Iron Curtain emerged in the early 80’s in the Santa Barbara area with the express purpose of “melding the melodic angst of The Cure with the electronic funk of Kraftwerk”. I would add Midge Ure-era Ultravox and early OMD to the reference list of well known idiomatic reference points as well. Given the soaring popularity of the posthumously labeled “Cold Wave”, Iron curtain have become one of the most collectible bands of the post-punk era. Their “Tarantula Scream” EP is on almost every want-list you will see – except mine! I was very fortunate to find a copy of this for a buck shortly after it came out. In those days, I was ravenous for this music, and scooped up *everything*. Because it was so shunned by the ears of the time, almost all of it appeared in used bins with the damning one-dollar price tag affixed to the upper right hand corner. I remember a few snobby record shop clerks snickering whenever I would bring these records to the counter to purchase. I’d say “Just keep putting them out for a buck. More For Me.” As an aside, I similarly purchased Zoviet France’s “Eostre” LP, and the clerk said to me “You don’t look like the sort of guy who likes Crass records!” And I replied, “Well, Number 1, I *am*. But number 2, *this* isn’t a Crass record.” And he looked at me incredulously and said “OK, dude, whatever you say…” Admittedly, it’s the one Zoviet France record that may *look* like a Crass record, but no. Anyway, I digress. The Iron Curtain EP is definitely mine. But that’s not why it is a Screamer today. And the fact that Pylon Records issued an anthology CD last year, Desertion 1982-1988, collecting the EP tracks plus others from the band’s oeuvre is neither the reason this was selected for today’s Screamer. The reason is that Pylon just released a facsimile vinyl edition of the EP that looks almost identical to the original, except that the back cover and liner notes have changed – specifically to differentiate it from the original pressing. It was released in an edition of 375 copies – 300 on black vinyl and 75 on black and white swirled vinyl. This new edition’s severely limited press makes it even *more* collectible than the first press of 1000 copies. The colored vinyl copy now gets between 50 – 100 bucks, even though it was just released.

But the original? Discogs.com lists one for sale at 700 Euros. That’s about $1000 US. So, the collector edition is a bargain at the moment. The image below shows the Iron Curtain EP, released in June of 1984.

But enough collector geekery. There’s a reason why Iron Curtain raises the collective giant-hardon of the collector community. The music. It was intelligent, sardonic and danceable; “Tarantula Scream” had a very brief dalliance at the clubs in Boston, and it was in tremendous rotation on my own radio program then as well. But tracks like “First Punk Wars” proved there was more than just a club attitude behind the band. Both tracks are featured here, along with “Anorexia”, which is from a seven inch single predating the other two tracks included.

Click on the links below to hear the tracks:

Tarantula Scream | First Punk Wars | Anorexia

What makes you scream? Let me know, and maybe it will appear in this feature of JukeboxHeart.com…

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I was making my weekly run through the used bins at my favorite record store in the civilized world, Twisted Village and pulling out my usual pile of trial CDs to stand over the listening station with. Honest to God, they get the best stuff there as used/promo discards. It’s the best kept secret in the city. (So keep your traps shut, OK?) The debut CD by The Seconds, “Y”, jumped out at me immediately as something I might be interested in, so I tossed it into the pile.

Some photos of The Seconds performing live:

Christ almight fucking SHIT. This was just amazing. Like the early White Stripes with their hair on fire. The first song, SAY HEY pounded in and set the tone for the rest, so good that after ten seconds, I put the CD into the “take” pile, and it was the first one I pushed into the CD player in my truck on the ride home. Song after song after song, it was just amazing thing. Given The Seconds’ lineage, I am not sure why I was surprised that they are just an amazing band – formed by members of The Yeah Yeah Yeahs (Brian Chase) and The Ex-Models (Zach Lehrhoff) and Jeannie Kwon. I guess I didn’t realize it at the time, although, oddly enough, I immediately thought they reminded me of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs. But more than that. The CD so deeply tapped into the energy that was so magical in the 1978-81 timeframe that it’s hard not to draw comparisons to bands like The Scars from the UK or our own forgotten local heroes Native Tongue. This is one revival I can definitely embrace…

So click on the links below for three scorching tracks from The Seconds’ 2005 debut CD, and then click on the images below for The Scars’ immense “Adultery” track (early 1979), and Native Tongue’s local legend “Speaking In Captions” (1981)…

Not About Love(It’s About Love) | Got Laid | We Rock

Not subscribed to Jukebox Heart yet? You should! You will get all of our media files downloaded directly to your podcatcher, and if you link to our RSS, you will never miss a post. Do it now! It’s free and easy. And by now, you really should!

Before I get to today’s Screamer, I have some Jukebox Heart business to take care of. First, Jukebox Heart 012 is mixed, tagged and uploaded and will be published on Monday, August 18. With Jukebox Heart 012 come some added features. Each new full-length podcast will be limited to under 74 minutes. This is to facilitate conversion to WAV file format and burning to CDR, so you can listen to Jukebox Heart anywhere you can’t play MP3s. No iPod? No Problem! No jack in your car stereo? No Problem! Taking an old boombox to the beach? Take Jukebox Heart with you! (We don’t get out much…) Just burn it to a CD-R using the simple instruction found in the WAV Conversion tab at the top of the blog homepage.

Also, beginning with Jukebox Heart 012, I’ll be including full, original artwork for a CD label, booklet and tray card for each new full-length numbered podcast. The files will be included as a single zip file on the blog page with the podcast media. And, just as the podcasts are always open to requests and other input, I’ll be accepting images for the from friends and listeners for the design of the artwork.

