Fronted by the nervous guitar and earnest vocals of Richard Barone, the Bongos grabbed the torch from the Talking Heads to light the way into the 1980s for a second generation of eye-opening New York bands that sounded nothing like their predecessors. Dedicated to the proposition that the tired and huddled masses could still find comfort at CBGB (or at Maxwell’s across the Hudson River), the Bongos ruled the greater-NYC roost. A stimulating succession of solo releases, topped by this year’s Glow (Bar/None), leaves no doubt that Barone is still hitting on all cylinders, a vital and imaginative force in today’s music scene when most of his contemporaries have fallen by the wayside. Barone will be guest editing magnetmagazine.com all week. Read our Q&A with him.
Barone: “Anthology Film Archives is the first film museum exclusively devoted to the film as an art,” says the organization’s manifesto. Since opening in 1970, Anthology has housed one of the most extensive collections of avant-garde films in the world. They screen films daily in their two theaters, while restoring and preserving cinematic treasures from around the globe in their massive former courthouse building at 32 Second Avenue in New York’s East Village. President and founding member Jonas Mekas—renowned godfather of avant-garde cinema, musician, author and superstar—was an associate of Andy Warhol’s, introduced Andy to Nico and served as cinematographer on such Warhol epics as Empire. But even with his stunning credentials, it is Mekas’ own life and work in the present that deserve the most praise, and his helming of the phenomenal Anthology should qualify him for sainthood. When in New York, Anthology is a must-visit.
Video after the jump.
