Music News

The Golden Palominos Reunite After More Than two Decades

New York, NY – After more than two decades, The Golden Palominos are reuniting to perform live at Le Poisson Rouge in New York City on Friday May 7th.  The show will feature the “Syd Straw era” Palominos, which spanned the years 1985-1987, during which time the band recorded the albums Visions of Excess and Blast of Silence.

The Golden Palominos, from Anton Fier:

“In the words of the late Michael Bloomfield….this is the thing of this gig:

There were five different versions of The Golden Palominos.  This gig represents version two which spanned the years 1985-1987…with a bit of cross-over into 1988.
Most people remember this version and these years as the Syd Straw era.  This version made two records, Visions of Excess, and Blast of Silence.  This was also the only version of the Golden Palominos that attempted to be a live, touring rock band…this is where we cut to the present…I am generally not the nostalgic type or one to look back…and in the past 23 years since the last Golden Palominos live gig I have never before considered reviving a past version, but recently I heard Syd sing and I was struck by the beauty of it… and wanted to work with her again….so we’re giving this a try here and if it’s fun and exciting for us we might consider doing it again on a more full time basis in the fall…so this is an experiment…to see if it is possible to go back in order to go forward…”

The line-up for this gig will be:
Syd Straw – Vocals
Jody Harris – Guitar
Jim Campilongo – Guitar
Tony Maimone – Bass
Anton Fier – Drums
with special guest Robert Kidney – Vocals and Guitar

The Golden Palominos are the brainchild of New York drummer/producer Anton Fier. Never an ordinary band, the Palominos were a loose collective of musicians who made eight albums between 1982 and 1996.  Collaborators have included Arto Lindsay, John Zorn, Fred Frith, Michael Stipe, John Lydon, Syd Straw, Richard Thompson, Peter Blegvad, Carla Bley, Jack Bruce, Bernie Worrell, Lori Carson, Bootsy Collins, and Nicole Blackman and many others alongside the more permanent fixtures of Bill Laswell and Nicky Skopelitis.
 
They will join local literary rockers The Wingdale Community Singers, with author Rick Moody on guitar and vocals, as well as The Walking Hellos, featuring Myla Goldberg (best-selling author of Bee Season) on banjo and accordion, who will debut their new CD.

The event is presented by indie publisher Electric Literature to celebrate the release of their newest anthology.  Electric Literature has received widespread attention for its mission to use new media, cross-genre collaborations, and innovative distribution to keep literature a vital part of popular culture. www.electricliterature.com

 

BIOS:

 

Syd Straw
Raised in California and Vermont, schooled in New York, Syd Straw started her career as a back-up singer for Pat Benatar, then joined the eclectic Golden Palominos.  In 1989, she released her first solo album Surprise on Virgin records, and in 1996 she released War and Peace, featuring The Skeletons from Springfield, Missouri who were deemed by Rolling Stone as “the greatest bar band of all time.”  Her latest release, Pink Velour, is available now from CDBaby.com.
 
Jim Campilongo
Jim Campilongo is a world renowned guitar instrumentalist with nine critically acclaimed CD’s.  Billboard Magazine calls Campilongo, “… an American treasure….”  He has also enjoyed lead guitar duties with Martha Wainwright and The Little Willies, his band with Norah Jones.  Campilongo released Orange in February 2010 which was produced by Anton Fier. Their collaboration has been Campilongo’s most critically acclaimed release to date.

Jody Harris
>From 1978-1987 Jody Harris was a guitarist and songwriter for the Contortions, Raybeats and Golden Palominos.  He is currently a member of Radio Free Song Club, a songwriters’ web collective.

Tony Maimone
Tony Maimone is a bassist who has played with the Golden Palominos, Frank Black, Pere Ubu, the Bob Mould band, the Mekons, as well as Robert Kidney, Laura Brenneman, They Might Be Giants and Jon Langford.  Tony has been producing and recording records at Studio G Brooklyn since 1995.  His first gig was with Anton Fier and Peter Laughner in Friction in 1976.

Anton Fier
Anton Fier is a legendary New York drummer/producer best known as the creator and destroyer of the Golden Palominos.

Robert Kidney
Founder of the legendary 15-60-75, The Numbers Band in Kent, Ohio, in 1970.  A composer and lyricist, he has contributed six songs to the Golden Palominos repertoire. Robert also toured with the band in 1987.  More information can be found at www.numbersband.com.

Tickets available here: http://lepoissonrouge.inticketing.com/events/85789

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