Chris Knox benefit album

[Eponymous]

There was a bit of discussion of this on the Verlaine, Verlaine, Verlaine thread elsewhere in the forum but I thought I'd start a new thread for this to make it easier to locate it in case folks here are interested.

The Chris Knox benefit CD is out on Monday - a remarkable double compilation with about two and a half hours of Knox songs from Tall Dwarfs days up to recent times. In fact there are two appearances by Chris right at the end in brave recent musical rehab mode with The Nothing (using his inability to speak properly to devastating - and hilarious - effect) and as Tall Dwarfs with Alec Bathgate.

There's a website for it here: http://www.chrisknox.co.nz/

An incomplete list of contributors (the ones that folks round these parts may recognise anyway) includes:
Mountain Goats - Brave
Jay Reatard - Pull Down the Shades
Stephin Merritt - Beauty
Pumice - Grand Mal
Bill Callahan - Lapse
Yo La Tengo - Coloured
AC Newman - Dunno Much About Life but do Know how to Breathe
Lambchop - What Goes Up
Will Oldham - My Only Friend
The Verlaines - Driftwood
Lou Barlow - The Tall Poppy

That's just a fraction of the 35 tracks on the double CD.

Also a Chris Knox video feature here: http://www.nzonscreen.com/collection/chrisknox

[merrittfan]

Yep, I just preordered mine and am pretty excited about hearing most of the songs.  Knox is amongst my favorite musicians, and a lot of my favorite musicians appear on this comp, so it should be exciting, to say the least.

Also, there's a remarkable website/blog located at http://www.chrisknox.co.nz, for those interested.  One-minute-long clips of each song from the record are available.

[Andrew_TSKS]

Now, "inability to speak properly"--is he aphasic? Because I've heard that stroke victims don't often recover from that.

[Eponymous]

I don't know - if you read the blog on his website you'll see his recovery described in posts there, but no-one is providing a medical prognosis.  But it looks like music is part of his rehab. On the evidence of the two tracks that end the album he can certainly sing and hold a tune - it just seems from the Nothings track on the album that he can't form recognisable words yet. Chris being Chris has turned this disability into a way of expressing his present state of being and has created his own language for communicating either frustration or joy or both.

In the circumstances it could be disturbing and upsetting but I can just imagine Chris enjoying confronting people and playfully challenging them to accept his current state which is why I think the track is is intended to be both funny and thought-provoking. Just because he's had a stroke doesn't mean he's suddenly going to start to play it safe with his music seems to be the message.

[sashwap]

what's a good starting place for this guy's body of work?

[Good Intentions]

Crikey, there's so much of it... I got into it with the reissue of his first album, the Toy Love disc Cuts. It comes on 2 CDs, with the original 1980 album on the first disc, which I've listened to once, and what is basically the version they intended to record on the second, which I play over and over. The re-issue was recent, so copies are all around (it's dirt-cheap in New Zealand, but apparently not in the US). But the combined output of The Tall Dwarfs and the stuff he did under his own name is so huge, you probably have a decent chance of finding some of that second hand somewhere.

[Andrew_TSKS]

I'm a big fan of his solo album "Croaker" and the Tall Dwarfs album "Weeville," but I've explored relatively little of his oeuvre, so there could conceivably be albums by him that I'd like a lot better.

[elpollodiablo]

Yeah I've only ever really heard Weeville. Loved it, though!

[davy]

Crikey, there's so much of it... I got into it with the reissue of his first album, the Toy Love disc Cuts.

Wasn't the first Flying Nun single by Toy Love?

[Good Intentions]

Actually, it was a The Pin Group 7". Which is ok, but nothing special.

It seems that the Toy Love album was originally released on Warner (well, WEA). Imagine that.

[Eponymous]

Toy Love were not on Flying Nun at all. They pre-dated that. Knox and his TEAC 4-track were there at the start of Flying Nun Records. Even the first Tall Dwarfs EP was on another label (Furtive) although later ones were on FN.

Best place to start?  Sounds bizarre, but the Stroke benefit album is actually a pretty good career retrospective, just performed (mostly) by other people.  It is set out in chronological order over two discs with reference back to the albums/ EPs the songs were originally on.

For oddball punky New Wave start with the Toy Love anthology (which was a Flying Nun release about 3-4 years ago), for bedroom lo-fi weirdness the early Tall Dwarfs or Knox solo stuff is best (Cleaning Guppies is an acquired taste), and for more fully-realised lo-fi pop weirdness the mid/ late period Tall Dwarfs/ solo stuff. OK I know that isn't much help...

Maybe look at the videos on that link to the video collection in the first post, find stuff you like then find out the album or EP it was on. Then spend the next 5 years of your life trying to find a copy...

[merrittfan]

My favorite Knox record is probably "Songs of Me & You," for the record.  I also enjoy the Toy Love disc a lot, and "Canned Music," and almost everything he's ever done ever.

[Eponymous]

Good blog posting on the Chris Knox benefit album here: http://publicaddress.net/6304#post6304

Contains information on the extent to which the stroke has affected him and also the new stuff he has recorded for the album.

[narlus]

Actually, it was a The Pin Group 7". Which is ok, but nothing special.

It seems that the Toy Love album was originally released on Warner (well, WEA). Imagine that.

i love the pin group 7". 


the reissue of the Toy Love record is a good one...i tihnk they put out everything the band ever did.  much cheaper than tracking down the vinyl like i did (well, i didn't get all the singles)

[mixed cats]

a) this comp sounds amazing, despite me knowing very little about Knox. I want it.
b) I work for a company that makes a medical device that is 98% for speech therapy/functional communication assistance during stroke recovery (specifically for aphasia, which I can't say he has, and from reading the blog posts about him, he may be a really high level or not have it at all, butI am not at all qualified to make any assessment whatsoever because I work in the production dept)
c) This is an article our research scientist dude wrote last year about music & aphasia rehab which is sort of interesting contextually

Anyway, want.

[Snarfyguy]

In the circumstances it could be disturbing and upsetting but I can just imagine Chris enjoying confronting people and playfully challenging them to accept his current state...

Good point, well made.

[Eponymous]

I think you will see what I mean here in this video of an interview with Chris from an NZ current affairs TV show last night: http://www.3news.co.nz/Musicians-around-the-world-honour-Chris-Knox/tabid/418/articleID/130054/cat/84/Default.aspx

Always the performer...

[Andrew_TSKS]

I find it fascinating that his response to this seems to be to make constant jokes. I'd probably sit around scowling all the time. His way is better.

[Eponymous]

Here's a link to a short video of a tv news feature on the "Stroke" album launch gig in Auckland last night: http://www.3news.co.nz/Chris-Knox-tribute-album-launched-tonight/tabid/368/articleID/130601/cat/298/Default.aspx