Mint Julep Jazz Band

You gotta love streaming media services. I’ve gotten in late on Spotify, which is free to download and play. I’m glad that I finally joined it because I’ve found some great Dieselpunk music.

One of my favorites is Spotify’s “Mint Julep Jazz Band Radio.” Just as the name implies, this Spotify ‘radio station’ plays tunes from not only the Mint Julep Jazz Band but by others of the same style. The result is a fantastic mix of tunes from bands such as Naomi and Her Handsome Devils, the California Feetwarmers, the Boilermaker Jazz Band, the Hot Sugar Band, and many more.  

Mint Julep Jazz Band in concert.

For those unfamiliar with the Mint Julep Jazz Band, it’s a ‘little big band’ out of Durham, North Carolina consisting of just 4 horns, a rhythm section, and vocalist Laura Windley. They may be small but the Mint Julep Jazz Band carries a wallop with the sound of a full-size big band that successfully recreates the hot jazz sounds of the 1920′s, 1930's, and early 1940s. They play not only classic Jazz Age tunes but their own originals.

You ought to check out the Mint Julep Jazz Band Radio on Spotify. You’ll be glad that you did.

Best Dieselpunk Song… Ever!

There’s a lot of Dieselpunk music out there. However, what is the iconic Dieselpunk song? What song should we tell someone to listen to when introducing them to Dieselpunk?

In my (not so) humble opinion the iconic Dieselpunk song is Minnie the Moocher by Wolfgang Parker. This cover song hits on all cylinders.

Minnie the Moocher by Wolfgang Parker

Let me count the reasons why:

Cab Calloway’s Original Is the Iconic Jazz Age Song
Released in 1931, Minnie the Moocher by Calloway has become one of the most recognizable songs of the 1930s. In 1999, Minnie the Moocher was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.



The Lyrics Captures the Dark Side of the Diesel Era

According to Wikipedia,
The lyrics are heavily laden with drug references. The character "Smokey" is described as "cokey", meaning a user of cocaine; the phrase "kick the gong around" was a slang reference to smoking opium.

The November 22, 1951 issue of Jet magazine gives this account of the "Minnie" on whom the song was based:

        Minnie "The Moocher" has died. She was a familiar figure In downtown Indianapolis. A 82-year-old woman whose real name was Minnie Gayton, she acquired the quaint nickname of "The Moocher" by regularly begging food from grocers and carting it off in a baby buggy. She slept in doorways, on porches and in garages. During the record-breaking blizzard, her body was found on a porch, blanketed with snow. She died from exposure.

Lyrics

Folks here's a story 'bout Minnie the Moocher;
she was a red hot hoochie coocher.
She was the roughest toughest frail;
but Minnie had a heart as big as a whale.

Hi de hi de hi de hi
Ho de ho de ho de ho
Hee de hee de hee de hee
Ho oo waooo waoooo

She messed around with a bloke named Smokey;
She loved him though he was cokey.
He took her down to Chinatown and showed her
how to kick the gong around.

Hi-de-hi-de-hi-de-hi
Ho-whooooaaaa-ahhhh-ohh
He-de-he-de-hee-de-he
Ho-oh-ho-oh

She had a dream about the king of Sweden;
he gave her things, that she was needin'.
He gave her a home built of gold and steel,
a diamond car, with the puh-latinum wheels.

Hi-de-hi-de-hi-de-hi-de-hi-de-hi-de-hi
Ho-de-ho-de-ho-de-ho-de-ho-de-oh
Skeedle-a-booka-diki biki skeedly beeka gookity woop!
A-booriki-booriki-booriki Hoy!

He gave her his town house and his racing horses;
each meal she ate was a dozen courses.
She had a million dollars in nickels and dimes;
she sat around and counted it all, a million times.
Check Out

Hi-de-hi-de-hi-de-hi
Ho-oh-whoaa-oh-oh-whoa
He-de-he-de-hee-de-hee

Poor Min! Poor Min! Poo-oor Min

Wolfgang Parker’s Cover is Artistically Perfect
In 2010 Dieselpunk Founding Father Tome Wilson interviewed Wolfgang Parker for the website Dieselpunk:

Let's talk a bit about your "swing punk" sound. It has all the technical guitar styling of the rockabilly era, but you're still able to put the swing edge into the songs with the rhythms and vocals.

