Danbert Nobacon will be spreading anarchy in Brooklyn with new book and song cycle (photo by twi-ny/mdr)
Word Brooklyn
126 Franklin St. at Milton St.
Saturday, October 23, free, 7:30
718-383-0096
www.danbertnobacon.com
www.wordbrooklyn.com
www.exterminatingangel.com
Anarchist, writer, musician, comedian, and activist Danbert Nobacon might not be dumping ice buckets on British deputy prime ministers these days (as he famously did to John Prescott in 1998), but that doesn’t mean the former Chumbawumba lead singer and keyboardist still isn’t fighting the power. Born Nigel Hunter in Leeds in 1959, Nobacon, now a father of ten-year-old twins and living in the quiet, rustic environs of Washington State, will be at the Brooklyn indie bookstore WORD on Saturday night, reading from his brand-new book, 3 DEAD PRINCES (Exterminating Angel, October 2010, $13), and performing songs from his latest record, WOEBEGONE (Verbal Burlesque, October 2010). Billed as “An Anarchist Fairy Tale,” 3 DEAD PRINCES follows the trials and tribulations of thirteen-year-old princess Alexandra Stormybald Wilson, who finds herself at the center of a potentially epic battle between the Oosarians and the Morainians after accidentally killing Mercurio, the future king of Morainia who, unfortunately for him, got way too fresh with the teenager known as Stormy. Ordered to protect her, the Fool takes Stormy on a magical adventure where she meets the Gricklegrack, the Witch in the Ditch, Giggle Monkeys, and various other smakobbed probbers, nymphemoms, quizzleprinks, blasfenemies, wangodmatists, and gatoriles with differing views on transkinkery, regaliocol, and other pompiffery. Accompanied by black-and-white illustrations by film director Alex Cox (SID & NANCY, REPO MAN), 3 DEAD PRINCES also manages to comment on religion, politics, evolution, and the environment in clever and playful ways and concludes with a fascinating Author’s Response that delves into the anarchist theories of Peter Kropotkin and scientist E. O Wilson and David Sloan Wilson, making it a fun read for adults and children alike.
Nobacon creates a much darker fantasy world in WOEBEGONE, a song cycle for a futuristic noir novel he hasn’t written yet. Traveling from 1620 Jamestown to 1993 Chicago to 2025 Leeds, Nobacon, joined by the Seattle Gothic folk band the Bad Things, tells the tale of poor Johnny Woebegone, who is “mixed up in the head” in a “natural world recoiling in horror,” as Nobacon describes in a short story that comes in the twenty-four-page lyrics booklet. Constantly besieged by the devil and his minions, Johnny shares his sad tale of woe in such songs as “Frank Woebegone’s Lament,” “Lilithiana Red,” and “Lost Lost Weekend,” with Jimmy “Pickpocket” Berg, Gregory “Captain Panto” Miles, Beau Stanislov “the Gypsy” Herbert, Austin “Mad Wilcox” Quist, “Lord” Steve Kamke, and Funi “La Fantastica” McLaughlin joining him on mandolin, organ, banjo, dobro, saw, accordion, sousaphone, and other instruments, resulting in a compelling atmosphere that mixes Kurt Weill with Tom Waits, all built around Nobacon’s gruff, throaty voice. But don’t let all the darkness and devilry scare you off; Nobacon is an excellent live performer with a wry sense of humor, if you couldn’t tell, so this rare appearance in Brooklyn should make for quite a night.
After the breakout success of BORN TO RUN in 1975, Bruce Springsteen became embroiled in a lawsuit over control of his music that prevented him from going into the studio to make the highly anticipated follow-up. Springsteen found himself at a crossroads; “You didn’t know if this would be the last record you’d ever make,” he says in the revealing behind-the-scenes documentary THE PROMISE: THE MAKING OF DARKNESS ON THE EDGE OF TOWN. Combining archival footage of the DARKNESS sessions shot by Barry Rebo with new interviews with all the members of the E Street Band in addition to producers Jimmy Iovine, Jon Landau, and others, editor and director Thom Zimny melds Bruce’s past with the present, delving deep into Springsteen’s complex, infuriating, and fiercely dedicated creative process. “I had to disregard my own mutation,” Springsteen says at one point, regarding his battle to avoid getting caught up in the hype that came with BORN TO RUN, so he decided that his next album would be “a meditation on where are you going to stand.” Rebo captures Springsteen and the E Street Band — from a bare-chested Bruce to a bandanna-less Steve Van Zandt — rehearsing and recording alternate takes of familiar songs as well as tunes that would later wind up on such albums as THE RIVER and TRACKS, opening up Bruce’s famous notebooks and examining his intense creative process, which included throwing away dozens and dozens of songs that he believed just didn’t fit within his vision of what DARKNESS should be. Two of the most fascinating parts of the THE PROMISE, a recent hit at the Toronto Film Festival, involve Patti Smith discussing “Because the Night,” which is about her waiting for her boyfriend at the time, Fred “Sonic” Smith, to call her, and Toby Scott talking about mixing the DARKNESS record to get the sound pictures in Bruce’s head onto vinyl. THE PROMISE: THE MAKING OF DARKNESS ON THE EDGE OF TOWN is screening Wednesday night at the CMJ Film Festival (and will be followed by a Q&A with Zimny moderated by Q04.3 deejay Jonathan Clarke), which opens Tuesday with CIRCUS MAXIMUS (Thomas J. La Sorsa, 2010) and also includes such films as GAINSBOURG AND HIS GIRLS (Pascal Forneri, 2010), PASSENGER SIDE (Matt Bissonnette, 2010), FIREWALL OF SOUND (Devin DiMattia, 2010), and THE CHILD PRODIGY (Luc Dionne, 2010); select showings will feature introductions or postscreening Q&As with the filmmakers, performers, and others.
