November Group
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...
Labels: New Wave + Indie
"Work that Dream" is tagged as "Work that Body" for album title?
Posted by
Anonym |
Freitag, 22. September 2006 um 18:46:00 MESZ
Hello Jörg. You've put some really interesting music up here and I look forward to listening to as much as I can! I will come back and leave some responses soon.
Posted by
Anonym |
Montag, 25. September 2006 um 10:10:00 MESZ
@Anonymous
my fault, of course it should be Work that DREAM
Posted by
Jörg |
Freitag, 6. Oktober 2006 um 00:55:00 MESZ
WOW!!!! vielen Dank.
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
Posted by
Anonym |
Donnerstag, 30. November 2006 um 03:31:00 MEZ
These are two awesome records! I dropped "Shake it Off" at a dance party I dj'd last night and everyone loved it.
Do you have anything by Wunderkind, the band that came before the November Group?
-Katherine from Colorado
Posted by
Anonym |
Sonntag, 14. Januar 2007 um 18:43:00 MEZ
@ Katherine
sorry no
Posted by
Jörg |
Sonntag, 21. Januar 2007 um 04:15:00 MEZ
Vielen Danke
I saw NG a couple times in Cambridge, a Man-Ray. One heck of a dance band.
Posted by
Anonym |
Mittwoch, 15. August 2007 um 03:19:00 MESZ
Cool. Thanks for sharing! I'm in the process of ripping these Eps as well!! I certainly miss them. Saw these guys on their 'come back' tour some years ago, but I don't think that went anywhere..
Posted by
John Mc |
Mittwoch, 22. August 2007 um 04:27:00 MESZ
oh, such memories! I was an NG groupie in the 80's. I'm sure I still have some playlists somewhere, they got used to me asking at the end of shows. In 1982 they showed up @ Hampshire College, for the Halloween show, I was a freshman @ HC that year. Thanks for keeping the tunes alive, and if Ann and Kirby are out there in the world, well gals--thanks for the memories! We loved you then, and I bet you're pretty cool still!
Posted by
Anonym |
Montag, 26. November 2007 um 05:38:00 MEZ
Here's another blog that's posted a download link for ALL of November Group's releases!
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.
Posted by
Average White Dad |
Mittwoch, 26. Mai 2010 um 15:05:00 MESZ