Thursday, November 13, 2008

FRIDAY NIGHT PARTY IN DC!


Doing a SOLO show,party show in DC tonight! Friday. Am happy to be the warm up act for the sexy Louisiana hot saucey QUINTRON.
Here's something nice in Brightest Young Things blog.
$10, 10pm
Event​ Info
Host:​​​​​​
Civil​ian Art Proje​cts
Time and Place​
Start​ Time:​​​​​​
Frida​y,​​​​​​ Novem​ber 14, 2008 at 10:​​​​​​00pm
End Time:​​​​​​
Satur​day,​​​​​​ Novem​ber 15, 2008 at 2:​​​​​​00am
Locat​ion:​​​​​​
Civil​ian Art Proje​cts
Stree​t:​​​​​​
406 7th Stree​t NW, Third​ Floor​
City/​​​​​​Town:​​​​​​
Washi​ngton​,​​​​​​ DC

Wednesday, November 05, 2008

AMAZING !


It was amazing to be in Washington DC last night when Obama was pronounced the new President. Me and Ryan were taking a break from the tension of the vote count reports and popped in a DVD of "Witness For The Prosecution" and got lost in that great film when at about 11pm we heard an uproarious collective scream of joy from the streets and we KNEW Barack Obama had won the election. It didn't stop till well into the morning. Today is glorious here. Thank God.

Sunday, September 14, 2008

Opening for Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds in DC and Philly



Hello. Am glad to tell you that Kid Congo and The Pink Monkey Birds (KID: Guitar, KIKI SOLIS:bass,RON MILLER:drums, with Guest Arthur Noll on Organ and KAOS Pad) will be doing the support slots for Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds in Washington DC at 9:30 Club on October 6 and in Philadelphia at Electric Factory on Oct. 7. Details below
We will be playing several new songs from our forthcoming album on INTHERED records, titled DRACULA BOOTS, to be released early in 2009. You heard it here first!
October, 6 2008 at 9:30 Club
815 V St. NW, Washington DC 20001
Cost : $40.
Doors 7:00pm Kid Congo and The Pink Monkey Birds at 8:00 promptly................................
October, 7 2008 at Electric Factory
421 N. 7th St., Philadelphia, 19123
Cost : $40.
Kid Congo and The Pink Monkey Birds onstage at 8pm promptly
pic of us recording at The Harveyville Project is by Jason Ward

Friday, August 15, 2008

Feeling Local

Here are a few local DC blog things about recent shows past and to come...DC Rocks On,
http://rockondc.blogspot.com/2008/08/word-play.html
The New Gay, http://www.thenewgay.net/2008/07/golden-powers.html

Again, Show is tomorrow. The band (Me, Arthur and Andrew) are excited to be exciting.
Fort Reno was fun last night, the last night of the concert season. The artwork for the new album is almost done. Hurrah.

Tuesday, August 12, 2008

KID CONGO ? WITCH HATS? ELECTRICUTIONS? AUG. 16 in DC!


FROM AUSTRALIA AND PARTS UNKNOWN. VELVET LOUNGE
Saturday August, 16 2008 at Velvet Lounge
915 U Street, Washington , Washington DC
Cost : $10
Hi Friends.
Kid Congo Powers and Band ( ARTHUR NOLL on bass and Andrew Black on drums ) . Kid highly recommends VERY SPECIAL GUESTS The Witch Hats ( amazing young band from Australia, first album produced by Phil Calvert of The Birthday Party , check out http://www.myspace.com/witchhats ), Electricutions (DC http://www.myspace.com/electricutionsdc) , Six Gun Lullaby ( Nashville) http://www.myspace.com/roboticconcubine . . . . . THE VELVET LOUNGE 915 U Street , Washington , DC. . . . Call club for showtimes ( 202) 462- 3213 Shows are 21+ unless noted www.velvetloungedc.com/
This shall be very fun. SEE YOU THERE!
That's a pic of WITCH HATS playing around with their stuff!

