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    Posted: March 01 2009 at 18:49
The duo of Tom Cora and Fred Frith that makes up SKELETON CREW delivered two albums, which later became available as a 2-cd set.

SKELETON CREW Albums


3.00 | 2 ratings
Learn to Talk
1984

3.00 | 2 ratings
The Country Of Blinds
1986



The 2-cd set

4.14 | 3 ratings
Learn to Talk/Country of the Blinds
2005




Syzygy's (Chris) bio of the band:

Skeleton Crew came into being more or less by accident. In 1982 Fred Frith and Tom Cora planned to work together in a quartet, but in a bizarre coincidence the other two members both suffered from collapsed lungs within a couple of weeks of each other. Frith and Cora elected to go ahead and work as a duo, playing all the instruments themselves. Skeleton Crew became, in effect, two one man bands playing simultaneously - Frith on guitar, 6 string bass, violin, piano, keyboard and vocals; Cora on cello, bass, keyboard and vocals; and both played different parts of a drum kit, using pedals and home made contraptions so as to play different instruments simultaneously. This initial line up also used tapes in the way that more contemporary acts would use sampling - voices from TV and radio, clips of adverts and similar found sounds were incorporated into their music. They toured extensively, and for a while Dave Newhouse of the Muffins joined on sax and drums. In 1984 Zeena Parkins of News From Babel became a permanent third member, playing organ, harp, accordion, drums and singing. In 1986 the band split, shortly after completing their second studio album. Fred Frith said of the original duo "It's all just on the edge of breaking down all the time, which is a quality that I've always liked. I don't like things to be too easy." and of their decision to split "We actually started to sound like a normal rock and roll band so it seemed kind of pointless to go on at that point."

Skeleton Crew released two studio albums, both recorded at Sunrise Studio in Switzerland. The first, Country of the Blinds, was released in 1984 and was by the original duo of Frith and Cora. There's an engagingly ramshackle quality to this album, with the two members seeming to switch between instruments just in the nick of time. This, coupled with their use of found sounds, gives the music a kind of punky energy. There's no disguising their very high standard of musicianship, though, and there are moments of beautiful instrumental interplay. Learn to Talk (1986) was recorded as a trio with Zeena Parkins and has a more polished sound, and as a trio they abandoned the use of tapes. There were also several cassette only live recordings issued during their career. The two studio albums were reissued on a single CD (with some tracks omitted) in 1990. In 2005 a double CD was issued containing the original studio albums in their entirety, plus selected live recordings. Frith and Cora reunited briefly in 1995 for Etymology, a CD of sound samples. Tom Cora died in 1998, and the recent CD reissue is dedicated to him.

In the 1980s Skeleton Crew's DIY approach was a welcome relief from the increasing blandness of most mainstream music in the 1980s, while their extremely well developed musical skills helped then to transcend the possible limitations of their stripped down line up. While they are definitely part of the RIO/Avant prog genre and their music involves impropvisation, the focus on relatively short, song based material makes them relatively accessible.
Dates, facts and quotes taken from Wikipedia.




Why this artist must be listed in www.progarchives.com :
Skeleton Crew featured members of several seminal RIO bands (Curlew, Henry Cow, Art Bears, News From Babel and The Muffins) and were one of the most important RIO acts of the 1980s.



Discography:
Country of the Blinds (1984)
Learn to Talk (1986)
Country of the Blinds/Learn to Talk (single CD reissue)(1991)
Country of the Blinds/Learn to Talk (double CD reissue)(2005)





Album reviews here in PA:

The Country Of Blinds
Skeleton Crew RIO/Avant-Prog

Review by Sean Trane
Special Collaborator Prog-Folk Specialist

2 stars 2.5 stars really!!

The second album of Skeleton Crew, Country Of Blinds (also recorded in Switzerland produced by another Henry Cow alumni Hodgkinson) is certainly even less accessible than its predecessor and it announces it right from the bat with the opening title track (and later Man Or Monkey) that is purposely sabotaged by tampering with the tapes. Parkins’ presence does not calm Frith and Cora either, but this album is slightly easier on the ears sometimes because it is less sung (but when it is it still sounds like Damo-Belew) and gets more often into grooves (Border, Hand That Bites), giving you the chance to get used to the general weirdness. However Parkins’ accordion does get on my nerves (all accordions do), and with the strangeitude of the songwriting, the whole thing is a little too much for me. There is also a fairly evident feel of 80’s “funk feel” into the music as it reminds me a bit of Talking Heads and Belew-era Crimson, mostly through Frith’s guitar parts.

