Snuck Up On You

#3 in an ongoing series from Junk Drawer contributor RW about his experience working @ The Beachland Tavern in Cleveland, OH.

 

Sometimes it takes a while to get in the groove. It might take half a set to get into a band, especially one that plays a genre you're not into. That's what a lot of the bartenders at the Beachland say.

 

Sometimes what wins you over is the fact that they're working so hard, sometimes it's how enthusiastic they are about what they're doing.

 

Diego Garcia was both. It was a damn cold night in Cleveland. I think everyone was a bit grim. I certainly was, sitting at the door, cursing everyone who came in and lowered my body temperature.

 

I definitely wasn't up for romantic latin ballads. But Garcia and his band were so obviously into the music, so happy to be playing even to a small crowd in Cleveland that it became contagious.

 

Diego Garcia - "Roses and Wine"

 

 

Diego Garcia - "All Eyes on You"

 

 

 

The other band that comes to mind is Angela Perley and the Howlin' Moons. I mean, I like my share of honky tonk, but to be honest, I hardly have any in my music collection, but the guitar player in the band was just blistering that night.

 

Angela Perley & The Howlin' Moons - "18 Feet Under"

 

 

It was country and rock, and we all loved it.  

Mood Music Revisited

I posted on Valentine's Day a couple of years ago but this year people seem pretty touchy about the subject. 

This cartoon from The Oatmeal pretty much sums up the reaction I have been getting and my feelings on the subject - it is fine if you don't want to participate, but don't harsh the vibe of the lovers, man!

And one of the greatest things about the multifaceted feelings we define as LOVE is the music that it inspires.  I would like to once again celebrate sexy vibe music with these carefully selected tracks:

letthemusicplay featuring Kate Tempest - "Our Town"



Now the music in that track isn't all that revelatory, but this Kate Tempest is something else.  Her lyrics are a rework of a poem she did (below) and I love her delivery. Spend some time on Youtube checking her out, she is a poet of PASSION.



This next one feels like it could just make a baby on its own so be warned. Until The Ribbon Breaks is the moniker of a UK DJ by the name of Pete Lawrie Winfield and it is a reference to the good ol' cassette days when you crushed on a song so hard that you played it until the...well, you know. 

Sam Smith - "Nirvana (Until The Ribbon Breaks Re-Imagination)"



That video has a little something for everyone - silky teddy inching up creamy thighs for the fellas and Ryan Gosling for the ladies.  I imagine all the footage is from that other Nicolas Winding Refn joint that I haven't seen.   I can't imagine that the film is nearly as seductive as this jam. 

Until The Ribbon Breaks is pretty talented, he even made a remix of Lorde's "Royals" that I was impressed by even though I would like to never hear the oversaturated original again.

Then there is this next cut that is so smouldering that a woman who goes by the name Skin Diamond can't stop dancing to it.  There are fourteen versions of this song on Youtube but this one wins because it has (a blurry) Bridgette Bardot. 

Incidentally, I can't decide if Skin Diamond is the creepiest or the most provocative porn star name I have ever heard.  Thoughts?

Handsome Boy Modeling School featuring Cat Power - "I've Been Thinking"



For a good while Chan Marshall was on my Top Five "Freebie" list and so of course I thought of the other musicians that have made that distinction. 

I can't imagine how I might make the moves on current day Polly Jean Harvey but there is no denying that I have found much of her music stimulating.  Maybe the direct approach would work?

Desert Sessions featuring PJ Harvey - "I Wanna Make It Wit Chu"

New Music: Misun

This past weekend DJ JD (that's me!) participated in a Year's End Listening Party, hanging with some of my favorite music addicts as we try to cram a year's worth of sharing and listening into about five hours.  

Just thinking about it makes me both excited and anxious.   When your turn comes up, you have just three cuts.  You hope to make a connection, but irregardless if you succeed, it is all a blur.  

It makes me pine for those long evenings back in college when the gang would spend an evening digesting an entire album together, decoding its meaning and talking about its significance.  Wasted youth is wasted on the young. (That is not a typo.)

So much didn't get played - (Barsk didn't even play Mogwai!) - that I am reminded why I decided to start this blog: to share music that I dig. 

So, here was a late 2013 discovery for me that I am excited about, a band called Misun (pronounced Me-Sun) from Washington D.C.

The band termed their sound Aquawave but I happen to think it fits just fine under the banner of well crafted Pop music. Considering they are a DC band, perhaps it would be most fitting if they had "Go-Go" in their genre tag.  

Regardless of how you would describe them, I had these three cuts lined up in my iPod for the Listening Party and they never got airtime.  So here they are for your listening pleasure, dig in. 

Battlefields


Battlefields sounds like it could open a Quentin Tarantino movie.  A surf retro shuffle with tough soul. 

Nothing Else


Nothing Else was actually the first track I heard from Misun thanks to Pigeons & Planes, a site with a ton of daily content.  Most of what I hear there doesn't stick with me but this shimmering kiss off song obviously sent me on a hunt for more.  

Sharpshooter


Sharpshooter give us a just a tinge of dubby reverb and a bleary vocal delivery with just the right dosage of The Ache.  Oh yes.  

With these three tracks as a representative sample, it seems evident that Misun are still building their sound and that is exciting. From what they have come up with so far, it is clear that the field is wide open. 

They have released a great deal of singles digitally for free on Soundcloud so far, but nothing in any physical format.   That is about to change with their first 7" single (preview below) now taking pre-orders and shipping February 18th.  



Will I be purchasing?  You betcha!

The Nice Price: Groove Is In The Heart & More

As hobbies go, vinyl collecting has been gaining tremendous momentum. 

