[Discografia] Jon Langford

[exy]

Richard Buckner & Jon Langford - Sir Dark Invader vs The Fanglord (2005)

mp3 256kpbs | 59MB | 30:43 min.

Recorded at Sally Timms' apartment, Chicago late summer 2002 and mixed with Ken Sluiter at Western Sound Lab except track 9 recorded in Brooklyn, NY and mixed by John Marshall Smith.
All instruments Buckner/Langford with John Rice - mandolin and guitar and digital Willy Goulding on some drum kit. -- www.jonlangford.de

We’ve waxed lyrical about Richard at some considerable length on this site before now, so suffice to say the man made two of the most important songs albums of the nineties, end of story. Or not. Since then a series of releases have appeared on his new adoptive home, french Fargo, interspersed with sporadic and inspirational live appearances. Here, an unexpected collaboration with ex-Mekon Jon Langford, conducted three years ago in Sally Timms’ apartment in Chicago yields three new compositions from each, and three co-written tunes. From “Rolling of the eyes” a devilled slide riff shows this to be a true and surprising meeting of minds. The duo play most of the instruments themselves, Langford seems to foster Buckners’ willingness to really cut loose, which has been sensed for a few albums now, but seldom so well executed. It’s a breezy half hour nine tune excursion, Buckner’s demented take on appalachian moan applied to some of the most original phrasing we’ve heard never fails to scare me. “Sweet anybody” is a prime example, and regardless of my somewhat ambivalent feelings towards Langford bless him, anything new from Richard is positively obligatory in our book. -- Boomkat

1. Rolling Of The Eyes (Buckner/Langford)
2. Nothing To Show (Langford)
3. Sweet Anybody (Buckner)
4. From Attic to Basement (Langford)
5. Torn Apart (Langford)
6. Stayed (Buckner)
7. The Inca Princess (Buckner/Langford/Rice/Odom)
8. No Tears Tonight (Buckner/Langford)
9. Do You Wanna Go Somewhere? (Buckner)

http://rapidshare.com/files/302656951/Richard_Buckner___Jon_Langford_Sir_Dark_Invader_vs_The_Fanglord.zip

[exy]

Yet another project providing an outlet for the talents of eternally busy artist and musician Jon Langford (best known for his work with the Mekons and the Waco Brothers), the Pine Valley Cosmonauts were conceived by Langford as a vehicle for performing music written by others, with a membership that grows and shifts with the needs of each project, often featuring the cream of the Chicago alt-country and indie rock community. -- AMG

Jonboy Langford & the Pine Valley Cosmonauts - The Executioner's Last Songs (2002)

mp3 256kpbs | 118MB | 63:44 min.

It's a great idea, an album to benefit the Illinois Death Penalty Moratorium Project, and who better to execute it (pun intended) than the linchpin of the Chicago alt-country movement, Mekons and Waco Brother member Jon Langford? He's reassembled the occasional Pine Valley Cosmonauts to back a bunch of artists on tales of death, murder, and execution. There's everything from the traditional and gruesome ("Knoxville Girl" from Brett Sparks and a very powerful, gritty "Tom Dooley" by Steve Earle, as graphic as any gangsta rap) to straight-up country (Johnny Paycheck's "Pardon Me (I've Got Someone to Kill)," which these days stands almost as a parody of a country song, albeit a chilling one), all the way to standards (post-punk feminist icon Jenny Toomey on a lovely acoustic rendition of Cole Porter's "Miss Otis Regrets"), punk (the Adverts' "Gary Gilmore's Eyes" interpreted by Dean Schlabowske), and originals (Johnny Dowd's "Judgement Day," among others). It's an odd assemblage, but it hangs together very well, not just because of the thematic content, but also the intensity of the performances, like Edith Frost's luminous "Sing Me Back Home" or Dianne Izzo's raw take on "Oh Death." Apart from contributing guitar and some vocals throughout, Langford does get a couple of moments in the spotlight, duetting on the Dowd cut, then on "The Plans We Made," a tale of love gone awfully wrong that he sings with fellow Mekon Sally Timms. There's no bad cut here, although Tony Fitzpatrick's "Idiot Whistle" proselytizes a little too much, and "The Hangman's Song" from Christa Meyer and Tim Kelley of Puerto Muerto is just plain weird. But this album makes its points in very plain, blunt terms, and offers some excellent music along the way. If you still don't think music and politics can mix, start here. -- AMG

1. Knoxville Girl - Brett Sparks
2. I'll Never Get Out of This World Alive - Rosie Flores
3. Gary Gilmore's Eyes - Dean Schlabowske (with Sally Timms, Kelly Hogan, and Tracey Dear)
4. The Snakes Crawl at Night - Janet Bean
5. Tom Dooley - Steve Earle
6. The Hangman's Song - Puerto Muerto
7. Pardon Me (I've Got Someone to Kill) - Lonesome Bob
8. Poor Ellen Smith - Neko Case
9. Miss Otis Regrets - Jenny Toomey
10. Judgement Day - Johnny Dowd and Jon Langford
11. Great State of Texas - Chris Ligon
12. Sing Me Back Home - Edith Frost
13. Oh Death - Diane Izzo
14. Hanged Man - Rick Cookin' Sherry
15. The Plans We Made - Jom Langford and Sally Timms
16. 25 Minutes to Go - Frankie & Johnny Navin
17. Idiot Whistle - Tony Fitzpatrick
18. Walls of Time - Paul Burch

http://rapidshare.com/files/264397241/The_Executioner_s_last_Songs_Vol.1._pt.1.zip
http://rapidshare.com/files/264400396/The_Executioner_s_last_Songs_Vol.1_Pt.2.zip

Jonboy Langford & the Pine Valley Cosmonauts - The Executioner's Last Songs Vol. 2 & 3 (2003)

mp3 256kpbs | 165MB | 90:31 min.

