Mort de Patrick Mathé, fondateur du label New Rose — Libération 19 novembre 2018
In Memoriam: Patrick Mathé of New Rose & Last Call Records
Posted By *Alex Greene
Today, the French journal Libération reports that Patrick Mathé, co-founder of New Rose Records and Last Call Records, has died.
The details are not available at this time. He was 69.
originally linked by Alex Greene, editor Memphis Flyer, in his Memphis-centric tribute to Patrick Mathé
Mort de Patrick Mathé, fondateur du label New Rose
Figure importante du rock en France, Patrick Mathé est mort dimanche.
Né en 1949, il avait ouvert en 1980 le magasin New Rose à Paris, après avoir participé à l’importation du punk dans la capitale dès 1976.
New Rose deviendra rapidement l’un des centres névralgiques du rock dans la capitale.
Mathé lancera un label du même nom quelques mois plus tard, avec son associé Louis Thévenon.
Important figure of rock in France, Patrick Mathé died Sunday.
Born in 1949, he opened the New Rose store in Paris in 1980, after having participated in the importation of punk into Paris in 1976.
New Rose will quickly become one of the nerve centers of rock in the capital.
Mathé will launch a label of the same name a few months later with his partner Louis Thévenon.
—
my little bagatelle
—
Patrick Mathé, fondateur du New Rose Records, est décédé subitement, tout à fait trop jeune
par moi
On Facebook, the night before, Patrick Mathé was happily doing what he loved doing;
playing videos for himself, happy if others liked them (tasteful chestnuts, American outliers, Punk, obscure classics, soulful blues, New Orleans jazz, French pop and croon).He and his label will be familiar to half of Memphis or wherever erudite music-lovers gravitate.
my connection:
Our Favorite Band!
"Pink Cadillac"
James Barber
New Rose picks up distribution, and releases my band's debut, only LP,
Label:
Companies, etc.
- Phonographic Copyright (p) – Big Time Records (America) Inc.
- Copyright (c) – Big Time Records (America) Inc.
- Manufactured By – RCA Records
- Distributed By – RCA Records
Credits
- Performer – Donald W. Spicer, Maury O'Rourk
- Performer [Guest] – Doug Easley, Grady Pinkerton, Jason Ringenberg, Jeff Johnson (4), Jody Mallory, Leanne Smith, Mark Redding, Michael Stipe, Peter Hyrka, Randy Chertow, Ross Johnson, Steve Forbert, Tim Krekel, Tim Prudhomme, Ward Gros, Warner Hodges
- Producer – Donald W. Spicer
New Rose Records – ROSE 120
Country:
France
Released:
1987
Genre:
Rock
Notes
Michael Stipe appears as guest
Coincidentally, renowned Memphis rebound artist, Alex Chilton and OFB shared the same path from Big Time Records in America, having been signed by Jim BARBER in 1985, as well as the added distinction of both having been contemporaneously signed for exclusive distribution in all European markets by Patrick Mathé, New Rose Records.
I later went on to record and produce projects for New Rose, including LGL's LP, when I called Linda Gail the year before from the Memphis telephone book at Doug Easley's famous console, and asked her to duet with me on 'Oh, Boy!'
Approached by me after my duet with Linda Gail on 'Every Day's a Holly Day,' she jumped at her first chance to make a record in 10 years!
Bass – Ron Easley
Drums, Tambourine – Michael RadovskyGuitar, Lead Guitar, Recorded By – Doug EasleyGuitar, Producer – Donald W. Spicer
Vocals – Linda Gail Lewis, Maury O'Rourk
I remain eternally grateful to Patrick, who provided belief and support, enabling me, and providing much-needed boost for already legendary sister of Jerry Lee Lewis, Linda Gail Lewis, whose decade-long-dormancy was about to recover with the release of this album:
Linda Gail Lewis
'International Affair'
comeback album extraordinaire
Label:New Rose Records – ROSE 238 CDFormat:CD, AlbumCountry:FranceReleased:1990Genre:Rock*alex greene played on two tracks of my Linda Gail Lewis-produced record, released by New Rose, 1991, International Affair, as did Doug Easley, Lamar Sorrento, Steve Forbert and a cast of all-Memphis musicians too numerous to recountfrom
Patrick Mathé
New Rose Disque
Paris FR
1990
produced by *me
(*Doug "K-Dough" Easley pretty much did everything else).
