Phil Shöenfelt: Backwoods Crucifixion 1990

Phil Shöenfelt is a veteran of the London, Manchester and New York punk and post-punk scenes. After getting caught up in the London punk explosion of 1976-1977, he moved to New York where he played

with several Downtown bands, such as DC10s, The Nothing and Disturbed Furniture. In 1981 he formed the post-punk band KHMER ROUGE with Barry "DJ Scratchy" Myers on bass, Marcia Schofield on keyboards and Paul Garisto on drums. DJ Scratchy worked with The Clash on their first three US tours. Marcia went on to play keyboards with The Fall, and Paul played drums with Psychedelic Furs and Iggy Pop. Another Khmer Rouge drummer was the artist Claus Castenskiold, who has designed album covers for The Gun Club and Kid Congo Powers.
                           

The first performance of Khmer Rouge was at the 1981 White Columns Noise Festival, which was organised by Thurston Moore of Sonic Youth. The band later played shows at CBGBs, The Peppermint

Lounge, Danceteria and The Ritz. They also supported artists such as Alan Vega, The Gun Club, Tom Verlaine, Nico and The Clash at concerts on the east coast of the USA.
Khmer Rouge was managed for a time by legendary photographer Nat Finkelstein, famous for his books “The Factory Years” and “Edie”. Finkelstein collaborated with Andy Warhol on “Andy Warhol’s Index” and was responsible for many of the classic black and white photos of the Velvet Underground. He also filmed a ground-breaking video for the Khmer Rouge song “New Assassins”.
                       

In 1984 Phil returned to London, where Khmer Rouge continued for another two years. During this time the band supported The Fall on two UK tours. They also recorded several songs with the English producer John Leckie and played regularly in London clubs. The band split up in 1986. A double

Khmer Rouge CD, New York-London 1981-86, was released by the UK label Voiceprint in 2004. For the next two years Phil concentrated on writing songs and making demos. In 1989 his first solo recording, a 12 inch single “Charlotte's Room” b/w “The Long Goodbye” was released on Mark E. Smith’s Cog Sinister label. The recording was produced by Tony Cohen, renowned for his work with The Birthday Party and Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds.
                           

In 1990 the UK label Paperhouse Records put out Phil’s first solo album Backwoods Crucifixion. In 1993 his second album, God Is The Other Face Of The Devil, was released by Humbug Records.

During this period Phil supported Crime & The City Solution and Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds on UK tour dates. In the summer of 1994 Phil toured in the Czech Republic, backed by the musicians from Tichá Dohoda. One year later he moved to Prague on a permanent basis. There he formed his current band PHIL SHOENFELT & SOUTHERN CROSS with Pavel Krtouš (bass guitar), Jarda Kvasnička (drums) and Pavel Cingl (violin). In 2014 Pavel Cingl left the band and David Babka joined on lead guitar.
                      

With Southern Cross Phil has recorded five albums to date: Blue Highway, Dead Flowers For Alice,

Ecstatic, Paranoia.com and The Bell Ringer. In 1997 Phil founded FATAL SHORE with Berlin-based Australians Bruno Adams and Chris Hughes (Once Upon A Time; Hugo Race & The True Spirit). The band toured Europe and became a popular act on the Berlin club scene, notable for their intense live shows and sonic improvisations. Fatal Shore made 3 CDs between 1997 and 2007: The Fatal Shore, Free Fall and Real World.
                          

In 2004 Adams became sick and was diagnosed with colon cancer. Fatal Shore continued touring, but in

June 2008 the band played its final concert at Ebensee Kino in Austria. Bruno died in 2009 after putting up a long, brave fight, and Shoenfelt and Hughes decided to discontinue the band. A final CD, Setting The Sails For El Dorado, was released in 2011. The album is dedicated to the memory of Bruno. Phil also collaborated with Nikki Sudden, playing lead guitar in Sudden's band on European tours in 1997 and 1998. After the second tour the pair went into a Berlin studio and recorded Golden Vanity, an album of co-written songs that was released by the UK label Easy Action in 2009.
                     

