And the Weathermen Shrug Their Shoulders | ||||
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Studio album by | ||||
Released | October 19, 1993 | |||
Recorded | January 15–22, 1993 at the Friends Studio, Amsterdam | |||
Genre | ||||
Length | 57:03 | |||
Label | Fist Puppet | |||
Producer | Dolf Planteijdt, The Ex, and Tom Cora | |||
The Ex chronology | ||||
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Tom Cora chronology | ||||
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Review scores | |
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Source | Rating |
Allmusic | [1] |
The Encyclopedia of Popular Music | [2] |
The Great Alternative &Indie Discography | 4/10 [3] |
Tom Hull | B+ [4] |
And the Weathermen Shrug Their Shoulders is the second of two albums by Dutch punk band The Ex in collaboration with avant-garde cellist Tom Cora. [5] [6] Cora was acknowledged in the credits of earlier album Joggers and Smoggers but didn't actually appear on an Ex album until a recording session in 1990 which led to Scrabbling at the Lock as well as And the Weathermen Shrug Their Shoulders. [7]
After wrapping up their subscription album of seven singles in early 1992 The Ex toured Europe and North America with Tom Cora to support the release of 1991's Scrabbling at the Lock album whilst working on new material. In January 1993 the artists entered the Friends Studio in Amsterdam when they recorded 16 songs with Dolf Planteijdt,along with regular collaborator Johannes van der Weert adding to the group's vocal line-up. The group returned to the studio in May to mix the tracks. [8]
The Ex released And the Weathermen Shrug Their Shoulders both LP and CD in co-production with the Swiss label RecRec. The album's front cover sported a painting by Alex van Zanten based on a photograph from the Russian photographer Jakow Chalip and was replicated on the album's poster insert that also featured a collage of lyrics and flyers. The CD version contained the same material,formatted as a CD booklet. The album's initial pressing came out on June 1,1993,supported by a release tour of the Netherlands. The band later issued it,along with their entire back catalog,on the music streaming-and-download service Bandcamp.
And the Weathermen Shrug Their Shoulders and its predecessor,Scrabbling at the Lock, brought wider attention to both The Ex and Toma Cora as "crossover" records that bridged a perceived gap between punk rock and avant-garde music. Bill Meyer wrote for Chicago Reader that both the collaborative albums "reveal an intoxicating chemistry. The Ex push Cora to play more directly than usual,while his improvisational chops and broad musical vocabulary have facilitated the live realization of the promise shown on Joggers and Smoggers [...] his delicately plucked accents articulate the Oriental flavor of "Okinawa Mon Amour." He may be only one player,but he has an unusually broad and exotic musical vocabulary,and with his assistance the Ex can now improvise and successfully interpret European and Asian folk songs onstage." [7] Writing for Trouser Press Douglass Wolk said that while the album was slightly inferior to its predecessor,this "denser,darker album [...] has its share of great songs,particularly "Dere Geliyor Dere" (another Siral piece) and two excuses for singer G.W. Sok to run off at the mouth and sound good doing it:"What's the Story" (with lyrics taken from an interview with film director Sam Fuller) and the hilarious fake materialist manifesto,"Everything &Me."" The track "War O.D." ("the climax of many of the Ex's shows with Cora") was praised as "one of the sharpest songs they've ever written,politically and musically." [9]
Writing retrospectively of the album,Dean McFarlane of Allmusic says that the "second album of this winning collaboration [...] continue to indulge [the group's] collective love for European folk themes and free improvisation." He praised "the delicate melodious folk [...],curious improvised sound-searching" which "marked a new tangent the group followed into a total free-form improvisation inspired by the likes of avant-garde jazz associates Han Bennink and Misha Mengelberg." Despite this,he writes that the group " never left their punk roots behind" and concluded by calling them "one of the genre's most interesting and inventive groups." [1]
Recorded at Friends Studio,Amsterdam,Netherlands. Produced by Dolf Planteijdt.
Thomas Henry Corra, better known as Tom Cora, was an American cellist and composer, best known for his improvisational performances in the field of experimental jazz and rock. He recorded with John Zorn, Butch Morris, and the Ex, and was a member of Curlew, Third Person and Skeleton Crew.
The Ex is an underground band from the Netherlands, started in 1979 at the height of the original punk explosion as a Dutch punk band. The Ex originated from the squatting movement in Amsterdam and Wormer, and was inspired by bands like The Fall and The Mekons. Although initially known as an anarcho-punk band associated with the Dutch post-punk ultra scene, over the decades The Ex's sound has gradually developed into its current form of highly intricate, experimental punk/post-punk/no wave-inspired work. This sound includes a combination of diverse genres and styles, such as noise, folk, world music, free jazz, and crossovers between these genres. Other examples of branching out stylistically include the improvised double album Instant and a release under the moniker Ex Orkest, a 20 piece big band assembled for performances at Holland Festival. "One reason we are hard to describe is that we never had an education at music school, and in that sense we are not influenced by any traditional playing," explained Katherina Bornefeld, drummer for The Ex since 1984. The Ex's lyrics consist of straightforward statements about politics and abuses in society. The band enjoys international acclaim for this socially critical message, as well as for the energetic, rhythmic, atonal guitar playing, and for the furious vocals of singer G.W. Sok, who was replaced in recent years by Arnold de Boer of the duo Zea. The Ex have released over 20 full-length albums.
