As I walked around the myriad of bars and clubs at this year's South by Southwest festival in Austin, Texas, I was literally overwhelmed by the sounds that spilled out onto 6th Street. You couldn't walk more than five feet without stepping on a band or musician. With so much music concentrated in one small area, you're bound to notice patterns. As we navigated through the crowds of drunks, fan boys, and emo girls, one band (that would play a secret show on top of a parking garage that Saturday) made its influence known.
Gang of Four started in 1977 in Leeds, England, shortly after the punk rock explosion. While its peers, in bands like The Clash and The Buzzcocks, matched power chords to blink-and-you-missed-it rhythms, Gang of Four's sound charted unknown territory. The rhythm section, comprised of bassist Dave Allen and drummer Hugo Burnham, stripped rock 'n' roll of all unnecessary clutter and yet remained intrinsically funky. Singer Jon King's vocals, like that of Mark E. Smith's of The Fall, were flat and often declamatory. But perhaps its most unique and pivotal member was guitarist Andy Gill. Gill strangled semi-tuneful shards of noise bathed in the nastiest treble and reverb ever laid to tape. It was a style of guitar playing that would go on to inspire just about every young guitarist who emerged from the post-punk era, from U2's The Edge to Rage's Tom Morrello. It was Gang of Four's worldview which distinguished the band from its peers. Naming itself after the group who held power in China following the death of Mao, Gang of Four's songs were bitter, cynical, and often hilarious observations on the inanities of life. On "Natural's Not In It," from 1979's Entertainment, the band proclaims during the chorus "Renounce all sin and vice / Dream of the perfect life / This heaven gives me migraine."
Its debut album, Entertainment, is perhaps one of the strongest debuts by any band ever. In addition to the aforementioned "Natural's Not In It," there is a dearth of classic songs, including "Damaged Goods," "I Found That Essence Rare," and their almost-hit, "At Home He's a Tourist," which features the withering line, "He fills his head with culture / He gives himself an ulcer." The song was a minor hit and the band was invited to appear of England's version of TRL, Top of the Pops. The band refused, though, when it became apparent that they would be forced to change the lyric "And the rubbers you hide / In the top left pocket." Following several tours both in England and the States, Gang of Four returned with its sophomore album Solid Gold. Gill's gnarled guitar playing was even more abrasive yet showed hints of restraint not found on Entertainment, while the rhythm team of Burnham and Allen channeled the spirit of '77 punk through the Motown house band's rhythm section. Songs like "Outside the Trains Don't Run on Time" and "He'd Send in the Army" further investigate the alienating and dehumanizing aspects of life, still clothed in the group's trademark cynicism. The streak couldn't last forever, and following the tour for Solid Gold, bassist Allen left to form his own group. While the following album, Songs of the Free, was far from awful, it didn't hold a candle to the group's previous output. By 1983 only King and Gill remained to release the awful Hard, an album that truly does not live up to its name.
A few pitiful reunions were made, mostly consisting of just King and Gill. In the years between the dissolution and the original four's recent reunion, the loud, polemical sound that Gang of Four revolutionized went on to influence literally hundreds of bands. Its sound can be heard in the funk-thrash of bands like Rage Against the Machine and Red Hot Chili Peppers, the artsy post-punk of bands like Fugazi and Les Savy Fav, and most recently in the New Wave revival sounds of bands like the Killers and the Bravery. Should you check out Gang of Four if you're a fan of any of these bands? Definitely, but you knew that already, didn't you?
Nicholas Feeley is a junior in the College of Arts and Sciences. He welcomes comments at feeleyn@bc.edu.
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