In November 2010 Phil Shöenfelt & Southern Cross released their fourth studio album, Paranoia.com (Easy Action Records). The album marked a change in the band’s musical direction from atmospheric

indie rock to a more edgy hard rock sound.  With nine original songs and a James Williamson-approved version of Iggy Pop & The Stooges' "Open Up And Bleed", the album features a remarkable cover painting by ex-Khmer Rouge member Claus Castenskiold. One song from this CD, “Stupid Rock Star”, was included on the 2014 compilation, “Shark Infested Waters”. Also included on this CD are tracks by Iggy & The Stooges, Bob Dylan, Alice Cooper, Patti Smith, Johnny Thunders and many other classic artists.
                   

In 2011 Phil started a new band, DIM LOCATOR, with drummer Chris Hughes and bass player Dave Allen. Based in Berlin, Dim Locator is an outgrowth of the work Hughes and Shöenfelt did with Fatal

Shore and features music co-written by all three members. The sound of Dim Locator is based more on drones and guitar loops than conventional song structures, taking inspiration from the “kraut-rock” bands of the 1970s. To date the band has released a Download-EP Immortalised (a three song tribute to Rowland S. Howard), a 7 inch single of two of Howard’s songs, “I Ate The Knife” b/w “Undone”, Wormhole, a mini album containing four original songs. In July 2016 a live CD Six Miles Deep was released on the German label Moloko +.
                    

In addition to writing and playing music, Phil has also written several books. To date, he has had five titles published: Junkie Love (a fictionalised autobiography); The Green Hotel/Zelený Hotel (poetry

and song lyrics); Magdalena – Books One and Two (a collaboration with the poet and artist Kateřína Piňosová), Kamikaze Skull (twenty poems co-written with UK performance artist Sophia Disgrace); and Stripped (a trilogy of books set in New York in the years 1979-1984). The first part of the trilogy was published in Czech translation in December 2012. The second part - Underground Incognito - was published in May 2016.
                    

Junkie Love first appeared in Czech translation as Feťácká Láska. It was published in English in 2001

by Twisted Spoon Press and went on to win the Firecracker Alternative Book Award (New York, 2002). On January 10th 2020 Phil’s latest solo album Cassandra Lied was released on the German label Sireena. Guest musicians include Chris Hughes and Baron Anastis of Dim Locator, Kristof Hahn of Swans, David Babka of Southern Cross, Eva Turnová (ex The Plastic People Of The Universe) and Marcia Schofield (ex Khmer Rouge and The Fall).
                    

Phil Shöenfelt – Backwoods Crucifixion
Label: Paperhouse Records – PAPLP 002
Format: Vinyl, LP, Album
Country: UK
Released: 1990
Genre: Rock
Style: Alternative Rock, Blues Rock

SIDE A.

A1. Garden Of Eden
A2. Marianne, I'm Falling
A3. The Light That Surrounds You
A4. Psyche

SIDE B.

B1. Devil's Hole
B2. Hateful Heart
B3. Walkaway
B4. Salvation Hotel

NOTES

                         

Keyboards – Marcia Schofield (tracks: A3, A4), Phil Ames (tracks: A4, B2 to B4), Phil Shöenfelt (tracks: A1, B1)
Producer, Bass Guitar – Phil Ames
Written-By, Arranged By, Vocals, Acoustic Guitar, Electric Guitar – Phil Shöenfelt

GARDEN OF EDEN LYRICS

                               

Dancing colors all around
I lost my head in a web of sound
Now I don't know what to do
like Kubla Khan in Xanadu

I need inspiration
I got no motivation
Life is a dream but I'm not sleeping
Life is a dream but I'm not sleeping
Outside of the gates of the garden of Eden
Outside of the gates of the garden of Eden
Garden of Eden

All the city lights go out
All our friends have gone away
She doesn't need a helping hand
but she thanks you anyway

She needs inspiration
There's been too much hesitating
Life is a dream but she's not waiting
Life is a dream but she's not waiting
Outside of the gates of the garden of Eden
Outside of the gates of the garden of Eden
Garden of Eden

I went down to the city at night
I stepped up, took a look inside
I went down to the city at night
I stepped up, took a look inside
Yeah, oh yeah
                      

I went down
I went down
I went down
And I stood outside
The garden of Eden
I close my eyes
And I walk right in
And I walk right in
And I walk right in to the garden of Eden

All the bridges are in flames
I kiss your tears like a falling rain
All the city lights go out
Everybody scream and shout

