Chicago alt-rock veteran Chris Connelly has released “Nothin’ But A Rock Song,” the second preview of his album Doo Wop In The Dark: A Portrait of Lou Reed, due October 16 via Shipwrecked Industries with distribution by Virtual Label.
Rooted in the raw, wired fury of 1974, the track finds Connelly channeling Lou Reed at his most dangerous: restless and utterly uncompromising.
“After the world rejected The Velvets, and his record company rejected his masterpiece ‘Berlin’, Lou Reed became an angry, wired ghost, stalking the stage with a rock band, pumping steroids and speed into his music as he spat in the face of the music industry, using his scythe-like tongue to cut down everyone in his way,” explains Connelly.
The song was produced by Connelly and his Sons of the Silent Age bandmate Alan Holden Berliant, and performed by the pair alongside Chris Bruce, whose credits include Meshell Ndegeocello, Seal, Aaron Neville, Bob Dylan, The Waterboys and Sheryl Crow. The video comes from Glasgow-based producer Iain Mutch, also known as Walkerandwilliam, a frequent Connelly collaborator who previously handled the video for “Femme Fatale.”
Get the single: shipwrecked.lnk.to | Bandcamp
A Portrait, Not A Tribute
The album follows Connelly’s acclaimed 2022 record Eulogy to Christa, a 20-track collection dedicated to Nico. This time he turns to Lewis Allan Reed, mixing Reed’s own compositions spanning the Velvet Underground onwards with songs Connelly wrote himself, tracing Reed’s creative and often turbulent path from his teenage years through to his death in 2013.
With over four decades of his own boundary-pushing behind him, Connelly approaches Reed as a fellow outsider rather than a distant icon. The record is also dedicated to his late friend Zak Boerger (1973-2025).
Connelly first previewed the album with “House of 70’s,” which he describes as “Lou Reed’s New York of the early- to mid-70s distilled into a rock song.” That video was produced by Someoddpilot Studios and directed by Chris Eichenseer, featuring dancers Kira Leadholm and Jay Drenkel.
Since his days with Fini Tribe in Edinburgh, Connelly has worked with Ministry, The Revolting Cocks and Pigface, released over 20 solo records and authored four books. His most recent releases include the Fini Tribe anthology The Sheer Action of Fini Tribe: 1982-1987 and The Lives and Loves of the Serial Homesick, Vol. 1.
Doo Wop In The Dark arrives digitally and as a limited edition two-CD set, with a selection of tracks also appearing on vinyl.
Pre-order the album: shipwrecked.lnk.to/doowop | Bandcamp
Album Release Show
Chris Connelly and the Dirty French Novels perform at the album launch party on October 7 at Robert’s Westside in Forest Park, Illinois. Tickets here.
Album Credits
- Chris Connelly – vocals, guitar, harmonium, bass, keyboards, glockenspiel
- Chris Bruce – guitar, programming, bass, keyboards, pedal steel guitar
- Alan Holden Berliant – guitar, keyboards, bass, programming
- Jebin Bruni – additional keyboards on “Bye Bye Johnny Viola”
Produced by Chris Connelly and Alan Holden Berliant, except “Babyface,” “Bye Bye Johnny Viola,” “Doin’ The Things That We Want To” and “One Too Many Mysteries,” produced by Chris Bruce. Mixed by Berliant and Bruce in Chicago and New York between 2023 and 2026, mastered by James Scott at Populist Recording & Mastering. Cover photography by Derick Smith, layout by Kimberly Blessing.
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