Danbert Nobacon preview

Danbert Nobacon
The Hideout, Chicago
Thursday, August 9, 2007

Danbert Nobacon might have gotten knocked down when his group Chumbawamba disintegrated in 2004, but the vocalist and keyboardist got back up again with the release of The Library Book Of The World (Bloodshot). Of course “Tubthumping” gained a new lease on life with the pursuit of Nobacon’s side-project, Acoustic Chumbawamba. Who knew a need existed for such an undertaking?

Prone to bouts of anarchy and outrageous outbursts, Nobacon uses his music as a vehicle to sound off on the world’s current affairs. Whether referencing Donald Rumsfeld in “The Last Drop In The Glass” or the Bush dynasty in “Nixon Is My Dentist,” Nobacon certainly doesn’t back down from his convictions. The album’s 15 tracks whirl with a storyteller’s keen sense of language and plotting, but Republicans and evangelicals might not get the joke.

Produced by label mate and old friend Jon Langford and recorded in Chicago, The Library Book Of The World sounds like the alt-country fare that defines Bloodshot. Nobacon’s voice ranges from sincere country crooner to a growl befitting the troll in “The Three Billy Goats Gruff,” sometimes within the same song.

With a past that includes an ice-water attack on former Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott at the 1998 BRIT Awards and a self-promoted protest against 2005’s G8 Summit (somehow the Live 8 concerts survived without him), Nobacon tends to get mired down by his politics to the detriment of his music. But would one exist without the other? Like the old Tootsie Pop question, the world may never know. And Nobacon wouldn’t have it any other way.

— Janine Schaults

Click here to download “Straight Talk (Meet Frank).”

Category: Stage Buzz, Weekly