How come it's inconceivable to some that a thread on here would not be about the Beatles for once in a while?
I’m pretty sure that happens regularly! I’m assuming we’ve been trolled. Are the Beatles a new Johnny Jewel project? Are they any good?
Certainly there is enough talk about doppelgangers to warrant a link (as per Johnny's Twin Peaks connection)!
Has anyone ordered any of the new IDB releases? I see that the LP for Johnny's Vapor is sold out already. Have they already been selling the Chromatics EPs that were recently announced? I've been having a hard time catching up with all those new releases, but would very much like to hear your recommendations on the recent releases.
I got Camera, and it's pretty good. Don't think the others have had any vinyl release yet. Didn't even know about Vapor, but I'll keep an eye out. The only discogs entry I can find on it is from a February release: Johnny Jewel - Vapor
Cool little interview with Megan from Desire: Megan Louise Doyle | Label President: Italians Do It Better
Vapor by Johnny Jewel and Camera by Chromatics are finally out on CD through the IDIB webstore. I just received my order and once again got several free goodies tucked into the envelope. Along with three postcards/mini-posters, I got a CD of Don't Come Back From The Moon, a film soundtrack featuring music by Jewel, Glass Candy and other IDIB alumni. I'm not even sure this has been released yet, I can't find any mention of the release online. Once again, Italians Do It Better are taking great care of their fans!
There look to be some new additions to the IDB webstore: the Naked City EP by Glass Candy, and the Don't come back from the moon soundtrack by Johnny Jewel. The latter features much material that has been released elsewhere before, but it's still nice to see some new releases. $1 download only for the moment - will explore. Will they ever do a vinyl version of Music to Drive? I imagine it would cost a fortune, but it features many of my favorite tunes by the Italians...
I was watching an Italian series on Netflix the other day called Baby. At the end of the first episode there was this great version of Girls Just Wanna Have Fun. I said to my wife "that's got to be Johnny Jewel". Sure enough I was right. I decided to check out the site again and ended up buying another 5 WAV titles. I bought 3 Chromatics' albums, Drumless, Kill for Love, and Girls Just Wanna have Fun. I also picked up Glass Candy's Naked City and In Mirrors "Escape From Berlin". All were 44.1 kHz and all but two songs on Drumless were 24 bit. And of course they were all ridiculously cheap at $1.
Love J.J. and the Chromatics especially but his shtick of dragging out album releases does more harm to the label then anything. By the time he releases Dear Tommy and Body Work, I am not sure I will care.
I love the label and its bands (like everyone in this thread) but I’m tired of them just releasing same songs over and over on different soundtracks or different coloured vinyl. I saw IDIB play a club in London, probably 2009 or 2010. There was Desire, Glass Candy and JJ solo and I got to meet them all which was really cool. But even then Ida was discussing Body Work (the next Glass Candy album) and it felt overdue at that point. It’s now 10 years on and nothing! I actually prefer Glass Candy over Chromatics (by a hair), so it’s really frustating waiting for new releases.
I agree with your sentiments. I personally do like the stop-gap projects that keep appearing inbetween (like Digital Rain and Windswept). However, they also remind me of myself when I find myself procrastinating with work - it's nice to do something quick and concrete, but that doesn't make the deadlines go away! Certainly JJ is at risk of losing the momentum that he has built up with his key releases. The stop-gap albums continue to generate some attention, but it's easy to imagine that interest petering out at some point or another. The perfectionist in me understands the desire to keep revising, but by now he might have done better to simply release the original mix of Dear Tommy (rather than destroying all copies!). Ex post, there would have been time enough for remixes, revisions, and drumless alternatives.
JJ releasing, stating and/or hinting at multiple release dates for DT and BW and not following through is one thing but that fact that he releases what, half the album of DT (and some songs with multiple slight variations) is what really makes me lose interest. Songs like Shadow I have been listening to since 2015!
If Dear Tommy had been released on schedule, it would have garnered a lot of press simply because JJ/IDIB had built up a huge amount of momentum. But these delays are really unnecessary and pretty self destructive if you ask me. Also, I never believed he destroyed the original Dear Tommy tapes, I always thought that was just a bit of myth building and a way of calling time while he tweaked the album. Unfortunately he seems to be incapable of feeling the album is done.
You certainly get the sense that Johnny is the type who can keep on tinkering with a track - as reflected by the myriad versions of the various Chromatics tracks. Thing is, there would also have been plenty of scope for alternate versions if the album simply had been released at some point in the past - and in that case, the momentum following Kill for Love would have been conserved. I do hope the Dear Tommy EPs mean that the album is on the horizon. But leaking album tracks beforehand can also really undo the surprise value of an album. I really hope Johnny's intuition is right on this one.
I hate that whole concept of releasing/leaking/dropping tracks ahead of the album. They're not singles, they're just ways of generating interest. For me, the problem is that the tracks become overly familiar if I play them too much and, as you said, the surprise and excitement of the album release gets diminished. Especially when the lag time between leaked tracks and the album release is so prolonged.
Don't get me started on the Farah LP that never was. Tracks (and good one) were leaked ten years ago ! Myspace era !
Few weeks ago the Dear Tommy page on IDIB website reported half dozen tracks names into the tracklist table on the left side of the page. I just noticed that now that tracklist had been cleaned out (except "Endless Sleep" as last track") that could mean that the songs JJ/Chromatics are releasing as singles/EPs are no more included in the final Dear tommy cut. I really hope i'm wrong or that that's just a website update error beacuse i really love last few released Chromatics Tracks and Shadow is one of my favourite Chromatics songs.