Junior Boys
Something was clearly in the water towards the end of the last millennium, as Junior Boys are our second consecutive band in a week to have formed in 1999 (last week it was The National, remember?). Note to fledgling acts – it appears in this current climate that you need to have been going for about 8 years before you peak. Keep at it.
So, it’s not quite Y2K, and Jeremy Greenspan and Johnny Dark have returned from the UK Midlands to their bedrooms in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, making dark, Timbaland and 2-Step influenced electro pop demos that nobody seemed to like. That’s the problem with trying to make pop music that doesn’t sound like any pop music before it – people who like pop music tend to just want it to sound like it sounds. Fools. Johnny Dark, understandably fed up with the lack of attention from the kind of people bands need attention from if they’re to make a career out of This Sort Of Thing, called it a day. KIN Records however had other ideas for Junior Boys upon picking up their demo towards the end of 2002, and contacted Greenspan to urge him to get back to work on the project, even without his mate.
So he did, except not alone – calling in his engineer friend Matt Didemus, Jeremy Greenspan set to work on resurrecting Junior Boys. By October 2003, they had their first release ready. Titled ‘The Birthday / Last Exit EP’, it was succeeded the following February by ‘The High Come Down’ EP, the word being spread by remixes provided by the likes of Fennesz and Caribou (touring buddies then called Manitoba), and their most popular track ‘Birthday’ being featured on Sander Kleinenberg’s acclaimed mix CD ‘This Is Everybody Too’. Throughout, the duo were recording their first LP – ‘Last Exit’ – which after a difficult birth finally saw the light of day on September 21st, 2004.
After offering their practiced skills as remixers to the likes of Hot Chip and Mobious Band, August 2006 brought on the release of their second LP, their finest to date, entitled ‘So This Is Goodbye’ – as sensuous, melodic and simultaneously disturbing a piece of electronica as you’ll ever hear. It’s got a Sinatra cover on it. It was their first effort for Domino Records in the UK, who next week re-release their debut LP ‘Last Exit’, and not without good reason. Simply, not enough people have heard it – and with the added bonuses of Caribou / Manitoba and Fennesz’s remixes of ‘Birthday’ and a brand new track, few have ever heard it sound this good.
JUNIORBOYS.NET: The band’s official website, is this. They tell you what they’re up to, which is nothing at the minute, and where they’re playing live, which is nowhere, for the immediate future. In fact, it seems that although this is an authority on everything pre-‘So This Is Goodbye’, if you want the up to date stuff, you should head over towards…
SOTHISISGOODBYE.COM: Oh yes, that’s more like it! Say ‘goodbye’ to the band by sending them a message or a photo and they’ll send you a free MP3 to listen to whilst you browse this flashy, friendly website.
JUNIOR BOYS @ KIN: Without KIN Records, no Junior Boys, simple as that. Read an early blurb on their beloved dance duo and give them thanks by following this link.
JUNIOR BOYS @ DOMINO: That said, if it wasn’t for Domino we here would certainly know a lot less about music which has brought us such a complicated form of pleasure since we first latched on a few years ago. This is as good a place to keep up on UK-related Junior Boys news as you’ll find on the web.
WHOLE GIG ON FABCHANNEL.COM: Stream an entire Junior Boys live performance, expertly filmed this February at the Paradiso.
MYSPACE.COM/JUNIORBOYS: Or if you don’t want to trawl the above for news, pics and music individually, the band’s MySpace page has it all for you, you lazy corporate pigdog.
SO THIS IS GOODBYE: Re-released towards the middle of this year with a bonus CD of remixes by the likes of Hot Chip and Carl Craig which, shock horror, bucked a trend by actually being pretty good, the added bonus disc still couldn’t take away from the unnerving brilliance of the parent LP.
IN THE MORNING:
JUST LIKE A CHILD:
TEACH ME HOW TO FIGHT (Fan Video):