This time, an album on vinyl instead of his well-known home-baked CD-Rs! Featuring the man himself on vocals, guitar and banjo, Schroeder on drums, Jan Fitsjen on bass and baritone guitar and occasionally Titus Waldenfels on lap steel. A line-up somewhat pretentiously described as Chadbourne And the Contemporary Rock Band.

The material here was recorded in 2018-19 in a basement studio on Belfort Strasse in Freiburg-im-Brieslau, Germany or in taverns within walking distance of the studio, using a mobile recording facility. A few of the tunes have appeared on some of Eugene’s recent CDRs.

The white sleeve is made of thin cardboard, the inner sleeve is black, with the yellow flap showing liner notes by Byron Coley when taken out. All this protected by a clear transparent plastic sleeve.

“Eugene’s approach is so amazingly advanced it can often be head-spinning to try and unravel its intent, but the overall effect kinda destroys the perceptual barriers between sounds deemed ‘inside’ and ‘outside.’ This is a trick Chadbourne has long been working at, but as much as I loved many of his early efforts at this syncretic mode of creation, over the years his tactics have become a bit less manic, which seems like a good thing in terms of making the lines blurrier than ever. Eugene is an artist whose aesthetic has long seemed to be dictated by Duke Ellington’s statement, ‘if it sounds good and feels good then it is. Good. There’s no art when one does something without intention.’ And to my ear, Belfort Strasse, is Eugene’s most adamant exemplar of this dictum yet. If you can’t dig it. I’m not certain you can dig.” (Byron Coley)

Tracks

01. Old Dog
02. Down To The Wire
03. The Cave (cover, orig. by Johnny Paycheck)
04. Supplies Dwindle
05. Schroeder Birthday Song
06. Wake Me When It’s Over (cover, orig. by Willie Nelson)
07. Prisoner
08. Song For Wes