I need inspiration
There's been too much hesitating
Life is a dream but we're not waiting
Life is a dream but we're not waiting
Outside of the gates of the garden of Eden
Outside of the gates of the garden of Eden
Garden of Eden
Garden of Eden

DEVIL'S HOLE LYRICS

                            

Last night I dreamed I saw Saint Peter
The Book he held was black with sin
We stood outside the gates of Heaven
He would not let me in

Last night I dreamed I saw Saint Peter
He looked at me, my blood ran cold
"Abandon Hope all ye who enter
And may the fires purge your soul
Down in the Devil’s Hole"

I told this story to my woman
Last thing I heard, she was still runnin'
My words of love remained unspoken
Drowned by the sound of the thunder comin'
                          

I told this story to my woman
Last thing I heard she was on the run
With my best friend who was discovered
Shot through the head with his own gun
Shot through the head
With his own gun...

I saw them standin' by the river
A crowd of people 'round the Hangin' Tree
An' that Laughin' Boy, he was fairly swingin'
He looked a lot like me...

Last night I dreamed I saw Saint Peter
He looked at me, my blood ran cold
We stood outside the gates of Heaven
He said, "The Man Downstairs has won your soul
Now get down to the Devil’s Hole
To the Devil's Hole
To the Devil's Hole
The Devil's Hole
To the Devil's Hole..."

MP3 @ 320 Size: 109 MB
Flac  Size: 283 MB

 
Phil Shöenfelt on Urban Aspirines HERE

Nikki Sudden & Phil Shoenfelt: Golden Vanity 2009

NIKKI SUDDEN

                  

Nikki Sudden was born Adrian Nicholas Godfrey in London, England. Adrian Nicholas Godfrey (19 July 1956 – 26 March 2006). The main influences on Sudden's music were artists such as T. Rex, the Rolling Stones, the Faces, Bob Dylan and Johnny Thunders. Following the break-up of Swell Maps in 1980, he started a solo career and also released records with Dave Kusworth as the Jacobites. Sudden collaborated with Mike Scott and Anthony Thistlethwaite of the Waterboys, Jeff Tweedy of Wilco, The

Golden Horde as 'The Last Bandits', Mick Taylor of the Rolling Stones, Rowland S. Howard, Jeremy Gluck of the Barracudas, Ian McLagan of Small Faces and the Faces, Phil Shoenfelt, Al DeLoner of Midnight Choir, Tom Ashton of the March Violets, members of R.E.M. and Sonic Youth. The Jacobites' tune "Pin Your Heart" was covered on the Lemonheads' 1997 single "The Outdoor Type".[citation needed] Post Swell Maps, Sudden formed and recorded as Bingo Little with Andy Bean and Cally Callomon.
Sudden also wrote for a number of music magazines, such as Spex, INTRO, Mojo, the Birmingham-based fanzine Waxstreet Dive, and Bucketfull of Brains.

PHIL SHOENFELT

                       

Phil Shoenfelt was born in Bradford, England, in December 1952. He moved to New York where he lived and played in several bands, such as Khmer Rouge, and was active on the downtown Manhattan arts scene. Returning to London in 1984, he continued making music until encroaching heroin addiction

brought a temporary halt to all such activity. Finally kicking the habit after eleven years, he embarked upon a solo career and in 1995 moved to Prague, where he currently lives. In recent years he has produced several CDs of his music on various independent labels: solo; with his band Southern Cross; with the Berlin-based Australian group Fatal Shore; and a new performance project, The Bruce Wellie Band. Junkie Love is Shoenfelt's second book. His first, a collection of his poetry and song lyrics entitled The Green Hotel, came out in 1998.

NIKKI SUDDEN AND PHIL SHOENFELT

                       

NIKKI  SUDDEN  &  PHIL  SHOENFELT

It is with very great pleasure that we announce that the Troubadour label will be issuing the Golden Vanity album recorded by Nikki Sudden & Phil Shoenfelt in Berlin in 1998. Ten years later it will see

the light of day with full blessing of the Sudden estate and the brilliant Mr Shoenfelt. Easy Action boss Carlton Sandercock says "this is one f##kin amazing album! Phil Shoenfelt is the author of the highly acclaimed novel Junkie Love. Phil also recorded many albums including "God is the other face of the devil" for Humbug in 1994. Last month an album "Live at the House of Sin" with Pavel Cingl was issued in Europe.
                       

