Saturday, February 14, 2009

Comic Book Opera - s/t LP


I think it was Rainy Day Sponge who requested this one a while ago.
The Comic Book Opera LP is one of the releases on the Insight label, run by Eric Cope of Glorious Din. It's also quite different from the other releases. Most of these like the Glorious Din albums and the Spahn Ranch LP, have a bit of a darker, gloomy atmosphere. Comic Book Opera are an instrumental band with an experimental and jazzy edge. Some pieces also have an Eastern feel. Not something I usual listen to but it's a nice listen in fact. Sometimes it gets a bit too 'free jazz', especially with the saxophone.
I think Connie (saxophones, funeral horn) and Jesse Walkershaw (bass) are the core members of the band. Other members play drums, keyboards, guitar, cheesy organ and tabla.

For other Insight releases:
Glorious Din - Closely Watched Trains
Glorious Din - Leading Stolen Horses
Spahn Ranch - Thickly Settled
V/A To Sell Kerosene Door To Door

Comic Book Opera LP (Insight/The Laryngitis Label-L-30480-1988)
1. James Bond In Moscow
2. Taksim From Hell
3. No Pity
4. Uptown Cowboy
5. Wobble
6. Keep Myself
7. Death March Of The Homely Ants
8. Flat Cigarette
9. Children Of The Night
10. Dragon

Comic Book Opera

13 comments:

Marcel Feldmar said...

interesting... definitely needs more than a couple of listens. also - enjoying the indian feast ! thanx! for some reason it brings to mind YFC, though i can't really understand why.

Curious Guy said...

Yeah I totally agree that it needs a couple of listens. Btw, made a link to your blog.

Rainy Day Sponge said...

Thanks Curious Guy! This is indeed totally different than the rest of Insight releases. In fact it reminds me of late 70s Soft Machine (as in Alive and Well) or Gong (as in Expresso II) - I'm mentioning these certain records, because both groups have a long history and various styles.
CBO later became Go Van Gogh and they're continuing their eastern/balkan explorations in a somewhat more rockin' style.

RickK said...

has anyone else had problems downloading this? it's like a constant loop, and I never get the DL window. I'd love to hear it

Curious Guy said...

Hello RickK, please try again. It should work fine.

M— said...

Top post, mate... the one major Insight release I was after. Definitely prefer Spahn Ranch, but well worth a listen.

Stefan M— / friendsound.wordpress.com

Anonymous said...

I haven't been able to download it, either-- I keep getting an error message. I'm curious to hear it, so I'll keep trying.

Unknown said...

Me too. The link is giving me a "page load error" message.

Curious Guy said...

I'll re-up ASAP!

Droid Sektor said...

Hey Curious Guy seems to be a problem even with your re-up... after the mediafire page appears and u click download, simply appears similar to an offline page, hence impossible to listen to another hairpins gem.

Curious Guy said...

Damn!! I'll re-up again.

Droid Sektor said...

much thankful. You know, forget about Obama and the rest. its people like you (and thee ladies of course) that make life morte worth living. cherio ol chap. my brain says thanks

Bobo Bubalisky said...

CG
What a delightful surprise. I haven't put this LP on my turntable in years. Eric Cope was (and I assume is) a great guy. He encouraged us to go ahead and press up Comic Book Opera, rather than wait for someone in the industry to come in and do it. He was very DIY, so we co-released it on Insight, and our own Laryngitis Label.
As I never had transferred this off the original master (On VHS digital Tape. Remember it was the 80's) I now have this album on my mac. So thanks.
And Rainy Day Sponge is correct The Walkershaws are still at it as Go Van Gogh http://www.govangogh.net.