terrific doing "Shark Shark" live on John Mulaney's Netflix talk show the other night. Faster tempo & more guitars turned it into a "Foggy Notion" style mover

mulaney is so bad at interviewing

So grateful for John Cale's continuing presence

Also acquired a copy of Music for a New Society, and it's the sort of thing where captive listening and many repeat listens brings out a lot of beauty.

this is absolutely one of my favorite Cale albums

Paris 1919 and Music For A New Society are his two best albums.

Certainly his two best studio albums. If one includes live records, then I'd argue for Fragments of a Rainy Season. Pretty much a greatest hits collection.

I like Fear and Slow Dazzle more because the balladry is richer when mixed with manic rock.

he's made a lot of really great albums.

John Cale and Maggie Rogers doing "Shark Shark" with a band on John Mulaney's Netflix talk show mentioned above

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vJskSsfW9NE

I really love this show, it's so goofy, just like his excellent Lunch Bunch thing for kids or whatever it was a few years ago. and yeah, great music on all the episodes I've seen so far -- Randy Newman, Kims Gordon and Deal doing Little Trouble Girl (!), Mannequin Pussy

Nice performance that - reminded me of No Age in the verse/chorus.