Ahoy! Eskimo Joe Down Under!
While living in the land down under, and feeling very much like a born again Sydneysider, I fell arse over koalas in love with an entirely new subculture of music. Once there, I embraced music that otherwise would have eluded me had I not made the jump across the many miles of ocean to live in the bayside city of Sydney.
Unfortunately, for many of us “Yanks”, this chosen experience is beyond the realms of possibility… as our visa’s both here and there are quite restrictive. Hence it was a chance of a lifetime for this music fan to be the one-in-a-millionth american to have lived it…experienced it, tasted it, and most of all heard it live… from the small pubs to the beautiful steps of the forecourt of the international iconic Sydney Opera House.
The australian experience, especially the music, both renewed and replenished my tainted (newly divorced and heartbroken) mind and soul. I had no idea when I loaded up that small mp3 player I had purchased prior to the move, ( in fear of my quest to the would be cultural outback figuratively) that indeed there was culture beyond our borders that was, in fact, literally oozing out of the gum trees ( to which they have as many varieties as there are weeds in the US) growing abundantly down under.
Of the many bands I took an interest in, Eskimo Joe, left a lasting impression. They reign from Perth on the western shores. My mate, Ally, my first, outside-of-work, acquaintance was also from Perth and she and I went to see this band in a little quaint but eclectic burb of Sydney called Balmain. They were playing an RSL club which was a local drinking and gambling club. This particular one had a nice sound stage setup and did performances for bands such as EJ. I had heard only a few of their songs but was very fond of their latest, at the time circa 2004, offering a, A Song is A City, in which “Older Than You”, “From the Sea”, as well as the single, “A Song is A City” were recorded. Those songs just rocked my Yankee heart as did Eskimo Joe that day live. I had seen the aussie band, “Jet”, earlier that year with Ally, but not until we saw EJ did I see the real “headbangin rock and roller” nature of my mate come alive. My only regret was a not snapping a good photo of us or at least her hair after she rocked a few EJ songs, “wild” was an understatement… good times, good memories! Check out the snippet of the new single, “Don’t Let Me Down” from the album, Foreign Lands, due out this month below. I am hoping they, like Wolfmother, will get enough inertia in their latest European/UK tour to make the jump to the US for a tour.
Snippet of a new song, “Don’t Let Me Down” played in Glasglow this month.
Black fingernails, Red Wine
From the Sea
Older Than You
MP3′s:
eskimo-joe-black-fingernails-red-wine
download : eskimo-joe-how-does-it-feel
