Duff Guide to Ska Fast Takes: Prince Fatty featuring Shniece Mcmenamin "Disco Deception" EP

Evergreen Recordings
Vinyl/digital
2020

(Review by Steve Shafer)

As of late, Prince Fatty has been mining his and his collaborators' shared love of soul music (for instance, see the awesome covers of The Temptations' "Get Ready" and William DeVaughn's "Be Thankful for What You've Got"). Of course, since black American musical forms like rhythm and blues, soul, gospel, and early rock 'n' roll significantly influenced the Jamaican musicians who created ska and its descendants (and there were a host of soulful rocksteady and reggae singers, like Alton Ellis, Ken Boothe, Delroy Wilson, Phyllis Dillon, Susan Cadogan, Marcia Griffiths, Jimmy Cliff, Toots Hibbert, and many more), it makes sense that many soul songs are ripe for being repurposed as reggae cuts (and there are numerous examples of such from the '60s onward). Rocksteady and reggae's slower tempos open up the space for soul singers to do their thing over tight, propulsive Jamaican grooves custom-made to pack dance floors--and the tracks on Disco Deception will do just that. For his latest release, Prince Fatty and singer Shniece Mcmenamin (of The Drizabone Soul Family, who's also worked with Chaka Kahn, Chic and Nile Rodgers, Sister Sledge, Aswad, Mungo's Hi-Fi, and The Last Poets) select some incredible tracks to cover: Lyn Collins' 1974 hit "Take Me Just as I Am," Gwen McCrae's 1974 single "90% of Me Is You," LaVern Baker's "Love Me Right" from 1957, "Fever"--first recorded by Little Willie John in 1953 who had a #1 hit with it, and Tina Turner's "You Got What You Wanted" from 1968. As always, all of the performances captured on Disco Deception are top-notch; Shniece's singing is never short of spectacular (and she makes it seem so effortless); and Fatty's production is impeccable. "Take Me Just as I Am" (with the great Horseman toasting), "90% of Me Is You," and "Love Me Right" are particularly wonderful and effective, though their stellar version of "You Got What You Wanted" ("...now you don't want what you got") has moments that will make the hair on the back of your neck stand on end. It's hard to match Turner's heart-wrenching performance (and, given her abusive relationship with Ike Turner at the time, horrifically true to life), but Shniece comes tantalizingly close.

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Duff Guide to Ska Fast Takes: Dennis Bovell, Daytoner, JonnyGo Figure, Prince Fatty and Earl 16

(Reviews by Steve Shafer)

Even though I saw "Babylon" weeks ago at its ridiculously long-delayed US premiere at BAM (the film was originally released in the UK in 1980, but not shown in America, presumably because its black protagonists sometimes respond to racial oppression/abuse from white people/institutions with violence), images and scenes from the movie continue to haunt me. While its plot is fairly straightforward ("Babylon" follows a group of working class black friends/musicians who run a sound system and are subjected to racist abuse from just about everyone--bosses, neighbors, and the police), it has a stark realism to it--between being shot on location in run-down Brixton (often in difficult-to-film low-lighting conditions, but somehow always maintaining visual crispness and its warm and vivid color tones); the depiction of the ubiquitous societal/institutional racism freely expressed toward black Britons circa '79/'80; great, funny dialogue (with lots of Jamaican slang--which was subtitled); and the spot-on, relaxed performances by all involved, it could almost be a documentary. And, of course, the film's hard-to-find soundtrack is outstanding (with Yabby U, I-Roy, Cassandra, Aswad, Vin Gordon, Michael Rose, Dennis Bovell, and more; also, the film's protagonist Blue is played by Aswad's Brinsley Forde and a rival sound system DJ is Jah Shaka). Before I caught the film, I tracked down a German copy of Babylon in decent shape that wasn't too costly. Side two, in particular is stellar and happens to contain the two Aswad and three Dennis Bovell cuts. But the official Babylon OST (vinyl LP, Chrysalis Records, 1980) doesn't contain all of Bovell's music for the film. So, in conjunction with the US premiere/release of the movie, Dennis Bovell issued the nine-track digital album Babylon: The Original Score (Old School, 2019) containing the entire score he wrote and recorded for this soundtrack (including six songs that did not appear on the 1980 Chrysalis LP). It goes without saying that all of these tracks are excellent and heard in snippets in the film (Bovell is a master of catchy melody and mixes/shifts between musical genres with ease), but I'm particularly grateful to have the ska cut "Runnin' Away" (featured during the dance scene at Lovers' engagement party in the church hall and sounding like one of the '50s rock/rhythm and blues-influenced tracks Laurel Aitken would have released in the early '60s); the funky, strutting "School Skanking" (check out that harmonica!); and the righteous roots reggae of "Living in Babylon" (a clear-eyed recounting of the brutal challenges of being black and poor in racist Ingland). Needless to say, this album is essential and absolutely deserving of being issued on vinyl someday (please!).

