gang of four, american man (demo)
The view from the stage at the New York Irving Plaza Gang of Four show first night, May 2005
Ok, song demo number 3 - American Man is the working title. In case you missed the update I’m posting MP3s of rough (at times very rough like this one!) ‘work-in-progress’ demos of new songs that we, Gang of Four, are currently working on. The full story is linked to here. We are hoping to release four new songs as a digital EP in Spring 08. Another demo of a song called Password can be found here. And a demo of a song called Second Life can be found here. Song number four will be posted later this week.
Gang of Four - American Man (demo) [MP3]
November 26th, 2007 at 8:46 pm
sounding pretty layered for a demo. my fav so far…..
“Go!”
November 27th, 2007 at 8:57 am
The future is falling nicely on my ear.
November 27th, 2007 at 9:33 am
To tell you the truth Dave, I’ve been VERY excited about a Go4 reunion (saw the band live in East Lansing in 1982), but this track isn’t doing it for me. It doesn’t have the distinctive, clipped vocals and sonic discipline of classic Go4.
I like the previous demos better.
On the plus side, I have been so glad you are working on new stuff I went on to iTunes to repurchase Entertainment and Solid Gold (both of which I have on vinyl in storage at the moment). Was able to buy Entertainment, but SG wasn’t in iTunes. Oh well, bought the compilation with Armalite Rifles and Paralyzed (Return of the Gift) instead.
Keep up the demos!
November 27th, 2007 at 10:00 am
@Wendy, yes I agree that American Man, as of today, stretches the parameters of what a G4 song would have sounded like in the past. And yet that was round one day one that we kicked out that track. I think it harks back to songs like Outside the Trains Don’t Run on Time and To Hell With Poverty so I think you will be pleasantly surprised by the final results….fingers crossed..working in Mark on the drum kit is also new to us so who knows where all this will go.
November 27th, 2007 at 10:00 am
@ John, fun times for us for sure..
November 27th, 2007 at 10:05 am
Outside the Trains Don’t Run on Time is one of my absolute favorites actually…and you are right, I guess that one does have less discipline to it, which is one of the reasons I love it. It’s like a teakettle coming to a boil ;-)
November 27th, 2007 at 10:10 am
Please, don’t forget to include Brazil in your 2008 tour. The concert in Sao Paulo (september, 2006) was amazing!
November 27th, 2007 at 10:15 am
Thanks for posting the progress demos. Cool to hear the creative process like this.
November 27th, 2007 at 10:47 am
I just love you guys period. I missed you guys back in the 80’s… but was super super happy too see you twice in 2005 and one being at Coachella!
November 27th, 2007 at 11:22 am
Hi Dave,
GO4 are one of my favorite bands and I’m thrilled to see you live at the secret club show at the Tribeca Hotel in NYC, which I think you’ll agree was something magical. I think even you guys had tears in your eyes as I did after the show. I’m not just saying this, but it was the best show I have ever attended.
I really think the songs have some potential - excellent drumming from Hugo! I just want your bass to be a little louder in the mix. I think that’s the most important element in your sound.
Please promise me you’ll do another secret club show! Please!
November 27th, 2007 at 11:53 am
Great to hear that you are in the process of creating some new material. Having been a real GO4 addict since 1981 I have loved all of the last couple of years reunion stuff and the accompanying cd releases, I await these new tracks like a kid waiting for Christmas!!
I appreciate your feelings about cd’s but being one of the old school i like having something tangible to hand rather than just clicking on links, call me old-fashioned I know!!
Good luck with this and any future GO4 projects.
November 27th, 2007 at 12:12 pm
Great song. Thanks for making it available.
I can’t wait to see you play live!!! Come to DC!! We need you! And if you play any more “secret shows” — I want to know! NYC isn’t that far to drive for the Gang of Four!
Check out the band “Art Brut” when you can — they are like your illegitimate children.
November 27th, 2007 at 12:25 pm
What a gift to get a glimpse at the birth of new material from GO4!
So far it sounds like a great start. I can’t wait for refinement of this song and hopefully we get more demos along the way.
Thanks for keeping us in the mix!
November 27th, 2007 at 12:29 pm
young people, isn’t it?
November 27th, 2007 at 12:30 pm
thanks for the update…look forward to many more years of GO4.
