NEW YORK NIGHT TRAIN RECORDINGS: KID CONGO POWERS, SOLO CHOLO

WEB ONLY RELEASE SPECIAL!!! Get both Kid Congo Powers' Solo Cholo and Kid Congo and the Pink Monkey Birds' Philosophy and Underwear together for only $20 - shipping is included! buy now

NYNT 003
Kid Congo and the Pink Monkey Birds

Philosophy and Underwear CD
price: $12
official release: August 1, 2006
buy now

"Starting his recording career at the dawn of the 80's, Kid Congo Powers sidestepped the prevailing shallowness of that decade to appear on some of the finest records of that era- The Cramps "Psychedelic Jungle" and "The Smell of Female", Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds "Tender Prey" "The Good Son" and Barry Adamson's "Moss Side Story" to name a few. This latest addition to his discography easlily lives up to that pedigree. Songs such as "The Last Word" with superbly discordant guitars and anguished vocals, call to mind the first Voidoids album, whilst JOHNNY could be Blitzkreig Bop put thru a blender and sung down a telephone. Most of the lyrics on these songs wouldn't have disgraced even the most laconic of Warhol's Factory hands "It's the weather, it's the war/ I'm confused, I'm a whore."

MOJO, February 2007 (4 stars)

After twenty-five years in the music business, Kid Congo Powers has finally decided to release his first LP as a singer, songwriter, and bandleader. Kid Congo and the Pink Monkey Birds, who have informally existed on and off in different incarnations since 2001, included New York heroes Jack Martin, Jerome O’Brien, Josh Belknap, and Jorge Velez at the time of this recording. Sean Maffucci (of Icewater Scandal, and current Pink Monkey Bird, and the man behind the board for Gang Gang Dance and others at The Social Registry's Junkyard Studios.), turned the knobs. Kid and Jack cut a guitar team to be reckoned with (Jack being no slouch himself – you may know him Honeymoon Killers, Little Porkchop, Knoxville Girls, Cause for Applause, Dimestore Dance Ensemble, etc.). Belknap and O'Brien lay it down a groove that is both solid and sleazy at the same time. And Velez's warehouse of sound effects are varied and dynamic. In terms of guests, Captain Comatose, techno musicians Khan and Snax, do the backing vocals on "The History of French Cuisine" and legendary punk diva Little Annie (Crass, Coil, Wolfgang Press, etc.) duets with Kid on "The Weather The War." Finally, the cover features the sexy chest of David Lloyd of The Boggs and Cause for Applause.

Philosophy and Underwear is a unique fusion of elements - garagy punk, glam, dirty soul, experimental noise, dark balladry, and even abrasive mechanical electro – all filtered through The Pink Monkey Bird’s unique post-no wave aesthetic. This grab-bag of songs from Kid’s past and present show the guitarist emerging as a mature singer and songwriter. Concentrating mostly on the themes that deal with good lovin' gone bad, cheap thrills, perversions, and how to make sense of it all, his city of night tackles both the heart of a Saturday night and Sunday morning – and I do mean this as a John Rechy, Tom Waits, and Velvet Underground allusion. Kid's grotesques: drag queens, leather men, and hustlers - turn tricks in 1950s Times Square, explore bondage in contemporary rent-controlled Tompkins Square apartments, and even engage in sexual cannibalism.