yes, I'm still at this In Praise Of... stuff. Don't bother trying to stop me.
Prompted by the lamentable video for "Vive Le Rock" aired yesterday on VH1 Classic, I dug out my copy of Kings of the Wild Frontier and re-discovered why I dig this album so damn much to begin with.
While I'd been unsolicitedly sent a few credibly "Punk" albums from my father while he was working overseas (notably the first Clash album (Brit edition) and Pure Mania by the Vibrators....you can debate its arguable Punk merits here.... The Vibrators ). In any event, this was the first arguably "Punk" record I bought on my own volition. That said, in retrospect, it doesn't sound especially Punk at all, though I'm hard-pressed to accurately describe it (pedants might suggest the amorphous tag "New Wave" or "Post-Punk," but the latter seems to genre specific to include this record). Sure, there's the "tribal" element and faux-burrundi drumming that was briefly the taste of its day (see also Bow Wow Wow and even my beloved Killing Joke), but there's so much more going on here. Produced by Chris Hughes, the overall sound is barbed but not sharp (if that makes sense), heavy at points but largley airy otherwise. I find it quite unique, actually.
The bizarre harmonies, the oblique jargon ("BRUSH ME, DADDY-O!", "ANT MUSIC FOR SEX PEOPLE, SEX MUSIC FOR ANT PEOPLE!", the strange lyrics...what are these boys on about? Less blunt that the Antz' earlier work (ala the more conventionally punky "Zerox"), yet not quite as poppy as he'd (without his Ants) evenutally become. Pre-highwayman, proto-indian brave (inspiring both Darby Crash and Ian Astbury, and the latter will seemingly deny this to his grave...opting instead to credit Jim Morrison and some time spent on an Indian reservation as his inspirations) with a healthy albeit inexplicable dollop of jolly pirate icing! Arrrrghh, matey! I remember being somewhat put off when I went out looking for the record (having heard "Antmusic" played on the radio a few times) and saw the cover. "This freaky, flamenco-dancing matador with warpaint is Adam?"
But, of course, `tis the `choons that make this record. "Dog Eat Dog," "Antmusic", the title track, "Physical (You're So)" are fucking classics, and you'll be halled `round the keel and made to kiss the gunner's daughter if you disagree, knave! "Jolly Roger" still makes me laugh out loud twenty-three years after I first heard it (especially the "baaaaahhhhh!" during the verse about Blackbeard).
Anyway, I think it's a fucking great record. Chime in, Ant Nation, but tread lightly, haters, as there might come a day when they're treading on You! (although given Adam's mental state these days, probably not).
Da diddly qua qua!
― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Tuesday, 19 August 2003 18:32 (twenty years ago) link
I was reading the Adam interview in Ask the other day and felt sad thinking about how his life has turned out now.
― Larcole (Nicole), Tuesday, 19 August 2003 18:36 (twenty years ago) link
One of many, many, many great moments. Hopefully he'll find some better state or peace soon.
― Thy Lethal Zen Ned (Ned), Tuesday, 19 August 2003 18:42 (twenty years ago) link
it is just so much damn FUN!
this is probably one of my most heavily played pieces of vinyl. until i switched to mix CDs, i put assorted songs from it on many a mix tape of the years - mostly the tracks you have noted as standout. i just picked it up on CD for convenience when i was in SF a few weeks ago - it was in the bargain bin, right by the checkout at Amoeba - clever folks. (i just did a mix for a mix-swap-club, and the required theme was 'best song ever' - and kings of the wild frontier' was track 2.)
― chr1sb0y (chr1sb0y), Tuesday, 19 August 2003 18:44 (twenty years ago) link
― BLACKOUT '03! (Jody Beth Rosen), Tuesday, 19 August 2003 18:56 (twenty years ago) link
― Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Tuesday, 19 August 2003 18:58 (twenty years ago) link
― Thy Lethal Zen Ned (Ned), Tuesday, 19 August 2003 18:59 (twenty years ago) link
― Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Tuesday, 19 August 2003 19:18 (twenty years ago) link
I was a schoolkid in London when "KOTWF" came out, and I remember it really being a record that united the different camps of musical tastes among my schoolmates -- punk fans liked it, new wave fans, pop/Top 40 followers, even hard rockers.
Also one of the only bands who would set people off into air drumming when they came on the radio (the other being Bow Wow Wow, from whom The Ants lifted the Burundi/tribal sound, but that's another story).
― Nom De Plume (Nom De Plume), Tuesday, 19 August 2003 20:07 (twenty years ago) link
This is a bit arse-up, innit? M. McLaren managed the Ants and introduced them to the Burundi drum sound, but then stole the backing band and added a singer to create Bow Wow Wow. This forced Adam to find new Ants - which was just as well, because without Marco Pirroni, Kings of the Wild Frontier wouldn't be nearly as great.
