Paradise Vendors >> I know what you need

Paradise Vendors - "Prozac" (a.k.a. "Proloft")

(self-released [Spartie Records], 2003 / 2005)

Paradise Vendors were a short-lived New Orleans band, or dare I say supergroup, named after the fictitious hot dog company for which Ignatius J. Reilly worked in the novel A Confederacy Of Dunces.  I read that book over 20 years ago and later unknowingly went to the same university (Loyola) as its author.  The book has always annoyed me a bit, but it's undeniably a classic of Southern literature.

I first heard this song on WTUL in late 2003, under its original title of "Prozac."  I was driving and had no cell phone yet, so when I got home I immediately called the station to ask what the song was.  I knew it'd go down as a local classic.  (This mp3 is from the impossibly-rare Music 1... demo EP CD-R.)  In 2004 PV played around town a lot and in early 2005 put out their one and only album, Candy.  It included "Prozac," but under the name "Proloft," presumably to avoid lawsuits, though the second name seems more likely stir up two lawsuits, if you ask me.  The semi-rapped ending verse of the song reminds of me of the surrealist "eatin' cars" part in Blondie's "Rapture," and the song in general has a playfully quirky, genre-busting feel like that of "Rapture."

Live in the crimson confines of Circle Bar on Oct. 26, 2004; photo by Jason Songe

I saw a subtly brilliant performance by a local band called the Vivid Prawns in March 1998 at the Mermaid Lounge, with fellow locals Sage Maas (proggy alt-metal) and Zoom (lame retro power pop).  The Prawns were basically a clone of The Sea And Cake (one of my favorite bands ever), and I was sure they'd get signed to Thrill Jockey Records, but they never released any official music, to my knowledge, and kinda faded away.  If anyone has any Vivid Prawns music or info to send my way, please do so.  They morphed into Veloka in the early '00s or perhaps late '90s.  So if you know about the two bands that made up PV, you'll understand how they got their hybrid sound: smooth tropical stylings from the Vivid Prawns, and burlesque-y edge from Veloka.  Paradise Vendors' bassist Dave Baker and drummer Elzy Lindsey were each in the Vivid Prawns and Veloka, as well as some band called Nuclear Choir.)  I'm sure I'm making this sound way too confusing...  So I'll put it this way: The bassist and drummer in any band comprise what is known as the rhythm section.  The following three NOLA bands had the same rhythm section: The Vivid Prawns, Veloka, Paradise Vendors.  And the synth guru from Electrical Spectacle, Anton Gussoni, was PV's secret weapon.  Add the dynamic vocal stylings and fashion sense of Jeanne Stallworth and you have the final piece in the Paradise puzzle.

I don't have any clips of the Vivid Prawns, but here's one of Veloka at the Howlin' Wolf (now called Republic) in glorious 144p:

Since I think it's rude to embed more than one video per page, see another super-psychedelic clip of Veloka here.

Hidden under a "Read More" tab at CD Baby is a great trove of info about Paradise Vendors, so I will simply cut and paste some of it over here, in case that page ever disappears.
First is a bio, presumably written by the band members themselves:

"If the illegitimate children of Martin Denny and Nancy Sinatra grew up in New Orleans and they formed a band... or you played turntables with LPs by Brasil 66, Dick Dale, The Pixies, and Burt Bacharach simultaneously and all the tunes were in E minor... or punks play bossa nova in the Irish Channel... or The Cramps fell in love with Doris Day... You might have pop exotica space rock.

When bassist Dave Baker (Veloka [alternative rock], The Vivid Prawns [Asian pop rock fusion], Nuclear Choir [new wave punk]) and drummer Elzy Lindsey (Veloka, The Vivid Prawns, Nuclear Choir, Fucus and way too many more bands to mention...) met thespian and chanteuse Jeanne Stallworth, (The Foxy HooHoos), guitarist Robert Vicknair (Veloka, Frank [digital garage], Merkins [post punk]) and last but not least, Anton Gussoni (Electrical Spectacle) on Moog and Rhodes piano... the eclectic collaboration of Paradise Vendors was born."