Both albums got released as a 2 on 1 Cd, with a few tracks missing, which is probably a rather good deal if you’re into this stuff. Please read the separate album entry’s reviews just in case I am not convincing enough into avoiding this band. Generally I am normally fully appreciative of Henry Cow alumni project (from Massacre to News From Babel), but I must say that Frith’s Skeleton Crew and Cutler’s German adventures of Cassiber are both a little too much for this writer’s sanity.

Report this review (#122953) | Posted Monday, May 21, 2007, 07:58 EST
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 Learn to Talk by SKELETON CREW album cover Studio Album, 1984
3.00 | 2 ratings

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Learn to Talk
Skeleton Crew RIO/Avant-Prog

Review by Sean Trane
Special Collaborator Prog-Folk Specialist

2 stars 2.5 stars really!!

While Chris Cutler was busy with News From Babel with Lindsey Cooper, Fred Frith (guitars, piano, violin) got involved in Skeleton Crew, who was supposed to be a quartet but ended up as a duo with American Tom Cora (cello, bass drums), both deciding to become one man bands on Learn To Talk. On the later (and final) Country Of Blinds album, they will be joined by Zeena Parkins (keys, harp, accordion) who was previously in News From Babel.

On the scale of bizarreness, SC was certainly similar to a 9 on the Richter scale, and this is fitting because listening to LTT usually leaves your brains in the state of an Earth tremor with few chances of building something back. If some tracks are rather accessible (title track, Factory Song), a lot of them are close to pure nonsense. Sonically, I guess the closest you could come up with would be the 80’s Crimson, based on the singing strongly reminiscent of Belew, but also the guitar parts which can sound like a Chapman stick. Some tracks are very ethnic-sounding (Zac’s Flag), while others (the intro of the opening Onwards And Upwards) are sickly-sounding (vocals barking like Damo Suzuki, but not at ease) and completely disjointed.

Not exactly something that can be put in anyone’s disc player for dear of permanent damage. Skeleton Crew toured as a trio with Muffin’s Dave Newhouse on sax and apparently they were quite a sight live, but this did not materialized in terms of recording.

Report this review (#122952) | Posted Monday, May 21, 2007, 07:57 EST
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 Learn to Talk/Country of the Blinds by SKELETON CREW album cover Boxset/Compilation, 2005
4.14 | 3 ratings

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Learn to Talk/Country of the Blinds
Skeleton Crew RIO/Avant-Prog

Review by Slartibartfast
Prog Reviewer

5 stars I bought Learn to Talk and Speechless at the show when Skeleton Crew came to Atlanta. Love that opening line “I was born an American, born free, and these past 46 years, I’ve never had to get up in the morning, thank God for freedom.” Of course unfortunately, I do have to get up in the morning most days. I think they used a tape of Bob Dole for that one with a little editing in the middle. This was really my first introduction to Frith. I was only familiar with his bit parts with Brian Eno on Before and After Science & Music for Films. If the concerts didn’t hook me on Frith, Learn to Talk certainly did. Zeena Parker was with Fred and Tom Cora. As I recall, one show was official Skeleton Crew and the second was billed as just the three of them. The thing I remember most about the first one was the one man band like thing they seemed to be doing. Everyone was playing at least two instruments at the same time most of the time. The second show had an intermission where the audience spontaneously morphed their applause into a polyrhythmic clapping, myself included.

As figures, as soon as I think an LP will never see the light of CD, I record it to CD scan in the album cover, to make my own CD booklet, and the thing gets remastered and released on CD. Not really complaining. I was totally pleasantly surprised to find that there was another album by SC called The Country of Blinds. It may have for sale at the time they came to Atlanta and poor college student that I was, couldn’t buy it and soon forgot about it. Never saw much Firth at the local record stores though plenty of good prog was available here and there.

