The Joy Circuit >> Shouldn't you know why?

The Joy Circuit - "The New Sunrise" (demo) ∆

(self-released, 2004) ∆

Jeff Garber, mastermind of National Skyline (see previous post), moved to SoCal in the early '00s and became active with the band Year Of The Rabbit, and soon after that he co-founded The Joy Circuit.  This band is not to be confused with the '80s band also called The Joy Circuit; both bands presumably named themselves after the Gary Numan song of the same name.

The Joy Circuit in L.A., ca. 2005; L-R: Solomon Snyder, Tim Dow, Jeff Garber
Official press/promo photo; photographer unknown
(This photo is sometimes incorrectly labeled online as being of National Skyline)

TJC consisted of Jeff Garber on vocals & guitar, Tim Dow on drums, and Solomon Snyder on bass, all three of whom were in Year Of The Rabbit.  Hence, after learning what they look like via the pic above, you can observe all three members of The Joy Circuit in YOTR's video for the shoulda-been-hit "Last Defense":

YOTR's singer was Keanu Reeves lookalike Ken Andrews, former lead singer of the space-grunge band Failure, whom I saw live in '94 (opening for Tool & Flaming Lips) right after their album Magnified came out.  You probably remember Failure's huge (only) 1996 alterna-hit "Stuck On You," or at least remember its distinctively cinematic video:

I downloaded TJC's untitled demo EP when it came out in late '04, as it was posted on TJC's website as a free download.  I was totally blown away.  The synths of Nat Sky had been stripped away, reconfiguring the engine to run on pure guitar adrenaline and spiky, bombastic drumming.  Garber reasserts himself as a guitar god on this song / EP, after the sometimes guitar-free soundscapes of National Skyline.  It was really startling to me to hear Garber shredding his vocal cords on this songs, as opposed to the "clean" and almost androgynous voice he used in National Skyline.  But it makes sense when you keep in mind that he started off as the singer for the angular indie rock / emo-ish band Castor (whose recordings I don't personally recommend checking out).
I think the name of this song is taken from The Church's stunningly beautiful little 1983 gem "Fly," which has the lyric "Trapped inside her painted eyes / Takes herself into the new sunrise."  Here's the video, the last 20 seconds of which are sorta NSFW:

"Fly" uses a lot of guitar harmonics to give that plinking, spine-tingling, xylophone-ish, church-bell-ish sound, a technique I mentioned a few posts ago, so please go look up how to do it and go play some harmonics on your guitar already.

The four songs that make up TJC's demo EP are simply incredible, enough to reaffirm one's belief in the power of music.  Some wise record label needs to release this EP on an actual physical format, such as 10" vinyl.  The Joy Circuit went on to release an awesome, and more shoegaze-y, EP in early 2005, simply titled EP 1.  My hopes were sky-high for this band's certain dominance of the indie rock scene, especially with the whole post-punk revival going on, but they never recorded, or at least never released, anything else, and hence faded into complete obscurity with only nine songs to their name.  All nine of them are keepers, though, meaning they made more great songs in a few months than were spewed forth by the entire careers of most other bands.  They'll always be a towering tornado of rock to me.  Someday I'll also post "Run In Circles" from this EP, and something from EP 1, so hold onto your hats, because it could be a white-knuckle ride, a ride for which you'll probably need a hat.

Update, Aug. 7, 2011: On my old computer I found a copy I had saved of the press release that announced TJC's existence.  It was posted on 6/29/04 at http://discussions.elektra.com/wm-yearoftherab/messages at 11:09 PM:

"Hello all,

While the Rabbit seems to be in deep hibernation for now, there has been some related activity.

In January 2004, Tim Dow, Jeff Garber, and Solomon Snyder began jamming in a small Los Angeles rehearsal space.  After a week or two had passed, it was apparent that a new band was forming.

The band took the moniker THE JOY CIRCUIT, and over the past few months the group has written at least 30 new songs.

The Joy Circuit has booked some studio time for the end of July, and the band hopes to have something released before the end of the year.

THE JOY CIRCUIT will perform on July 8th at The Troubadour in Los Angeles. (...)

Check out www.thejoycircuit.com for more info and music.

thanks"

So there's 21 other songs?!? Oh man, now I'll never be able to sleep.

Planets with similar climates: Swervedriver - "Son Of Mustang Ford" (1990), National Skyline - "Reinkiller" (2001), The Sound - "The Fire" (1981), The Church - "Reptile" (1987), U2 - "Like A Song..." (1982), Prosaics - "Teeth" (2004), Feverdream - Vortex (1995).

National Skyline >> You could disappear into thin air

National Skyline - "Ghosts" •/•/•/•

(File 13 Records, 2001) º/º/º/º

National Skyline began as a "supergroup" of Champaign / Urbana indie rock dudes in the mid-'90s, whose alleged goal was to write one 45-minute masterpiece song.  Apparently they actually recorded it in '97, but it was never released.  The group's core members were Jeff Garber (ex-Castor) on vocals, guitar and other stuff, and Jeff Dimpsey (ex-Hum) on bass and other stuff.  I think they've always used drum machines rather than real drumming.  Much like the band Idaho (see post on them from a few weeks ago), Nat Sky later was winnowed down to be essentially a one-man project, helmed by Garber.  He later joined Year Of The Rabbit as a guitarist, and fronted the short-lived but amazing band The Joy Circuit.  After years of silence on the Nat Sky front, he has revived the moniker and released a slew of music in the last four or so years.  Garber is pretty much a musical genius in my mind, or at least a master of amazing melodies.  "I love you in the shape of swirling gas" is one of the most strangely romantic lyrics ever written.

