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  • "I Was Born... but...

    ALP158

    Artist: Chris Brokaw

    Label: Atavistic

    Soundtrack from the Roddy Bogawa film, as performed the inimitable cb. guitar bliss out, c.f. red cities and beyond...from chris' liner notes:

    "my friend john engle called me up about ten years ago and said, "i have a friend named roddy bogawa who's been working on a film for several years. it's very 'avante-garde', and no one will ever make a dime from it, but he's going to call you in a couple of days and ask to license a Come song for the film, and you should say yes." he did, and i did. the film was called "Junk", and was a real delight.

    in november 2003 roddy came to a show i was doing in brooklyn and asked if i'd like to score a new film of his. i'd never scored a film before and was really eager to work on it. i didn't really know how it was done, but i felt very at ease with roddy and figured we could do this together.

    roddy and i really hit it off, i think in some part by having grown up around the same time, on opposite coasts, with punk rock becoming a really important part of our lives. i think we've each spent a lot of time deciding what exactly that means to us.

    i love the film. i love the fact that roddy will take the time to find a great shot, and just linger on it for a while. it's really refreshing to me. it feels brave. i love the fact that i still don't know exactly what the movie is "about". collaborating with roddy on this was a pleasure and a great privilege."

  • Red Cities

    ALP134

    Artist: Chris Brokaw

    Label: Atavistic

    When your resume' includes heady projects & respected bands like Come (with Thalia Zedek; stellar catalog on Matador), Pullman (with Tortoise's Doug McCombs & Bundy Brown- 2 longplayers on Thrill Jockey), The New Year (ex-Bedheaders now thoughtfully rocking on Touch & Go), Codeine (slow rock brilliance on vintage Sub Pop) & Steve Wynn; the quality of one's work amounts to more than a known quantity: it's simply implicit, and expectations must necessarily be high.

    Which brings us to Red Cities, Chris' solo debut. Pardon the namechecking above, but we just don't want you to miss out on one of the best instrumental records of the year. It's both organic & deliberate, epic & detailed, part spaghetti western & part road flick- all masterfully delivered to your auditory canals by a truly gifted multi-instrumentalist. Kindred spirits and reference points include Calexico (sans South of the Border vibe), Pinetop Seven & Giant Sand (sans vocals), and even late-period Savage Republic. The mammoth sheets of guitar texture, powerful drumming & intricate elements that provide the foundation for Red Cities are simply a pleasure to hear; these are big, bad-assed desperado noir numbers DONE RIGHT...

    The tastemakers of the esteemed OTHER MUSIC shoppe/mecca have weighed in on Chris' recently released EP on KimChee: "...this 15-minute EP is a brief respite from the sometimes over-thought sounds coming from indie-rock today... A delicious morsel, and a taste of what our beloved Brokaw...