Skull Orchard
Encyclopedia
Skull Orchard is the debut solo album by Jon Langford
, recorded in August 1997 and released on January 20, 1998
by Sugar Free Records, a Chicago-based label. Skull Orchard, described on its release in 1998 as Langford's most Welsh release ever, had two homonymically-linked themes: Wales
and whale
s which came together in the "Youghal" track, about the filming of the 1956 movie Moby Dick
in coastal Wales. In 2011 the album was re-recorded and re-issued by Lagford backed by the Burlington Welsh Male Chorus, based in Toronto.
(ex-Revolting Cocks
, KMFDM
), drummer Steve Goulding
(ex-Gang Of Four
, Graham Parker & the Rumour) and bass player Alan Doughty (ex-Jesus Jones
). Among other musicians who took part in recording the album were Mekons' Sally Timms (backing vocals) and Rico Bell (accordion), Drag City Records artist Edith Frost
, Bottle Rockets bassist Tom Ray and the Texas Rubies' Jane Baxter Miller.
Having lived in America for the previous five years, Skull Orchard saw Langford turning his attention back across the Atlantic to the country he grew up in. According to BBC Radio Wales, "seen through the eyes of an exile, South Wales is a sad, neglected place where mines and factories close down as toxic waste dumps and McDonalds appear out of nowhere. Only the defiant spirit of its people keeps the place alive". Wordy and angry the album's songs "reflect that spirit and represent a major departure for Langford’s songwriting", according to Sassy Hicks of the BBC.
, Skull Orchard is Langford's "irate musings upon his dispirited, neglected homeland; a record which celebrates Welshness against a backdrop of closing mines and factories and grinding poverty". It was "all the more an achievement for a man who has been living in America for the past five years," the reviewer wrote on July 6, 1998. The New York Times characterised tha beand as 'straightforward' and 'streamlined', describing the songs of the album as "country-rock with an infusion of The Who
". "Smart, cynical and still impassioned about the state of humanity, Langford has recharged his music by stripping away any indulgences," critic Jon Pareles wrote. Robert Christgau
of Village Voice (giving the album the A- rating) remarked: "Anyone who's tried to keep up with one-liners knows he's an articulate bastard, but he's better off when he doesn't have to get to the end in 75 words or less... Here he runs on, confessing his antisocial tendencies like the singer-songwriter he temporarily is without forgetting that capitalism is antisocial too".
Jon Langford
Jon Langford born October 11, 1957, Newport, Monmouthshire is a Welsh-born musician and artist who is presently based in Chicago. He is the younger brother of science-fiction author and critic David Langford...
, recorded in August 1997 and released on January 20, 1998
1998 in music
This is a list of notable events in music that took place in the year 1998.-Events:*January 28 – "Weird Al" Yankovic gets LASIK surgery to cure his myopia...
by Sugar Free Records, a Chicago-based label. Skull Orchard, described on its release in 1998 as Langford's most Welsh release ever, had two homonymically-linked themes: Wales
Wales
Wales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and the island of Great Britain, bordered by England to its east and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It has a population of three million, and a total area of 20,779 km²...
and whale
Whale
Whale is the common name for various marine mammals of the order Cetacea. The term whale sometimes refers to all cetaceans, but more often it excludes dolphins and porpoises, which belong to suborder Odontoceti . This suborder also includes the sperm whale, killer whale, pilot whale, and beluga...
s which came together in the "Youghal" track, about the filming of the 1956 movie Moby Dick
Moby Dick (1956 film)
Moby Dick is a 1956 film adaptation of Herman Melville's novel Moby-Dick. It was directed by John Huston with a screenplay by Ray Bradbury and the director. The film starred Gregory Peck, Richard Basehart, and Leo Genn...
in coastal Wales. In 2011 the album was re-recorded and re-issued by Lagford backed by the Burlington Welsh Male Chorus, based in Toronto.
Background
By the time of its release The Skull Orchrds, initially a songwriting project, has evolved into a full blown band with Langford on guitar and vocals, Chicago guitarist Mark DuranteMark Durante
Mark Durante is a pedal steel guitarist who is currently based in Chicago.Durante began playing guitar in 1968 after being inspired by the fretwork of Jimi Hendrix, Frank Zappa and Merle Travis. Ten years later, Durante founded a rock combo he named "Public Enemy"...
(ex-Revolting Cocks
Revolting Cocks
Revolting Cocks, also known as RevCo, is an American–Belgian industrial rock band and sometime supergroup that began as a musical side-project for Richard 23 of Front 242, Luc Van Acker, and Al Jourgensen of Ministry.-History:...
, KMFDM
KMFDM
KMFDM is an industrial band led by German multi-instrumentalist Sascha Konietzko, who founded the group in 1984 as a performance art project...
), drummer Steve Goulding
Steve Goulding
Steve Goulding is an English drummer, best known for his memberships with Graham Parker and The Rumour, The Associates, Poi Dog Pondering and The Mekons. With the Associates he had a UK #9 hit single with "Party Fears Two"...
(ex-Gang Of Four
Gang of Four
The Gang of Four was the name given to a political faction composed of four Chinese Communist Party officials. They came to prominence during the Cultural Revolution and were subsequently charged with a series of treasonous crimes...
, Graham Parker & the Rumour) and bass player Alan Doughty (ex-Jesus Jones
Jesus Jones
Jesus Jones are a British rock band. The Wiltshire-based group, formed in late 1988, recorded and performed in the late 1980s, throughout the 1990s, and into the 2000s. They are best remembered for their track, "Right Here, Right Now", an international hit and subsequently globally appropriated for...
