News Archives: News

Announcing “Art & Gender” — Chris’s 16th Solo Album

“I never was a painter, but I could always draw my blood” -Chris Connelly, 2017

Chris’s sixteenth solo album, Art & Gender, will be released on Friday, October 6, 2017. The album was written, performed, and produced by Chris himself.

Art & Gender album cover

Track listing:

  1. A Distant Black Spring
  2. People Become Estranged
  3. Union Canal Blues
  4. Slim Volume
  5. Seven Days, Seven Lies, Seven Lovers
  6. Art & Gender
  7. Mama Bluebell
  8. Stampede Weather
  9. Saint Symptom’s Day
  10. Old Hymn of New Intent

The album, released by Shipwrecked Industries, will be available on CD and in digital formats from your favorite music outlets.

Thanks goes out to all those who supported the making of this album through the purchase of the JACKIETOWN demos on Bandcamp.

Cover illustration by Nicole Caggiano, marker on paper. www.nicolecaggiano.com

JACKIETOWN: Stream demos and support the making of Chris’s next album

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!

Listen and Buy Now

Christmas Single for 2016

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.

New Release — “New Town Nocturnes” — with Michael Begg

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.”

Available on Jnana Records.

Order Now

New Cocksure video out now, album in August!

Cocksure‘s second album, Corporate_Sting, is set for an August 21st release on Metropolis Records!

You can get a taste of what’s to come right now by checking out their first video from the album, for the track “Razor Invader”:

Corporate_Sting is available for pre-order on CD and limited edition vinyl. It’s already getting great reviews, so you won’t want to miss it.

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).

“Decibels From Heart” Details and Preview!

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!

  1. Mistreated & Wild (featuring Claire Massey)
  2. At Least When I’m Gone (featuring Ruby)
  3. Be Mine When You’re Not Mine
  4. Cinema Thing
  5. Decibels From Heart
  6. Lavender City
  7. Let’s Be Actors (featuring Rebecca Pidgeon)
  8. Gravity
  9. Workin’ Time (featuring Meshell Ndegeocello)
  10. To Swing From The Air (featuring Roxy Swain)
  11. 2GloryB (featuring My Brightest Diamond)

Listen to the premiere of “Mistreated & Wild” at Stereogum

Buy from Cleopatra Records

Chris’s 2012 in Review

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.

Update: Ticket Information for Sons of the Silent Age

Connelly channelling Bowie

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

Learn more about Sons of the Silent Age (PDF)