This increased interest has meant more & more new stuff is being released on wax but it also has made it harder to find a bargain when it comes to the dusties.  

Suddenly everyone has an opinion on a record's value.  The prevailing sentiment used to be one of "please take these ridiculously heavy piles of plastic off my hands!"  

I truly got into record collecting just before it took off as a way to stretch my music buying budget.  More sales of records means more speculators, more flippers, more deluxe reissues, special editions and generally more headaches.  
Perhaps the cheap scores for the Junk Drawer have become all the more sweet as a result.  I rarely walk into a record store with a predetermined idea of what I am going to leave with under my arm. 


It is all about The Find and if the sticker lists a price $5 or less then I am definitely going to be a little more adventurous.  

SO, without further ado - here is the first installment of the The Nice Price!

Deee-Lite – Groove Is In The Heart  12” – scored for $5 at Logan Hardware

The easy rationale is you don’t have to own another Deee-Lite song, but the power of this one is undeniable.  My kids LOVE this song, although much to the chagrin of my wife they persist in misinterpreting one of the refrains as “No, I don’t miss my mother!” 

I also love the shades of Hanna Barbera cover especially considering that you don’t expect much in the way of artwork for 12” singles. This record is in mint condition too.  

There is a cute story about this score too:

My son is a fan of Logan Hardware thanks to their videogame room.  We bought this together (I think he was the one that found it even) and then we spent a solid hour playing Teenage Mutant Turtles to completion. 

Later when we were showing off our spoils, D spotted this one and asked me, "Don't you already own this?"
To which Adam defended, "Yeah, but now he has it on a record, mom."

This also gives me an excuse to share this nice remix from my friend that has a project called Altered Tapes. 

****

Sneaker Pimps - Spin Spin Sugar 12" - scored at Reckless for $2.



Some delicious mid 90s Trip Hop ear candy for a price that is more than fair. Heck, I pay more for actual candy.  Lately a king sized Fast Break has become a habitual sugar balm on my post work commute and that sets me back a Thomas Jefferson and some change.

This would sugar would have been all the sweeter if any of the remixes were worth a damn.  Sorry Armand Van Helden, maybe you shouldn't have partied so hard the night before this assignment was due. 

***

Mogwai - Fear Satan Remixes 12" - scored at Gramaphone for $4. 



Thanks to G$ I learned about a 50% off sale at Gramaphone last year - a store I rarely venture into because it is off my beaten path and it intimidates the hell out of me.  But as I said before, if the price is right, the Junk Drawer will definitely gamble. 

Not that this particular score was a gamble.  Not with Kevin Shields doing a 15 minute rework of a track with SATAN in the title. Mu-Ziq & Surgeon also take a stab at it on side B.  

I tried to give this to Barsky last time I saw him - I figured it was about the price of a greeting card and he would appreciate it.  He left without it so now it is on me to remember to give it to him again next time around.    

***

Human Sexual Response – Fig. 14 – scored for $3 shipped on eBay.

First off, the cover.  

Second, this band just played songs about whatever the fuck they were interested in, like this one below that was inspired by a visit to the Anne Frank house.  This is steeped in some 80s angst.

How does it feel to be invisible?

To know the future and not be miserable?

The main songwriter, Larry Bangor, went on to form The Zulus – a Junk Drawer favorite that never broke out of regional success in the Boston area despite a legendary reputation for their explosive live performances.  

This is actually a duplicate score for me, at this price I just nabbed it so I could gift it to someone and I am giving it to G$ because that guy has a paltry collection of rekkids and rarely gets a chance to shop for vinyl. 

That's all for now readers.  What do you think of this of The Nice Price as a semi-regular feature?

I Gotsta Get Paid

Welcome to 2014!  

Big plans are brewing for the Junk Drawer this year but for now I just wanted to share this with you in case you are like me and sometimes worry that the state of music is changing too much and too fast...

Apparently ZZ Top are still making music videos with hot rods and babes. It may seem a bit anachronistic but I personally take comfort in this.  

Now I realize that this video was released in 2012 but tonight was the first time I laid eyes and ears on it.  

You gotsta check it out:


Man, I had such a thing for one of the original ZZ Top Muses, Jeana Tomasina, that well... I still know her name to this day!

  

The Family You Choose

#2 in an ongoing series from Junk Drawer contributor RW about his experience working at The Beachland Tavern in Cleveland, OH.

A jam band is playing in the ballroom. This means there are more blonde dreadlocks, hula hoops  and Cat in the Hat hats than usual at the Beachland tonight.

I'm working the door, checking ID's, making sure people can find the bathrooms and the bar, though not in that order. I wish I was working the Tavern though.

Night Sweats is headlining there (We have two venues, the intimate tavern and the ballroom). And I was hoping to get a look at  Bobbypins debut performance. They are the opener and consist of two regulars here at the club and one of our bartenders, Lyndsey. Actually both bands have staff members in them. Jeff, a manager here plays bass in Night Sweats.

 

No surprise really, club workers in bands. Terry and Melanie (a bartender and a manager) are thinking of forming a band simply because they are some of the few employees who aren't already in one. Of course, they're visual artists, so they're pretty darn close.

It's nice to see everyone supporting each other. Jeff supporting Lyndsey by inviting her band to open for his, the kitchen crew coming out after the kitchen closes to yell “Yes!!” at his band's every screaming punk riff.

A music club can become a bit of a family for the people working there – yes it's a fucked-up dysfunctional family, but what family isn't? The advantage, here at the Beachland at least, is that most every family member is connected by a love of music.

Night Sweats is singing a song called “Piss,” and everyone here feels like they are just where they belong.

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.