I love how the song starts off with just a primitive, muffled drum sample and minimalist, almost womblike keyboards, and then come in the vocals, then louder, more complex drum machine beats, then piano.  The combination of slow vocals and relatively fast beats messes up the brain's ability to keep time.  Lots of Nat Sky songs have incredible guitar parts (especially "Reinkiller"), but this one is so rock-solid and perfect that it doesn't even need any axe.  My only complaint about it is that Garber doesn't unleash his celestially gorgeous falsetto voice in it, as he does on, say, "A Night At The Drugstore" or "Air."  This song is from the 2001 EP Exit Now, which also features the absolutely staggering 12-minute shoegaze-tronic space-drone-noize opus "Karolina II."

Exit Now

National Skyline were famous for the elaborate light show at their concerts and for their obsession with sonic detail.  They once arrived at a club which had booked them for a show, checked out its sound system, decided it wasn't up to snuff, and then simply left.  If I had gone to that show I would've been pretty furious, but, eh... rock stars.
I obtained this EP, and the band's incredible debut album This = Everything, from download service eMusic in 2003, back when you had unlimited downloads, so I just downloaded untold hundreds of albums, ending up with only a few diamonds in the rough.  After becoming completely obsessed with Nat Sky that summer, I later bought both of those releases on actual CD, for a dollar each on eBay.  I vividly remember blasting this song as loud as my truck's stereo would go while surveying the damage in New Orleans' City Park a few weeks after Katrina, as though it would somehow make the trees grow back and make people feel more optimistic.  To be more specific, I was standing on the empty golf course (I've never played golf in my life) by Tad Gormley stadium while my Suburban was parked on the street next to it, playing this song.  No one else was there, in this normally-crowded park.  I had lost my sweet little '94 Integra in the flood, so my dad passed on his big lumbering '95 Suburban to me.  It had a significantly more powerful stereo, as well as a CD player.  The Integra only had a tape deck, which is part of the reason why I have amassed so many cassettes.

Jeff Garber

This song's piano solo, beginning at about 3:30, is the most stunning one I have ever heard.  I could live in it.  It is surely the most heart-stoppingly beautiful thing ever created, and my entire body still gets covered in goosebumps whenever I hear it.  You should see me play every note of it with absolute precision while driving.  (Yes, using both hands.)  The piano in this song slightly edges out the piano in:
"Lloyd's Register" by Rachel's
"When The Winter's Gone (Song For A Stranger)" by David Benoit & Jennifer Warnes
"Frou-frou Foxes In Midsummer Fires" by Cocteau Twins
"1/1" by Brian Eno & Robert Wyatt
"Chloe Dancer" by Mother Love Bone
"The Cutting Edge" by The Comsat Angels
"Litany Against Fear" by Christian Scott
"Telegraph Hill" by Michael Krassner (Boxhead Ensemble)
"Swingset Chain" by Loquat
"October" by U2
"February Sea" by George Winston
"We Float" by PJ Harvey (piano by PJH & Rob Ellis)
"Speechless" by Liz Story

On the topic of ghosts, I've always been an atheist, and always will be, but I believe in ghosts / spirits / souls and the like, including the concept of "guardian angels," since I believe I was saved from a car crash in Nov. '07 by one.  Blah blah, just listen to the song again.  But after that near-crash, I drove over to, guess where... City Park... and sat in my car under the oaks and thought about a lot of things for a few hours.

Exit Now

Note: "Ghosts" (as well as "Karolina II") was included as a bonus track on the Japanese CD edition of This = Everything, on a label called Stiff Slack.

I've recently really gotten into the song "Regret" by New Order, to the point where I sing it to myself constantly, and a week ago found & bought the CD single for $2, and today even heard it in a Lowe's, so in order to get it to quit stalking me, here it is:

I'd say it's their second-best song, after "Shell Shock":

Obviously, National Skyline, at least in their early-'00s incarnation, were quite influenced by New Order.  I never really took New Order seriously, but like I said, I've recently been giving them more of a chance and am starting to understand why they were so mega-influential.

As for Casey Anthony being found not guilty today, someone on TV right afterwards (I think Jane Velez-Mitchell) pointed out something very interesting, which is that America hates to execute celebrities, or even to send them to prison.  I then thought about the fact that we (by which I mean the overwhelming majority of Americans who wanted to see her get the death penalty) all unwittingly made this anonymous skeezer into a star by the simple fact that we followed her case for three years and put her on countless magazine covers.  So we unwittingly saved her life, even though we all wanted the opposite.  If we hadn't paid so much attention to the case, she would've been more likely to have been found guilty.  D'oh.

Casey throwin' up what is presumably a failed Wesside.  The only way this
photo could be any more white trash would be if that were an Ed Hardy shirt.

This photo brings to mind only one song... No, not ELO's "Evil Woman," silly... I am referring to Billy Reid's "White Chicks And Gang Signs":

Planets with similar climates: The Comsat Angels - "The Cutting Edge" (1986), Radiohead - "Fake Plastic Trees" (1995), Over The Rhine - "Jacksie" (~1990), Verve - "On Your Own" (1995), Bark Psychosis - "Absent Friend" (1993), Mogwai w/ Aidan Moffat - "R U Still In 2 It?" (1997), Ova Looven - "Invisible Triangle" (2003), Placebo - "Without You I'm Nothing" (1998).


Currently enjoying the concept of: Motorcyclist Dies On Ride Protesting Helmet Law In New York
This reminded me of the time Flavor Flav, who at the time was fresh off the success of the single "911 Is A Joke" with Public Enemy, one of the few songs of theirs on which he sang lead, got in a car wreck and had to call 911 to come save his ass.