The Bongos

The Bongos were a power pop band from Hoboken, New Jersey that emerged from the New York City arts scene, primarily active in the 1980s, led by Richard Barone. With their unique musical style, they were major progenitors of the Hoboken indie-pop community, college radio favorites, and made the leap to national recognition with the advent of MTV. Their breakthrough song "Numbers with Wings" garnered the group a major cult following and was nominated at the first MTV Video Music Awards. Along with a handful of others, the Bongos were instrumental in the advancement of the alternative rock movement.

History

The Bongos grew out of a band called "a", which had included the three original Bongos and Glenn Morrow, who later formed the Individuals and helped found Bar/None Records. "a" was the first band to play Maxwell's, a rock and roll club in Hoboken.

The group was led by Richard Barone on vocals and guitar and included Rob Norris, formerly of the Zantees on bass and Frank Giannini on drums. James Mastro, later of the Health & Happiness Show, joined the band as a guitarist after the release of their first LP. The group played extensively in Hoboken and New York City and toured the U.K. and Europe before touring in the U.S.

The Bongos emerged from Hoboken, N.J. in 1980. They quickly found favor at Manhattan's new wave and no wave venues such as Tier 3 and the Mudd Club, with a guitar-driven pop sound that included a strong influence of avant-garde and propulsive dance music. One of their early excursions as a trio was backing up violinist Helen Hooke of the legendary group the Deadly Nightshade (one of the first all-woman rock bands of the 1970s) at Gerde's Folk City. Hooke was instrumental in helping the band create their first demo recording. Soon, well-reviewed shows at Hurrah, Danceteria, and later The Ritz established them as particularly effective live performers. What set them apart from other such groups of the era were their sudden guitar outbursts or, on recordings, saxophone improvisations that echoed the work of Lou Reed, Ornette Coleman, or Captain Beefheart within the context of a pure, melodic pop song. In addition, unlike many of their peers, the group explored unabashedly sensual dance rhythms that made their recordings dance-floor favorites.

They signed to British label Fetish Records, whose artist roster consisted of largely early industrial, experimental, and post-punk groups. While in London performing at The Rainbow Theatre, Dingwall's, and trendy Cabaret Futura, the Bongos recorded their early singles and their well-received debut EP ''Time and the River'' for Fetish. Cover designs for these releases were created by influential graphic artist Neville Brody, who was soon to become the designer of ''The Face'' magazin

The group's love of avant-garde performers brought them in touch with artists such as Throbbing Gristle and Clock DVA who performed with them live in London, and on their recordings. Their debut U.S. album, '' Drums Along the Hudson'', compiled from the band's British singles, was released in 1982 to widely favorable reviews on both sides of the Atlantic. While Trouser Press suggested that the group "may trade a certain amount of substance for easy appeal," it added that "there's no better musical equivalent of whipped cream anywhere." Writing in the Village Voice, Robert Christgau dryly commented that "for all their jumpy originality he songs arestill slight, and Richard Barone's lyrics are so oblique you have to wonder what his angle is." In 2007 however, Jim DeRegotis wrote in the Chicago Sun-Times: "The initial impression of naiveté is offset by deceptively simple lyrics that actually hint at deep, dark mysteries and unfathomed mystical enigmas." In 1981, the group's cover of T. Rex's "Mambo Sun", written by Marc Bolan, reached No. 22 on the ''Billboard'' Dance Club Chart. A thriving Hoboken pop scene emerged, triggered by the Bongos and Maxwell's, which gained national media attention, and drew many bands and fans to the city. An August 1, 1982 article in the New York Times Real Estate section hinted at the scene's popularity as an influence on increasing rents and property values.

After touring domestically in support of ''Drums Along the Hudson'', including thirty concerts with The B-52s, Barone and Mastro retreated to Mitch Easter's "Drive-In Studios" in Winston-Salem, N.C. to record their own, duo album entitled ''Nuts & Bolts''. Co-produced by Easter, the album exhibited a more acoustic sound, and each side showcased the songs and lead vocals of either Barone or Mastro.

In 1983, the group was signed to RCA Records, which subsequently released the album, ''Numbers With Wings.'' New York Times' critic Robert Palmer — himself a former Hoboken-based musician with the Insect Trust — marked this as the beginning of the Bongos' creative decline, lamenting the "slick, overproduced records which vitiated the raw vitality the group had originally displayed." Regardless, the album spawned a popular and inventive MTV video of the title song (nominated for 'Best Direction' on the 1984 MTV Video Music Awards, and the song itself remained at the number one spot on the College Music Journal ( CMJ) chart for six consecutive weeks. The album also included the tribal, dance-floor hit "Barbarella." A hectic tour schedule of over 300 shows a year sustained support at radio and MTV. Their Brazilian-influenced follow-up album, ''Beat Hotel'', along with relentless touring, now with a further-expanded lineup including percussionist Steve Scales from Talking Heads, raised the Bongos' profile further and continued to increase their devoted cult following. It was in the midst of recording the ''Phantom Train'' album in Compass Point, Bahamas for Island Records that the band split up in 1987, with each member pursuing solo interests. The album was to remain unfinished and unreleased until 2013.

Later work

Richard Barone has subsequently released a series of well-received solo albums, including ''Glow'' released on September 14, 2010 on Hoboken's Bar/None Records, a 3-disc CD/DVD live collection cool blue halo' 25th Anniversary Concert'' on the DigSin label in 2012, and ''Sorrows & Promises: Greenwich Village in the 1960s'' in late 2016. He tours regularly and has also established a career as a recording and concert producer. Since 2011, Barone has been a professor at NYU's Clive Davis Institute of Recorded Music and more recently at The New School of Jazz and Contemporary Music. He serves on the Board of Governors for the Recording Academy/ Grammys and on the advisory board of Anthology Film Archives

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