I loved both gigs in Austin last year, especially the private party on the roof top! that was classic!
November 27th, 2007 at 12:30 pm
Hi Dave,
Thanks so much for making these demos available. It is tremendously interesting to be able to follow the process of others’ creation. So far, so good, to my ears.
The band for which I play bass (”Alan Greenspan”) in Eugene, OR is currently reforming after a few years of inactivity and working on new material (one of the very few covers we used to do was “I Found that Essence Rare”). It must be so much harder when you have fans around the world with expectations based upon what you did 20 or more years ago. I have been hoping Go4 would manage to endure that and press ahead anyway.
If you are still in Portland, the bandmates and I all work at the U of O (Philosophy, English, Comp. Lit.) and would love to have you down to Eugene to give a public talk of some kind. We also have a couple of decent venues for the band. Sebadoh came through earlier this year and brought out a good crowd even on a school-night. I hope we will rate a stop on the next pass through the erea.
Best regards.
November 27th, 2007 at 3:13 pm
In 1979 - 81,the Gang of Four ( and The PopGroup ) were my idea of the ultimate in legal entertainment.I’ve got to admit my critical faculties go out the window when discussing or listening to either group - I’m completely fanatical about everything both groups put out on vinyl…..but for me Gang of Four easily and consistently had the edge live.
So,….give me more info,more demos,more tracks,and (especially) more gigs
THANKS
?The mp3 demo ? Of course I loved it
November 27th, 2007 at 4:27 pm
hullo dave i just wanted to say that this track excites me much more than the others you’ve posted. I think it captures the element of Gang of Fourishness that the others lacked…driving bass, pounding drums, and the almost snarling (or smirking) vocal…good stuff. I was not alive to see you back in the day, but have absolutely loved gang of four since i could understand what worthwile music is.
To have the prospect of a tour is quite exciting.
Hope all is well at the recording den.
November 27th, 2007 at 4:30 pm
This new stuff sounds great, still alive just like 1979, dancing to Damaged Goods at Hurrah’s.
keep going forever….
November 27th, 2007 at 4:42 pm
Nice. How freaking great to hear about the new album. Return the Gift is such a fantastic concept. I can’t imagine too many bands being able to recreate such classic stuff with the same sort of intensity.
November 27th, 2007 at 4:45 pm
I hope you visit the American “Heatland” again. I saw you in the Chicago suburbs about 1984. Definitely one of the most creative and skilled bands of the last few decades. I am so glad you are working on new music. I like what I hear.
November 27th, 2007 at 4:58 pm
Pysched for the new Gof4 tunes!!! I was at the Irving Plaza show in photo. Hope to see anothe tour in 2008!!!
November 27th, 2007 at 5:54 pm
AH…kIALA, DO YOU HAVE ANYTHING TO SAY?
November 27th, 2007 at 7:01 pm
Love it! I’ve been stoked for a new album ever since I saw you guys back at the Cat’s Cradle in NC a few years ago. The Return the Gift tracks only made it worse. From what I hear, it’s going to be explosive. Thanks so much for keeping us updated!
November 27th, 2007 at 11:30 pm
Just Lub de new video backstage and de demos! Yo! The MOre dissonance the better.
Ray
November 28th, 2007 at 2:49 am
[...] The great, great postpunk band/ inventor Gang of Four published a new demo. And it sounds good!!! [...]
November 28th, 2007 at 4:49 am
I am the only person I know that cares more about the lyrics then the music. That said it takes excellent music to frame lyrics and Gang Of Four is one of my all time favorite groups at providing both great lyrics and awesome music. Their lyrics are incredible. But, they wrote a song called “Why Theory”, which is just awful. The chorus goes, “How we think changes how we act.”. NO! How we act changes how we think. Thoughts are just unverbalized speech and descriptions, they are not causes. They sometimes go along with behavior. Attributing causal influence to them is superstitious behavior. Anyway I absolutely treasure the first trilogy and love songs like F.M. USA from later days. I will buy anything Gang Of Four does, but it would be great if Gang Of Four could write even better lyrics breaking out of the chain of ignorance that ishackles most lesser bands. Any chance?
November 28th, 2007 at 6:01 am
Hello,
i would just like to point out that Hugo is not playing on these new demos i am. Thankyou.
