Glenn Branca, John Giorno

First side of this album is a recording of Glenn Branca’s score for choreographer Twyla Tharp’s Music for the Dance Bad Smells, played by Sonic Youth co-founders Lee Ranaldo and Thurston Moore. Side two presents the original line-up of the John Giorno Band. The same line-up, without bassist Philippe Hagen, also feature on another 1982 GPS album, Life Is a Killer, whose other contributors include Ornette Coleman Prime Time members Denardo Coleman (drums) and Jamaaladeen Tacuma (bass) backing up singer Jayne Cortez, and saxophonist David Murray accompanying poet Amiri Baraka. In 1985, the John Giorno Band was featured on the GPS compilation album A Diamond Hidden in the Mouth of a Corpse, which also included tracks by Hüsker Dü, Sonic Youth, Cabaret Voltaire and Diamanda Galás. 

"You gotta love this album sleeve!? Branca and Giorno looking hard on the cover has to be one of the better album covers. “Who You Staring At?” “You!” we reply, knowing that one of these tuff guys is a poet,and the other a composer, “Now wotcha gonna doo about it?” The answer is play an atonal ballet score for a modern dance troupe, and whine out some experimental poetry; guaranteed to make any sane tough guy turn and run. The Branca piece is up to his usual high 1980's standards changing pace and intensity like a rollercoaster into tomorrows weather. John Giorno bleats out some of his irritating poetry over a cool mud club house band backing track, with his trademark strained throaty whine. It would have been better if he rapped over a couple of Glenn Branca compositions instead,which is what I expected before I played this LP! It very rarely works, blending rock with poetry,it forces the complicated rhythms of the spoken word to be forces into a four/four time frame. The best example of this process of ruining a poet is John Cooper Clarke being forced to slow down his machine gun delivery to the speed of a pea shooter to fit in with the Invisible Girls medium paced funk. Still kinda like it though,especially when compared to the moronic garbage spewed out by the vast majority of so-called rappers,like that complete CUNT Kanye West,or that idiot Jay Zee (shit isn't that my initials?)." Die or D.I.Y