For example, your 2010 cover of Cab Calloway's famous "Minnie the Moocher" on Petty Standards has the flavor and lyrics of the original, but your band drives it into the 21st Century with tight guitar licks and punk style beat changes.

When you start deconstructing a classic like that, it must be like taking apart a pocket watch. What kinds of challenges are involved in getting the song working again as a coherent piece when you're done?

That is a tough order. You don't want a version that doesn't at least give the original a run for its money and these songs are classics. So you have to be confident.

I look at what qualities the song has that drew me to it in the first place. Then I use that quality as the basis for the re-construction. The process also allows you to really see the beauty of great songwriting, when you can re-vamp a song and it sounds totally different than the original, but still sounds great.

Calloway Would have Approved of Wolfgang Parker’s Cover
In that same interview Parker was asked by Wilson, “Do you think Cab would have approved?” He replied,

A woman that was directly related to him saw us perform that song in Pittsburgh years ago, and she said he would have loved it. I guess I gotta trust that.

These are just a few reasons that I believe Wolfgang Parker's cover of Minnie the Moocher is the best Dieselpunk song ever.

Runner-Up:

Mack the Knife cover by Dee Snider

Dieselpunk Lexicon Part 7: Dark Cabaret

According to Wikipedia:
Dark cabaret may be a simple description of the theme and mood of a cabaret performance, but more recently has come to define a particular musical genre which draws on the aesthetics of the decadent, risqué German Weimar-era cabarets, burlesque and vaudeville shows with the stylings of post-1970s goth and punk music.

The above definition contains all of the elements of Dieselpunk music in that it combines decodence ("aesthetics of the decadent, risqué German Weimar-era cabarets, burlesque and vaudeville shows") with modern sensibilities ("stylings of post-1970s goth and punk music"). The term ‘Dark Cabaret’ first appeared in 2005 with the album titled Projeckt Presents: The Dark Cabaret. The term has since grown in popularity as several band have adopted the label.

An alternative term is 'Brechtian punk cabaret', which was coined in 2003 by Amanda Palmer of the dieselpunk band The Dresden Dolls.

Some popular Dark Cabaret bands and artists are:

The Dresden Dolls

Rasputina

Tiger Lillies

Emilie Autumn

Katzenjammer

Hannah Fury

Vermillion Lies 

Changing My Mind: Radio Riel Dieselpunk

“The best of us must sometimes eat our words.” ― J.K. Rowling

Back on August 13, 2010 I wrote a blog post in which I was highly critical of the online radio station Radio Riel Dieselpunk. Looking back, I realize that I was wrong.

As the new owner of Dieselpunks.org I went searching for a replacement for our music player. The previous method of providing music was too costly in both time and money to maintain. In my research I checked out a variety of stations that I knew. When all was said and done I found that the perfect station was Radio Riel Dieselpunk.

Radio Riel Dieselpunk plays music commercial free 24/7. As they say at their web site, “Radio Riel Dieselpunk features music from 1920–1940, including Pop Standards, Big Band & Swing, Burlesque & Cabaret, and a dash of Film Noir soundtracks. Currently believed to be the world’s only Dieselpunk station.”

I would add that I’ve heard some electro-swing at times as well, which is certainly dieselpunk.

I was wrong about Radio Riel Dieselpunk. It's a great station and I highly recommend it.

Sometimes one just has to eat crow. Wouldn’t be so bad except for when the feathers get stuck between my teeth.

Is Electro-Swing Dieselpunk?

Dieselpunk music, like the genre itself, is very diverse. Not long ago I saw a post on Facebook in which someone was critical of Electro-Swing. Whether one likes are dislikes electro-swing music, in my opinion, one can’t deny that it’s one form of dieselpunk music.

Check out the wording of the web site electro-swing.com:

This site is dedicated to the Electro Swing movement occurring worldwide. Let’s bring back the beautiful craziness of the 20′s, come on! Welcome to electro-swing.com :)

The dieselpunk credentials of electro-swing are solid and go beyond statements such as “Let’s bring back the beautiful craziness of the 20′s”. For example, electro-swing.com describes the new work of the producer Soulbrarian ‘New King Dooji’ as being, “a remix of … Swing tunes, composed by the great Duke Ellington and originally recorded in 1939.”