Sunday, July 27, 2008

Kid Congo Powers Fort Reno Washington DC


Hello DC friends....
I am playing a show with a whole DC live band this Thursday July, 31 2008 at the legendary Fort Reno Park (free/all ages)
3800 Donaldson Place NW, Washington, Washington DC 20016
Cost : Free
Thursday, July 31st Kid Congo Powers and band (Arthur Noll from Yell County/Electrocutions on Bass, Laura Jean Harris from Aquarium and Benjy Ferree on drums, perhaps some guests) , The Shirks, Girl Loves Distortion This is an outdoor park located across the street from Woodrow Wilson High School in the Tenleytown neighborhood of DC. Shows will begin promptly at 7:15 pm, and will most definitely be over at 9:30...............3800 Donaldson Place NW, WASHINGTON, Washington DC 20016
http://www.fortreno.com
http://www.kidcongopowers.com
http://www.myspace.com/kidcongoandthepinkmonkeybirds

Friday, June 13, 2008

Nick Sanderson R.I.P.




I am deeply saddened by the news that former Gun Club drummer and friend Nick Sanderson passed away earlier this week from lung cancer. I will always remember Nick not only as one of the very best drummers I have played with, but as a hilarious friend with an askew sense of humor that helped keep my sanity on endless tours. My heart goes out to his wife Romi Mori,son Sidney, and all family and friends of Nick. One of these photos is of me and "Sandy" clowning around in Hansa Studios in Berlin during the "Mother Juno" sessions, and the other is a publicity still of the Gun Club from that time as well, with Romi Mori, Jeffrey Lee Pierce, Nick Sanderson, and myself. R.I.P. Nick, thanks for all you have contributed to those touched by you.

Tuesday, April 01, 2008

MOJO review of Ghost on The Highway


Walking with the beast

The Gun Club
****
Ghost On The Highway: A Portrait of Jeffrey Lee Pierce & the Gun Club

French Fan Club Films & Powell Factory Films

Against all odds, the mayhem-packed tragedy of Jeffrey Lee Pierce is told by his long-suffering band-mates. Kris Needs listens and weeps.

There’s never been a proper documentary about the Gun Club, the apocalyptic punk-blues death party started in late-70s Los Angeles by Jeffrey Lee Pierce, who suffered a fatal brain haemorrhage in 1996 at the age of 37. Ghost On The Highway holds no pretensions to be the ultimate record. Director and long-time fan Kurt Voss, converted after witnessing Pierce get a kicking while supporting the Cramps in 1981, unashamedly believes that the group, particularly their doomed leader, are, ‘still in much need of more myth-making…My goal is to proselytize and leave the autopsy report stuff for later’.
This he achieves as band members and friends relate the often harrowing story of the phenomenal talent who exploded into the world with 1981’s seminal Fire Of Love album before embarking on a lifelong drugs ‘n’ booze-fuelled career kamikaze, though still managing to create incandescent masterworks like Miami, The Las Vegas Story and Mother Juno.
Pierce’s savagely-haunting confessionals and narcotic love songs explored America’s dark underbelly hotwired to the eternal artery of the blues. A hopeless romantic, when sober he was an endearingly-passionate sweetheart obsessed with William Burroughs, Blondie and free jazz. Drunk he became a belligerent nightmare, prompting the wrong Jim Morrison comparisons.
Former collaborators Kid Congo Powers, Ward Dotson, Terry Graham, Jim Duckworth and Dee Pop tell their leader’s story with rueful humour, exasperated anger or sometimes tears. Their disparate characters engage throughout the 98 minutes, particularly lifelong friend and Gun Club mainstay Powers, who Pierce taught to play guitar, and long-suffering drummer Graham, who confesses, ‘There were many years I had this recurring dream of hitting him in the face with a golf club’. Over a quarter-century later they smile grimly, even disbelievingly, through tales of wilfully antagonistic gigs, cowardly dismissals and missing money, incredulous that Pierce managed to demolish three Gun Club lineups which could have gone on to much greater things, although still remembering other nights when magic happened.
Light relief occasionally pokes through the foot-shooting: Pierce’s Debbie Harry obsession, marked by his peroxide tresses, was consumated after he hid himself in a shopping trolley to sneak into Blondie’s L.A. hotel in early 1977, earning his appointment as their fan club president. He found solace living in London in the mid-to-late 80s with new partner Romi Mori, adopting her native Japan as his spiritual home [his ashes scattered in Kyoto in 2006]. But it didn’t last and the home stretch of Pierce’s final disintegration is shockingly sad, especially for Kid Congo.
True to the infernal spirit of the Gun Club, Voss’s self-financed ‘love letter’ ran into trouble. After lengthy negotiations with Pierce’s estate to use the first two albums, it emerged he’d sold the rights in 1982 to a company that had just been taken over. By now, Voss had drained his resources, completing the film with benevolent editor Andrew Powell co-producing and nothing left for music. Surprisingly, once accepted this doesn’t seem to matter, the movie telling the story compulsively enough to develop its own engrossing flow [although puzzlingly interrupted midway by Lemmy growling about the music business!].
Henry Rollins, who published Pierce’s autobiography, hails him as ‘totally legendary now’. That the movie can explain why with such limited means is testimony to its success. When the big bucks heavyweights decide to set their sights on the Gun Club, Kurt Voss should get first shot.

