April 20, 2004 | Posted by mark at 03:00 AM

This Mess I Put You In

The JBs - If you Don't Get it the First Time, Back Up and Try it Again

a funky little 45 I've had kickin' around for some time now. I wanted to throw something smooth, fun and danceable on here today. It's pretty by-the-numbers James Brown funk, with a few choice horn solos and a nice little guitar walk. It's not the rarest tune in the world, but it's good.

The Secret Stars - Back in the Car

Many of you are probably more familiar with Geoff Farina's work with Karate, or even his solo stuff -- both of which are excellent. While Karate leans more towards rock-inflected jazz emo, and his solo work is guitar-noodling song cycles, his work with The Secret Stars is lush lo-fi pop. Well, maybe pop isn't the right word, but it's certainly more melodic than a lot of his stuff. Half of the songs are written and performed by his friend Jodi, but those seem more half-formed than anything else. The band is more of an ongoing media project than an touring rock band, and they've never officially disbanded. If anyone knows where I can get their 7" I'd love to talk.

Comments

Oooo, the only Secret Stars related music I have ever been able to find is an mp3 of "Some Sinatra" which I love to death. And a cover of "Some Sinatra" by someone else, that was, uh, not so good (they mispronounced some words!). Thanks for this, it's really good.

Posted by: caley at April 21, 2004 02:24 AM

The Secret Stars are wooonderful. There are actually a couple of 7"s--"Riot Kill" was one of them, and a re-recording of "Nightingale" was another. They also did a session on my WFMU show (with the lineup of Jodi v.B. and Ted Leo!), which you can still hear here: http://www.wfmu.org/Playlists/Douglas/dw.000803.html

Posted by: Douglas at April 21, 2004 04:13 AM

They also have 2 lp's, one of which i think is still in print. check insound.com

Posted by: aaron at April 22, 2004 03:29 PM

yeah-- geneologys, which this track is from, is still available. The earlier, eponymous effort, is still around in a few places too (I'm pretty sure the Garment District in Boston still has some copies). They're both worth owning.

Posted by: mark at April 22, 2004 05:53 PM
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