dontgimmenoshitbecause...

Okay, I've got a lot of friends who are artists, mostly musicians. Sometimes I am lucky enough to actually like what they do. Sometimes not, which is tricky. And sometimes, I think I'm not into their stuff, and this later bites me in the ass.

Take my friend's band, Cool Dry Place. I was very pleasantly surprised to see my friend do an acoustic show and liked his songs, but electric could be a whole different beast. I checked the website, gave a listen, and it wasn't bad. Didn't floor me, but wasn't bad. Then I got the demo and thought the same thing.

Cool Dry Place is indie rock, as we'd say today. If I were to guess what they listened to growing up, which later became the foundation for the music they created... Well, then I'd guess The Police (Ghost in the Machine era), Inxs, XTC and Talking Heads. Not that they sound like any of those bands, I just hear bits of it in the music. And the singer reminds me of Joe Jackson. Sometimes. So take that and funnel it through Archers of Loaf, maybe, and you've got something like Cool Dry Place.

So, like I was saying, I wasn't totally wowed by the demo, but I liked it. Then I saw the boys live again, all electric this time, and I really dug it. Like REALLY dug it. I realized the songs were creeping into my brain like that nasty worm thing that made people turn bad in "The Wrath of Khan." I started listening to the demo again. Pretty soon, I was listening to two of those songs on my whole hour long drive home. (FYI: they were "Leaving For Good" and "Saturday Night." And "Sick Twisted & Wonderful" is a lovely warped version of some song you slow danced to at arm's length in junior high.)

Give the band a listen and let me know what you think. I'm going to see them again at the Derby here in LA this Saturday, October 2nd. They need a crowd, so if you like what you hear, come down. Help me figure out why I'm starting to love them!