James Chance & The Contortions announce their first album in decades, The Flesh Is Weak

James Chance & The Contortions announce their first album in decades, The Flesh Is Weak
Photo: Dylan Mars Greenberg

C’mon, we all know no-wave is a dead scene, right? The clubs have been condemned, the saxophone reeds have long gone dry, and the drugs just aren’t as good anymore, man. Is there nothing left? If an amplifier fries and there’s no one around to hear it, does it still make noise music?

But hold it right there, punk! The illustrious James Chance & The Contortions are back with The Flesh Is Weak, their first studio album in decades, and they’re going to show these indie-rocking millennials how to make real non-music!

I know what you’re thinking, “Another post-punk reunion? Grandad will be thrilled.” But don’t worry, the press release notes the album is “no nostalgia trip,” despite the fact that the band’s reformation and the album itself was apparently the result of their efforts to curate a 35th anniversary reissue of the band’s seminal 1979 debut album Buy, which they released in 2014, but instead “cutting edge modern funk.”

The new album will be out November 11 on True Groove Records, the label founded by the Contortions’ very own Tomás Doncker, who also produced the record with James Dellatacoma. So it seems like that classic no-wave integrity is firmly in tact.

In addition to a slew of new material — including lead single “Melt Yourself Down,” which you can listen to now — the album features two covers: Gil Scott-Heron’s “Home Is Where the Hatred Is” and Frank Sinatra’s “That’s Life.” You can find the full tracklist below.

Of course, a James Chance revival wouldn’t be true to the no-wave spirit without some live dates, which is why The Contortions are playing just a handful of gigs around North America this fall, including an album release show at the Bowery Electric in New York City. Tickets for that show are available here, and you check out the other live dates below.

James Chance & The Contortions tour dates:

11.10.2016 - New York City, NY - Bowery Electric
11.12.2016 - Austin, TX - Beer Land
12.10.2016 - Toronto, ON - The Rivoli

The Flesh Is Weak tracklisting:

01. Melt Yourself Down
02. The Flesh Is Weak
03. Home Is Where the Hatred Is
04. The Splurge
05. Disciplinary Action
06. That’s Life
07. I (Who Have Nothing)
08. Snap It Back, Strip It Down

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