November 28th, 2007 at 12:33 pm
Is Hugo still in band??? I know he was at Pylon show in NYC. No offense Mark :))
November 28th, 2007 at 2:06 pm
To Scott….perhaps you could start a band and write better lyrics :)
November 28th, 2007 at 3:15 pm
@Scott, your comment makes no sense. It’s a mixture of praise and a put down. I believe you are misunderstanding the use of the word “think” in the lyrics. In the lyrics Andy is using “think” as in someone forming an opinion and then applying that opinion to their daily activities. He then goes on to state that the opinion that the person has formed colors their outlook as he/she goes about their daily activities. In other words, there is no such thing as a ‘natural’ daily activity, what we “think” does change how we act. For instance if one was to believe that Saddam Hussein was truly stockpiling weapons of mass destruction then one’s opinion would be formed and one would be more apt to support invading Iraq, perhaps even join the Army. In other words - changing how they act.
You also slipped up in that you wrote “How we think changes how we act.” That’s not how the lyric goes, it’s “What we think” - see below. So again, opinion formed, as in “what I now think/believe” not spending time thinking and pondering ideas. I also do believe that what we think changes how we act as well as how we act changes how we think. I also believe that Gang of Four broke out of the, quote, “chain of ignorance” long before we recorded a note of music. As Jon wrote…Natural’s not in it..
We’ve all got opinions,
where do they come from?
Each day seems like a natural fact
but what we think changes how we act…
November 28th, 2007 at 7:18 pm
Wasn’t overly thrilled through the first listen, but I understand it is a rough cut and my love of “Entertainment!” will certainly make me stick around. Going back a bit, I was overly thrilled with the new (now semi-new) recordings on “Return the Gift”. Missed “…Essence Rare” though, and must add that “Damaged Goods” was a staple on my 80’s “issues with girls” mix tapes.
November 28th, 2007 at 8:10 pm
Thanks to the band for putting the creative evolution in our ears. Rare insight to rare insight. Motivated by Go4 since ‘79, excited by the new energy, eager for more. Thanks again.
November 28th, 2007 at 10:36 pm
Yo Dave!
Melley Melle here. Howya been man?
Just want to shout out to ya. Diggin the new demo. I need more!!
You guys have been an absolute inspiration - Damaged Goods is where it all started for me
Gang of Four is so relevant to today and absolutely neccessary! Keep on keepin on :)
November 28th, 2007 at 11:17 pm
@scott
hey yo. i’m struggling with your statement that “How we think changes how we act.” is essentially backwards. your main argument is that thoughts are worthless. huh? and then relating that to superstition just confused me more.
i find it equally valid to think and then act and vice versa. one does not seem obviously invalid over the other.
November 29th, 2007 at 6:28 am
It sounds good, Mark - but why isn’t Hugo playing, has he left the band?
November 29th, 2007 at 9:02 am
@stevef Steve I’m deliberately not commenting on Hugo’s situation as I feel he should address it and also this is not the forum for it. Suffice to say that Mark Heaney is drumming for Gang of Four now.
November 29th, 2007 at 3:13 pm
Looking at other ‘Moose threads - there’s something vague from Hugo you re-printed a while ago, with you saying he’d beaten you to an ‘official position’ on it. What is the official position? Is there another forum? If there is, can you direct us to it…does he have a website? If he’s been sacked, shouldn’t you guys announce it and say why? It’s not like he isn’t as much a part of the band as you, time-wise. Sorry - it just seems it’s come up a few times and this is about the only forum there is!
Good demo’s, anyway…
December 1st, 2007 at 9:15 am
Hi Dave,
A convert since the mid-80s for your distinct, unconventional unique way of writing and creating your TM music (Entertainment and Solid Gold album). I’m thrilled and excited to the much awaited Go4 reunion!!!
The raw demo sounds good so far but will highly anticipate the finish product and thanks for making it available to listen to the whole process of it!!!–couldn’t wait to hear for more so good luck..:)
December 24th, 2007 at 8:05 pm
hi guys, looking forward to the rest of this project, have followed your endeavours from the start and was lucky enough to support shriekback at the escape club in brighton some moons ago! we were the jungle and we had the gig of our lives! i remember speaking with dave in mutual appreciation and it would be cool if you check our site myspace.com/toxicshockrockmusic. the tune ‘fire sleeps’ is a revamp from then, some songs just won’t go away! Dylan.