Here are excerpts from some local reviews:

Bunny Matthews (OffBeat magazine) describes our music as "excellent."
Anthony DelRosario (Turducken Productions) says "Paradise Vendors blends gypsy, surf, new wave, moog stuff, cabaret, world percussion, trashy girl rock & spacey instrumentals into an otherworldly hybrid too eclectic to readily classify."
Steve Perrin (rock journalist) says "P.J. Harvey meets Marlene Dietrich."
Jason Songe (liveneworleans.com) says "The music was a soundtrack to an underbelly... The band's music exposed what was under the city's black veil."
Keith Spera (Lagniappe / Times-Picayune) describes Candy as "eclectic, adventurous and artful modern pop..."
Alex Rawls (Gambit) says Paradise Vendors' music "evokes the luxuriousness of artists like Les Baxter or John Barry."

Songe is the affable booker at the Circle Bar, and he used to run the aforementioned site liveneworleans.com, which was an invaluable resource for reviewing under-the-radar local bands in the pre-MySpace/Facebook/Tumblr/Twitter era.  It has what are probably the only two detailed gig reviews that Paradise Vendors ever received, replete with photos:
Cafe Brasil (April 11, 2004)
Circle Bar (Oct. 26, 2004)

Last month I finally(!) got the original 2003 demo EP, Music 1..., whilst enjoying an in-store performance by What Moon Things at Euclid Records.  Afterwards, I convinced the band to snag a used copy of Candy for a few bucks after I had a Euclid employee play "Prozac" on the stereo.

This is of course the EP spread open; the front cover uses the same photo that's on the CD.
It's a purse with a Paradise Vendors 7" record (which doesn't actually exist) sewn or glued onto it, replete with the band's label, "Spartie Records." And a light-up ring.

Planets with similar climates: Lee Hazlewood & Nancy Sinatra - "Some Velvet Morning" (1967), Moonshake - "Exotic Siren Song" (1996), Blondie - "Rapture" (1980), Bleach - "Surround" (1991), The Cardigans - "Carnival" (1994), Furry Things - "Burn For" (1997).

Lansing-Dreiden >> Private moons have been seen through the haze of a sky

Lansing-Dreiden - "A Line You Can Cross"

(Kemado Records, 2006 / Mexican Summer Records, 2013)

This is one of those songs that causes you to think "Okay, this band is gonna have a box set one day."  Just like the Wye Oak song in my last post, I heard this one on WTUL while driving around (in this case, on the Westbank), and just about flipped out and had to call in immediately to find out what band it was.  This was in spring of 2006.  I obtained the mp3 as a free download from their website probably the same day, probably with crazed drool issuing forth from my mouth and my eyes bugging out of my head.  Just last week, I finally bought the CD that it's on, The Dividing Island.  Befitting the band's artsy leanings, it comes in cool gatefold packaging with triangular flaps, all done in a black and white color scheme.

Right down to its puzzling name, Lansing-Dreiden has always shrouded itself in mystery, and I always heard that they do not actually appear in the official music video:

As one astute YouTuber said: "Lansing-Dreiden rule! Fuck Pitchfork!"  I swear, someday I hope to have "Fuck Pitchfork" on my tombstone.  Make it happen, someone... I'll have my sister make you a free mix CD.  (Pitchfork actually gave the album a 7.7 rating.)

The video was also available for free download on their site back in 2006 in MPG format, and I sent out its URL to all my online music buddies.  (This was at the dawn of the YouTube era.)  Yes, they simply gave away this song and its video for free, for many years in fact.  Incredibly, this song wasn't released as a single, though having a video qualifies it as a de facto single.  I was constantly haranguing people to check this band out, and I was sure they'd be the next big pop stars or something.  L-D seemed to pattern themselves after The KLF in many ways, and "A Line" could've been as big a hit as "3 A.M. Eternal", if not bigger.  (I bought the "3 A.M. Eternal" cassingle in 1991, a day before going to Cozumel!)  In my review of The Dividing Island on Rate Your Music in 2007, I said "Unfortunately, the rest of the album veers from quirky '60s pop to other genres, since I once read that the band's goal on this album was to make it sound like a compilation of several different bands in different genres."