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Daytoner's terrific versions of Marcia Griffiths' "Feel Like Jumping" and Phyllis Dillon's "Perfidia," which they've retitled "Perfidious" (7" vinyl single, Friday's Funky 45/Cabin Pressure, 2019); I found a copy at Rock and Soul in Manhattan) inject just the right amount of early '90s hip hop/De La Soul-like beats and samples so as to give these ska and rocksteady classics new life. And they're sure to draw new fans to the dance floor without alienating the ska faithful.

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Brooklyn-based reggae singer/DJ JonnyGo Figure (who's also a member of Megative and has collaborated with The Frightnrs and Full Watts Band) has released an excellent EP of early '80s sounding roots reggae and dancehall (that one could imagine being issued on Greensleeves, circa 1982) called Crucial Showcase (12" vinyl/digital, Bent Backs Records, 2019). On the Yellowman-ish "Vinyl Lover," JonnyGo Figure speaks to his real-life obsession with records and how that came to be ("Mi love vinyl and mi play it fe fun/Mi love vinyl and I never have a gun"). The rootsy "Natty Take Over" is about discovering and embracing Rastafarianism ("Mr. Babylon to move over/This a Natty Dreadlocks take over/When I was a boy they used to say I'd amount to nothing/But now I'm a man they're starting to see that I am something/Look out, look out, Natty taking over..."). He's ready to join with his peers to fighting for a more equal and just society in "Revolutionary Youth": "I tell ya, stand up! Stand up!/Strap up on de Armagideon boot/The time now, we have to recruit/Come on, we chant it, chant it/Come on and let we seek de truth/If you ready, let me see you salute/I'm a revolutionist...Time to start a revolution, boy/'Cause that's the only solution, boy." And knowledge of one's own mortality looms large in "Jam It Up"--there's an expiration date on all of us, so it's best to live a righteous life full of joy in His music: "One day I'll die, no matter what me say/You know, say papa Jah, he the only way I say, so/Come on let me play a Jah Jah music/Let me jam it up..." There's much to ponder while grooving to JonnyGo Figure's seriously good music.

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Released for Record Store Day 2019, Prince Fatty and Earl 16's "Be Thankful for What You've Got" b/w "Be Thankful Dub" (7" vinyl single, Evergreen Records, 2019) is a cover of William DeVaughn's 1974 smash soul hit, which was also covered by Bunny Clarke in 1974, Winston Curtis in 1984, Massive Attack in 1993, as well as sampled by numerous hip hop artists. The song's brilliant lyrics have been perennially popular for their depiction of aspirational cool in the face of deprivation (and, no doubt, for evoking a particular era--I remember seeing this exact model of Cadillac in the Bronx in the '70s):

Just be thankful for what you've got
You may not have a great big Cadillac
Diamond in the back, sunroof top
Diggin' the scene
With a gangsta lean
Gangsta whitewalls
TV antennas in the back

You may not have a car at all
But remember brothers and sisters
You can still stand tall
Just be thankful for what you've got

This spectacular version features a bright and brisk reggae beat (plus a few laser effects) that contrasts wonderfully with Earl 16's beautiful but bittersweet vocals about proudly hanging tough in tough times. The harmonizing on the chorus is incredible, lightly conveying the sadness/loss in all that could have been if things only worked out another way. Apparently, the reason Prince Fatty and Earl 16 decided to record it was because they discovered it was a favorite of both of theirs--and it shows in this gorgeously constructed track and its fantastic companion dub.

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US Theatrical Premiere of "Babylon" at Brooklyn Academy of Music, March 7-14, 2019!

Released in 1980 and celebrated as a British entry into the specialized genre of reggae music/culture films (joining, of course, Jamaican movies "The Harder They Come" from 1972 and "Rockers" from 1978) but never shown before in the US (see below for why), "Babylon" finally has its American premiere at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, from March 7 through 14, 2019.

