The Album Review Club - Week #138 - (page 1790) - 1956 - Soul-Junk

There used to be book shop on Deansgate called Wesley Owen. They sold cd's in the basement. It was from here that I bought the last cassette tape I ever because it was the last cassette tape in the bargain bin. It was called "Call It Whatever You Want" by Nobody Special. I was young and it was a thrilling time.

The kind of CD's sold in the basement of Wesley Owen were not available in HMV except maybe King Of Fools by Delirous? which I had actually bought in HMV on Market Street in 1997 before being intimidated by a gang of lads on the way back to the bus station. Fun fact: I recently met the keyboard player from Delirious? but felt it was unprofessional of me to tell him this story even though I had the signed CD to prove it had happened. Good times.

The CD's in Wesley Owen were often from bands that would never be famous in the UK and although the internet was a thing there wasn't enough content available for you to find reviews or information on any of the bands sold there. To help you out there were helpful notes on some of the recent releases which described which mainstream band that particular album was most like. You might like Are We There Yet by John Reuben if you're a fan of Cypress Hill. You might like Jars of Clay by Jars of Clay if you're a fan of REM. You might like Jesus Freak by DC Talk if you're a fan of Nirvana and racial harmony. Eventually everything became for fans of Korn or Limp Bizkit. This is Charlie Brooker levels of satire which I include for a guy I know called Adam who will never read this but is possibly the only other person I know who will recognise it as such. To you it's waffle but the point is coming just hold on.

Because it was the way of the world most of these artists got no respect for their own art. Their identity was shaped only by who they sounded like. In the vast majority of cases they sounded like much worse versions of the other bands they were compared to except when they were compared to Limp Bizkit as it's scientifically impossible to sound worse than them. You should definitely check out this band if you like this much superior band. Faint praise. Dammit I wish Adam was reading this just so I wasn't wasting this double entendre.

In 99 I got married and stopped buying CD's which is when ironically the album I'm slowly getting to was released. However it definitely wouldn't have even made it to Wesley Owen (even though DC Talk's Toby Mac covered one of the tracks from it on one of his solo albums) so I would never have purchased it then. Fun fact: I'm friends with Toby Mac's band mate, Kevin Max, on Facebook. He's a big Bowie fan but as we've never met in person I've never told him how we almost worked together in 1997 until they got too big and expensive. It's not the kind of thing you want to share on messenger.

Around 2006 I've not been to Wesley Owen for ages but my son is born. These are not related facts. I'm at home looking after him one day a week and the internet is now 1p an hour. I'm personally a fan of the O.C. Supertones who used to be my favourite band but they blew it by being a worse version of bands worse than them. I totally trashed in the first draft of this review which incredibly was worse than this one. If you're a fan of the O.C. Supertones you'll also love Five Iron Frenzy. I'm taking advantage of the napping child, cheap internet and napster to try and find Cheeses by Five Iron Frenzy. Fun fact: never found it and I just checked now it's not on spotify either.

The best thing about Napster was when you found a user with a song you like you could just randomly download other songs from them and discover new stuff. If you're a fan of user "combatchuck1267" and Limp Bizkit then you'll also like Chump by .Rod Laver. Fun fact: it's actually spelt .Rod Laver and that's not a typo. Also not on Spotify. On some Napster raid I had found someone who had a bunch of albums in common so just randomly selected some stuff they had that I didn't. Three days later when a couple of songs had downloaded I clicked on one enigmatically named "Track 4.mp3" and my life was changed for ever. After spending nearly a decade consuming music based on who else it sounded like i finally heard something that sounded unapologetically like itself.

Putting my IT degree to good use I check the metadata on the song and discover the track is called "May My Tongue Be Stuck Up On The Roof" and the artist is Soul-Junk from the album 1955 which is 31 songs long and you'll be relieved to hear is not the album up for review. However a quick Google search revealed that Soul-Junk is mainly one guy called Glen and if you bought any of the Soul-Junk albums from CDBaby.com he'd send it to you with some free stickers and a collage he made himself. He's a real one. Also if you randomly email a generic email address based on his website URL last year because you half remembered an interview where one of his collaborators mentioned a solo project they are working on then you will eventually get a reply from him with Slo-Ro's email address AND if you email Slo-Ro he will tell you he now makes music under the moniker of Future Rapper AND if you listen to that you will realise Glen was doing most of the good work.

I'm putting up for your consideration Soul-Junk's most accessible album which ironically isn't on Spotify in the UK but can be found at the following YouTube playlist.

