Richard Barone is an example to all of us who get trapped in our daily grind. He seems to be the perpetual glass-half-full kind of guy. He admits he feels pretty much the same way he did 30 years ago when Barone on lead vocals and guitar along with bassist Rob Norris and drummer Frank Giannini gave birth to the Bongos, a wonderful, jangly power-pop combo that could light up any room with its overflowing energy. It’s difficult to believe that their new album, Phantom Train (Jem), is not really new at all. With guitarist James Mastro added to the band, it was cut in 1985 and 1986 and has languished on the shelf ever since. Barone has also kindly agreed to serve as guest editor for magnetmagazine.com all week. Read our brand new Q&A with him.
Barone: In a faraway land called the ’80s, there was a band called the Bongos. We played a lot of shows, and when we were not on the road, we were in the studio recording songs. Like a runaway locomotive, we couldn’t stop. Really. One day we came home from a long tour, then left the very next day to start making an album in the Bahamas. We recorded and recorded and mixed and mixed. Everything sounded so awesome, and I sang my ass off. The engineer, Eric (E.T.) Thorngren, was the best we had ever worked with and Emil Schult, the great designer and lyricist for Kraftwerk, was there to inspire us. But when we finally came home, everything was different. We put the tapes in boxes and put them away. Then, in 2013, we opened the boxes. Inside was a big chunk of my life that I had almost forgotten about. Wizardly tape restoration engineer Steve Addabbo baked the many, many tapes in an oven so they would play again, and they sounded real good pumping through his vintage gear. We listened to mix after mix and picked ones that all fit together like a jigsaw. All the feelings came back; all the hopes, fears and confusion of my mid-20s. It was a weird rush. A CD cover materialized, based on some of Emil’s pictures. And the label we released our first American album on when we started in the mystical land of the ’80s was suddenly reborn to release it, as the summer ended. Boy, that was one wild dream.
Video after the jump.