BAM's promotional copy about "Babylon" provides all the reasons why you need to see this film:

"Banned from the New York Film Festival for “being too controversial, and likely to incite racial tension” (Vivien Goldman, Time Out) and never released in the US, Franco Rosso’s incendiary 1980 film follows a young dancehall DJ (Brinsley Forde, frontman of landmark British reggae group Aswad) in Thatcher-era South London as he pursues his musical ambitions while battling fiercely against the racism and xenophobia of employers, neighbors, police, and the National Front. Written by Martin Stellman (Quadrophenia) with beautiful, smoky cinematography by two-time Oscar winner Chris Menges (The Killing Fields), Babylon is fearless and unsentimental, tempered by the hazy bliss of the dancehall and set to a blistering reggae, dub, and lovers rock soundtrack anchored by Dennis Bovell."

A few of the screenings have Q and As with Brinsley Forde and Dennis Bovell (tonight's session after the 7:30 screening with punk journalist and NYU professor Vivien Goldman is sold out, but tomorrow's with Carter Van Pelt of WKCR and Coney Island Reggae on the Boardwalk still has tix).

The New York Times reviewed "Babylon" in today's print edition and Brinsley Forde and Dennis Bovell were interviewed on WNYC (which can be listened to here).

While copies of the film's 1980 soundtrack can still be found on the web, Dennis Bovell recently released his original score for "Babylon" as a digital album (which contains music not included on the original soundtrack LP).

After its NYC screenings, "Babylon" will play various art house theaters in major metropolitan areas across the US from March through June (check out the full list of showings here).

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Duff Guide to Ska Fast Takes: Dub Natty Sessions and Dennis Bovell "DNS and Friends" and V/A: "White Man in Hammersmith Palais" E

(Reviews by Steve Shafer)

Ken Boothe, Dillinger, Leroy Smart, Delroy Wilson White Man in Hammersmith Palais EP (limited edition RSD 7" vinyl four-track EP with mini-poster, Greensleeves Records, 2017): This neat compilation EP features one song each from the reggae artists named-checked in the phenomenal Clash song of the same title (which, of course, was about Joe Strummer attending a concert at the Hammersmith Palais in London featuring these artists on June 5, 1977 and having his expectations dashed when it turned out that "...it was Four Tops all night...onstage they ain't got no roots rock rebel"). It's kind of surprising that no one's though of this cool concept previously, so hats off to Greensleeves for executing it so well. The EP features Dillinger's and Smart's fantastic 1976 UK hit tracks "Cokane in My Brain" and "Ballistic Affair," as well as Booth's 1973 cover of Detroit soul artist Sixto Rodriguez's "Silver Words," and a sweet rare cut from Delroy Wilson, "Rascal Man" (AKA "False Rasta"). The repro poster of the Hammersmith Palais bill advertises that the show ran from midnight to 6:00 am, which finally explains the first line of Strummer's song...

Dub Natty Sessions and Dennis Bovell featuring Matic Horns and Mad Professor DNS and Friends (CD/digital download, available through Bovell's Old School Records, 2017): This is the second release from this Venezuelan, now UK-based roots reggae act Dub Natty Sessions. Their debut was mixed and produced by Bovell who makes a repeat appearance, this time on bass and behind the boards at Mad Professor's Ariwa studios (the Professor mixed the album). DNS and Friends is filled with catchy and dubby reggae instrumentals (featuring all the expert touches one expects of Bovell and the Mad Professor) that achieve real brilliance on tracks like "Un Amor" (which sounds like it could have come off Rico's Jama Rico) and "Plantation" (that recalls Bovell's incredible work with The 4th Street Orchestra). While Dub Natty Sessions lay down some seriously good and enjoyable grooves, their secret weapon on this album is the majestic Matic Horns (Bovell's Matumbi bandmate Henry “Buttons” Tenyue on trombone and Aswad members Eddie "Tan Tan" Thornton on trumpet and Michael "Bami" Rose on sax), who are put to amazing use here.

