DESCRIPTION:
Genius opening track from The Golden Age. Thrill Jockey 2001.
Recorded by Jim O' Rourke.


The Golden Age has received the best all-round critical response of any of Bobby Conn's albums to date. Uncut magazine called it "almost magical", while Mojo admitted that "Self-consciously strange it may be, but [this album] proves Conn is much more than a novelty act." Q Magazine said that "the music is dazzling, daft and dark as the man himself", while Alternative Press suggested that "the genius of this record is its combination of theatricality and thrift. Conn easily finds art in what more self-consciously hip bands work hard to discard and denigrate".[3] In Music We Trust praised Conn as "a talented songwriter able to craft, mold, and re-invent, Bobby Conn touches a style and turns it into gold."[4]


When an artist's own press release describes him as a "fucking prick", you have
to take notice. Bobby Conn is a very strange, short man from Chicago who has been making odd, pop-like noises on the fringes of the American post-rock scene for the last
three years. 'The Golden Age' is his third album proper and, assisted by Jim
O'Rourke and Tortoise's John McEntire, it sounds like a glam-rock Prince with
mental problems.

Conn's unique musical vision comprises straddles the previously unconnected
worlds of Ziggy Stardust-era Bowie, falsettoing soulster Curtis Mayfield and
the vintage AM radio rock of Journey and Rush. Confused? Well, maybe that's the point. With Conn's fixations with homosexuality, prostitution and golf smeared all over it, 'The Golden Age' runs the fine-line between pastiche and lunacy with masterful ease.
While Beck's Prince album, 'Midnite Vultures', was a passable homage to the tiny
one, Conn's approximately equivalent work spins the same combination of funk,
jazz and debauched lyrical content on an entirely different axis. Pretty
disturbing it is, too.

Conn sounds like a total mentalist, but with the heroic 'Whores' and 'Angels',
at least he's a mentalist who can write a tune or two. As "fucking pricks" go,
pretty superb, all told.

Jim Worth NME

Bobby Conn -- vocals, guitar
Monica Bou Bou -- violin, keyboards, vocals, recorder
Glenn Kotche -- drums on tracks 1, 4, 5 & 9
Colby Stark -- drums on tracks 2, 3 & 7
Pat Samson -- drums on track 8
Josh Abrams -- bass
Jonathon Joe -- bass, guitar
Jeb Bishop -- trombone
Thymme Jones -- trumpet
Ernst Karel -- trumpet
Fred Lonberg-Holm -- cello
Nick Sula -- piano

mixtapes for the discerning music lover.
https://soundcloud.com/nathan-arizona