Joggers and Smoggers is a double album by punk artists The Ex, released in 1989 as a double vinyl record album, and issued as a double CD in 1992. It is the first of the Ex's albums to feature extensive use of improvisation and instruments outside of the standard guitar/bass/drums arrangement of punk rock, as well as great numbers of international guest musicians, most notably New York's Sonic Youth, Glasgow's Dog Faced Hermans, Amsterdam's Instant Composers Pool, as well as numerous folk musicians from a variety of European and Middle Eastern traditions. The album marked a turning point in The Ex's artistry, foreshadowing many collaborations and delvings into avant-garde, experimental, improvisational, folk and world music that the band would mix with their abrasive trademark post-punk sound in the 20 years to come.
Disturbing Domestic Peace was the debut album from Dutch anarchist band The Ex.
Tumult is the third album by Dutch anarchist punk rock band The Ex, originally released in 1983. It was produced by Jon Langford of The Mekons and Dolf Planteijdt.
History is What's Happening is the second album of songs by Dutch punk rock band The Ex, originally released in 1982.
Pokkeherrie is a 1985 album by The Ex, originally released on vinyl only on the Pokabilly label. The original release included an eleven-page booklet containing lyrics & artwork and a double sided poster. It was reissued on compact disc in 1995 on Ex Records. The album comprises a collection of songs the group had performed on an anti-military tour. The title of the album is a Dutch word that means something like "so much noise" or "awful noise". It is the first of the Ex's albums to feature Katrin on drums, cementing the band's core lineup that would last for nearly two decades.
Scrabbling at the Lock is the first of two albums by Dutch punk band The Ex in collaboration with avant-garde cellist Tom Cora. It is also the first of The Ex's studio albums to feature the work of then Dog Faced Hermans guitarist Andy Moor, who has remained in the band ever since.
Mudbird Shivers is an album by Dutch punk/experimental band The Ex. The album prominently features vocals by guest musician Han Buhrs, who also plays a number of different instruments on the recording. It was released the same year as The Ex's entirely instrumental improv album Instant.
Aural Guerrilla is the 1988 studio album by Dutch anarchist post-punk band The Ex, co-released by American indie label Homestead Records.
Too Many Cowboys is the second double-album Dutch anarchist punk band The Ex. Released in 1987, it mixes live and studio recordings and marks the band's beginning of a collaboration with British anarchist group Chumbawamba.
Instant is a double compact disc by the Dutch experimental post-punk band The Ex. The band recorded the album in conjunction with many guest musicians, notably members of Holland's Instant Composers Pool (ICP) for whom the album is partially named, the other part being that the Dutch term for "free improvisation" literally translates to "instant composition."
Hands Up! You're Free is an album by Dutch anarcho-punk band The Ex compiling the group's three different Peel sessions recorded for BBC Radio 1 during the 1980s. The Ex released the collection on their own label, Ex Records, first on vinyl in June 1988, then on CD in 2003.
Blueprints for a Blackout is the fourth album by Dutch post-punk band The Ex, originally released in 1984. It was the first of The Ex's albums to feature Luc playing bass guitar and he would remain as the band's bass player for 20 years. The album also featured many guest musicians, a notable trend in The Ex's discography that would provide musical elements unique to each of their albums.
6 is a collection of six singles by Dutch musical group The Ex. The singles were available in record shops and also through a subscription with a new one being issued every two months throughout 1991. Each of the singles explored different facets of The Ex's musical relationships and interests, featuring collaborations with an array of musicians and other artists. The 6 singles were not released on The Ex's CD collection, Singles. Period. The Vinyl Years 1980–1990 as they comprised an album to be collected and stored in a single box. The band announced plans to reissue the collection on CD in 2010, but have yet to do so.
G.W. Sok is a Dutch singer, best known for his 30-year career as the frontman of the Ex. G.W. Sok left the Ex in 2008 to focus on a solo career and collaboration projects with other musicians, participation in theatre performances and spoken word performances. Apart from his musical career he is also active as a writer and a graphic designer.
30 Years of The Ex is a compilation album by the Dutch band The Ex released in 2009, marking the group 30-year anniversary and the departure of original singer G.W. Sok from the band. The album features songs from all The Ex's albums released between 1980 and 2006, as well as tracks from various singles and EPs. 30 Years of The Ex was released on double LP and double CD with the CDs containing seven extra tracks.
1936, The Spanish Revolution is an album of songs and archival photographs related to the Spanish Civil War, recorded and assembled by Dutch anarchist punk band The Ex. The band released it in 1986, the 50th anniversary of the Spanish Revolution, on their own label as a square 7" (17.5 cm) soft-cover book with two 45 rpm records. A 5" (12.5 cm) hardcover edition was republished by AK press in 1997, replacing the records with a pair of 3" CDs.
The Ex are a Dutch music group from Amsterdam founded in 1979. In their four decades as a band, they have moved from playing anarcho punk to post punk, jazz, folk and African music. They have collaborated on records with fellow indie musicians Chumbawamba, Dog Faced Hermans, Tortoise and Sonic Youth, improvisers like Tom Cora and the Instant Composers Pool, and toured with African musicians Konono Nº1 and Getatchew Mekurya.
Dignity of Labour is the third album by Dutch anarchist punk rock band The Ex, originally released in 1983. The album was originally issued as a box set of four 7-inch records in solidarity with factory workers where there the band were residing. The tracks were compiled onto a CD album a decade later.