The Ladybug Transistor formed in Brooklyn in 1995, and frontman Gary Olson has been the band’s sole constant member. Clutching Stems (Merge) is the group’s seventh album and the first to be made following the 2007 asthma-related death of drummer San Fadyl. Since, the band’s lineup has solidified behind Olson, featuring Kyle Forester, Julia Rydholm, Mark Dzula, Eric Farber and Michael O’Neill. The Ladybug Transistor will be guest editing magnetmagazine.com all week. Read our brand new Q&A with Olson.
Olson: I recently spent a few days with Comet Gain as a guest trumpet player when they were in Barcelona for the Primavera Sound Festival. I hosted a round of mystery jukebox one afternoon by the pool …
Eric Clapton “After Midnight” (1988 version)
David Feck: Dire Straits?
John Slade: Am I meant to be talking?
Gary Olson: Anyone can join.
Opening line begins “After midnight, we’re gonna let it all hang out” followed by laughter. “After Midnight” is coincidentally the title of a ballad from the new Comet Gain album, Howl Of The Lonely Crowd.
John Slade: Another instance when David has written a song, and I think “It’s great, bur where did that come from?” Now years later, I have finally found out that it’s a Dire Straits cover.
Gary Olson: It’s actually Eric Clapton covering his own cover. I think it’s from the Miami Vice era or recorded specifically for a Michelob television commercial. I never thought “After Midnight” would sound so good with pan flutes.
David Feck: Eww
Jackson Browne “Somewhere There’s A Feather” (1967 demo)
David Feck: Jackson Browne. I know the Nico version.
John Slade: The only thing I know about Jackson Browne is that he wrote all of those great songs for the Jackson 5.
David Feck: Jackson 5?
John Slade: Yes, he was in the Jackson 5.
Gary Olson: He sounds strangely like Nico in this recording. Do you think he was writing for her voice, or was she more influenced by his delivery?
David Feck: When is it from?
Gary Olson: Around 1967.
David Feck: It’s a similar voice but not a very formed.
Gary Olson: I think he was still a teenager at the time.
Weather Prophets “Why Does The Rain” (1987)
David Feck: Peter Astor. Weather Prophets.
Gary Olson: Yes.
David Feck: Pete Astor was round mine for drinks, and Phil Sutton (original Comet Gain drummer) drunkenly harangued him for writing all those songs about rain. Phil said, “I failed all of my exams just thinking of all the rain.” He’s in that Creation Records documentary looking really weird. With his hair.
Robin Gibb “Another Lonely Night In New York” (1984)
Song begins with a 20 second choral drone.
David Feck: Einstürzende Neubauten? Swans?
Rachel Evans: I keep on seeing Michael Gira in the elevator with that giant cowboy hat on and holding a tiny espresso cup. Quite a sight.
David Feck: Is it Pissed Jeans? I’m only going to say bands that played at the Primavera Festival.
Rachel Evans: Das Racist?
John Slade; Suicide?
David Feck: Oh dear, Martin Rev followed Anne Laure (Comet Gain keyboardist) into the lift yesterday. He was wearing nothing but a white bathrobe.
Anne Laure Guiot Guillain: And then he was lurking around the back of the crowd at the last gig.
Rachel Evans: Ask Ben who this is. He’s a musical encyclopedia.
Gary Olson: OK, this artist was in a group with a few of his brothers.
David Feck: Is it “Terrible Dancer” by Johnny And The Knights?
Gary Olson: No but he is a terrible dancer.
David Feck: Oh, it’s the Bee Gees.
Ben Phillipson: Actually it’s just “Bee Gees.”
Gary Olson: Actually, just Robin Gibb.
David Feck: When you said he was in a band with his brother, I was thinking Oasis or Beady Eye. Robin should have named the band Bee Gee Eye.
Ben Phillipson: It sounds like Toto.
Gary Olson: All of the production on this is ’80s synths. More Ultravox than the Bee Gees.
