PHOBIAS
double vision
im sitting here listening to like 50 mixes of each song
this next record is gonna be a lot different from what you may be expecting
its hard not to have your ears turn to mush after a while
musssssshhhhh
im gonna go climb up the ladder to the studio loft and lay her down now
im terrified of heights
ani and nappy were laughing because i got stuck up there the other day
body and brain locked up
heights man
fuckin debilitating phobia
speaking of phobias
check out this
i never new i was so phobic
phobophobic
THE HUSTLER
The latest Jeff Klein album "The Hustler" album is available direct from us here and for download from Tune Tribe now: www.tunetribe.com
Peter Buck of R.E.M selected "Put You To Sleep" from it for his personal selection covermount on the August edition of Uncut magazine, which selected it as Americana "Album of the Month" in July.
Tune Tribe threw a lovely launch party last week and were kind enough to ask us. As we liked the way they expressed their feelings for Jeff we thought we'd present them here for y'all:
TuneTribe brings you an exclusive taste of ‘The Hustler’, the third album from one of Austin, Texas’ most notable exponents of fine Americana: Jeff Klein.
Jeff Klein reclines
The theme at the heart of ‘The Hustler’ is love, albeit a love which is by turns either lost, fading or wholeheartedly unrequited. Recorded in New Orleans it was produced by Afghan Whigs/Twilight Singers frontman Greg Dulli and Blind Melon’s Mike Napolitano. It’s a record brimming with a melancholic Americana sound; a backdrop for Klein’s desolate, confessional and affecting lyrics.
Nowhere is this despondency more evident than on ‘Ironside’, where Klein’s warm, husky tones ponderously merge with the voice of an exotic dancer he met in a New Orleans bar to sing the plaintive chorus “so we drink till we get sick/because anything feels better than being this paralysed”.
The pleading resignation of ‘All I Want’, with its tumbling acoustic guitar and distant, barely audible, trumpet, offers further proof that Klein’s is a world where relations between lovers are characterised by conflict and separation, and key emotions and desires go unexpressed until it’s too late.
Elsewhere, the programmed drums which provide a bed to ‘Put You To Sleep’ – Klein’s tale of a jaded lover who has become bored of him – and the upbeat Southern rock-tinged ‘Suzanne’ – a bitter diatribe against a former belle – demonstrate that Klein’s musical pallet extends beyond the downbeat.
It’s rarely easy listening, but it’s soulful, intimate and ultimately rewarding. Go and hear for yourself.
And back in Jeff's own words:
When Jeff was 12 years old he broke his own arm with a hammer, just to see what it would feel like. He loves the smell of gasoline and the taste of blood. He can recite the dialogue from JAWS to you from memory at any given moment. He made THE HUSTLER in 17 days in a studio apartment in the French Quarter of New Orleans. “Recording in N' Awleans," he attests, "influenced everything about this record”. The disc, Klein’s third, features contributions from Ani DiFranco, Soul Asylum’s Dave Pirner and Afghan Whigs/Twilight Singers auteur Greg Dulli, who co-produced it with Mike Napolitano (Blind Melon, Joseph Arthur) in an atmosphere suited to Jeff’s darkly sexy, sometimes disturbingly intimate , songs. “It’s such a rich, diverse culture,” Jeff recalls of his New Orleans sojourn. “Between music and food and religion, it makes the hair on your arms stand up when you’re walking down the street. You feel the electricity in the air. It just makes you feel more creative. And there’s so much decadence: It’s so frightening and so amazing and jaw dropping at the same time. And it’s the only city in the whole world where a guy can get laid for playing the tuba.”
Jeff Klein’s second album was the starkly beautiful " Everybody Loves a Winner " . This won an enthusiastic reception in both the US and UK press for its unflinching, finely drawn depictions of lust and love and the mistakes those impulses can engender. " The Hustler " follows with an assortment of bourbon soaked set-pieces that will thrust him into full view. “ I grew up on indie rock and classic soul and I don’t want to be the guy with the acoustic guitar in coffee houses” he insists.
What ties these individual set-pieces together is Jeff’s voice – both his whiskey-and-nicotine rasp and the stylistic voice of his songwriting. ''I try to keep my songs as honest as possible. It does get me into trouble sometimes. I always change the names to protect the innocent, but there are some people who blatantly know that some songs are about them and their experiences. I know my family hears my songs and wonders what the hell is going on. I don’t always make the smartest choices in the world, but I have no regrets. I enjoy it. Everybody needs to make their mistakes.”
Make no mistake, you'll be so glad when you get this record.