NIKKI  SUDDEN  &  PHIL  SHOENFELT

Nikki Sudden about "Golden Vanity" (Interview with Australian Rock Review, 1998):
"Golden Vanity" contains some of my more T.Rex styled songs: "Hanoi Jane" and "Bang A Gong"; an unreleased song from the ‘Kiss You Kidnapped Charabanc’ sessions, "Jack Ketch", "Teenage Sheets" -

a "Fortune of Fame"-ish rocker, "Jamboree Bag" – a twenty minute Can/Swell Maps inspired jam, "Angel Wings", "Cloak of Virtue", "Broken Glove" (as premiered on my "Egyptian Roads" collection), "Portcullis", "When I Waged A Crown" and "Empty Grave" - these six numbers co-written with Mr. Shöenfelt. The album is completed by two of Phil’s songs, "Waiting For You" and "Love Makes Her Shine". This should be released during the next months, probably by a German label. I find Phil’s guitar playing makes a refreshing/inspiring counterpoint to my own style.

MOJO
by Max Décharné    
Excellent lost studio collaboration released at last...Spring 1998, shortly after the death of his brother Epic Soundtracks, Nikki Sudden and his friend and fellow English songwriter Phil Schoenfelt

NIKKI  SUDDEN

played a string of European shows, then with their touring band recorded this album of specially-written tracks, mostly with the volume cranked up to eleven and few overdubs. The live-in-the-studio approach works well, and the songs themselves really deliver: Cloak of Virtue is a genuine highlight, swapping lead vocals between the two singers, while Bang A Gong is Nikki’s joyous tribute to the lifelong Bolan influence in his work. Teenage Sheets jumps like the New York Dolls, Waiting For You and Golden Door are classic lovesongs, and the acoustics and slide of Jack Ketch recall Nikki’s 1980s Jacobites recordings. The album never appeared, for convoluted reasons outlined in Phil’s excellent sleevenotes. That it’s finally surfaced is a treat indeed.
     

PHIL  SHOENFELT

 
BUCKETFULL OF BRAINS
#72 spring 2009, by Nick West    

NIKKI  SUDDEN

Very much a case of 'that which was lost ...' this little piece of legend was recorded in Berlin in early 1998. Both Nikki and Phil had mentioned it me on more than one occasion, adamant as to its quality, but no one seemed to be able to turn up the complete recordings, and with Nikki's death, it seemed they were likely gone for good. Over its absence settled a patina of romance, and as with so much of Nikki it

PHIL  SHOENFELT

seemed fleeting, evanescent, now forever beyond grasp. Sometime last year Phil told me all the tapes had turned up and I guess I hoped to get a burn of it at some point, and then would arise the question of how the reality would match the myth. Well better than that it's got itself a proper release, through Troubadour, and, bless them both, they were right about it because it's a magnificent meeting of talents.
                     

Nikki Sudden & Phil Shoenfelt – Golden Vanity
Label: Troubadour – TRBCD009
Format: CD, Album
Country: UK
Released: 2009
Genre: Rock
Style: Alternative Rock, Indie Rock

TRAXS

                       

01. Hanoi Jane   6:02
Backing Vocals – Joe Armstrong, Mark Mulholland
Written-By – Sudden
02. Cloak Of Virtue   4:53
Written-By – Sudden, Shöenfelt
03. Jack Ketch   6:21
Acoustic Guitar – Nikki Sudden
Mandola – Mark Mulholland
Percussion [Ghost Percussion] – Dugald Jayes
Slide Guitar – Phil Shöenfelt
Written-By – Sudden, Howard
04. Portcullis   1:34
Written-By – Sudden, Shöenfelt
05. Love Makes Her Shine   4:04
Backing Vocals – Joe Armstrong, Mark Mulholland
Keyboards – Phil Shöenfelt
Written-By – Shöenfelt
06. Bang A Gong   5:18
Written-By – Sudden
07. Waiting For You   5:41
Mandola – Mark Mulholland
Written-By – Shöenfelt
08. Jamboree Bag   10:39
Guitar [Space Echo Guitar] – Phil Shöenfelt
Written-By – Picot, Sudden, Shöenfelt, Schmidt
09. Golden Door (Early Version Of Broken Door)   7:20
Written-By – Sudden
10. Teenage Sheets   3:55
Written-By – Sudden, Shöenfelt
11. Wage A Crown   1:31
Written-By – Sudden, Shöenfelt
12. Hangman's Daughter   5:15
Written-By – Sudden, Shöenfelt
13. Angel Wings   5:10
Written-By – Sudden, Shöenfelt
14. Cullisport   1:33
Written-By – Sudden, Shöenfelt
15. Master Sampson   0:35
Written-By – Sudden