Jon Langford and the Pine Valley Cosmonauts' second collection of songs about murder, death, and dying — recorded to benefit the Illinois Coalition Against the Death Penalty and the National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty — certainly ups the ante of ambition and diversity over The Executioner's Last Songs, and while Vol. 2 & 3 lacks some of the purity and concision of the first disc, the consistent quality of the performances certainly compensates. Where for the most part The Executioner's Last Songs sounded like the work of a single band with a number of different singers taking their turns at the mike, on the follow-up Langford, Steven Goulding, Tom Ray, Celine, and the various guest Cosmonauts on deck bend more to the style of their guests, which given the artists on board was perhaps inevitable. Mark Eitzel, Kevin Coyne, Kurt Wagner, and David Yow, to name but four of the artists teaming up with the PVC here, are simply the sort of performers who can't help but sound like themselves, and with more original songs and contemporary compositions on display, this two-CD set suggests less of a ramble through the morbid tributaries of Anglo-American traditional music than some sort of death-obsessed folk and pop festival, where the Grim Reaper is met with good cheer (Rhett Miller's "Dang Me"), snide wit (Pat Brennan's "Death Where Is Thy Sting"), fatalistic nostalgia (Dave Alvin's "Green Green Grass of Home"), or resigned regret (Otis Clay's "Banks of the Ohio"). All 27 tracks are worth hearing, and regardless of your stand on the death penalty, The Executioner's Last Songs, Vol. 2 & 3 boasts far too much good music from too many worthy artists for anyone with even a passing interest in roots music to pass up. -- AMG

1. Gallows Pole - Tim Rutili
2. Louis Collins - Dave Alvin
3. The Fall of Troy - Kurt Wagner
4. Banks of the Ohio - Otis Clay
5. Homicide - Skid Marks with Sally Timms
6. Green Green Grass of Home - Kelly Hogan
7. Death Row - Rico Bell
8. Gulag Blues - Lu Edmunds
9. Horses - Chris Mills
10. Strange Fruit - Diane Izzo
11. One Dyin' & A Buryin' (live) - David Yow
12. Delilah - Jon Langford
13. Willie O'Winsbury - Charlotte Grieg
14. Bad News - Alejandro Escovedo & Jon Langford with Dave Alvin
15. The Ballad of Billy Joe - Rebecca Gates
16. Dang Me - Rhett Miller
17. Forever To Burn - Rex Hobart
18. Death Is Where Thy Sting - Pat Brennan
19. Long Black Veil - Sally Timms & Edith Frost
20. God's Eternal Love - Mark Eitzel
21. Hangin' Me Tonight - Gurf Morlix
22. John Hardy - Meat Purveyors
23. Pardon This Coffin - Jon Rauhouse
24. Saviour - Kevin Coyne
25. Green Green Grass Of Home - Dave Alvin
26. Angel Of Death - Tom Greenhalgh
27. Tom Dooley (live) - The Sundowners

http://rapidshare.com/files/264399233/THE_EXECUTIONER_S_LAST_SONGS_VOL.2.zip
http://rapidshare.com/files/264399364/THE_EXECUTIONER_S_LAST_SONGS_VOL.3.zip

[exy]

Sally Timms & Jon Langford - Songs of False Hope and High Values (2002)

1. Horses
2. Watching The Horizon
3. Anything Can Happen
4. Blue Eyes Crying In The Rain
5. I Picked Up The Pieces
6. Dark Sun
7. Down From Dover
8. Joshua Gone Barbados
9. Blessings
10. Hank signs his contract
11. Randwick bells
12. Blow the man down

http://rapidshare.com/files/198504641/db1103-SallyJonFixed.rar

[exy]

Waco Brothers - Cowboy In Flames (1997)

mp3 256kpbs | 91MB | 49:47 min.

On To the Last Dead Cowboy, the Waco Brothers sounded like one of Jon Langford's better side projects; on Cowboy in Flames, they sounded like a real band, and a damn good one at that, and that made all the difference in the world. A year and a half of gigging around the Midwest had given substance to the Wacos claim of being "the World's Tuffest Country Band," while the full-time addition of Mark Durante on steel guitar reinforced the twang in their tone as Langford and Dean Schlabowske kicked up the wattage on their guitars. The working-class rage that bubbled under the surface of the first album came to a full boil on Cowboy in Flame, and that passion fueled the sweaty, urgent rage of the best cuts, especially "See Willy Fly By," "Take Me to the Fires," and the title cut. At the same time, the band proved the could slow things down and still make their music connect, as "Dollar Dress" and "Dry Land" eloquently testify. The inspired covers (supercharged arrangements of "White Lightning" and "Wreck on the Highway") make clear the band's nitro-fueled take on classic country comes from a place of love and respect, and the final cut, "Death of Country Music." speaks volumes about what's wrong with the current state of mainstream C&W (and, by extension, American culture). Some wag once described the Waco Brothers as "half Cash, half Clash, and, on Cowboy in Flames, they sound strong enough to make good on both halves of that equation. A triumph, and one of the finest albums to emerge from the Chicago alt-country scene. -- AMG

# See Willy Fly By
# Waco Express
# Take Me to the Fires
# Out There A Ways
# Dollar Dress
# Out in the Light
# Cowboy in Flames
# Fast Train Down
# Wreck on the Highway
# Dry Land
# Do What I Say
# White Lightning
# Big River
# The Death of Country Music

http://rapidshare.com/files/307777432/Waco_Brothers_-_Cowboy_In_Flames.zip