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Mojo Feature on the Birth of UK Reggae

In addition to a feature on Bob Marley's eventful 1976 in JA, the September 2016 issue of Mojo contains a fantastic article on the late '70s home-grown British reggae scene wittily titled "Chant Down Albion." Using the April, 23, 1979 Special Patrol Group assault on the People Unite community center in Southall, London as a focal point (where anti-racist/fascist locals had fled a police riot after a National Front rally and an Anti-Nazi League counter-protest), the piece goes on to explain how the pervasive racism/oppression these black, British roots reggae musicians experienced from the police (who used the notorious Sus law as an excuse to stop and harass any non-white person), right-wing politicians, and many of their fellow countrymen led them to create some of the most powerful and political-charged reggae songs of the time. Highlighted acts/musicians include Misty in Roots (whose manager and studio engineer were seriously injured by the SPG attack--in addition, almost the entire band was arrested in the raid and their keyboard player left the band after spending several months in jail; Misty's recording studio was destroyed; and the SPG even smashed their records), Steel Pulse, Aswad, Dennis Bovell, Linton Kwesi Johnson, and reggae-loving punks The Ruts (Misty in Roots paid for their first recordings and "In A Rut" was the first release on the People Unite label; "Jah War" was a tribute to Misty's manager who was brutally beaten by the SPG).

There's one error to be aware of in the article--Rock Against Racism was not a campaign of the Anti-Nazi League, but its own organization that often held joint protests with the ANL.

Ska fans will also want to know that the free "Jamaican Explosion" CD that accompanies this issue contains a mix of familiar and somewhat obscure early 1960s material from Laurel Aitken, Prince Buster and The Blue Beats, Roland Alphonso, The Folkes Brothers, Byron Lee and The Dragonaires, Rico, Jimmy Cliff, Don Drummond, Lord Creator, Derrick and Patsy, and more.

Just a reminder--this is old-school media. There's no online version of the magazine. To read the articles, you have to buy a physical copy...

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Duff Review: Vivien Goldman "Resolutionary (Songs 1979-1982)"

Staubgold Records
2016
CD/LP

(Review by Steve Shafer)

In the early 1970s, Vivien Goldman's first and incredibly auspicious job right out of university was serving as Bob Marley's public relations person at Island Records (years later, she was Marley's biographer), just as the label released Bob Marley and The Wailers' first major label album--Catch a Fire--which had been specifically crafted by Chris Blackwell to appeal to the white rock crowd (and obviously worked spectacularly well). Whether or not this cross pop-cultural mash-up (at a time when the British and American music scenes were still largely segregated) set Goldman on her path mining the intersections of frisson between diverse musical genres is a matter of conjecture, but it certainly serves as an apt illustration of what became her life's work and passion. By the middle of that decade in the UK, when punk, reggae, and dub ripped everything up and started again, Goldman already had departed Island to become a music journalist doing interviews and writing reviews for Sounds, New Musical Express, and Melody Maker, covering an omnivorous array of key punk, post-punk, and reggae artists (see this list of her many pieces).

Not surprisingly, it was a time when, according to Goldman, "there were no barriers between journalist and artist." She was living, socializing, and collaborating in the same Ladbroke Grove, London neighborhood as many of the punk and reggae acts she was writing about in the music weeklies (such as members of The Clash and Aswad; Chrissie Hynde was her roomie for a time). A gifted soprano, Goldman grew up in a musical family (she and her sisters sang, her father played violin--an instrument that appears on many of her songs) and apparently was always singing, which--along with her connections to some of the most talented and daring post-punk and reggae/dub musicians in the UK--led to her writing and performing songs with David Cunningham and The Flying Lizards in 1979, as well as singing (with Neneh Cherry and The Slits' Ari-Up) on Adrian Sherwood's productions for Prince Far-I in 1980 and the New Age Steppers in 1981. That year, she also recorded her debut solo single, "Launderette" b/w "Private Armies" ("Private Armies" also appeared in its dub version on the debut New Age Steppers LP). In 1982, she moved to Paris to write for Actuel magazine and became highly enamored with African pop music (which she played on her pirate Radio Nova show "Cherie Noire" with Eve Blouin), recording and releasing the "It's Only Money" 12" EP in 1982 with Blouin as the duo Chantage (which is French for blackmail).

While Goldman would go on to write and record with groups like Massive Attack ("Sly"), Ryuichi Sakamoto, Coldcut, and Luscious Jackson, as well as with several house music producers, Resolutionary focuses on her recordings from the late 70s/early 80s--an era brilliant for its great fluidity between musical genres and the easy exchange between artists from markedly divergent scenes that oftentimes resulted in extraordinarily innovative and challenging music, some prime examples of which can be found here (punk had, at least temporarily, freed a generation of young musicians from pop music's constructs).

