Is it a mini Coffee table book, the sort of thing you find reviewed in the NY Times book review a few weeks before Christmas?
Or is a CD reissue, with some of the most elaborate liner notes you could ever hope to find?
Though I'm usually not one to equivocate, it's pretty much "all the above" plus a whole lot more, my friends.
For my purposes, first and foremost, it is a reinvention of the original Skull Orchard album from 1997, with the inclusion of the Burlington Welsh Chorus, which I think is a very traditionally Welsh thing to do. Though the music has to do with Wales (Newport most specifically, his hometown), I feel that the songs touch on issues that affect us here in the US and around the world, while name checking Cymru icons like Tom Jones and Shirley Bassey John Cale, places like Cardiff Bay, Newport's transporter bridge, soccer clubs, pubs, and abandoned coal mines.
"Tom Jones Levitation"
Secondly, its loaded with Art by JL, his sort of take on Folk Art, Populist Art, Insurgent Art. I used to see placards like these in gift shops when I went on vacation when I was a kid. But of course, he has used the form for his own ends--someone unfamiliar with his art might very well view the paintings as something else. And of course, if any of you art aficionados like his work, plenty of his paintings and prints are for sale at Yard Dog.
Thirdly, it is a family affair of sorts. I don't know if this qualifies as scrapbooking. His brother David provides an interesting compendium of Welsh culture and history, plus some choice family anecdotes.
His father Denis supplies photographs also. So, while the Langfords still are a long way from being deemed by media outlets as the Welsh version of our own celebrated, Jackson Family, all of this entertaining, intelligently done, and definitely made me laugh in spots.
Fourthly, it's literature! Jon has included a short story involving Herman Melville's Albino Whale, chopped up in pieces through the book, which I found interesting. And of course, there are the song lyrics, which qualify as poetry.
I know that some of you are thinking of all the elaborate limited edition reissues circulating these days. I think it may have started in rock with that gigantic Stooges reissue, which must have included every single outtake from Fun House. (I sometimes think everything the Stooges ever did must have been put to tape, with all those live releases out there.) But many of these new super deluxe reissues carry such a high price tag! And I doubt many of them are half as wildly idiosyncratic as Skull Orchard reissues. The price for this multi-media mini event is quite affordable in comparison. And what you get is well thought out, not merely fan fodder. This, I say, is a product for the discerning musicophile. I mean, who creates things like this? Certainly not to get rich....
I guess I'm reminded a little of the super elaborate children's album Harmelodia by the Rheostatics, where they made the artwork, wrote the songs, and put together a narrative designed to get children excited about music. I reviewed that one a while back if anybody is interested....
Techheads might be disappointed that there are no DVDs, holograms, iphone aps, Newport: Transporter Bridge the Video Game,etc., but understand that S.O.R. came out a few years ago. Maybe that will be a part of Skull Orchard 2.0 in 2020.
Of course Jon Langford has just come out with a new one, which has gotten great reviews, Here Be Monsters. He, and his Mekons (Waco Brothers, and of course the mighty 3 Johns) have pretty successfully continued to put out rewarding music over a long period of time, while staying true to their ideals and expressing their views on important issues, without the sort of pandering or self-aggrandizing posturing that many a lucrative career has been based upon.
Skull Orchard revisited, in a nutshell is a pretty amazing little item, somthing that any fan of the arts should appreciate. I don't believe there is anything quite like this, so grab one while you can.
Here's a taste of his latest recording, Here Be Monsters! Support our artists, please.