@rxgau #thanks (the producer) #LindaGailLewis— mrjyn (@mrjyn) 23 juin 2018
International Affair [New Rose, 1991]
The long-ago costar of the lowbrow gem Together registers more twang per syllable than prime Duane Eddy, belting and screeching like a flat-out hillbilly--Jeannie C. Riley https://t.co/dq8SGxo5O1
Linda Gail Lewis
- International Affair
- A-
Consumer Guide Review:
Robert Christgau
The long-ago costar of the lowbrow gem Together registers more twang per syllable than prime Duane Eddy, belting and screeching like a flat-out hillbilly--Jeannie C. Riley, say. But though I'd love to hear her "Harper Valley P.T.A." (or "Fist City," or "9 to 5"), she's Jerry Lee's sister, wild-ass before she's anything else.
She doesn't ignore country on this band-centered studio job, but except for Billy Swan's "I Can Help" ("If your child needs a mama we can discuss that too"), the standouts are from Wolf-Justman, Dave Edmunds, Bob Dylan, all of whom should be damn proud.
Covering "They Called It Rock," she gets up to "Someone in the newspaper said it was shit," and instead of rushing discreetly on to the next line she draws out that last word with the relish of a gal who's waited to sing it all her life. A-
Glowingly praised (that's about the best thing she or I have ever read) from Robert Christagau in his essential, annual Village Voice, Pazz and Jop best-of.
International Affair
Tracklist
1 I Can Help Written-By – Billy Swan3:23 2 We Were Both Wrong Written-By – B. Murray*2:40 3 Cry One More Time Written-By – Wolf*, Justman*2:47 4 They Call It Rock Written-By – Dave Edmunds, Nick Lowe4:10 5 Clean Cut Kid Written-By – Bob Dylan3:47 6 A.I. On The Jukebox Written-By – Dave Edmunds, Will Birch3:23 7 Suddenly Single Written-By – Hutch Hornsby3:13 8 Tongue And Cheek Written-By – D. Gillespie*4:11 9 I Feel So Bad Written By – Johnson, Tample3:00 10 Las Vegas (With Maury O'Rourk, Live) Written-By – G. Parsons*, Rick Grech4:41
- Engineer – Davis McCain, Doug "K-Dough" Easley*
- Photography By – Doug Easley, Trey Harrison
- Producer – Maury O'Rourk
- Sleeve – Huart/Cholley
Recorded and mixed at Easley Recordings, Memphis, TN
*This album is dedicated to the greatest entertainer in the word: my brother JERRY LEE LEWIS.
I've learned so much from him: not just about music, but about myself and life.
He will always be my greatest inspiration! He told me something recently that I will never forget, he said,
"Linda, play music because you love it, not for any other reason but just because you love it."
— Linda Gail Lewis
Patrick
Mathe and New Rose front-loaded a small
but graciously accepted all-in budget of $6,000 1990 dollars.
Recorded at Doug
Easley's original backyard studio, i themed out a
strange Memphis Honky
Tonk gumbo absorbed by mine and Doug Easley's
frequent outings to Hernando's Hideaway,
enshrining its atmosphere, and hiring
some of its house band to capture the anomaly which was
HH; proudly
constructed sans provenance as an organic,
hand-picked,
all-Memphis
group of disparate but weirdly compatible coequal
friends and HH musicians.
My project, Linda Gail Lewis "International Affair," propelled her from Hernando's Hideaway to Van Morrison and beyond, reinstating her filial supremacy as lifetime opener for her brother Jerry Lee Lewis and current, outrageously successful tour of Rockabilly Heaven, Sweden.
This project was a joy to put together, generously mentored by the ever-inspired, ever-inspiring Doug Easley (tell him hello when you see him, and show him this).