Gun Club Doc out now!




Gun Club Documentary - Message from the Director Kurt Voss!
This is a repost from Kurt Voss! Listen up!
Gun Club Documentary - Message from the Director Kurt Voss!
GUN CLUB DOCUMENTARY - OUT ON DVD NOW!

Kurt Voss here -- director of "Ghost On The Highway: A Portrait of Jeffrey Lee Pierce and The Gun Club."

Just wanted to let everyone know that the documentary is newly released on DVD.

You'll find the trailer and some clips from the film, as well as profiles of the participants, at our brand-spankin'-new site:

http://www.ghostonthehighway.com

I'm also writing to clarify that the DVD is in fact written in NTSC "region free" format. NTSC is the standard U.S. format -- but the "region free" bit means that most of our friends in Europe and beyond should be able to play it too (but if you have any doubts, please consult the manual for your dvd player!)

We really need help in spreading the word that the documentary is out there, so if you are inclined to help, some banners can be found here to encode into your myspace pages:

http://ghostonthehighway.com/bannerinfo.html

Thanks in advance for your help, and for checking out the site!

Best to all, Kurt

Tuesday, February 26, 2008

Kid Congo Powers almost solo gig in DC Friday Black Cat



Kid Congo Powers almost solo gig in DC Friday Black Cat
February, 29 2008 at SOLO SHOW AT BLACK CAT
14TH ST. NW, WASHINGTON, Washington DC
Cost : 10.00

RECORD RELEASE PARTY FOR THE APES .This is THE PREMIER, THE LAUNCH, THE PREEMINENT EVENT AND THE ONLY RECORD RELEASE PARTY IN DC THERE WILL BE FOR GHOST GAMES!
http://www.myspace.com/apes

Join the Apes, Kid Congo Powers, Food for Animals and a bunch of lovelies for a night of music and funnnnnn!! This evening will also boast an electrifying electronic dance set by the inimitable New York Night Train artist KID CONGO POWERS of The Cramps/Gun Club/Nick Cave and TheBad Seeds fame – a consummate entertainer and legendary musician who should require no introduction. Joining him on Bass will be none other than Arthur Noll from Yell County! Stepping away, momentarily, from his usual rock band setup , solo cholo Kid will be man and machines...beats and noise.. stories and static...Okay, and bass and a guitar!.............February, 29 2008 at Black Cat Not Available , D.C., Washington DC Cost : $10 Record release party w/ Kid Congo Powers/ Food for Animals