There’s a lovely interview with Chris over at Chaos Control Digizine, in which Chris talks about Decibels From Heart, the new Cocksure album, and more… check it out!
ReGen Magazine reviewed Decibels From Heart and gave it four stars — thank you very much!
Speaking of reviews, please add yours over at Amazon or iTunes!
Hope you’re enjoying Decibels From Heart!
Decibels From Heart features a stellar line-up of guest vocalists including Meshell Ndegeocello, actress/singer Rebecca Pidgeon, former Pigface alum Ruby, and more! Chris has put together a magnificent band including Scott Bennett who has played with Beach Boy Brian Wilson, Mike Farrell of Morrissey, and Matt Walker ex-Filter, Smashing Pumpkins and Garbage!
Greetings, everyone! This is Kimberly, the Webmistress. I wanted to write a personal message to note the passing of yet another milestone related to Chris’s career: the 20th anniversary of the creation of this website!
Those of you who were on the site (and the companion mailing list) way back when might’ve heard this story… but I need to write something, so let’s take a trip down memory lane.
It was in March of 1995 that I first met Chris Connelly. I was a sophomore in college at the time, and I was planning to see Chris and the Shipwreck Band on tour during my spring break. Unfortunately, the Philadelphia show had been cancelled, so I called WaxTrax!/TVT to find out what other shows were within train or driving distance. A kind soul named Adam gave me dates and locations, and offered to arrange for an interview with Chris if I could write something for my college newspaper. An interview?!? Of course I said yes — I’d figure out how to get it in print later.
So, off I drove to Harrisburg, Pennsylvania (my first “long-distance” drive). I met and interviewed Chris before the show, got to hang out during sound check, took some photos of the band, and watched the show from the very front of the room. I also hung out after the show, hoping for another chance to chat with Chris and with the band. Finally, I got up the nerve, took a deep breath, and asked Chris, “Can I set up a web site for you?”
“A what?” was his answer. I ended up having to explain not just what the web was, but email, the Internet, and a whole lot about computers. (Thank goodness William Tucker was close at hand — he was quite interested in the conversation and encouraged Chris to say yes. Thanks, Tucker!) I returned to school, wrote an article for the newspaper, and started working on a web site. I don’t know when it launched, exactly, but it was live before the end of the semester — just before my 20th birthday. And since I turn 40 tomorrow, I’m calling today the anniversary of the site.
The site was originally hosted on my computer science professor’s workstation — the URL was http://blackcat.brynmawr.edu/~kimberly/CC/. Purchase of the domain name didn’t happen until three years later, and by that time, this was the “official” site — Chris had given me his full endorsement. What Chris didn’t know — what neither of us knew, at the time — was that in doing so, he was helping me to kick off my career as a web professional and as a small business owner. I can’t ever thank him enough for that!
Our friendship, too, has lasted these twenty years. I wonder if, twenty years ago, I could’ve imagined that one day I’d be helping Chris’s kids prepare for an egg drop competition at school? Probably not. And that’s not the only friendship that’s been an important part of my life — I’ve become good friends with so many of you, my fellow fans!
All of this is due to this magical thing called the World Wide Web. I’ve been speaking about the history of the web a lot, lately. Sometimes I still can’t believe that this hobby became my career. And sometimes I can’t believe we’re all still doing what we’re doing, twenty years on: Chris creating beautiful music and art for us to enjoy, and us still enjoying it. Sounds like something worth celebrating, to me.
Thank you, all, for being part of CC.com and happy anniversary to us all!
Love,
Kimberly Blessing
Tuesday, May 12 is the release date for Chris’s 15th solo album, Decibels from Heart.
Two years in the making, the album was produced by Matt Walker and features contributions from Ruby, Rebecca Pidgeon, Meshell Ndegeocello, Claire Massey, My Brightest Diamond, and Roxy Swain.
A track listing, samples, and order information will be coming soon, so stay tuned!