The "Launderette" b/w "Private Armies" single (issued in the UK as a 7" by Window/Rough Trade and as the Dirty Washing 12"--which included "P.A. Dub"--via NYC's pioneering art/punk label 99 Records, home to Liquid Liquid, ESG, Bush Tetras, Maximum Joy, Glen Branca, and others) is reason enough to pick up this compilation of Goldman's work (and considering that the original 7" and 12" versions command very high prices, they're an absolute bargain here). These tracks are unequivocal (and somewhat shamefully obscure on this side of the pond) post-punk gems.

"Launderette," written by Goldman and Aswad's bassist George Oban (who came up with the song's distinctive and catchy bass line), was apparently surreptitiously recorded on Virgin's dime during Public Image Ltd.'s sessions for their Flowers of Romance album (but, considering how record deals are structured, it really was PIL's dime in the end, wasn't it now?), which is how John Lydon and Keith Levene ended up with producer's credit on the tracks. Goldman was backed by PIL's Keith Levene, Robert Wyatt, Vicki Aspinall of The Raincoats, Steve Beresford of The Slits and The Flying Lizards, and George Oban. It's a slightly uncomfortable, off-kilter, shambling track that feels a bit tentative and improvised in spots. The bass and drums are firmly planted in reggae territory--particularly the prominent, fluid, and continually unfolding bass line--but the dissonant, droning violin and slashes of guitar, the tinkly toy piano, and crazy collection of busy percussive instruments clash with and grate against the orderly rhythm section, threatening to derail everything (but don't). Floating above all of this tension is Goldman's lovely singing--her delivery is wonderfully conversational and free of any vocal mannerisms. It's almost as if she's recounting this short, unsatisfying affair in her head (particularly the lyric, "I had to learn to say no") as she encounters her ex in the very same ordinary place they met.

"I wanted tenpence for the dryer
Yes, that was how we met
My laundry bag was broken
My clothes were soaking wet
I felt I needed hugging
You needed board and lodging

I can't complain
We went down the drain
Seems like I can't get away from you
Even in the launderette

Now my socks to your socks in the dryer
And your jeans run into my shirt

You always were untidy

You wanted coffee round at my place
It all seemed just a lark
But you hadn't left there two weeks later
and your hair's all over the bath
It's good to get you to go
I had to learn to say no

I can't complain
We went down the drain
Seems like I can't get away from you
Even in the launderette

Now my socks to your socks in the dryer
And your jeans run into my shirt
I can't complain
We went down the drain

You always were untidy"



"Private Armies," written by Goldman and performed by many of the same musicians who backed her on "Launderette" (Shooz on drums, Keith Levene on guitar and bass, Steve Beresford on toy piano and bass, and Vicky Aspinall on violin) is another post-punk/reggae/dub cut--with an ominous, lurking bass line (which is more prominent in "P.A. Dub")--produced by Adrian Sherwood, who introduces Jungle-like percussion into the mix.

It's the harrowing tale of witnessing what one assumes is a racist attack, given the amount of racial violence in England at the time, that becomes a rumination on the capacity for violence in boys which is enabled/unleashed in men as they join groups, gangs or government/business sanctioned agents of violence (such as mercenary forces, counterintelligence agents, or the police) who attempt to enforce/impose a particular, often fascist, political agenda/viewpoint through brutality and murder. But at the end of the song, she completely takes the piss out of these men by mocking their macho obsession with violence and phallic-y guns in suggesting that it all may be because they're impotent (and unable to perform the most elemental male function--procreation). All of this obsession with power and might has to be compensating for something...

"Vernon and Norman, just sat in a Mini
While the skinheads beat shit out of person on the pavement
Blood everywhere

Sets of initials with licenses to kill
Brand name business footing the bill
Blood everywhere

Private armies
Private armies
Blood everywhere

Little boys like dressing up
Little boys like dressing up
Dressing up in uniform
Little boys' toys blow things up
Little boys' toys blow things up

If the heavy metal boys or the boys in blue
Don't like the look of you, you'd better watch out
Really out of order
Really out of order

If you can't get a hard-on, get a gun
If you can't get a hard-on, get a gun"



The two Flying Lizards tracks (with Viv Albertine of The Slits and David Toop on guitar, Steve Beresford on bass and piano, George Oban on bass, Dave Solomon on drums, Bruce Smith on hi-hat) actually chronologically precede Goldman's debut single, but they're in the same vein--offbeat, funky reggae-influenced post-punk tracks conveyed from a woman's perspective. "Her Story" (written by Dave Solomon, David Cunningham, General Strike, and Goldman) concerns the historic (and continuing) subjugation of women and their treatment as property throughout a great deal of recorded history--and how men even profit from recording love songs to/about women, while treating them so shabbily and considerably less than equals.