I was 8 when I got it from Columbia House and I appeciate it a lot more now than I did then. Instead of the excellent "Making History," my copy includes "Physical (You're So)" (which I think is a little over-rated) and "Press Darlings" (which is great fun - if a little out-of-place), and despite this messing about by the American record company, it's still a solid album.
And if evil be the food of geniusthere aren't many demons around...
― Kent Burt (lingereffect), Tuesday, 19 August 2003 20:43 (twenty years ago) link
I'd never really known the circumstance, just that what I'd heard of Bow Wow Wow sounded like that before the Ants did -- I was pretty young at the time. It didn't diminish my liking for the Ants. And, of course, I had no clue what Burundi drumming was back then, either. In the spirit of full honesty it took Peter Gabriel and Joni Mitchell's appropriations of that kind of drumming to lead me to figure out what it was.
― Nom De Plume (Nom De Plume), Tuesday, 19 August 2003 20:53 (twenty years ago) link
― Ally (mlescaut), Tuesday, 19 August 2003 20:54 (twenty years ago) link
― J (Jay), Tuesday, 19 August 2003 22:40 (twenty years ago) link
― Tom (Groke), Tuesday, 19 August 2003 22:55 (twenty years ago) link
Hey now, so ungenerous! ;-)
― Thy Lethal Zen Ned (Ned), Tuesday, 19 August 2003 22:56 (twenty years ago) link
― stevem (blueski), Tuesday, 19 August 2003 23:55 (twenty years ago) link
― sucka (sucka), Wednesday, 20 August 2003 00:00 (twenty years ago) link
Haha Tom is so OTM right now. That's my absolute favorite moment in any Adam Ant video. It's so, so literal.
― Ally (mlescaut), Wednesday, 20 August 2003 00:46 (twenty years ago) link
― Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Wednesday, 20 August 2003 01:41 (twenty years ago) link
― Thy Lethal Zen Ned (Ned), Wednesday, 20 August 2003 01:46 (twenty years ago) link
― J0hn Darn1elle (J0hn Darn1elle), Wednesday, 20 August 2003 02:13 (twenty years ago) link
nothing sounds betterwhen you're high on mountain dewand feeling rowdy
and cruising in joe'sshit-orange honda civicand feeling sixteen
― Haikunym (Haikunym), Wednesday, 20 August 2003 02:18 (twenty years ago) link
By comparison I think Dirk Wears White Sox has aged far more (dis)gracefully.
― Stewart Osborne (Stewart Osborne), Wednesday, 20 August 2003 07:36 (twenty years ago) link
He christened his first-born Adam Youth and had a huge tattoo of the original Ants logo done - just prior to The Ants completely losing all punk credibility and becoming a teeny-pop sensation - ooops!
I remember reading an interview with Marco just after KOTWF came out in which he said that in a few weeks over the course of the promotional tour, he watched their audience change from being a bunch of snotty punkers to hordes of screaming teenage pop kids.
― Stewart Osborne (Stewart Osborne), Wednesday, 20 August 2003 07:43 (twenty years ago) link
― Tom (Groke), Wednesday, 20 August 2003 09:30 (twenty years ago) link
talking of fashion, i also think the time has been right for a while for a (insert dance genre here) remix of Deutsche Girls.
― john clarkson, Sunday, 6 February 2005 19:45 (nineteen years ago) link
TPL also praises the album: http://nobilliards.blogspot.co.uk/2013/02/adam-and-ants-kings-of-wild-frontier.html
― Here he is with the classic "Poème Électronique." Good track (Marcello Carlin), Sunday, 17 February 2013 17:12 (eleven years ago) link
was just listening to this album last week - the drums on this, as well as Adam & the Ants, in general, are so good, and maybe the most interesting of the pop new wave 80s bands?
― sarahell, Sunday, 17 February 2013 17:41 (eleven years ago) link
Feeling aged and bleakly unmoveable on reading this thread yesterday, today I thought fuck it, let's see what happens. 2:16 in and my heart is dancing awkwardly. it makes me proud
― Confused Turtle (Zora), Monday, 18 February 2013 11:22 (eleven years ago) link
And as if Dog Eat Dog wasn't good enough, the intro to Ant Music is a shot in the arm. Drumming on the table, risking the ire of the rest of the household. Huzzah.
― Confused Turtle (Zora), Monday, 18 February 2013 11:24 (eleven years ago) link
TPL write up is great, thank you Marcello! Also curse you, because this album and your talk of revolution have just radically transformed my own WIP, which is 4 months in, and created a fuckload of extra work, I hope it's worth it u bastids.
