Cassette Culture Revisited, Part IV
Joe Band - The Chocolate Undertow, 1986-7 (2 .zip archives, download part 1 and part 2, total size 97MB)
The Joe Band were a post-punk, psychedelic, minimalist basement-pop trio from Hopelawn, NJ. If that seems like a lot of adjectives, so be it. Luke R. Kostu, Eddie Sparks and Kathy Grieb played a variety of instruments, though most songs are dominated by vocals, bass, drums and chintzy keyboard. Their Ralph Records-ish quickie pop tunes, skewed covers and C.A. Quintet-style psych jams were all somehow rendered through a filter that was pure Jersey. I also had the Joe Band play live on the air once, though that tape has yet to surface. (As with JFK above, the red pen marks indicate my favorite tracks at the time; "King of Spines" and "Mike is Cooler Than Tim," both from side 2, remain personal favorites.)
Wow. It's good thatJoe Band is living on somewhat...somewhere...somehow.
Posted by: Kathy Grieb | October 22, 2007 at 09:26 PM