Congo Norvell - The Dope, The Lies, The Vaseline (1996)

Congo Norvell formed in 1990 and was a duo comprising guitarist Kid Congo Powers (The Cramps; Gun Club; Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds) and husky crooner Sally Norvell. The Dope, The Lies, The Vaseline would have been their second album. It was originally set to be released on rap label Priority's rock arm Basura! I lucked out and stumbled across the CD as a "white label promo" on a used CD site online, about a month before the official release date. There was some chatter about the album's release on a Nick Cave mailing list I was on at the time. It was selling for $1.99. I remember thinking at the time that I'd rather have full packaging and such, but having no idea what they sounded like, I gave it a shot. I ended up loving the disc. Shortly afterward, the news came out that Priority was closing down the Basura! label, without releasing the Congo Norvell CD. Apparently, all that got out were 400 or so promo copies of the album. Lucky me!

There's no cover for this. The low quality pic above is a thumbnail from the Kid Congo Powers site. The white label tray sheet lists song titles, label info and states that it was "produced, engineered and mixed by Joe Chiccarelli." Otherwise there are no other credits. A quick personal experience gives us a bit of additional info. The Geraldine Fibbers (Carla Bozulich's late great band) were performing in Hartford in 1997. Between performances, I was chatting with Bill Tutton, their bass player. Referring to their cover of Can's "You Doo Right" on their latest album Butch, I mentioned that I was amazed that two of my favorite CDs from the past year featured covers from one of my favorite bands, the relatively obscure 70s kraut-rock/prog outfit Can. He said, "Oh, really, what's the other." I mentioned Congo Norvell's "Thief" and he went crazy! "I played bass on that track!" He mentioned playing on one or two other tracks from the album and basically confirmed that the album was in legal limbo.

Congo Norvell - The Dope, The Lies, The Vaseline (1996)
1. Husbands (4:17)
2. You Can Lay with Dogs (5:01)
3. Wailing Woman (4:40)
4. The Girl Who Would Be King (4:22)
5. Summer Nights (3:18)
6. November (The Ballad of Mark and Travis) (4:21)
7. Thief (6:12)
8. Goodbye Song (3:44)
9. Cruel (3:16)
10. Murder (5:36)
11. L'Amour (3:15)
12. Lullabye (5:07)

92.30MB RAR archive
MP3: Variable bitrate (242.0kbps average)
Audiograbber 1.83.1 w/LAME 3.97 beta 2 (--preset fast extreme)

DOWNLOAD
Password: p-l-m.blogspot.com