* En anglais uniquement
The Golden Palominos were not a group per se, but rather the revolving-door project of drummer, programmer, and bandleader
Anton Fier. Born June 20, 1956, in Cleveland, Ohio,
Fier first made his mark as the drummer on
the Feelies' seminal 1980 debut
Crazy Rhythms. After leaving the group, he joined the punk-jazz unit
the Lounge Lizards before returning home to Cleveland, where he was recruited by the legendary new wave band
Pere Ubu for the album
Song of the Bailing Man. After exiting
Ubu,
Fier again relocated to downtown New York City, where he founded the first
Golden Palominos lineup in 1981. In its primary live incarnation, the band was an avant-funk supergroup comprised of
Fier and another drummer,
David Moss, saxophonist
John Zorn, guitarist
Arto Lindsay, and a pair of bassists,
Bill Laswell and
Jamaaladeen Tacuma; on their self-titled 1983 debut,
the Palominos were augmented by
Fred Frith,
Nicky Skopelitis, and
Mark Miller.
Over the next few years,
Fier moved away from the first record's experimental noise into far more traditional pop territory; simultaneously, he largely jettisoned the first album's lineup in favor of an ever-changing collection of punk legends, post-punk superstars, up-and-comers, and N.Y.C.-scene vets. After enlisting ex-Raybeat
Jody Harris to help him co-write much of the music,
Fier recruited vocalists ranging from
R.E.M.'s
Michael Stipe and
Cream's
Jack Bruce to
PIL's
John Lydon and newcomer
Syd Straw. Rounded out by musicians like former
dB Chris Stamey, guitar greats
Richard Thompson and
Henry Kaiser, and
P-Funk alumni
Bernie Worrell and Mike Hampton, the revamped
Golden Palominos reached an early peak with 1985's
Visons of Excess, a diverse yet cogent collection highlighted by a cover of
Moby Grape's "Omaha" and the original "Boy (Go)."
With 1986's
Blast of Silence, the group flirted with elements of country and folk; while
Stipe and
Lydon were noticeably absent, many of the other players featured on
Visions of Excess remained, along with new additions including guitarist
T-Bone Burnett,
Numbers Band singer
Robert Kidney, artist/producer
Don Dixon, singer/songwriter
Peter Blegvad,
Matthew Sweet, and
Flying Burrito Brothers alum
Sneaky Pete Kleinow. On 1989's moody
A Dead Horse,
Fier again shifted gears, settling on a constant lineup of
Laswell,
Skopelitis,
Kidney, and ex-
Information Society vocalist
Amanda Kramer along with a handful of guests, including former
Rolling Stone Mick Taylor.
1991's
Drunk with Passion returned to the all-star format;
Stipe and
Thompson again rejoined the fold, welcoming newcomers like
Sugar's
Bob Mould.
This Is How It Feels, a sophisticated concept album inspired by the
Graham Greene novel The End of the Road followed in 1993; along with core members like
Laswell,
Skopelitis,
Worrell, and
Kramer, the record spotlighted vocalists
Lori Carson and Lydia Kavanaugh, as well as bass great
Bootsy Collins. 1994's
Pure featured many of the same principal players, while 1996's
Dead Inside, essentially from a trio comprised of
Fier, ex-
Psychedelic Furs guitarist
Knox Chandler, and vocalist/lyricist Nicole Blackman, explored electronic and ambient soundscapes.
Dead Inside would be the final album by the
Golden Palominos with various compilations being the only additions to the discography. ~ Jason Ankeny