The Bongos
The Bongos are 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.
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.
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.
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.
"[2] Writing in the Village Voice, Robert Christgau dryly commented that "for all their jumpy originality [the songs are] still slight, and Richard Barone's lyrics are so oblique you have to wonder what his angle is.
"[3] 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.
[5] The thriving Hoboken pop scene, triggered by the Bongos and Maxwell's, gained national media attention, and drew many bands and fans to the city.
[6] 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.
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.
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.
Bassist Rob Norris plays in numerous groups including some offshoots of the Feelies, while drummer Frank Giannini pursues other interests and continues drumming on various projects.
In 2006, the original three Bongos re-entered the studio with longtime fan Moby producing to create bonus material for a CD reissue of the group's debut album.
Play Surprise Song at Tribute to Their Three-Decade Career On October 22, 2009 the group returned to their home club Maxwell's for the first time since 1986, and subsequently performed at Manhattan's Hiro Ballroom, during the CMJ Music Marathon 2009 that same month (with longtime friends the Fleshtones).
Besides renditions of their own songs, the group backed David Johansen, Marshall Crenshaw, Southside Johnny, Stephen Trask (composer of Hedwig and the Angry Inch), David Bromberg, and others in a three-hour concert that was broadcast on the station on July 4, 2015.Vin Scelsa, Fare Thee Well | WFUV The group embarked on a mini-tour of the Northeast during October 2016 that paired them with West Coast power-pop band the Rubinoos.
