James Chance & The Contortions - Vinyl Reissue, SXSW, & Tour!

Some exciting developments are in the works for James Chance & The Contortions! On March 14th they will be performing a very special, and very rare show during SXSW at Barracuda Backyard (11:15PM). A few days after SXSW they'll hit the road for a stretch of tour dates that you can keep an eye on via the flier above. The tour is in support of their latest album, The Flesh is Weak, which came out on True Groove Records last year, and which is set to be reissued on vinyl via True Groove and Super Secret Records in April. The album was produced by Contortions lead guitarist Tomás Doncker & James Dellatacoma. A key figure in No Wave, Chance has been playing a combination of improvisational jazz-like music and punk in the New York music scene since the late 1970s, in such bands as Teenage Jesus and the Jerks, James Chance and the Contortions, James White and the Blacks, The Flaming Demonics, James Chance & the Sardonic Symphonics, James Chance and Terminal City, and James Chance and Les Contortions. His music can be described as combining the freeform playing of Ornette Coleman with the solid funk rhythm of James Brown, though filtered through a punk rock lens.   Listen to "Melt Yourself Down" off of The Flesh is Weak over at NPR