In recent years, the post-L-D project Violens has been garnering a good amount of attention in the indie blogosphere. They released the dazzling, kinetic single "Acid Reign" in 2010, but have turned sort of boring since then in my opinion.  They're currently on Slumberland Records.

Mexican Summer (home of Best Coast, Tamaryn, No Joy, and others) is about to reissue L-D's first three releases.  Ariel Pink is quoted as saying "Lansing-Dreiden was a musical entity shrouded in mystery and a best kept secret to muso’s the world over in the early 2000's. With this highly anticipated and beautifully packaged reissue of the band’s most treasured ouvres, Lansing-Dreiden is finally set to gain the appreciation and attention they have always deserved."

(Note: The mp3 in this post is from the original 2006 CD, not the upcoming Mexican Summer reissue, which will presumably be remastered.  Remember that I always try to avoid giving away the highest-quality version of a song, because I want people to have a reason to buy the latest pressing of an album.)

Mon. 3/25: Went to the Baton Rouge Zoo for the first time, and my animal-snob self was pretty impressed.  Also went to the Cohn Arboretum right down the road, but my über-plant-snob self was not too impressed.  Lots of cheesy generic landscaping plants like waxleaf ligusturum, yuck.

Wed. 3/27: Went to the Hornets-Clippers game with Damion via free tix from Hector. The Hornets lost, but I did excitedly snap a pic of a young Chris & Cliff Paul as we were arriving.

Afterwards, I went to see Helen Gillet play a fun but poorly-attended solo show at the AllWays Lounge.  She did lots of covers of peppy French pop tunes, which came as quite a shock to me, since I had seen her doing strictly experimental stuff with her cello.

Those are copies of her two CDs for sale at the foot of the stage

Had a great 1AM conversation with a WTUL DJ, Calder King, in which we talked about shoegaze bands.  I was blown away when he immediately played my requests for Drop Nineteens' "Delaware" and Swervedriver's "Never Lose That Feeling."  And I pretty much decided to become a DJ there, since I now know of three WTUL DJs who didn't go to Tulane.

Thu. 3/28: Went to the Iron Rail's new location to pick up a 12" by Arctic Flowers that I had ordered last Oct., but someone had bought it.  Bryan (Funck, the Ian MacKaye of the NOLA punk / indie scene) was playing a Duran Duran best-of album, and not for irony value either.  In fact, when it ended, he upped the ante by wordlessly putting on a Milli Vanilli album, again not for irony value.  They definitely don't make 'em like that dude very often...  Loyola represent.  Some of the crusty punks shopping inside seemed a bit bewildered, but I can report that I heard some people humming along.  I'd like to volunteer there or help out in some way, but I'm unfortunately not much of an anarchist.

Fri. 3/29: Continuing the theme of going to new places, I went to Pizza Delicious' new digs with Ashley (impressive art gallery inside, by the way), then showed her Euclid Records and Harold's nursery briefly.  Scored Blouse's debut LP on white vinyl w/ alternate cover art at Euclid; a pretty unexpected find.  I lent Ashley Wild Nothing's Nocturne and the Cure's Kiss Me Kiss Me Kiss Me.  Went to the Defend New Orleans store for the first time and bought a mohawked-skull logo pin.  Finally made it to Stein's Deli for the first time, and was not disappointed by their beer selection, which was rumored to be amazing.  They were playing Tool's Undertow in its entirety, not the hipster stuff that you'd hear at, say, Dat Dog.  Gave the remainder of my pizza to two difft. thrift stores, since it was too spicy for me and I'm trying to cut way down on my dairy intake in order to clear up my sinuses.  I'm not religious, but this Good Friday really lived up to its name, right down to the breezy, NorCal-esque weather.  Sorry for all the details, but this was an eventful week for li'l old me.  The next post will be free of personal details because I will not do anything next week.

Planets with similar climates: Tears For Fears - "Head Over Heels" (1984), Simple Minds - "Promised You A Miracle" (1982), Depeche Mode - "Stripped" (1986), School Of Seven Bells - "Heart Is Strange" (2010), The Psychedelic Furs - "Heartbreak Beat" (1986).