Love it or hate it, electro-swing is a form of dieselpunk.

2016 News

2016 is starting out to be an interesting year for dieselpunk.

Agent Carter Season 2

The dieselpunk television series Agent Carter returns in 2016. This year the series is moved from New York to Los Angeles. An exciting plot line will include a tie-in with the upcoming Doctor Strange movie.

Agent Carter two-hour season 2 premiere will be on ABC on January 19th, 2016 at 9 pm.

Hail, Caesar!

This year the Coen Brothers, who gave us the dieselpunk classic Oh Brother Where Art Thou’ will give us a new dieselpunk movie, Hail, Caesar! Set circa Diesel Era, according to Wikipedia, "Eddie Mannix (Josh Brolin) is a Hollywood "fixer" helping the production of the upcoming film entitled Hail Caesar starring famous actor Baird Whitlock (George Clooney). When a hungover Whitlock is kidnapped by a group named The Future, Mannix is the one in charge of collecting $100,000 and rescuing him."

Hail, Caesar! is scheduled for release February 5, 2016.

Electro Swing Commentary

Angus Harrison of the online electronica music magazine Thump published a tirade criticizing Electro Swing music titled “Electro Swing Music is The Worst Music in the World, Ever”. You can read this small minded, opinion piece here.

Death of David Bowie

The world saw the loss of David Bowie on January 10, 2016. Bowie had a reputation for dressing ‘dapper’ with a fashion sense that many dieselpunks could relate to. In 1974, Bowie release Diamond Dogs on RCA Records with the novel Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell as the theme. In 1983 he appeared in Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence as a prisoner of war in a Japanese POW camp.

Thank you for all that you've given us, David. You shall be missed.

Merry Christmas!

Hoping all of my readers who celebrate Christmas have a happy one!

New Postmodern Jukebox Site!

The dieselpunk band Postmodern Jukebox has a new web site: postmodernjukebox.com.

A really cool new feature of the site is the addition of a fan forum. This new feature allows us to interact not only with the band but also with other fans of PMJ.

Miscellaneous

“Dieselpunk” In the News
The official Popular Science web site posted and article on April 3, 2015 titled “Google Takes Over Airship Hangars In California: Dieselpunk ruins to cyber-realities.”

Postmodern Jukebox Music
Back on March 10, 2015, Postmodern Jukebox released a wonderful version of Gangsta’s Paradise with Robyn Adele Anderson once again singing.

End Times Spasm Band: Baudelaire

End Times Spasm Band is a fantastic band headquartered in Fort Wayne, Indiana. According to their official web site,

The End Times Spasm Band is a hot swing ensemble led by Lyndsy Rae and Bart Helms.

We think of our music as urban Americana. Jazz as the soundtrack of the Americans who fled farmland for the cosmopolitan cities. The music of the rivers that carried people into the 20th century.

They’re newest EP is Baudelaire and I’ve been honored with having an opportunity to hear an advance release.

As the title suggests, the EP has a French theme to it. While it’s a small EP, in that there are only six tracks, each track is a gem. The title track Baudelaire, is bouncy and fun. Longtime fans will recognize it as classic End Times Spasm. However, they switch gears with the next track, The Figure of the Dance. It’s slow and Bluesy. When they get to the third track, Little Bird, they return to their energetic pace. However, it still has a more subtle feel to it than was common on their previous EPs. The fourth song is the French classic, La Vie en Rose. Being that this song was originally released by the legendary Édith Piaf back in 1945, this might be the most dieselpunk song on the EP. The fifth song, Archæologies, is wonderfully upbeat and fun. If this this one doesn’t get your feet tapping then you must be dead. Number six, Some of These Days, is another fun and upbeat song in the classic End Times Spasm Band style.

I’m sure that you can tell that I thoroughly enjoy this new EP. With Baudelaire, the End Times Spasm Band has reached a new high.

Their new EP will be released April 11, 2015. Check out their official web site.

Want to see them live? I've seen them in concert and I highly recommend it. Following are a listing of their upcoming concerts:
4/11/15 – The Brass Rail w
5/9/15 – CS3
6/6/15 – The Phoenix