Christmas Comes Early to a Cursed, Blackened Earth....or.....THE STORES ARE FILLED WITH NEW RELEASES BY KILLING JOKE AND GANG OF FUCKING FOUR!

thanks but no thanks!

I was going to post a comment on the article, but my dog woke me up & 4:30 AM this morning & my brain is mush. I did kind of think this was a sketchy paragraph- I don't so much buy this "you must maintain your punk credentials" thought process.

As it happens, like those Soviet commissars reborn as industrial barons in the '90s, most of Gang of Four "crossed over into enterprise" (as their post-punk fellow traveler John Lydon once sang it) after the group disintegrated and have thrived in the business world. Bassist Dave Allen's long résumé includes stints at Emusic.com, Intel's Consumer Digital Audio Services Operation, and the Overland Entertainment Division. Drummer Hugo Burnham plunged into the corporate heart of the music industry, working for EMI Music Publishing, Warner Bros., and Island before starting his own management company, Huge & Jolly. Until recently, King was the CEO of World Television, a webcasting/corporate TV/news production/event-management company. On the face of it, it's disconcerting that King, author of the savagely mordant lyrics to songs like "Capital (It Fails Us Now)," should have become a sharp operator in the realm of shareholder meetings and venture financing. (At one point, the first part of his e-mail address was "investorrelations"!) Then again, what were they supposed to do during the '90s, this bunch of smart, university-educated guys? Likewise, with Return, why shouldn't Gang of Four exploit their own legend and literally capitalize on their moment in the retro sun?

hahaha. Management Bollockspeak should be the title of the remix disc.

Whatever GO4's motives for recording it, the new album is a good representation of their current live sound. They rocked last Friday in Athens, and nobody at that show appeared to be bothered by their reincarnation as a nostalgia act. Michael Stipe and Vanessa Briscoe Hay of Pylon got to do backing vocals for "I Love a Man in a Uniform" and looked pretty excited about it.

I don't know if this is true but the idea that G04 deliberately opted for a production that didn't 'rock' as a political stance sums up them and their era perfectly.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHA! I find this entirely plausible; but I still think he deserves some sort of Lifetime Sarcasm Achievement Award for screaming "WOOO!!!" repeatedly during live renditions of "Natural's Not In It."

-- Soukesian (byakhee2000nospa...), October 11th, 2005.

yes. yes, it does, doesn't it! and my, what results their decision not to rock brought us. truly an act of commitment.

hi alex!

Well a badly produced album, for one. Preferred Bauhaus at the time, still do.

Also, did anyone else get the version with the dollar bill in it? Fucking brilliant.

(I think the remixes are available on the second disc of the double-CD British release, and are to be released in the US later on as a separate item.)

I'm in there somewhere. Haven't seen the DVD yet, but I'm hoping to catch a glimpse of my drunken self therein. Will post accordingly if so.

Picked up Return the Gift, and while it's not essentially, it does rock rather fucking furiously.

also, the hot hot heat remix of "damaged goods" is perhaps the shittest thing i've ever heard in my puff. (ladytron's "natural's not in it" is ok, mind.)

i am jealous of alex.

i wish i had a band that had meant everything to me for the last 25 years, and were still capable of releasing totally relevant music all this time later.

i wish i had that same uncontrollable joy whenever new product found its way into the release schedule.

as much as i still love certain bands from my youth (pun alert), i cannot think of one that still gives me the same adrenalin rush that alex so obviously still enjoys, in fact i cant hardly think of one band that is still a going concern.

its a breathe of dirty alcohol stained air, and for that i am totally jealous.

thanks, ya lucky bastard

m.e

gaah!

I'd like to just point out that this is a spectacularly idiotc simile.

”Radical changes in consumer behaviour and expectations driven by rapid technology change make new forms of brand communications essential,” King says. “Print, the web, video and audio content must now be designed to operate as integrated campaigns and delivered to users wherever they are in a format that suits them.”

“Creative story telling now has exciting and distinctive new possibilities for expression.” Kirk Cheyfitz, CEO of The Publishing Agency, says, “Jon brings unique visibility, talent, creative energy and experience to us. His arrival also marks the first and most critical step in our transformation from a publishing agency into a true multi-channel creator of brand stories in all media.”

“Today, with media changing rapidly, clients need a partner that can engage and excite audiences with brilliantly told stories in print, on the web, on mobile platforms, on DVDs and in any other medium now known or shortly to be invented,” Cheyfitz said. “Jon is the perfect practitioner for this time of change.”

If you'll excuse the expression: What's That For?

Presumably all the tracks from both albums will be on the DVD when it eventually comes out?

Statement: These guys are not the guys they porported to be back in 1978.

Opinion: They weren't those guys back then either.

It's easy to nail your predispositions to the tree, when you're not actually subject to their restrictions, like they were later.

(Come to think of it, is HE the bastard behind the Arctic Monkeys 'buzz'?)

Interesting. On re-checking Amazon I se that you are (of course) correct - although I'm sure they did have different tracklists when I looked a couple of weeks ago. Can't remember anything except that both were the same for the first half and one was one track longer - might one of those have really been the DVD tracklist? Can't seem to find a tracklist for that.

Well, the 2003 album came in three different editions -- Yank, UK and Japanese -- each had their own bonus tracks, so yeah, like the dick I am, I have all three versions.

No such luck this time.

On re-checking Amazon I se that you are (of course) correct

See that you don't doubt me again. Hahahaa.

The skinny on the DVD tracklisting.....

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