If you're a fan of authenticity that results in music that is unapologetically itself and not the posturing authenticity that is more concerned with appearing cool then you'll be indifferent to 1956 by Soul-Junk

 
mrbelfry said:
There used to be book shop on Deansgate called Wesley Owen. They sold cd's in the basement. It was from here that I bought the last cassette tape I ever because it was the last cassette tape in the bargain bin. It was called "Call It Whatever You Want" by Nobody Special. I was young and it was a thrilling time.

The kind of CD's sold in the basement of Wesley Owen were not available in HMV except maybe King Of Fools by Delirous? which I had actually bought in HMV on Market Street in 1997 before being intimidated by a gang of lads on the way back to the bus station. Fun fact: I recently met the keyboard player from Delirious? but felt it was unprofessional of me to tell him this story even though I had the signed CD to prove it had happened. Good times.

The CD's in Wesley Owen were often from bands that would never be famous in the UK and although the internet was a thing there wasn't enough content available for you to find reviews or information on any of the bands sold there. To help you out there were helpful notes on some of the recent releases which described which mainstream band that particular album was most like. You might like Are We There Yet by John Reuben if you're a fan of Cypress Hill. You might like Jars of Clay by Jars of Clay if you're a fan of REM. You might like Jesus Freak by DC Talk if you're a fan of Nirvana and racial harmony. Eventually everything became for fans of Korn or Limp Bizkit. This is Charlie Brooker levels of satire which I include for a guy I know called Adam who will never read this but is possibly the only other person I know who will recognise it as such. To you it's waffle but the point is coming just hold on.

Because it was the way of the world most of these artists got no respect for their own art. Their identity was shaped only by who they sounded like. In the vast majority of cases they sounded like much worse versions of the other bands they were compared to except when they were compared to Limp Bizkit as it's scientifically impossible to sound worse than them. You should definitely check out this band if you like this much superior band. Faint praise. Dammit I wish Adam was reading this just so I wasn't wasting this double entendre.

In 99 I got married and stopped buying CD's which is when ironically the album I'm slowly getting to was released. However it definitely wouldn't have even made it to Wesley Owen (even though DC Talk's Toby Mac covered one of the tracks from it on one of his solo albums) so I would never have purchased it then. Fun fact: I'm friends with Toby Mac's band mate, Kevin Max, on Facebook. He's a big Bowie fan but as we've never met in person I've never told him how we almost worked together in 1997 until they got too big and expensive. It's not the kind of thing you want to share on messenger.

Around 2006 I've not been to Wesley Owen for ages but my son is born. These are not related facts. I'm at home looking after him one day a week and the internet is now 1p an hour. I'm personally a fan of the O.C. Supertones who used to be my favourite band but they blew it by being a worse version of bands worse than them. I totally trashed in the first draft of this review which incredibly was worse than this one. If you're a fan of the O.C. Supertones you'll also love Five Iron Frenzy. I'm taking advantage of the napping child, cheap internet and napster to try and find Cheeses by Five Iron Frenzy. Fun fact: never found it and I just checked now it's not on spotify either.

The best thing about Napster was when you found a user with a song you like you could just randomly download other songs from them and discover new stuff. If you're a fan of user "combatchuck1267" and Limp Bizkit then you'll also like Chump by .Rod Laver. Fun fact: it's actually spelt .Rod Laver and that's not a typo. Also not on Spotify. On some Napster raid I had found someone who had a bunch of albums in common so just randomly selected some stuff they had that I didn't. Three days later when a couple of songs had downloaded I clicked on one enigmatically named "Track 4.mp3" and my life was changed for ever. After spending nearly a decade consuming music based on who else it sounded like i finally heard something that sounded unapologetically like itself.

Putting my IT degree to good use I check the metadata on the song and discover the track is called "May My Tongue Be Stuck Up On The Roof" and the artist is Soul-Junk from the album 1955 which is 31 songs long and you'll be relieved to hear is not the album up for review. However a quick Google search revealed that Soul-Junk is mainly one guy called Glen and if you bought any of the Soul-Junk albums from CDBaby.com he'd send it to you with some free stickers and a collage he made himself. He's a real one. Also if you randomly email a generic email address based on his website URL last year because you half remembered an interview where one of his collaborators mentioned a solo project they are working on then you will eventually get a reply from him with Slo-Ro's email address AND if you email Slo-Ro he will tell you he now makes music under the moniker of Future Rapper AND if you listen to that you will realise Glen was doing most of the good work.

I'm putting up for your consideration Soul-Junk's most accessible album which ironically isn't on Spotify in the UK but can be found at the following YouTube playlist.

If you're a fan of authenticity that results in music that is unapologetically itself and not the posturing authenticity that is more concerned with appearing cool then you'll be indifferent to 1956 by Soul-Junk

Click to expand...

Er...yes, definitely, not in a blue hell's chance, go away you dirty man and yes please.
 
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