ARTiST: The Zincs
TiTLE: Black Pompadour
LABEL: Thrill Jockey
GENRE: Rock
TiME: 42:57 min
SiZE: 57,1 MB
BiTRATE: VBRkbps
RiP DATE: Mar-12-2007
RELEASE DATE: Mar-19-2007
WEBSiTE: n/a
Track List:
01. Head East, Kaspar 04:04
02. Coward's Corral 03:00
03. Hamstrung And Juvenile 04:12
04. Rice Scars 02:47
05. The Mogul's Wives 06:34
06. Finished In This Business 03:14
07. Burdensome Son 03:48
08. Lost Solid Colours 04:53
09. Dave The Slave 05:08
10. Rich Libertines 05:17
Release Notes:
In 2005, The Zincs released a second album, Dimmer,
and proceeded to tour the country for the first
time. A steady regimen of ten-hour desert drives and
poor domestic lager will change a band, and The
Zincs found an edge creeping into their music that
hadnÆt been there before. The creeping edge was
still with them on their return home to Chicago and
plans were made to record an album that reflected
the change. As the acoustic and spare sound of
Dimmer began to evaporate, the electric shine of the
groupÆs dormant influences began to come through,
from the Postcard and Rough Trade bands of 1980Æs
Britain to the minimal, organ-driven drones of
1960Æs New York. All of this contributed to the
album you see before you, Black Pompadour.
Named partly after the haircut that English
singer/songwriter James Elkington aspired to
construct for himself during his teenage years,
Black Pompadour was recorded and mixed by John
McEntire at Soma E.M.S. with additional recording
being handled by Mark Greenberg at Mayfair Studios.
All instruments were played by The Zincs: Nathaniel
Braddock on guitar and unprepared piano, Nick Macri
on bass and saxophone octet, Jason Toth on drums and
James Elkington singing, writing the songs and
making most of the other noises. Edith Frost sang on
three of the songs; ôHamstrung and Juvenileö, ôRice
Scarsö and ôLost Solid Coloursö. This last song was
a duet that Edith had performed with The Zincs
during their spring tour together in 2006.
Lyrically, Black Pompadour is a mix of veiled self-
truths and non-sequiturs. The writing reflects the
semantic styles of Flann OÆBrien or Dylan Thomas
augmented with the heightened unreality that comes
with sitting in the back of a van on a six week tour
eating dry sandwiches. ElkingtonÆs dark sense of
humor is dolled with Victorian restraint over a wide
range of topics, from why it should be that the
public are so willing to take advice from
entertainers in ôLost Solid Coloursö to the plight
of the single person in ôHamstrung and Juvenileö:
ôNow you know that once your copulations fail,
youÆre only half of that creature with two spines,
and every new acquaintance that you add will say
æyou get thee gone, part-beast, you bear the signs,Æ
but which half are you now?ö
The Zincs have succeeded in marrying their classic
song-forms with a brighter electric sound to make a
vital album for the times. What makes them such a
singular band is how they weave such dark prose into
their beautiful melodies, a reward that the casual
listener could miss on first hearing. From the
electric chimes of ôCowardÆs Corralö to the pulsing
synthesizers of ôRice Scarsö, Black Pompadour dashes
expectations like a bullet through a fish-bowl and
represents that rare thing amongst groups, a genuine
progression.