Today Johnny Dynamite (Whiner, Ashjesus) releases Wannabe, a dreamy, 80s-infused B-side from his 2020 album Heartbroken.
Wannabe is ethereal and transcendent: a welcome, if melancholic motif for these chaotic times. It fits right at home in a veil-straddling David Lynch diaspora, its thoughtful and shimmering synth reminiscent of a late 80s college radio discovery at the midnight hour.
“I wrote it before I thought about going solo, before I took on the name Johnny Dynamite,” he says. “It’s a track about self reflection, inward thoughts, and finding peace within. I never felt like I had a real home. I grew up on Staten Island and I moved around a bunch. Then I left to go to college in New Paltz, where I lived for 4 years. I moved back down to NYC after, and at the time, home felt like nature. The line, “I say to myself, ‘you’d be alone if you were someone else’, I wannabe alone”, reflects the loss of self when you have no place to call home. I felt an emotional attachment reflecting on this song right now, because I left NYC as soon as there was a mention of a quarantine. I’m currently down in Maryland staying with my girlfriend at her parents’. Coincidentally, this is also the state I finished recording the song in.’
Dynamite read that the CDP was starting a COVID-19 Response Fund and immediately wanted to help.
“I was already planning to release a B-side on Friday on Bandcamp, who are waiving their revenue that day to help all affected artists. After reading the article on the CDP, I decided that all the proceeds I get from my song will go to the response fund. We’re in some bizarre times right now and we all need to work together to get through this. The donations will focus on supporting hourly wage workers, workers in the gig economy, new American populations, older adults, people with disabilities, mental health, and economic impacts of the pandemic. As we all know, every dollar helps right now and you can donate a dollar or more to help support the cause.”
Photo: Alice Teeple
The album cover art (and the Johnny Dynamite moniker) came from the artist’s grandfather, Pete Morisi, who co-created the comic bookprivate detective character in the 1950s with writer Ken Fitch.
You can purchase the beautiful track here AND help a good cause:
New York is eerily quiet now, the usual bustle and clamour of the bars silenced. You can even hear birds chirping in the trees; a peaceful juxtaposition to the collective despair currently facing New York City’s service industry. Hundreds of thousands of hardworking servers, cooks, bartenders, co-ordinators and baristas are suddenly stranded without any source of income. Because of the nature of their jobs, those in the service industry cannot work from home and have had their hours cut or eliminated for the foreseeable future. Many are reliant on tips to survive, with thousands of food servers and bartenders otherwise earning under the standard minimum wage with no access to health care. As New York’s hospitality industry wrestles with the COVID-19 crisis, public, private, and non-profit sectors are striving to ensure that the city’s 321,000 food and beverage workers maintain some economic security and access to healthcare.
These are people holding up the fabric of our society. This crisis affects literally everyone who has ever eaten in a restaurant, gotten their hair professionally done, had a mani-pedi, ordered a cup of coffee, or gotten a drink at a bar.
Ivy X, a law student who works for a major talent industry, immediately organized Tips For Kicks NYC, a GoFundMe focusing solely on tipping service industry workers.
“Think about how much you tip for a coffee, a meal, a haircut, or a live band playing at a bar,” she says. You donate however much you want. It goes into a pot and is divided among applicants who have been immediately impacted.”
Tips For Kicks has almost met their initial goal of $1000, but more is encouraged and everything goes straight to the recipients as a regular tip jar would.
HOW SOON TO DONATE:
The campaign will run through Saturday, March 28th to ensure that workers can get their tips ASAP.
HOW TO APPLY FOR AID:
You must be an NYC resident who relies on tips to supplement your income. You must apply by Monday, March 23rd to be considered.
Email the following to tipsforkicksnyc@gmail.com :
• Proof of employment
• A short description of the nature of your work
• Your Venmo handle
All applicants will be notified whether they are approved through email.
In the summer of 2019, a new supergroup emerged from the streets of Brooklyn, comprised of LG Galleon (Dead Leaf Echo) on vocals and guitar, Gregg Giuffré (drums) Max Idas on Bass (Lulls), Dominic Turi (Squad Car) on guitar, and Lyla Vander (Ice Balloons, Habibi) on keys. Although they are a relatively new outfit, they have already shared the stage with bands like Honduras, Big Bliss, Slowness, and The Prids.
Clone was all set to embark upon their first tour across the US before the COVID-19 outbreak, including a couple of performances slated for SXSW, but at the eleventh hour, the band was unfortunately forced to cancel all travel plans. It was a massive disappointment for the group, but they remain optimistic.