). Among other musicians who took part in recording the album were Mekons' Sally Timms (backing vocals) and Rico Bell (accordion), Drag City Records artist Edith Frost
Edith Frost
Edith Frost is an American singer-songwriter who describes her music as "pensive countrified psychedelia". Born in San Antonio, Texas on August 18, 1964, Frost moved to Brooklyn in 1990 where she played in the country bands the Holler Sisters, the Marfa Lights and Edith and Her Roadhouse Romeos...
, Bottle Rockets bassist Tom Ray and the Texas Rubies' Jane Baxter Miller.
Having lived in America for the previous five years, Skull Orchard saw Langford turning his attention back across the Atlantic to the country he grew up in. According to BBC Radio Wales, "seen through the eyes of an exile, South Wales is a sad, neglected place where mines and factories close down as toxic waste dumps and McDonalds appear out of nowhere. Only the defiant spirit of its people keeps the place alive". Wordy and angry the album's songs "reflect that spirit and represent a major departure for Langford’s songwriting", according to Sassy Hicks of the BBC.
Critical reception
AllMusic called it "a smart, stripped-down collection of tuneful rockers that bitterly reflect on the state of his native Wales" and "a worthy addition to the Mekons/Waco Brothers legacy". According NMENME
The New Musical Express is a popular music publication in the United Kingdom, published weekly since March 1952. It started as a music newspaper, and gradually moved toward a magazine format during the 1980s, changing from newsprint in 1998. It was the first British paper to include a singles...
, Skull Orchard is Langford's "irate musings upon his dispirited, neglected homeland; a record which celebrates Welshness against a backdrop of closing mines and factories and grinding poverty". It was "all the more an achievement for a man who has been living in America for the past five years," the reviewer wrote on July 6, 1998. The New York Times characterised tha beand as 'straightforward' and 'streamlined', describing the songs of the album as "country-rock with an infusion of The Who
The Who
The Who are an English rock band formed in 1964 by Roger Daltrey , Pete Townshend , John Entwistle and Keith Moon . They became known for energetic live performances which often included instrument destruction...
". "Smart, cynical and still impassioned about the state of humanity, Langford has recharged his music by stripping away any indulgences," critic Jon Pareles wrote. Robert Christgau
Robert Christgau
Robert Christgau is an American essayist, music journalist, and self-proclaimed "Dean of American Rock Critics".One of the earliest professional rock critics, Christgau is known for his terse capsule reviews, published since 1969 in his Consumer Guide columns...
of Village Voice (giving the album the A- rating) remarked: "Anyone who's tried to keep up with
Musicians
- Fred ArmisenFred ArmisenFred Armisen is an American actor, comedian and musician best known for his work as a cast member on Saturday Night Live, and portraying off-color foreigners in various comedy films such as EuroTrip, Anchorman and Cop Out...
- percussion - Jane Baxter-Miller - vocals
- Rico Bell - accordionAccordionThe accordion is a box-shaped musical instrument of the bellows-driven free-reed aerophone family, sometimes referred to as a squeezebox. A person who plays the accordion is called an accordionist....
- Tracy Dear - mandolin MandolinA mandolin is a musical instrument in the lute family . It descends from the mandore, a soprano member of the lute family. The mandolin soundboard comes in many shapes—but generally round or teardrop-shaped, sometimes with scrolls or other projections. A mandolin may have f-holes, or a single...
- Alan Doughty - bass guitarBass guitarThe bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick....
, vocals - Mark DuranteMark DuranteMark Durante is a pedal steel guitarist who is currently based in Chicago.Durante began playing guitar in 1968 after being inspired by the fretwork of Jimi Hendrix, Frank Zappa and Merle Travis. Ten years later, Durante founded a rock combo he named "Public Enemy"...
- guitar - Lu Edmonds - vocals
- Edith FrostEdith FrostEdith Frost is an American singer-songwriter who describes her music as "pensive countrified psychedelia". Born in San Antonio, Texas on August 18, 1964, Frost moved to Brooklyn in 1990 where she played in the country bands the Holler Sisters, the Marfa Lights and Edith and Her Roadhouse Romeos...
- vocals - Steve GouldingSteve GouldingSteve Goulding is an English drummer, best known for his memberships with Graham Parker and The Rumour, The Associates, Poi Dog Pondering and The Mekons. With the Associates he had a UK #9 hit single with "Party Fears Two"...
- drums - John Hyatt - vocals
- Jon LangfordJon LangfordJon Langford born October 11, 1957, Newport, Monmouthshire is a Welsh-born musician and artist who is presently based in Chicago. He is the younger brother of science-fiction author and critic David Langford...
- etchingEtchingEtching is the process of using strong acid or mordant to cut into the unprotected parts of a metal surface to create a design in intaglio in the metal...
, guitar, vocals - Paul Mertens - brass, flute (alto), overdubs, sax (baritone)
- Tom RayTom RayThomas Archer Ray was an American animator.-Career:Ray was born in Williams, Arizona. He began work at Warner Bros. Cartoons in 1937. Over the first two decades of his career, he was a junior animator who received no screen credit until Destination Earth in 1956. In 1958, he became a master...
- ukuleleUkuleleThe ukulele, ; from ; it is a subset of the guitar family of instruments, generally with four nylon or gut strings or four courses of strings.... - John RiceJohn RiceJohn Rice may refer to:* John Andrew Rice, founder of the Black Mountain College* John B. Rice , U.S. Representative from Ohio* John Blake Rice , mayor of Chicago, Illinois, 1865–1869, and later a U.S. Representative...
- fiddleFiddleThe term fiddle may refer to any bowed string musical instrument, most often the violin. It is also a colloquial term for the instrument used by players in all genres, including classical music... - Dean Schlabowske - vocals
Personnel
- Mike Hagler - engineer, recorder
- Ken Sluiter - engineer, mastering, mixing, recorder
- Casey Orr - photography
- Marty Perez - photography
- Mark Price - translation