Without enough fanfare Kid Congo Powers put out two albums this week. Maybe it's the fact that his autobiography, Some New Kind of Kick, is coming out soon, but for whatever reason, there needs to be more attention paid to these two releases. Live at St. Kilda is the new live record from Kid Congo Powers and the Near Death Experience, and Summer Forever and Ever is the new one from the band, Wolfmanhattan Project. Let's dive in to that one first.
Wolfmanhattan Project, Kid Congo's trio with Mick Collins (The Gories) and Bob Bert (Pussy Galore, Sonic Youth), make music that straddles a few genres. Their new record is out on In The Red Recods now and it's a scorcher. Opening with the wonderfully-titled "Like Andrea True", this one quickly settles into a blistering tempo. "Countdown Love" burns across the sands, while "Summer Forever" works up a decent racket too. "Respectable Pigs" is more complex, a distant cousin of "Death Valley '69"-era Sonic Youth in terms of sound and attitude. Elsewhere, "Hypnotize Too" veers into something that's part acid rock and part fusion, even as the closer "Shaman's Blues" is free jazz and freak-out rock. The production of Summer Forever and Ever by Mark C. of Live Skull deserves a mention too as this one has a set of varied textures. Fans of any of the bands that these three players have been a part of should love this new album from Wolfmanhattan Project.
Live at St. Kilda finds Kid Congo Powers using a different band than his usual Pink Monkey Birds in this concert. The tunes here are raucous and loose. A cover of "Sophisticated Boom Boom" by The Shangri-Las rubs shoulders with "I Found a Peanut" by Thee Midniters. The vibe is dangerous, but fun, and things reach a kind of peak on "New Kind of Kick", a cover of the gem from The Cramps. A stab at "Diamonds, Fur Coat, Champagne" finds The Near Death Experience disassemble the Suicide classic into something else entirely, though a riotous run at Kid Congo's own Gun Club "hit" "Sex Beat" feels both familiar and wonderfully fresh. The whole Live at St. Kilda set rewards new fans of Kid Congo Powers, as well as those who've joined here from his days in The Gun Club, The Cramps, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, or his own projects.
Summer Forever and Ever by Wolfmanhattan Project and Live at St. Kilda by Kid Congo Powers and the Near Death Experience are both out now via In The Red Recods.
[Photo of Wolfmanhattan Project by Ebru Yildiz]