I first heard "Shake it off" by the November Group on John Peel's and immediately liked it, great rhythms, nice lyrics too.
This is what you would expect from American New Wave, but in this case it is good!
The November Group (German: Novembergruppe) was a group of German expressionist artists and architects. Formed on 3 December 1918, they took their name from the month of the Weimar Revolution. The group was led by Max Pechstein and César Klein. Linked less by their styles of art than by shared socialist values, the group campaigned for radical artists to have a greater say in such issues as the organisation of art schools, and new laws around the arts. The group merged in December 1918 with Arbeitsrat für Kunst (Workers council of the arts - or 'The Art Soviet'). I did not know this before, so this was useful!
Boston's November Group starts with a powerful rhythm section, and then adds Kearney Kirby's synthesizers, sporadic guitar and Ann Prim's stern vocals to make slick, modern dance music utterly devoid of warmth. The first record is unnervingly more suited to marching than dancing or listening. Persistent Memories shows more diversity and less formula, and introduces a promising factory number, "Put Your Back to It." The far more accomplished Work That Dream, recorded by Kirby and Prim in Frankfurt with German musicians, takes another intriguing swipe at "Put Your Back to It." The other tunes are less distinguished, but all are functional for club play.
November Group 12" 1982
Unfortunately this link is no longer available and even more unfortunately I do not have a copy of this file! Grrrr... If anybody has a copy he found here, please let me know by posting a comment to the newest entry to this blog, so I can update this post for everyone and myself. I am not too keen on ripping several records again...
November Group - Work that dream 1985 This link is still available...
Kommentare
my fault, of course it should be Work that DREAM
Thank you !!!!
I grew up in Boston ( I was 15 when the 12" came out) and love them. I agree with your philosophy abou making music available. May I suggest another Boston musician of that era? He is still a performer.
http://rickberlin.com/sounding/08%20OverTheHill.mp3
Listen to it. It is fun.
John from Miami
Do you have anything by Wunderkind, the band that came before the November Group?
-Katherine from Colorado
sorry no
I saw NG a couple times in Cambridge, a Man-Ray. One heck of a dance band.
I saw this band in Boston many times in the mid-late 80s. We laughed at how serious they always were, but had great fun at their shows nonetheless.