David Feck: This must have been a German number one.
Personal And The Pizzas “I Don’t Feel So Happy Now” (2009)
David Feck: Ben, you may know this one.
Ben: Robert Pollard?
Gary Olson: No.
John Slade: Robert Palmer?
Rachel Evans: That would be fitting as we are poolside.
John Slade: Stooges?
Gary Olson: It’s Personal And The Pizzas.
David Feck: I was just going to say it was the Ladybug Transistor. I have a Pizzas single with you on the cover. Most entertaining.
Steve Winwood “Don’t You Know What The Night Can Do?” (1988)
David Feck: “Sussudio”? Is it an artist on Fortuna Pop?
Gary Olson: Not quite.
David Feck: It’s a real cheesemeister, isn’t it?
Gary Olson: Steve Winwood.
David Feck: Really?
Gary Olson: Yeah.
David Feck; Ugh.
John Slade: Is it from Back In The High Life?
Gary Olson: I’m not sure, but I think it’s from another beer ad. Does it bring back terrible memories?
David Feck: I think he was more of a hit in America than in England after Spencer Davis and Traffic.
Gary Olson: Yes, he was given a second chance in the U.S. like many other guys from that era.
David Feck: When they were making their worst records.
Rachel Evans: I think my dad had this record.
The Triffids “Somewhere In The Shadows” (1981)
Gary Olson: This one is a bit more obscure.
David Feck: Rings a bell. When is it from?
Gary Olson: I think late ’70s or early ’80s. I don’t think it was ever released on record, but it was recently put on CD and much earlier released on cassette.
Ben Phillipson: Hmmmm.
Gary Olson: They were originally from Perth Australia, but it’s not AC/DC. I think they opened for Echo & The Bunnymen in England in the ’80s.
John Slade: As we also had the honor last night.
Gary Olson: The singer’s voice changed quite a lot a few years later.
Ben Phillipson: Is it the Triffids?
Gary Olson: Yes from the Triffids tapes five or six.
David Feck: Are you a fan of theirs?
Gary Olson: I really enjoy their early youthful material.
David Feck: I have a really nice compilation of theirs somewhere.
Rachel Evans: John, you should live here and really work on your tan. We want you to get very tan, then shave your beard so you’ll have weird face. Like half and half. Girls love that.
John Slade; I’ll shave as soon as I get back.
Rachel Evans: Take picture.
Photo after the jump.
2 replies on “From The Desk Of The Ladybug Transistor: Mystery Jukebox With Comet Gain”
That Eric Clapton piece of shit was well described (but understated) by Feck uttering “Eww”. Clapton was serving up plenty of steaming piles in the 80s (and still is), to the point where pedestrian corporate rock pretty much defines him now. He’s followed 4 years of decent rock/blues with 40 years of what sounds like poor TV commercial tunes, or brain numbing/lighter waving ballads.
Feck was spot on….. eww!!
Just for posterity, when I was 17 some friends and I got drunk at one of our parent’s houses, playing drinking games with the remnents of their drinks cabinet – I think I necked some 1970s sherry and a bottle of Brown Ale past it’s sell by date. I had a Biology A Level exam the next day, so drank a ton of coffee to sober up. As my high school was only a few miles away compared to my par…ents nearly 30 miles away, I stayed the night in the spare room. It was little more than an airing cupboard, and was very stuffy. I couldn’t sleep – too much caffeine. There was a church across the street – this was Cropredy, a village in Oxfordshire – and the church bell rang every 15 minutes, all the way through till morning, reminding me at regular intervals that I was edging nearer to an exam I knew I’d fail (I passed my other exams Feck!). The line in the WP song Why Does the Rain (“Why does the church bell ring all the way through till morning”) always reminded me of that, so I told Pete Astor when I met him. I sing this song at Karaoke. And stalk my old band!
Oh, and it was my friend Sunil who noted in 1987, with some amusement, that every other song on the WP album was about the rain. I don’t think he ever met or told Pete Astor…