“Things are good in Babylon, yeah the rich still get it on

But now they’ve got to build up a fence to protect their decadence

and every year they build a little higher, an extra tile in the wire

but I can’t help you baby when the empire falls”

It’s hard to see Bobby Conn as a modern day prophet, but the opening lines in the former Chicago punk’s second full-length release Rise Up! appear to indicate a chronicle of our times. Originally released in 1998, after his eponymous debut, the album was the first in a series describing the absurdities of modern western society and their inevitable consequences; in other words, matters of existence which keep us all wondering when civilization is likely to come crashing to its knees.

Heavily in debt and winding up in a state penitentiary for mail fraud, Conn hit on the idea that the root of his problems might be the daily preoccupation with earning more than he was spending. The solution was obvious: he would reverse his own small fortunes by giving money away as fast as he could earn it, a so-called ‘Continuous Cash Flow System’. Could the same model explain the collapse of western capitalism: spiraling debts leading to a massive spiritual vacuum and hastening Armageddon? The apocalyptical view popular among America’s right wing Christian groups was also fair game for Conn, and never one to shy away from publicity, he declared himself the Anti-Christ! I’m not making this stuff up, swear … but the sight of Conn ministering to his adoring fans like some sort of megalomaniacal preacher left many concert bystanders scratching their heads. So Rise Up! was largely ignored at the time of release, and now Fire Records have decided to re-issue it with some extra demo tracks, photos and enhanced liner notes to give people a flavour of the original concept. Meantime Conn has been touring it across Europe with current band The Burglars while they get material ready for the next release.

Conn has distanced himself from the earlier publicity stunts and eschewed the inevitable label of protest singer by subsequently producing a bunch of solid pop-rock albums. Rise Up! also has a lot to recommend it musically. With great insight, Conn actually read the signs early for the MP3 revolution and has served up music hopping about wildly and imaginatively from genre to genre, ably assisted by a group of longstanding buddies and musicians including his wife Monica BouBou. BouBou handles most of the orchestrations and plays piano, violin and melodica on Rise Up and her contribution gives the music a Brechtian quality and is quite simply a joy to behold. Conn is also joined on the album by avant-garde guitar maestro Jim O’Rourke who handles production duties and helps to create a rich musical palate throughout the recording.

The opening part of the album is a good case in point, with the first five tracks giving a Vaudevillian take on 60s psychedelia, 70′s glam rock and 80′s jazz-funk with some New Orleans jazz thrown in for good measure … at least I think that’s what he intended? So the title track starts like 70′s Steve Harley glam, before shifting up a gear into ‘Saturday Night Fever’ and finishing off ‘Jesus Christ Superstar’ with the anti-christ as Conn exclaims: “Jesus he came back/Jesus high on crack”. ‘Axis 67 Pt 2′ continues the religious theme but this is ditched for a beautiful funk ‘interlude’ where Serge Gainsbourg duals with Curtis Mayfield’s ‘Super Fly’ before the music spirals off cosmically into psychedelia aka The Zombies’ lost masterpiece Odessey And Oracle. Conn’s absurdist view of the world is further delivered in the guise of John Lydon and the Sex Pistols: ‘United Nations’ repeats the refrain that “United Nations … under the rule of Satan”. Next up, ‘California’ sounds anything but sunny, as the brass and orchestra bring a sense of menace and nightmare to Conn’s fading American dream. Zappa-esque, but all the whooping and hollering isn’t a million miles from something Tom Waits would do, and fifth in the sequence ‘Passover’ offers up something rather too close to pastiche.

The production on Rise Up! is a real jewel in the crown, O’Rourke allows the music to take shape seamlessly during the 40 or so minutes and gives it many subtleties worth hearing, a sort of history of music in miniature in much the same way as Mercury Rev’s classic Deserter’s Songs. Bobby Conn divides people in reviews, the words are not always a comfortable listen and the music easily lost in all the glitz and glamour.

As Conn reflects on the underside of the US with its crackpots and crackheads, his musical soundtrack is a fitting tribute to what may be an empire in decline; in any case, he reminds us how great American music can be! The words in finale “Rise Up Now” return us to the arc of existential themes and offer pause for thought:

“Now that I’m growing older moving slower feeling colder avoiding change and staying numb

I know that that’s the cure for my fears and I’m sure that I’ve improved since I was young

I’ve lost my fantasies and fairytales, I have forgotten how to dream …”