Today, Chris releases two demo tracks off his forthcoming album, JACKIETOWN — available online at Bandcamp — to give his fans an opportunity to both preview and support the new album.
The two tracks, entitled “Jackietown” and “The Last Renoir (A Fiction)”, total over 25 minute of music and demonstrate how Chris works out his songs prior to recording.
Those who wish to download the tracks and support the making of “Jackietown” will be charged $5.00 by Bandcamp. Chris thanks you in advance for your support!
Just in time for the holidays, Chris shares a Christmas single with us! Recorded in his basement just last night, it is a cover of the song “Persons Unknown” by The Poison Girls from 1980. They were an anarchist/feminist band that I followed, along with Crass.
Chris shares this free, downloadable single with you as a way of sharing his own feelings and fears about the current political climate.
March 1, 2016 sees the release of Chris’s first full-length collaboration with the amazing Michael Begg.
Chris writes, “New Town Nocturnes is neither song nor poem, rather six studies of the Edinburgh I grew up in, the people I knew and encountered there and the places I frequented, my words given amazing vistas by the sounds and music Michael created for them.”
Also, don’t miss Chris and Jason as they hit a few festivals this year, including Cold Waves in September (with Severed Heads!). You can find their tour dates on Facebook.
After COCKSURE offered 3 separate releases on 3 different labels in 2014, this year the boys bring out another full-length LP on Metropolis one year to the date of their debut full-length. “Corporate_Sting” delivers 10 punches to the face, innovative industrial cum punk cum mega-mixx old school Doc Marten stompers, including a cover of a classic 30-year old Severed Heads tune.
Written and produced by Connelly and Novak at Cracknation Studios, “Corporate_Sting” lives low on the log of the seedy underbelly of society, taking aim at the exploiters, the thieves, the dealers and the corruptors, cranking up the heavy drums and the dirty bass while raising the ghost of classic Wax Trax!-era sounds, bathed in future horrors and catastrophe.
Album includes a guest “memo” written by Duane Swierczynski, published author of “Severance Package”, “The Blonde” and a writer for the monthly Marvel Comics series Cable, plus photography by Black Pearl Photo.
Cocksure is Christopher J. Connelly (MINISTRY, REVOLTING COCKS, SONS OF THE SILENT AGE) and Jason C. Novak (ACUMEN NATION, DJ? ACUCRACK, CZAR).
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!
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!
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.
93XRT Welcomes…
A Benefit for Pablove Foundation/Rock For Kids… SONS OF THE SILENT AGE: playing the music of David Bowie, featuring SHIRLEY MANSON, MATT WALKER, CHRIS CONNELLY and more
WACO BROTHERS: playing T.REX
DEATH ON THE AUTOBAHN: playing KRAFTWERK
Tickets go on sale Saturday, November 17 at 12 PM
$20 in advance or $25 day of
Show date: Friday, January 11, 2013
Doors: 6:30PM | Show: 7:30PM
This is an all ages show
Tickets and venue: Metro, 3730 N. Clark St., Chicago
“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.
SONS OF THE SILENT AGE are:
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