“Clone are evocative, in ethos and ambition alone, of a time when bands still could change lives,” says Galleon. “They also believe in the galvanizing, redemptive power of music, the kind which used to be written for the lonely and the scarred and the diffident, before something truly was lost, something deeply enmeshed within the human psyche that could be shared. Clone are fitfully reclaiming this, which at its crux, is the imagination of youth. It’s captured vividly here, and their private universe of sonic exploration is now open to all.”
The band is releasing a new track called New Romance, and, according to Galleon, “it’s a damn auspicious opening volley.” The single’s sound captures the nascent verve of Warsaw, (precursor to Joy Division), especially in the icy timbre of the slashing guitar figures.
Idas’s eminently melodic, racing basslines, reminiscent of Peter Hook’s, also recall the daydream haze of The Cure circa Pornography, and lock in effortlessly with Vander’s metronomic, economical drumming. Galleon’s vocals round out the sound, as he urges with an unrepentant rage, “Tell me a story about how you’ll bore me.”
In this song, the protagonist is assuming a woman’s perspective, but his mind is androgynous, for these feelings are universal. Confusion and anger are at the fore, but they’re a device used to convey the difficulties of finding any true human connectedness, which is appropriate, given the deterioration of communication in our increasingly anomic culture.
Photo: Alice Teeple
Photo: Alice Teeple
The b-side to the single, Boris the Cobbler, treads similar ground covered on New Romance. The band has an EP in the works for 2020, which they’re recording with Arjun Argerwala (James Iha, Adam Franklin).
They’re complete, in their purpose and in bond, and believe in themselves. Drift in with them, as the ride has only just begun.
Clone is offering wonderful merch on their home page, including vinyl and shirts (DM them for your size). All money goes directly toward supporting the band.
During this collective time of crisis in the wake of Covid-19, Le Poisson Rouge, a good friend of Downtown Magazine, is currenly working on streaming live performances, unveiling archived concert footage, and engaging the independent music community in unprecedented ways. At the moment, however, it is asking the public for support on their Patreon and through payment apps to keep this jewel of the West Village open for the foreseeable future.
We love LPR and all the beautiful opportunities they have given us, and hope that they can continue their mission to bring amazing live music to New York City. Please support their hardworking staff, as they are all out of work. So many incredible acts have come through, including Peter Murphy, Clan of Xymox, The Bellwether Syndicate, The Crazy World of Arthur Brown, and White Denim.
The Bellwether Syndicate
White Denim
The Crazy World of Arthur Brown
Clan of Xymox
Official Statement From Le Poisson Rouge:
Hello everyone,
Sunday evening, New York City Mayor Bill De Blasio announced an executive order to close all music venues across the city. The decision on how to deal with the Coronavirus outbreak has been taken out of our hands and we intend to comply with the mayor’s order. As much as this hurts our hearts and our business, we believe this is the right thing to do and understand the need for mass closures at this time.
Though we may be temporarily shutting our doors to the public, we cannot quarantine our love for music. We refuse to give up. We are working on streaming live performances and programming, unveiling archived concert footage, and engaging the independent music community like never before. If you are a musician or have a musical story to tell – let us know! We want to enable you to get the support you need. Now more than ever, we need the healing power of music and art.
If you have a ticket to an upcoming show, please be patient. There are a lot of logistics involved with figuring out refunds and exchanges and we are doing our best to sort it out. Refunds are taking longer than usual to process so please be patient. If you can hold onto your ticket for a rescheduled show, please do so.
We applaud the communal effort towards social distancing, but are faced with the harsh reality that these decisions also obliterate income for half a million New Yorkers who work in the Leisure and Hospitality industry. LPR’s bartenders, servers, bussers, porters, technicians, kitchen staff, security guards, etc. face this struggle head on. Many of them rely on hourly wages and tips to provide for their families and suddenly face the prospect of weeks without work.
Many of you have reached out to us about what you can do to support LPR and its employees in these uncertain times – we are so grateful for this response. Here’s how you can donate to our employees and ongoing operational expenses:
The independent bars, restaurants, and venues of New York are making extreme sacrifices to flatten the curve. We need our government and financial institutions to recognize that and lend us a hand. We call on Mayor De Blasio, Governor Cuomo, President Trump, and all of our elected officials at the local, state, and national level to assemble a relief package for the events industry.
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