From there, Linda Gail Lewis spent the equivalent probationary period as her brother had suffered, following his infamous London debacle with new bride, 13-year-old cousin Myra Gail Lewis.
Arduous years of networking the Rockabilly Trail from Memphis to Malmo, LGL has reemerged as the natural force of nature she is, recovered and fully-bloomed as we speak.
Patrick Mathé collected a truly eclectic stable of artists, most of whom will remember his quick-dealing, non-interference and polite but firm confidence; signing bands from the gut and heart
(Memphis will recognize Patrick in its own original fulminator, Sam Phillips).
Memphis-talent Patrick Mathé intuitively signed:
Tav Falco and Panther Burns, Alex Chilton, Jim Dickinson Mudboy and the Neutrons, Country Rockers, Our Favorite Band, Hellcats, Linda Gail Lewis and Charlie Feather's masterwork (and that's just a greatest-hits of Memphis).
His perfect ear corralled disparate bands (not to him) into an exclusive club, forming a massive catalogue, both varietal and cohesive with a continuity borne from his process:
sell immediately,
recycle small profits,
reinvest in ever-increasing label and catalogue,
exponentially fund newer, less marketable acts,
REPEAT.
Patrick Mathé either started your career in European markets, parlayed in America with a more mature, confidence, or gave them the shot needed to more easily ween-off an old back catalogue, creating a new following; all because of one man.
Patrick Mathé and his label held belief in artists such as these, in many cases representing a first interest or investment for a decade.
h c |
The super-luxe, shiny New Rose upgrade was due to the gifted design team of Huart & Cholley, two unheralded geniuses whose loyalty and mutual respect for Patrick Mathé shown in every detail — finely produced for approval from their friend, whose enthusiasm never wavered, album to album.
H&C consistently created album art never to be seen this way again; lush, decadently rich design, unrivaled by, yet out-spent, by the majors.
Whether you noticed or not, their covers are unequal to their investment, inspiring bands to deliver quality.
I refer to their secret weapon as a fine Champagne.
Elan, énergie oozing from each LP, a suppurating, small-batch Bourbon.
A discretely placed stamp whispered exquisite restraint, continuity, and sublime distinction,
reading in 9-pica brand-chic typography, "Made in Paris," issued from small but mighty New Rose Disque-fondateur du label New Rose.
Maury O'Rourk
Vocals
Our Favorite Band!* - Pink Cadillac Praxis Records 1981 1 1 Oh Boy Various - Everyday Is A Holly Day New Rose Records 1989 Instruments & Performance
OFB* - Saturday Nights...Sunday Mornings (LP, Album) Big Time 6041-1-B 1987 Writing & Arrangement
Our Favorite Band!* - Pink Cadillac Praxis Records 1981 1 1 Production
Linda Gail Lewis - International Affair New Rose Records 1990 Visual
Kim Fowley - Sex Cars & God (2xCD, Album) Koch International 333352 1998 Timothy Prudhomme - With The Hole Dug (CD, Album) Smells Like Records slr047 2002
Two new essay collections, published by Duke
University Press
Book Reports features reviews of not only the pop-music tomes you'd predict but also literary fiction, Marxist-adjacent cultural commentary, feminist debates over pornography, and even books about the past decade's financial crisis. It follows a collection that Christgau published last year,
Is It Still Good to Ya? Fifty Years of Rock Criticism, 1967-2017, which includes Christgau's takes on, among many other things, classic rock, Kanye West, the music of Desert Storm, Lollapalooza, Ladysmith Black Mambazo, and so-called guilty pleasures--a category that Christgau rejects, since, for rock critics, as he puts it, "pleasure is where meaning begins." Together, these collections make the sneaky case that Christgau is not just the Dean of American Rock Critics, his self-awarded and perhaps slightly off-putting nickname, but one of America's sharper public intellectuals of the past half century, and certainly one of its most influential--not to mention one of the better stylists in that cohort. Fun is a big part of why.
--David Cantwell, The New Yorker
Posted by mrjyn 08/07/2019 at 5:14 AM