NOTES

Recorded At – Interzone Studio
Bass Guitar, Backing Vocals – Carl Eugene Picot
Drums, Percussion – Robbie Schmidt
Engineer – Dugald Jayes
Mixed By – Dugald Jayes, Nikki Sudden, Phil Shöenfelt
Producer [Produced by] – Nikki Sudden, Phil Shöenfelt
Vocals, Electric Guitar, Acoustic Guitar – Phil Shoenfelt
Vocals, Electric Guitar, Keyboards, Percussion – Nikki Sudden

MP3 @ 320 Size: 162 MB
Flac  Size: 491 MB

Nikki Sudden on Urban Aspirines HERE
Phil Shoenfelt on Urban Aspirines HERE

Phil Shoenfelt And Southern Cross : Dead Flowers For Alice 1999

Phil Shoenfelt was born in Bradford, England, in 1952.
After colliding with the London Punk scene in the mid-1970’s, he moved to New York where he formed the post-punk noise band " Khmer rouge ". In the early 1980’s they supported acts such as "Suicide" , "Tom Verlaine", and "The Clash" and are featured on the “White Columns Noise Festival Tape” which also includes early versions of "Sonic Youth" and "Swans".

Khmer Rouge returned to London in 1984 and after supporting "The Fall" on two British tours split in 1986.


In 1989 Shoenfelt began a solo career, releasing records as Phil Shoenfelt.
One year later Paperhouse Records put out his album "Backwoods Crucifixion", in 1993 Shoenfelt's second album "God Is The Other Face Of The Devil" was released by Humbug Records. Since 1995 Shoenfelt lives in Prague, where he put together his current band, Phil Shoenfelt & Southern Cross (also: SHOENFELT). With Southern Cross he recorded by now three albums (Blue Highway, Dead Flowers For Alice, Ecstatic).

In 1992 he worked with "Crime And The City Solutions’s" singer Simon Bonney on his first solo album.
The next Phil Shoenfelt CD was “God Is The Other Face Of The Devil”, released on Humbug Records/Trident Music International in 1993, and in the summer of 1994 a tour of the Czech Republic was organised in conjunction with the popular Czech band "Ticha dohoda", who learned Shoenfelt’s songs and backed him on the tour.

Since 1995 Shoenfelt lives in Prague, where he put together his current band, Phil Shoenfelt & Southern Cross . With Southern Cross he recorded by now three albums (Blue Highway, Dead Flowers For Alice, Ecstatic).

In 1997 Shoenfelt founded a new band Fatal Shore, together with Bruno Adams and Chris Hughes (both ex-members of Once Upon A Time). They made 3 album CDs - Fatal Shore, Free Fall, Real World.

Phil Shoenfelt also collaborated with Nikki Sudden. On Sudden's 1997/1998 tour Shoenfelt was the lead guitarist.


Phil Shoenfelt & Southern Cross released their fourth studio album "Paranoia.com" on November 1st, 2010. This album contains 9 new songs and a cover version of Iggy Pop & The Stooges' "Open Up And Bleed".



Tracks

01 A Dialogue Between The Soul And Body 4:45
Lyrics By - Andrew Marvell
Music By - Phil Shoenfelt
02 Ballad Of Elijah Cain 10:19
03 Darkest Hour 4:34
04 Dead Flowers For Alice 5:13
05 Demon Seed 5:04
06 Letter From Berlin (Part 2) 5:47
07 Shining World 6:04
08 Traitor's Eyes 5:04
09 Veronika's Veil 4:28

A Dialogue Between The Soul And Body : An incredible song which based on a poem of Andrew Marvell (1621-1678)

Andrew Marvell (31 March 1621 – 16 August 1678) was an English Metaphysical Poet.