The Frith/Cora collaboration on LTT is very interesting. Most of the songs have Frith singing politically oriented lyrics and just plain funny stuff like It’s Fine, where he’s singing like he doubts it really is. “What we know we don’t believe, what we don’t know we believe.” Really enjoyed Tom Cora’s cello work on this one. Never had heard of him before and don’t have much of him in my collection except for posthumous collection It’s a Brand New Day (seen a couple copies for sale on the web at a nice price). “Don’t worry, it’s fine, it’s fine, it’s fine, it’s fine, it’s fine, it’s fine, it’s fine, it’s fine, it’s fine.” “I think you’re right.”

The bonus tracks are a welcome inclusion as almost always. The LTT ones wouldn’t have fit into the original album, stylistically or time wise.

I still haven’t completely absorbed The Country of Blinds yet. It’s certainly musically on par with LTT. No shortage of political content, either. The title track is a little shrill, but funny. The Border is nice number that almost could have had some pop success. Man or Monkey sounds like it could have been written regarding our current president, GWB. Another interesting set of bonus tracks here. Can’t properly evaluate them against the original album, as I never heard it before I acquired this package. Second Rate also seems somewhat relevant to today’s events. “You have to pay to get the body brought back, the US government will not pay, do you get the feeling that the USA is turning into a second rate world power?”

Can’t recommend this release enough to those who like their prog a little twisted.

Report this review (#87694) | Posted Saturday, August 19, 2006, 15:18 EST
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 Learn to Talk/Country of the Blinds by SKELETON CREW album cover Boxset/Compilation, 2005
4.14 | 3 ratings

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Learn to Talk/Country of the Blinds
Skeleton Crew RIO/Avant-Prog

Review by Syzygy
Special Collaborator Zeuhl/RIO Specialist

4 stars This timely reissue and remaster of Skeleton Crew's two studio albums is excellent value. In addition to presenting the original albums in sparkling clear sound, they have both been expanded with selections from the various live cassette releases that they issued in the 80s. The albums have been reviewed in detail individually, so this review will focus more on the additional material.

Learn to Talk is a highly enjoyable slice of RIO tomfoolery. As a genre, RIO has a reputation for being rather serious and dour a lot of the time, but artists like Robert Wyatt, Slapp Happy and Sammla Mammas Manna have an anarchic, Dadaist sense of humour that is much in evidence here. The use of tapes, especially Ronald Reagan's voice, gives the album a slightly dated feel, but the energy and inventiveness of the double one man band line up is still staggering. There are four live tracks included from 1982 -4. Sick As A Parrot is a radio/tapes sound collage incorporating a few bars of Y Viva Espana, which segues into Automatic Pilot (lyric: 'I'm on automatic pilot'). Hook is of historical interest as it features Dave Newhouse of The Muffins, who toured with Skeleton crew but appeared on neither studio album, while the album closes with Frith and Cora tackling Massacre's Killing Time - a power trio masterwork played by a power duo. Superb guitar from Frith, magnificent cello/bass from Cora and somehow they manage to play the drum parts as well - breathtaking, and much the strongest of the bonus tracks.

On Country Of The Blinds the two one man bands were joined by Zeena Parkins, a one woman band, which gave a more varied sonic palette. No tapes this time, the beguiling complexity of the duo was taken to another level and the vocal arrangements became deeper and more layered. Six live tracks are included, most of them of excellent sound quality. Frith's guitar is more prominent than on the studio recordings, and the good humour and unique interplay of the band is obvious - on Cora's solo showpiece Howdyhoola Too audience laughter is clearly audible. Second Rate is probably their most overtly political song and is delivered with almost brutal directness and shows just how tight they could sound. More unexpected is an accordion driven version of Jelly Roll Morton's New Orleans Stomp, which is played with verve as gypsy jazz. Proceedings are brought to a close with Hasta La Victoria, which recalls the chaotic sound of Learn To Talk.

In some ways this is an object lesson in how reissues should be presented. The live material is as strong as the studio recordings (although the extras on disc 1 are of less than pristine sound quality) and there are no alternate versions of any of the album tracks. Rather than filling the discs with extraneous material, the additional tracks have been selected to complement and add to the original albums. Skeleton Crew were unique and have an important place the development of 80s RIO. This collection is a fitting monument both to the band and to the brilliant Tom Cora, whose untimely death deprived the world of a remarkable musical talent. Strongly recommended.

