The Rainbow Connection - Chimney Crow's Covers [ChCr65]
30 April, 2014
Mind, I've found more than a few new names in the past month or so. But my head is spinning in many directions, and words are spilling across the interwebs - not from me, but from wiser minds who have seen and heard far more than me. Twenty years on, what will the observers say about this generation? What legacy have we left besides an increasing infantile dependency on our multiple social networks? Sleaford Mods summed up the human condition today: "All you zombies TWEET TWEET TWEET."
I don't know. And I doubt you really care, 'cos you're foaming at the mouth for this month's free haul of tunes. Right on. Follow the kaleidoscopic cut-out masks to the stars, and you'll meet...
I don't know. And I doubt you really care, 'cos you're foaming at the mouth for this month's free haul of tunes. Right on. Follow the kaleidoscopic cut-out masks to the stars, and you'll meet...
Chimney Crow - demented analogue mixmeisters fronted by Paul Isgone who take ordinary songs, strip them of all that guitar-ish dross, and churn out stark synthy covers that pulse for some shadowy dance floor between the Residents, Suicide, and Monte Cazezza. These range from a thumping version of “Cracklin’ Rose” to – my fave - a virus-ridden “Legs” that casts the ZZ Top staple and its macho womanizing in the proper sinister light. “Zoloft” isn’t a cover, but nicks the main riff from the Cars’ “My Best Friend’s Girlfriend” for a perky little track that literally cheers on the drug (“Z, O, L-O-F-T”) (edit - well, actually, it IS a cover - but I'm sure that riff is a nifty interpretation?)
And man oh man oh man, that new cover, Segue Segue Sputnik’s “Love Missile” – they chug out the tune in the most Suicide-esque fashion, straight outta the motorcycle’s exhaust pipe, smashing fragments against the pavement.
Tell me, where’s “Groove Is In The Heart” from? No, don’t tell me. (I know now, anyway - it's the Dee-lites). As far as I know, this home-brewed neon neo-Euro-funk groove must be CC’s own. These happy bobbing heads in cheap shades can never headline an act on the main stage, but open the hidden panel in the back wall and there Chimney Crow will be, reveling in their mini-freak out. (Everyone’s invited, of course, but no gig planner would ever wager a dime to give the poor weirdos the limelight.)
Perhaps the pinnacle of Chimney Crow’s mad penchant for covers, though, is “The Rainbow Connection”, an asthmatic, clattering ditty borrowed from Kermit the Frog. Bubbly and acrid, the tune still retains its intrinsic silliness, particularly because Paul can’t sing worth a flip, and that’s precisely why Kermit is so endearing, right? Think about it. Would you believe that it's not easy being green if Kermit belted it out like Sinatra? Well, you might, but then the silliness of it all would be lost. Hence why this makes me so happy. So many artists today are afraid to be silly, y'know - and not in that smirkish, ironic, inclusive way, via in-jokes that only the scenesters understand, but just silly.
Tell me, where’s “Groove Is In The Heart” from? No, don’t tell me. (I know now, anyway - it's the Dee-lites). As far as I know, this home-brewed neon neo-Euro-funk groove must be CC’s own. These happy bobbing heads in cheap shades can never headline an act on the main stage, but open the hidden panel in the back wall and there Chimney Crow will be, reveling in their mini-freak out. (Everyone’s invited, of course, but no gig planner would ever wager a dime to give the poor weirdos the limelight.)
Perhaps the pinnacle of Chimney Crow’s mad penchant for covers, though, is “The Rainbow Connection”, an asthmatic, clattering ditty borrowed from Kermit the Frog. Bubbly and acrid, the tune still retains its intrinsic silliness, particularly because Paul can’t sing worth a flip, and that’s precisely why Kermit is so endearing, right? Think about it. Would you believe that it's not easy being green if Kermit belted it out like Sinatra? Well, you might, but then the silliness of it all would be lost. Hence why this makes me so happy. So many artists today are afraid to be silly, y'know - and not in that smirkish, ironic, inclusive way, via in-jokes that only the scenesters understand, but just silly.
All these are 100% freeeeeee to download, though I would not mind chucking some monies their way just for the hell of it (and in fact, I have, for Chimney Crow's original album, Chimney Crow Is A Band, from Electric Phantom Records in Florida, which shows what a competent journalist I was when I wrote this the first time - review forthcoming). Even the instrumentals – like the scuzzy stalking fiend “Molly”, and the stretched out cosmic musique concrete journey of “the famous song” - are totally engrossing. Don’t miss a single track.