Yes, it’s true that I coincidentally turned 50 this year—considered by many to be power outage, so I COULD not notice it as it was DARK, enough senses working to reach out and pour from a bottle of single malt in a freezing dark room—so, in other words, little changed… ho hum…
What was remarkable this year was, how busy with music I was—busy to the point of confusion: The year started with an avalanche of light and sound when SONS OF THE SILENT AGE brought in 2014 with a New Year’s show, hotly followed two days later with a scaled down version of same at the club Berlin on Chicago’s north side…
A couple of days after THAT, I was in the studio recording the lead vocals and guitar for what will eventually become my 15th solo album… more on that later…
That month also saw the release of the first EP by the mighty COCKSURE as well as the 25th anniversary remix/reissue of the 1985 monster “DETESTIMONY” by FINI TRIBE (not technically a 25th anniversary, more like 28th). AND, at the end of that month the first ever gig by COCKSURE…
The middle of the year was a schizophrenic affair with me vacillating and oscillating between my own solo album and working hard on the debut album and another single by COCKSURE. Almost in the same breath we signed to the recently revived WAXTRAX! label for a one-off EP and we signed to METROPOLIS for the debut full length—girding my industrial rock loins whilst keeping it REAL and on the modern tip, whilst I salivated over TYLER THE CREATOR mixtapes, I managed to become the petty Scottish tyrant that I always knew I could.
The new COCKSURE EP, “TKO MINDFUCK”, came out in the summer and we played to celebrate it at some dark disco bar in the sweltering June heat… Then, all of a sudden, SONS OF THE SILENT AGE were back taking another lick of the BOWIE catalogue…
Summer stretched on, and the COCKSURE album, “TVMALSV”, was there, in your face, like Tarantino adrift in the highlands of Scotland with a bag of bath salts and the burning remains of a Porsche belching black smoke into the sky… and then, and then… before you have time to take this in, SONS hit again outdoors at DALEY PLAZA in Chicago for the opening of DAVID BOWIE IS… at the Museum of Contemporary Art. I ran offstage with full Bowie make up on to make my flight to NEW YORK to play with Cocksure, opening for the legendary FRONT 242. I was confused and tired, and I flew back to do THE SAME THING at Metro in Chicago…
RIGHT ON TIME for my 50th!!!! The “Book Club” (second, expanded) edition of “CONCRETE, BULLETPROOF, INVISIBLE & FRIED: MY LIFE AS A REVOLTING COCK” is AVAILABLE!!! In both fancy-pants-with-colour-pictures and extra naughty WORDS and as an audio book read by myself—a sort of public service, my parole officer offers…
It is time to regroup, or not: “World Fair” by the amazing HUMAN GREED comes out featuring my performance of “Black is the Colour of My True Love’s Hair”. An album of strange sonic experiments I must have made in the 80s comes out on the prestigious Vinyl On Demand label… and then COCKSURE fucks off to Antwerp to play the Belgian Independent Music festival. It is almost Christmas, and on the 24th, the new solo album is DONE, MASTERED, TITLED, COVER ART ASSEMBLED and there you have it…
There’s clearly much to look forward to in 2015—including this rebooted web site! Happy new year, everyone!
Friday, January 9, 2015 at Metro in Chicago, IL.
$18 in advance, $21 day-of
Doors: 8:00PM Show: 8:30PM
Ages 18+
93XRT Welcomes A Bowie Birthday Bash:
SONS OF THE SILENT AGE: playing the music of David Bowie featuring CHRIS CONNELLY (Ministry, Cocksure) & MATT WALKER (Smashing Pumpkins, Morrissey) + More
MICHAEL SHANNON with ROBBIE FULKS and JASON NARDUCY (Bob Mould Band, Split Single) playing the music of Lou Reed
ANGELA EVE and EVE’S PARLOR EXTRAVAGANZA
DJ Set by HEAVEN MALONE
Saturday, January 17, 2015 at the Turner Hall Ballroom in Milwaukee, WI. Doors at 6 PM, show at 7 PM.
Playing the music of David Bowie: Sons of the Silent Age, starring Shirley Manson (of Garbage), Chris Connelly, and Matt Walker. Also performing: Pleased to Meet Me: Replacements Tribute, GGOOLLDD, The Salford Lads Club: Morrissey and The Smiths Tribute, and Rebecca Hron.
Tickets are $20 (or $50 for VIP) and benefit the Pablove Foundation, which fights childhood cancer with love.
