ESOPUS MAGAZINE ::: Archive

ESOPUS CD #8: SPAM

For our eighth CD invitational, we asked musicians to brave the darkest corners of the Internet: their junk-mail folders. Out of the ghostly text-jumbles, incredible spelling aberrations, pharmaceutical discounts, and porn packaged in Asian languages, 10 acts were able to make good on something so, so bad.

TRACK LIST:

1. "Flare Gun," by Final Fantasy
2. "Agents of the Corps," by the Submarines
3. "Call of the Wily," by Greg Tate's Garage Band
4. "For Me to Say," by Frida Hyvönen
5. "Walk Around the Lake," by Lost in the Trees
6. "The Secret Rite of Tantilization," by the Family Doctor
7. "My Rumania," by Harmony and Pollution
8. "Graduation Day," by Dylan in the Movies
9. "Imperfections," by the Moral Loopholes
10. "Sunday on Prozac," by Needle

MUSICIANS' BIOS

Dylan in the Movies is a rotating group of musicians led by Bostonian singer/songwriter Brian Sullivan. The band’s first effort, Don’t Postpone Joy, was released in 2000; Feel the Pull followed in 2005. A full-length album is scheduled to appear later this year.

The Family Doctor is a side project of the Felice Brothers. Simone, Ian, and James Felice, the eldest of seven children, hail from the Woodstock, NY, area. Their full-length debut—the final album to be recorded at that town’s legendary Bearsville Studios—will be released later this year on both Stewart House Records in the U.S. and Loose Music in the U.K.

Singer and violinist Owen Pallett began his musical career at the age of 12 by scoring a video game. He is the principal member of the Toronto–based musical project Final Fantasy. His debut album, Has a Good Home, was released in 2006 by Blocks, a cooperative record label he cofounded; his second, He Poos Clouds, appeared in 2006 on the Tomlab label. Pallett, who has recorded and toured with the Arcade Fire, the Hidden Cameras, and Jim Guthrie, is currently working on a commission from Tafelmusik.

Born in the north of Sweden, singer/songwriter Frida Hyvönen released her debut album, Until Death Comes, on Secretly Canadian in 2006. She gave up the lease on her Stockholm apartment nearly a year ago and has been touring extensively throughout Europe and the U.S. ever since. Her most recent release (on Licking Fingers) is the first in her “Frida Hyvönen Gives You...” series and features music she composed for the dance Pudel, choreographed by Dorte Olesen.

Harmony and Pollution is the project of musician Jason P. Grisell and friends. Grisell, who currently lives in Brooklyn, has released three albums under that moniker, most recently the EP Ojai (Felt Records). He is also a member of The Grand Hotel, a collaboration with Christopher Larose.

Lost in the Trees is a 10-piece orchestra led by Ari Picker, formerly of the Never and the B-Sides. The group, which formed in Boston while Picker was attending the Berklee College of Music, released Time Taunts Me on the Trekky Records label this past January.

The Moral Loopholes are a collective of electroacoustic musicians working in and around New York City who produce and perform original works designed to forward social evolution.

Steve Beck and Julie Cornett live in San Francisco and record under the name Needle. Their debut album, Songs Your Mother Never Sang You, was released last year.

The Submarines are husband and wife John Dragonetti and Blake Hazard. The pair originally met in Boston, where Dragonetti (a.k.a. Jack Drag) made records for labels Hepcat, Sugar Free, and A&M and produced Hazard’s 2002 album Little Airplane. The Submarines’ debut CD, Declare a New State!, was released in 2006 by Nettwerk. They currently live in Los Angeles, where Dragonetti also works as a composer for film and TV.

Greg Tate lives in New York City. His books include Flyboy in the Buttermilk and Everything but the Burden: What White People are Taking from Black Culture, and he regularly contributes to Rolling Stone, VIBE, The New York Times, and the Village Voice. Tate cofounded the Black Rock Coalition and also leads Burnt Sugar, an orchestra of musicians that melds funk, jazz, rock, blues, R&B, hip-hop, and classical. The band’s most recent album, More Than Posthuman: Rise of the Mojosexual Cotillion, was released by TruGROID in 2006.