Vivien Goldman (sung):
"Knights in shiny armor
Always takes the key
History, history, hypocrisy
But you can still make money
By singing sweet songs of love"

David Toop (spoken in monotone):
"I own you
You don't own me
You are my territory
This is a love song
This is a love song"

Vivien Goldman (sung):
"I blame our books
I blame the TV
I blame Top 20 for my jealousy
But you can still make money
By singing sweet songs of love"

The truly disturbing song "The Window" (written by Goldman)--shades of The Special AKA's "The Boiler"--turns the supposed eroticism of "Dracula" and similar misogynistic myths (virginal women want to be dominated and forcibly seduced/taken) on its head in this stalker scenario--a man is trying to break into a woman's home and her thoughts on the matter are crystal clear:

"Can you hear him bang at the window?
(He's throwing things at the window)

I don't want to let him in
I wish he wasn't twice my size

Sometimes I think he's a vampire
(He's making holes to drain blood)"

The fact that Goldman sings these lyrics in an almost resigned, matter-of-fact way--she's been here before and previously physically suffered from his abuse--is all the more creepy. The song ends with the crappy choice before her: "Sometimes you fight for the world/Sometimes you fight for yourself/Should I sit and listen/Sit, wait, listen hoping that the door's shut tight?"

Things shift dramatically with Chantage's marvelous and giddily euphoric full-on reggae cover of Bob Marley and The Wailers' "Do It Nice," cheekily retitled "Same Thing Twice" to emphasize the come-on of the chorus: "Baby, you're so nice/I'd like to do the same thing twice!" It'd be hard to resist an offer that sounds this fun and good. Goldman's and Blouin's delightful, insouciant "It's Only Money" ("...and every day it's worth a little less") has a melodramatic musical theater vibe to it (and a cynicism towards commerce/capitalism that reminds one of Cabaret's "Money"), albeit one that is set in the fantastic crossroads of a several dozen cultures, where Roma violins meet African soukous guitar, Trinidadian steel pan drums, Cuban, Dominican, and Puerto Rican dance rhythms, Broadway--even a smidgen of British music hall. (Indeed, all of Chantage's songs are concerned with some sort of transaction between people, whether it's financial, emotional, or physical). The musical portion of the compilation closes with the short-but-sweet, a cappella "Tu M'Fais Rire" ("You make me laugh"), which sounds like a '60s French pop song and where Goldman's and Blouin's voices complement each other beautifully (all of Chantage's tracks were produced by Adrian Sherwood, Alan Jakoby, Carroll Thompson, Chantage, and Chris Thomas--and feature a wonderfully international group of musicians, including George Oban on bass, Bruce Smith of The Pop Group/Slits/New Age Steppers and Style Scott on drums, Jerry Malenkani on guitar, Deadly Headly and Annie Whitehead on horns, Bubbles on steel pan drums, Steve Beresford on piano and euphonium, Jancsi Hosszu on violin, and Ann Howard, Archie Pool, Carroll Thompson, and Neneh Cherry on backup vocals).

The last track is an interesting time capsule of sorts--an interview with Goldman from 1981, after the release of the "Launderette"/"Private Armies" single, with audio zine "Morrocci Klung!" that was released/distributed on cassette. In it, Goldman discusses the meaning of these songs (and dispels some of the incorrect interpretations at that time), gender politics, men's tendency to express themselves through violence, and the assassination of John Lennon.

A long-overdue retrospective of (a good portion of) her musical work, Vivien Goldman's Resolutionary (Songs 1979-1982) is jammed full of very smart, oftentimes provocative, and always incredibly enjoyable songs--and is a vital post-punk document. As a diehard fan of that phenomenal era of music, attitude, and style, I almost can't express how happy I am to have this album in my collection...

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End notes: Vivien Goldman is currently an adjunct "Punk Professor" at NYU and recently wrote a musical based on Kid Creole and the Coconuts' story with August Darnell.

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