The metaphysical poets were a loose group of British lyric poets of the 17th century, who shared an interest in metaphysical concerns and a common way of investigating them, and whose work was characterised by inventiveness of metaphor (these involved comparisons being known as metaphysical conceits). These poets were not formally affiliated; most of them did not even know or read each other.


A DIALOGUE BETWEEN THE SOUL
AND BODY

Soul.

O, WHO shall from this dungeon raise
A soul enslaved so many ways ?
With bolts of bones, that fettered stands
In feet, and manacled in hands ;
Here blinded with an eye, and there
Deaf with the drumming of an ear ;

A soul hung up, as 'twere, in chains
Of nerves, and arteries, and veins ;
Tortured, besides each other part,
In a vain head, and double heart ?

Body.

O, who shall me deliver whole,
From bonds of this tyrannic soul ?
Which, stretched upright, impales me so
That mine own precipice I go ;
And warms and moves this needless frame,
(A fever could but do the same),
And, wanting where its spite to try,
Has made me live to let me die
A body that could never rest,
Since this ill spirit it possessed.

Soul.

What magic could me thus confine
Within another's grief to pine ?
Where, whatsoever it complain,
I feel, that cannot feel, the pain ;
And all my care itself employs,
That to preserve which me destroys ;
Constrained not only to endure
Diseases, but, what's worse, the cure ;
And, ready oft the port to gain,
Am shipwrecked into health again.

Body.

But Physic yet could never reach
The maladies thou me dost teach ;
Whom first the cramp of hope does tear,
And then the palsy shakes of fear ;
The pestilence of love does heat,
Or hatred's hidden ulcer eat ;
Joy's cheerful madness does perplex,
Or sorrow's other madness vex ;
Which knowledge forces me to know,
And memory will not forego ;
What but a soul could have the wit
To build me up for sin so fit ?
So architects do square and hew
Green trees that in the forest grew.



BALLAD OF ELIJAH CAIN

I dreamed that I was a sailor
John Pilgrim was my name
I sailed a ship out of Bristol town
Headed for the coast of Maine
My love she was a young girl
To me she was a queen
Her daddy was rich I was poor
She was just seventeen

I held her close beside me
And I told her my goodbye
How could I know that within a year
She was doomed to die
Now my fortune is a legend
Won by force of arms
But I'd give it all up just to get her back
With all her woman's charms

And the rain falls down
And the rain falls down
And the rain falls down
On me...

The Lord came down to Moses
And he said "Now listen well,
Write these words in stone
And take them down to Israel"
As the thunder came crashing
I went reaching for my gun
When in truth I was only aching
To put an end to what I've become

When I woke up the sun was shining
And I knew that you're gone
I know I said that I didn't care
Ah, but honey I was wrong
And I felt just like a soldier
When I walked into your room
You said you'd never betray me
But you spoke too soon

And the rain falls down
And the rain falls down
And the rain falls down
On me...

Now the road goes on forever
And the sky it never ends
East to west and north to south
And right back again
And as I lose my vision
Like some leper refugee
Out of space and out of time
And out of destiny

The last time that I saw her
She was standing in the street
The crowd flowed all around her
Like a river at her feet
I remember how she looked at me
With her dark and haunted eyes
Like a saint throen to the fire
Stripped of all disguise

And the rain falls down
And the rain falls down
And the rain falls down
On me

Label : ZYX Music
Catalog : TZ 40014-2
Recorded and mixed at Vintage studio
Pruhenice, Prague, December 1998
Format : CD, Album
Made in : Germany
Original Release Date : August 8, 1999

Phil Shoenfelt vocals, electric guitar, acoustic guitar
Pavel Cingl violins, electric guitars
Pavel Krtous bass guitar
Jarda Kvasnicka drums, percussion
guest musicians:
Dave Boulter organ
Tomas Brozek piano


CD Rip
Size : 119 MB
Bitrate : 320

Take it HERE


Phil Shoenfelt on this Blog HERE

Phil Shoenfelt : God Is The Other Face Of The Devil 1993

Tracks

1. Charlotte's Room

2. The Gambler

3. Alchemy

4. Hospital

5. Black Rain

6. Only you

7. Martha's Well

8. The Killer Inside

9. Well Of Souls
10. Pale Light Shining


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