― Confused Turtle (Zora), Monday, 18 February 2013 13:11 (eleven years ago) link
Might as well revive this due to the combination of the remaster:
https://www.discogs.com/Adam-And-The-Ants-Kings-Of-The-Wild-Frontier/release/8567303
...and the American tour-the-album thing, following on from the UK version:
http://exclaim.ca/music/article/adam_ant_announces_kings_of_the_wild_frontier_tour
Which based on this setlist from the UK version looks pretty killer all around:
http://www.setlist.fm/setlist/adam-ant/2016/o2-academy-brixton-london-england-7bfe1264.html
― Ned Raggett, Tuesday, 27 September 2016 16:47 (seven years ago) link
the tour poster should come with a disclaimer stating that the youthful and shirtless Ant in the picture will not be in attendance
― Al Moon Faced Poon (Moodles), Tuesday, 27 September 2016 17:15 (seven years ago) link
last time i saw adam he was wearing a shirt with a picture of young shirtless him on it.. was some interesting recursion
― kurt schwitterz, Tuesday, 27 September 2016 17:17 (seven years ago) link
my wife and I saw him in Austin a few years ago. He played a lot of the hits, which was fun, though there were plenty of weird moments as well. The band was trying a bit too hard to be really heavy. The crowd at the show was made up of a lot of 40-somethings who were clearly taking it as their first opportunity in at least a decade to really cut loose, which was a disturbing thing to witness.
― Al Moon Faced Poon (Moodles), Tuesday, 27 September 2016 17:19 (seven years ago) link
"Hey, if this is what you're expecting, here ya go."
― Ned Raggett, Tuesday, 27 September 2016 17:20 (seven years ago) link
a lot of 40-somethings who were clearly taking it as their first opportunity in at least a decade to really cut loose, which was a disturbing thing to witness.
uhhh take your ageism to another thread, pal
― sarahell, Tuesday, 27 September 2016 17:22 (seven years ago) link
I am a 40-something as well, but I didn't use the Adam Ant concert as an opportunity to act like a drunk asshole
― Al Moon Faced Poon (Moodles), Tuesday, 27 September 2016 17:26 (seven years ago) link
xxp this is the best of his recent looks imo
https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/236x/0c/7b/ba/0c7bbaf62a458a0a95edd90631037637.jpg
― soref, Tuesday, 27 September 2016 17:26 (seven years ago) link
so you're using ilx to do so, just like the rest of us! congrats!
― sarahell, Tuesday, 27 September 2016 17:27 (seven years ago) link
eh, I'd take obnoxious web commentary any day over IRL obnoxious people invading my personal space, but ymmv
― Al Moon Faced Poon (Moodles), Tuesday, 27 September 2016 17:30 (seven years ago) link
I picked up the lp on its reissue about 5 years ago and really got back into it. Had had it when it was first around and thought it did stand up pretty well. Not gone as poppy as he did by the next lp so it does stand a s a decent post punk lp.So it wasn't as yet all image. I think the next lp was ok and not heard much after that.
Were Bazooka Joe a rockabilly revival band before the Sex Pistols turned up as their support and Adam jumped ship?
― Stevolende, Tuesday, 27 September 2016 17:32 (seven years ago) link
They only did one album after Kings ... Prince Charming, which I will rep for, though it isn't genre consistent. Also, anyone who hasn't done so should track down the early demos, which are so good.
― sarahell, Tuesday, 27 September 2016 17:40 (seven years ago) link
Is there any particular reason why 'Making History' was replaced by 'Press Darlings' on the American edition?
Anyway, that I love this record goes without saying. A post-punk and a pop record in one - everyone talks about the drumming, which of course is great, but I particularly love Kevin Mooney's bass playing on this record and think it's an incredible shame that this was the only album he did with the Ants. Part of the reason I don't like the follow-up (Prince Charming) anywhere near as much is that the playing and production is straighter and less quirky. Of course, Prince Charming is also a mixed bag of stuff - the best stuff on there is amazing, the awful stuff is horrid.
― pen pineapple apple pen (Turrican), Tuesday, 27 September 2016 17:44 (seven years ago) link
what is horrid about Prince Charming?
― sarahell, Tuesday, 27 September 2016 17:48 (seven years ago) link
'Picasso Visita El Planeta De Los Simios', 'Prince Charming' and 'Stand and Deliver' are all-time for me, and even though I really should have overplayed the latter two by now, they still feel as fresh as ever to me. 'Scorpios' and 'Ant Rap' aren't too far behind, I love both of those.
On the other hand, 'Five Guns West', 'That Voodoo!', 'Mile High Club' and 'Mowhok/S.E.X.' have always felt like filler to me.
― pen pineapple apple pen (Turrican), Tuesday, 27 September 2016 18:07 (seven years ago) link