From Chris…
It has been another prolific year for me, but I still honestly feel like I could have achieved more! One of the biggest events was the tragic death of my friend and collaborator, Jamie Duffy, and so this late summer saw the current version of the Revolting Cocks play under the name “Cocks Members” to help raise funds for his funeral expenses. It was actually as close to a Cocks show as I have felt in over 20 years. We went on late (after 1am) because all of the onstage technology had beer spilled on it, or was just broken. But, once we were up there, I felt we delivered the goods, which is not to say we were bastions of professionalism-quite the reverse–but that’s what the Cocks are about!
I wrote and finished a new double album, “Day of Knowledge”, which just came out on the label Klangalerie based in Vienna. My friend, Gordon Sharpe (from Cindytalk), introduced me to them. The album features collaborators old and new, including STEPHEN MALLINDER from Cabaret Voltaire and JIM O’ROURKE, amongst others. “Artificial Madness” came out on red vinyl! I also released a cassette only album, “The Collapse of Ether”, and a collaborative flexidisc with ghost researcher Michael Esposito.
The last part of this year has been dedicated to SONS OF THE SILENT AGE, a band honouring the music of David Bowie. I’m doing it along with my old friend, Matt Walker — Matt is the brother of Sol Snyder, he of the SHIPWRECK band. Matt and I have worked on and off for years. The band also features Shirley Manson, whom I have been close friends with since we were runway models in 1984! This band will then be the second time we have shared a stage (the first being back then in ’84!). The show is for pediatric cancer relief.
“Why have we never put a band together to play Bowie songs?” a mystified Chris Connelly asked his friend and collaborator Matt Walker. “I don’t know… I’ve thought about it so many times”, came the equally mystified reply.
…And that is exactly what they did: a unique opportunity arose to organize a benefit show for the Pablove Foundation, an organization dedicated to funding pediatric cancer research and to the empowerment of the families of young cancer patients.
Messrs. Connelly & Walker are both 30+ year veterans of the music business. Amongst their many other projects, Chris was a member of both the Revolting Cocks and Ministry, while Matt was a member of Filter, Smashing Pumpkins and Morrissey’s band. After assembling an impressive band of musicians to join their cause, songs were selected with care and integrity from the amazingly eclectic and extensive canon of David Bowie. The band has worked them, making them their own, perhaps in the same way Bowie would have-embracing the icon’s lifelong thirst for experimentation, collaboration, and above all, change.
This performance is set to take place at Metro in Chicago on the 12th of January 2013, the week of Bowie’s 66th year on Earth. The band will be augmented by their close friend and peer, Garbage’s Shirley Manson, bringing her own breathtaking skills and aesthetic to some of the greatest songs ever written.
CHRIS CONNELLY – vocals
MATT WALKER – drums
SHIRLEY MANSON – vocals
ROBERT BYRNE – guitar
RICH PARENTI – vocals, percussion, sax
CLAIRE MASSEY – vocals, percussion
CAROLYN ENGELMANN – keyboards, vocals
ALAN BERLIANT – bass
STEVE GERLACH – guitar
Sound Opinions hosts Jim DeRogatis and Greg Kot–two of the finest and best-recognized pop music writers in the nation—sit down with living legends from Chicago’s musical movements of the 1980s including Chris Connelly (Revolting Cocks, Ministry), Santiago Durango (Naked Raygun, Big Black) and “Godfather of House” DJ Frankie Knuckles to explore the music and politics of the decade.
This event was co-produced by Chicago Public Media (WBEZ-Chicago) and is presented in conjunction with the MCA exhibition This Will Have Been: Art, Love & Politics in the 1980s. Based in Chicago, Sound Opinions is hosted by Jim DeRogatis and Greg Kot, who for over a decade were dedicated competitors at Chicago’s two daily newspapers–Jim at the Chicago Sun-Times and Greg at the Chicago Tribune. Today, Jim writes about music for WBEZ.org and teaches criticism at Columbia College. Every week, Sound Opinions fires up smart and spirited discussions about a wide range of popular music, from indie rock to classic rock, hip hop to R&B, and every genre under the sun.
Recorded Tuesday, March 6, 2012 at the MCA Theatre.
Pictures from the MCA event (by Jerry Schulman)
Audio from MCA
