What I Might Do - Take 3

Most of the time, simplicity rules.  As a debut single this is very, very impressive deep house with a real soulful feel.  

Granted, this is not my go-to genre of music.  I can't call myself a scholar or even a devout student.  But I like what I like and this is my blog so I am sharing it.  

Still, I almost would not have discovered this track due to poor visual choices. 

The first video for it was just meh.  Released over a year ago, if this video below had been my introduction to the track I might not have heard the whole song.   The video actually subdues the bounce which is too bad because it looked expensive to shoot.  

Maybe skip it and keep reading and come back to it at the end and you will see what I mean. 



Then in October of this year they released the next video below for the club edit.  The methodology, as astutely observed by one Youtube commenter, was "ass, ass everywhere".  

Again - it looks expensive but if this had been my introduction I honestly might have watched it to the end for the exquisite as..um...shots of Tel Aviv.  

But I still would have been unmoved by the music. This video keeps the viewer outside of the fun.  This video says - this song is not really for you.  

So again, maybe skip this video for now and come back to it if you want at the end. 



Thankfully, whoever is working with Ben Pearce believes in this track and they kept making videos for it.  THIS video below is the one I just saw yesterday and I have now listened to it ten times.  

The video makes you feel like you could be part of this party.  It doesn't look expensive - heck, a lot of it is out of focus - but it does look like a lot of fun and that is what I look for in a dance track. 

WATCH THIS ONE FIRST: 


If I am going get freaky, I want to know that other people are going to go there with me, right?  

Seriously, if this doesn't move something in your body you might want to reach for the oil can because you iz rusted. 

So thanks for going back to the drawing board for multiple takes, Ben Pearce. I want to come to your next party.  If you want to invite the surfer girls too that is okay by me.  Just don't forget to invite your friends Sophia Disgrace, Remi Black and that guy in the pink shirt that looks like my brother-in-law. Those are my people.      

Reports from the Beachland with RW

Exciting news here at the Junk Drawer - we have a guest contributor!

My good buddy RW lives in Cleveland and he will be telling us about shows that he sees and other observations from his job at the Beachland.  

That is all I am going to put out as an introduction because I hope my faithful readers that don't already know RW will get to know him and the Cleveland music scene through his writing.  

Thursday 21 November 2013 at the Beachland

Saw Mono. For some reason they didn't do it for me tonight. I've always liked their approach to songs: quiet beginnings that lead to cacophonous walls of sound. 

But tonight the quiet beginnings struck me as precious. They didn't grab me, and I found myself twiddling my fingers, waiting for the feedback.

I remain a fan.

The surprise of the evening was Mick Turner, who opened. I wasn't familiar with him at all. In fact, I thought I'd missed the opening act completely. I thought the older guy on stage was sound-checking Mono's instruments.

He was doing the one-man band act, creating drum rhythms, loops, all with a lyrical and sometimes blistering guitar over the top. It was engaging and beautiful. I think I saw a member of Mono watching admiringly from behind the sound booth.

Cocksure

Is there a nation that is more fluent in swear words than Scotland?

I seriously doubt it - somehow the brogue really brings the filth to the forefront.

Earlier this week I was making a mix for Mitchell and I went out of my way (aka digging through boxes) to put on the eponymous track from Murder Inc. 

Released in 1992 during one of Killing Joke's many hiatuses, Murder Inc. featured Chris Connelly on vocals and his menace and swagger are used to a beautifully bruising effect when he declares - "Make no mistake, we've come to fuck you over"

21 years later - today - Connelly reaches out on Facebook with that sardonic and self-deprecating Scottish wit:

The Revolting Cocks (well, some of them) are back... now they're COCKSURE! If you ever had nostalgia for the giddy heights of 1987 but still have modern aspirations, you will not be disappointed -- the album is packed with grooves, laughs and dirty words!

In the parlance of our times, instead of a few well placed F-bombs there is a LOT of swearing on this track.  Definitely NSFW.



As someone who spent the last two days with Nitzer Ebb's "Belief"* in my car's tape deck, I feel I qualify as one who is open to something that is reminiscent of Wax Trax's glory days with current production values. 

"There was a laugh track at my arraignment..."

 I like this track and I want the rest of this album to follow suit. 

*"Belief" holds up very well, btw. back in the day I played this tape so much that the lettering faded off one side. 

Blank Project

When Neneh Cherry teamed up with The Thing, the result knocked me on my ass.  

One year later, The Cherry Thing is still an album I turn to when I want a heaviness that swings.  

So learning that I have to wait until mid-February to hear more of this upcoming solo album from Ms. Cherry is definitely going to test my patience. 

Produced by Four Tet?  Yeah, my instincts are telling me to bet high on this one. 

What is in a name?

About a week ago, I was in a conversation with SD and Trocc after a show at Schuba's.  The topic had drifted to music (surprise) and I was struggling temporarily to remember a band's name...

Me: "Shoot, umm...it is one of those bands with a three word name..."