Report this review (#85347) | Posted Tuesday, August 01, 2006, 06:26 EST
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 The Country Of Blinds by SKELETON CREW album cover Studio Album, 1986
3.00 | 2 ratings

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The Country Of Blinds
Skeleton Crew RIO/Avant-Prog

Review by Syzygy
Special Collaborator Zeuhl/RIO Specialist

4 stars When Skeleton Crew expanded from a duo to a trio, they didn't do anything obvious like hiring a drummer - instead, they added a third one man/woman band to the proceedings. Dave Newhouse of the Muffins joined for a while, and subsequently the third Skeleton was Zeena Parkins (News From Babel, Bjork and many other collaborations) on harp, accordion, organ, vocals and more drums. The result was another fine album of off kilter RIO songs and strangeness.

The Country Of The Blinds is in the same style as Learn To Talk, but there are a number of interesting contrasts. The expanded line up makes for a fuller sound, although things are no smoother than previously; Fred Frith remains the principal vocalist, but there are far more harmonies and shared vocals this time around; and the use of tapes has been abandoned. Overall there seems to be less raw spontanaeity than on the previous outing, but the material is stronger musically and lyrically. Fred Frith's guitar is less prominent, but this album contains his best violin work since Art Bears' debut album. Zeena Parkins adds some superb Sun Ra style organ to the proceedings, and her electric harp is played off against the strings to superb effect. Tom Cora is as inventive as ever on cello and bass, and also adds some demented accordion to the mix. The drumming is as powerful and unpredictable as previously - on Man Or Monkey they manage to sound like a RIO version of King Crimson's double trio line up with only half the number of musicians. Other stand out tracks are The Border, an almost normal song structure subverted by some impossible drumming and a brilliant call and response vocal arrangement, and the comparatively lengthy You May Find A Bed, where Fred Frith finally cuts loose with some lead guitar. The latter track also boasts some wonderful lyrics with echoes of Robert Wyatt's Dada inspired ramblings - 'There is no convenient time to break your leg' observes Fred Frith, and makes the same comment about (among other things), starving, having a flat tyre and having a child. Both Skeleton Crew albums contain some superb lyrics, but it is on Country Of The Blinds that lyrics and music really complement each other to near perfection. The instrumental interludes are also spellbinding; at times it seems impossible that three human beings are producing this noise in real time, but live recordings show that they could and did.

Skeleton Crew broke up after this album, Fred Frith remarking that they were starting to sound like a normal rock and roll band. This remark should be taken with a pinch of salt, unless your defintion of normal rock and roll is The Magic Band and Pere Ubu, but there is a grain of truth in it. While in many ways stronger than the debut album, Country of the Blinds doesn't have quite the same manic energy and inventiveness as Learn To Talk. It's still a brilliant slice of 80s RIO/Avant prog, however, and is strongly recommended to lovers of the off beat and bizarre.

Report this review (#85194) | Posted Sunday, July 30, 2006, 16:52 EST
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Odd sounding, creative, forward thinking and yet simplistic at the same time, these two albums are to me an acquired taste and took time to get into but it's very worth while.

As a note, I absolutely love the song It's Fine. It's just addictive...




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Direct Link To This Post Posted: March 01 2009 at 19:27
I have learned over the last two or three years to trust Sean Tranes reviews,  But I will have a listen to this band if I can find some samples anywhere.  I like the offbeat and bizarre but am not a big fan of silly humor  in music ala Beefheart or Zappa.  I can take or leave the yuks.  Country of the blinds may be my style according to these reviews.
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: March 01 2009 at 19:47
I just read Sean Trane's reviews for the first time and they are fair.  These albumses aren't of universal appeal.  
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: March 01 2009 at 21:17
Learn to Talk is excellent.  I haven't gotten a chance to give Country of the Blinds a listen yet, but I imagine it's just as good.  Listening to some live tapes I've found on the interwebs, it's absolutely incredible what they manage to pull off with just two people. 


Come to think of it, the reason I might like this is because I'm a musician.  To me, it's absolutely astounding to hear these guys playing guitar/cello/bass/keys/violin/whatever while singing and maintaining those complex, interlocking drum patterns between the two of them.  The songs aren't bad, but I get a feeling that I might not bother with this stuff if it was four guys playing one instrument each. 


Edited by rileydog22 - March 01 2009 at 21:20

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Direct Link To This Post Posted: March 02 2009 at 15:43
Country of Blinds just nudges ahead for me, but I love both albums, really.
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