49 AMERICANS, THE - We Know Nonsense

"Long-awaited reissue of the second full-length album from 1982 by late 1970s/early 1980s UK DIY super-group The 49 Americans. The main instigator behind The 49 Americans was Andrew "Giblet" Brenner, who assembled a loose, disparate group of musical/non-musical practitioners as an experiment in equality and democracy. This democracy included David Toop, Steve Beresford, Max Eastley, Lol Coxhill and Peter Cusack (coming out of the anything goes improv scene), Nag And Bendle of The Door And The Window, Viv Albertine of the Slits, Vivien Goldman, Giblet's mum, and many more. The CD version comes as a lovingly-assembled career-spanning compilation. It features the complete original We Know Nonsense album as well as 23 (!) bonus tracks taken from The 49 Americans' first album E Pluribus Unum (1980) and their 7" The 14-Track Single (1979). A 20-page booklet contains "The Incompleteable Story of The 49 Americans." The Wire listed We Know Nonsense in their legendary list of "100 Records That Set The World On Fire (While No One Was Listening) + Extra 30 Records": "Not many of those visiting the London Musicians' Collective venue in Camden Town during the late 1970s, and hearing the free improvisers active therein, would have conceived the idea of recording an album of happy-go-lucky pop songs with them. But that's exactly what American expat Giblet (alias Andrew Brenner) set out to do, and so here are 17 doo-wop, disco and samba ditties produced and co-written by David Toop and Steve Beresford. Musicians include Lol Coxhill, Peter Cusack, Max Eastley, Viv Albertine (of The Slits), and Etta and Eddy Saunders." - Staubgold .