The 'Gum Drop CXII: Hear New Jookabox, Win A Guitar Signed By Monsters Of Folk
In a very special Halloween edition of the 'Gum Drop, David "Moose" Adamson, aka Jookabox, told us "Evil Nite" -- "a song about the infection taking hold of a pure soul in limbo" -- is an early version of "Zombie Tear Drops" from his Indianapolis crew's zombie-inspired Dead Zone Boys (Asthmatic Kitty, 11/3). We kept digging. In fact, we dug so deep we didn't have room for the entire discussion in the newsletter. No worries, you can read his thoughts on Varg Vikernes, George Romero, Star Wars, "The Monster Mash," and, of course, zombies here.
STEREOGUM: How did zombies inspire Dead Zone Boys?
DAVID MOOSE ADAMSON: [T]he record was inspired by the constant tug of war between light and shade. I want to be good, but there's power in darkness. Varg Vikernes and fans of Star Wars know this. But the question(s) is can you balance the two, or is that possible, or if you dabble will you be in too deep before you can turn around. Will you wake up in jail and realize you actually murdered someone? WTF? Bummer ... Zombies seem to be a nice metaphor for this idea ... I feel like I'm downloading a disease that is making me immortal, but I'm turning into a grotesque version of myself in the process. It seems like a lot of people are dying and getting sick. 3 runners died in a marathon the other day. Runners! 3!
I was watching all these zombie movies, all the Romero things, of course, The Serpent And The Rainbow, Dead Alive, Evil Dead, 28 Days, Shaun of the Dead, The "Thriller" video, others. I was reading Walking Dead. On tour in Europe I heard a German woman sing "Zombie," by the Cranberries. Her version was cracked and beautiful against the stale karaoke backing. I had forgotten how tight that song is. I was listening to Fela's version a lot. If eight Army helicopters flew by, or, right after a ripping thunderstorm, I'd think, "OK, this is how it will be."
STEREOGUM: "Evil Nite"'s reminiscent of "The Monster Mash." Mainly because it's easy imagining a dance going along to it. Is there an "Evil Nite" dance?
DMA: "The Monster Mash" is the shit. We talked about covering that, but we'd have to glyph it way out. [Jookabox member] Tender Evans and her dance squad Troupe Le Monde have been working around the clock on a dance for this song. Tender keeps working on her Halloween costume though. It's sort of getting in the way of her whole life. It's a grotesque skin of old hamper clothes.
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Now that you have the background, Take a listen. You'll find tourdates and more sounds at MySpace. Here are two Dead Zone Boys:
Jookabox - "Phantom Don't Go" (MP3)
Jookabox - "You Cried Me" (MP3)
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In this week's Drop, we also offered a chance to win a Gibson J-45 guitar signed by Monsters Of Folk. One winner gets the instrument, which was signed by each member of Monsters Of Folk. See if you can make out their scrawl:
You'll also get a copy of Conor Oberst, Jim James, Mike Mogis, and M Ward's self-titled debut so you can learn to play "Dear God (Sincerely M.O.F.)."
Enter to win the guitar and the album. There are a few more days to win the last available copy of Tegan & Sara's ON/IN/AT Deluxe Edition, too.
CONTEST ENDS 11/11/09 AT 12PM EST.
Posted at 10:30 AM in Giveaway, MP3
Tags: Bright Eyes | Conor Oberst | Jim James | Jookabox | M. Ward | Mike Mogis | Monsters Of Folk | My Morning Jacket
"so you can learn to play "Dear God (Sincerely M.O.F.)."
haha! I see what you did there...
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sick collector's piece guitar...for any anyone who collects guitars that have been devalued by useless autographs.
I'm not putting these dudes down, I like Jim and his music...but seriously, they're really starting to stretch this whole thing. "Super group" it is not.
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one tour and one album is stretching it out now? (I'm not counting the first tour seeing as they weren't a band back then)
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thank you for the contest
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thank you for the contest i hope i am in.
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