SD: "Steel Pole Bathtub?"...chuckle...

SD: "King Cobb Steelie?"...snicker...

Me:  "Shut it!  No, it was...um...AGENT SIDE GRINDER!"...giggles...

Trocc: "That is a terrible name."

And I couldn't really disagree with him.  Except I did - because I like the band.  

That is why SD was chuckling at his suggestions as well because the Junk Drawer has a soft spot for both Steel Pole Bathtub and King Cobb Steelie. 

SD could give a fuck about those bands but he listens to bands with names like Sunburned Hand of the Man, Pocahaunted, and MV & EE so take his opinion on chuckle worthy band names with a grain of salt.    

But this got me thinking of about how the name of something is completely irrelevant, until you start creating a reputation for that name.  Then that is your brand, right?

It is easy to slag band names when you don't have any interest in their music. But once you fall under the spell of the music you can forgive practically any name.  
Here are a few that currently annoy me: 

• MGMT - so, I am supposed to say each letter of this name? Why exactly? This band used be called The Management and then when they found out some other band had that awful name, rather than take that as a sign they simply started calling themselves the abbreviation of the word.  I hate the word management, partly because the worst/pointless/LONG meetings I have to attend all start with it.  
• Trampled By Turtles -  aren't we clever? 
• The Pains of Being Pure of Heart -- nothing this twee sounding could be good for you in the long run. 
• Mumford & Sons -- a bit too on the nose for their style of new wave banjo, polished old timey-ness.  Plus it makes me think of Sanford & Son whose theme song I like infinitely better than anything that XRT has forced me to listen to by these guys. 

What band names do you dislike without any regard or knowledge of their music?

Four Fists

Here's something to shake the cobwebs out of your Monday afternoon. 

I am starting to get really excited for this upcoming full length collaboration between P.O.S. and Astronautalis - they are calling themselves Four Fists and here is a song that they did a while back but is just getting released as a 7" now as a bit of a teaser. 

I have only seen Astronautalis once but he definitely dances to the beat of his own drum and in his own words, he is fast becoming the Killah Priest to Doomtree's Wu-Tang Clan, with scads of appearances on their best joints.

For instance, here he is on one of my favorite tracks from last year's album from P.O.S. 

Not game for a lame name change

Jefferson Airplane - "White Rabbit" & "Somebody To Love," legendary performances like the Monterey Pop Festival. 

Jefferson Starship - Blows Against The Empire  wins a sci-fi Hugo Award but is burdened over time with "concept album creakiness."

Starship - performing on the Star Wars Holiday Special with a guy (not Grace Slick!!) singing into what looks like a neon dildo - "We Built This City" & "Nothing's Gonna Stop Us Now."

Where am I going with this, you ask?

Fair enough. I am distressed by news of an impending name change.  I fear that it signals a creative nadir of something that I once cherished. 

Y'see, I didn't always work for an organization whose mission is to prevent and end homelessness.  For a decade I ran an organization that tried to improve the quality of life for homeless children.  

It was such a small organization that I was involved in every single facet of it. It was such a part of my identity that when someone spoke of it by name I felt like they were also saying the name I was born with.  

And I was fine with that because it was a solid name, a righteous name. A name that conferred vitality and a directive.  I was there when this name was born out of necessity and I tried to live up to that name 365 days a year.   

As I made what I hoped to be a graceful exit, I seriously considered getting that name as a tattoo.  Boy am I glad I didn't act on that impulse!  

Yesterday I learned that with the help of a consulting group, it has been decided to replace this name that has served the charity well for 14 years.

First of all - FUCK that consultant and to hell with the entire field of consulting. If I never work with a consultant again for the rest of my professional life I will not regret it.  

Consultants justify their existence by presenting themselves as agents of change - whether that change is needed or not soon becomes irrelevant.  They predicate action fueled by the insecurities of people made to fear that they are clinging to some outdated model of success. 

This is nothing new.  Committees love to cede decisions to an outside expert rather than lead and risk having their convictions challenged.  

The only time I could see clear to hiring a consultant is if his name is The Wolf and I just accidentally blew someone's brains all over the back of my car.

Now, you've got a corpse in a car, minus a head, in a garage.
Take me to it.

But to add insult to injury - the new name is a genuine headscratcher on the WTF-scale of Huh?!? 

It isn't going to be publicly revealed for a few months so I don't want to ruin the surprise (and I guess I hope it isn't too late to turn this camel around). But if you want to hear it, just get a hold of me. 

I was talking about this with my composer buddy SW and his first lament was that the departing name even had a nice octave progression.  

The whole ten years, saying it every time I answered the phone, and I had no idea that there was an octave progression at work.  

To me it just had a "nice ring to it".  Now I feel stupid to admit that because the mission of the organization is to bring music education to underprivileged children that wouldn't otherwise get it. 

This new name that is coming down the pike is just a brick.  A part of my past is dying and in case you couldn't tell I am not happy about it.