You haven’t subscribed to Jukebox Heart yet? You should! Click the link for easy to follow instructions to hook you right up. Remember, there’s more to Jukebox Heart than the mp3 media. Be sure to visit the blog regularly for videos, background radio, special reports and other features and more!

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Today’s Screamer of the Day features the band The Dining Rooms. The two tracks selected are from their third album “Tre”. Fightin’ 4 Rebirth has an amazing hook that will just break your heart and had me hitting the replay button in my truck all the way to work, while the glorious female vox on Dreamy Smiles earns Anna Clementi a fixed spot in The Women of Jukebox Heart.

The Dining Rooms’ music is a thick amalgam of elements from Portishead to Tindersticks to obscure 70’s Italian film soundtracks all kissed by the virtual lips of Ennio Morricone. It’s all-night drizzly driving music leading to a 4AM breakfast in Brooklyn at Vegas and slow and sleepy pre-dawn sex.

So how did I miss this? This CD is one from the haul I described in the last Screamer, and the moment I popped it in and “Tunnels” began its tinky piano intro, I knew I was on to something. So I did some research, and the band has been releasing music for eight years under this name. Each new song that came on, I asked myself again, How Did I Miss This? This falls squarely into one of my favorite genres, downtempo left-field ambient kind of stuff. Click the linls below to hear each of the tracks.

Fightin’ 4 Rebirth | Dreamy Smiles

Group Dogdrill
“Lovely Skin” EP
Mantra Records (Beggar’s Banquet US) 1997

A new feature, “Screamer of the Day,” here at Jukebox Heart features something that I just can’t wait to share with you. It can be one or two tracks that I just found so surprsingly irresistible that it couldn’t wait. By its very nature, it will be sporadic…you may find a string of them for ten days in a row followed by a month of nothing. Take it when you can!

So here’s the deal. Today’s Screamer is by the band Groop Dogdrill. Awesome. The band’s sound is like a sudden, horrible crash of The Cramps, Jet and The Ventures – which is fabulous on all counts. Their condensed bio is below. This CD, Lovely Skin, is a promo EP for their then-forthcoming full-length called “Half Nelson”. Not a bad track on the disc, but the two included here (click on the links below to hear) just jumped out at me.

Lovely Skin | Gracelands

And here’s how it arrived in my possession: Several years ago, I discovered a pawn shop in Ashland, Massachusetts that seemed to have a huge number of CDs and a constant, steady supply. The CDs were always a buck a piece, and when I realized what good stuff there was to be had, I stopped there on my way home from work a few times a week, often leaving with boxloads of stuff, both to keep and to resell. It wasn’t long before I was friends with the manager, and he’d give me first crack at every new shipment that came in, calling me into the back room and sitting me down with a boom box. Two years ago, the pawn shop closed and the manager called me up and asked if I was interested in his remaining stock, about 2000 CDs and a couple of boxes of vinyl. I said I wasn’t sure, sounded like too much moeny for me to spend all at once. “Dude, I’ll drop this shit off at your house. No charge. It’s costing me money just to keep it. If you want it, you can have it.” No brainer. It’s been two years, and I’m only just getting around to rifling through it all. So far, it looks like I’m keeping about a quarter of it; the rest I’m donating to charity. I grabbed this CD this morning, along with about ten others from the stash, and began screening them. The opening sample made me smile, and then the pounding rhythm got me totally going.

Groop Dogdrill formed in the early nineties in the northern town of Doncaster, UK – not far from legendary Sheffield – by Damien “Damo” Fowkes (bass), Pete Spiby (vocals/guitar) and Hugh “Hug” Kelly (drums). They released a number of singles and two albums in between tours of the UK, before finally splitting up in 2001.

The original name of the band was Dogdrill, until they played a show with one of my faves, The Wedding Present, in the summer of 1994. Darren Belk (friend of the band and frontman/guitarist with Beachbuggy) was playing bass guitar at the time for The Wedding Present. Dogdrill were re-named ‘Groop’ Dogdrill by Wedding Present drummer Simon Smith and they played as Groop Dogdrill from that day onwards.

They entered a ‘battle of the bands’ competition in their hometown of Doncaster, as they were unable to afford the bass gear that would allow them to start working the live circuit. The band easily won the competition (and the bass gear) and also caught the eye of a young producer called Matt Elliss at Axis Studios who offered to record a demo at the studio free of charge. Matt Elliss then passed the song onto a new label called EXP (a subsidiary of ViaCom) which was being run by Feargal Sharkey, formerly of The Undertones. The label demoed the band and released a limited edition (500) 7″ single ‘Gentleman’s Soiree’/ ‘Silver Boots’ before agreeing to record and release a full-length album, but financial difficulties forced EXP to fold before the full album was released.

The band were soon picked up by Mantra Records (part of the Beggars Banquet group) and further tours followed before the album “Half Nelson”, recorded for EXP two years earlier, was eventually released by Mantra in 1998. The album chronicled the band’s obsessions with Americana, the Rat Pack, working class humour, the seedier side of personal and sexual relationships and classic 70s movies with an ever-present combination of metal, punk, blues and rockabilly at its core.

Despite some promising success over the next few years, the band found itself facing financial stress, and, with no contract and a young family to support, the newly-married Hug made the decision to quit the band in late 2000. Damo and Pete eventually decided to continue and recruited the services of Alex Thomas for a handful of gigs and some demos in the summer of 2001. This lineup was short-lived however, and with no new contract offers the band had permanently split by the end of the year.