“I’ve rarely if ever witnessed an artist on this kind of roll.” –Robert Christgau, Village Voice Devilishly crafted and scarily melodic, Gold Brick is Langford’s third solo album and the proper follow-up to 1998’s Skull Orchard. It finds him back with ROIR, the pioneering New York label that released The Mekons’ classic New York album in the late 80s. Collaborating with a band that includes Pine Valley Cosmonauts John Rice & Pat Brennan, Waco Brother Alan Doughty, Jean Cook and Dan Massey, this is probably Langford’s most consistent and coherent recording to date. While 2004’s All The Fame of Lofty Deeds (Bloodshot) took about a week to record and was described as “an Alt-Country Ziggy Stardust,” Gold Brick is a far more lush & expansive project that draws parallels between the bloody birth of America and the seismic shifts of today’s globalization. Subtitled Lies of the Great Explorers and Columbus at Guantanamo Bay, it’s just as much about America and its way of life as it is about Langford’s own search for community within those bounds. Jon taps into universal themes of exile, exploitation & extremism by observing and participating in quintessentially American activities as a Welsh expatriate—from the strip joint to the strip mall and every bar in between. He even has balls enough to cover Procol Harum’s classic “A Salty Dog.” "The other solo albums were pretty tightly focused; but Gold Brick is much more wide-screen, drawing on the whole sweep of history and the sorry