| Supplemental
Issue
Dec. '99
Advertising:
The art of manipulating the media to create consumerism.
It
is no mistake that this month's Feature Artist; The Dan
Emery Mystery Band,
titled their CD Love and Advertising.
And, it was no mistake that they
chose The
Only One Who Loves You
as the leadoff track. A searing indictment of the rampant commercialism
on which this
world of ours survives. It is meant to open our eyes as it is pulling
the wool over them,
to pokes us as it prods us. The Mystery Band
lays down a taught rhythm
line that bubbles along just under the surface as Dan
Emery tells us -
"There's a lazy person in a brand new pair of Nike
sneakers." and
"An unimaginative person trying to be an artist with the help of a Kodak
camera." He reaches our sympathy with his earnestness and we
understand our
common bond with these people. At one time or another we all have been
duped by an
advertiser into thinking the manufacturers care so much about us that
they have created a
product to make our lives better. Then, to show us he knows of what he
speaks, Dan hits us
with his tag line (slogan - if you will) as the Mystery Band explodes
with a ferociousness
to confirm their conviction; "I...AM...THE...only one who
loves you/
I...AM...THE...only one who cares for you/ I'm the only one who really
cares for you,"
leaving us to wonder how firmly the tongue is implanted in cheek and
whether or not the
joke is on us. We find out soon enough - After running down all the
bargains at the Tower
Outlet Record Store, Dan doubles back on his lyrical
references mixing and matching
scenarios he's already created to show the lunacy involved with any
given sales pitch,
then drives it straight through our heart when he takes the line from
the first stanza:
"And a depressed person trying to cheer up checking out a Disney
movie,"
and later in the song personalizes it by telling us: "The
first person you ever
made love to is checking out a video from Blockbuster."
Love and
Advertising, they make for strange bedfellows.
With
the Advertising out of the way the disc continues, centered around 4
songs of
love. These showcase Dan Emery as a
master storyteller as well as a
hopeless romantic.
Track
#2, Her Favorite Bra
is a beautiful story of a man who
loses his girlfriend because instead of supporting her through the hard
times of her life,
like her favorite bra ("Everybody needs some kind of a bra to
support them in
what they're going through") he sits and writes songs about
wanting to support
her ("I wanna be a firm strong bra for the times in your life
when you need a
firm strong something that you can depend on") which in the
end is not enough.
Leading
to Track #3 It's
Not Enough To Be In
Love which opens with the hyper
strumming of an acoustic guitar that is
joined by a bouncing piano. As the two instruments begin a dance of
mutual understanding,
they also keep to themselves as they display an agenda of their own
intentions. The
musical choreography is a delight as the story unfolds about a man who
is hopelessly in
love with a woman that in turn, loves him as well, but can not return
the feelings on the
same level. Never have I heard two instruments convey the emotional
turmoil of a
relationship as perfectly as this.
Jumping
ahead to track #6 The Girl In The Laundromat
is a Rock
Anthem that weaves an extraordinary tale of longing and desperation in
which the (hopeless
romantic) narrator (of all these songs) finally does get the girl, but
is still left
lamenting his disappointment because it didn't happen in the way that
he had envisioned.
The
rest of the disc is filled with equally compelling yarns of personal
goals and
commitments- Winning,
I Just Want To Live,
Self-explanatory
titles- Other
People's Tongues, Student
Loan, (One Good Reason To)Shake Your Booty
(a song about the dance
floor mating ritual) and stomach aches- Don't
Let Me Die Tonight
the latter, a delta blues style swamp rocker set in the heart/heat of
NYC that transcends
the plot so perfectly you can almost feel the pain.
The
final love song Alone On The Moon
closes the disc with a soliloquy of a sad, failed romance set to a
heartfelt sparse
acoustic arrangement. As the final piano note lingers and fades until
we hear the door
close, we realize that above everything else the Mystery
Band - Dan
Emery- guitar, vocals, Steve Espinola- piano, shortwave radio (yes, you
read that right-
shortwave radio- once you hear it [it ROCKS!] you'll wonder why it
isn't a standard
instrument), Jeff Morris- bass, & Andy Morris- drums, create
musical landscapes so
vivid that as Dan's parables unfold, we the listeners can not help but
to become part of
the stories. This has to be one of the reasons that 119 fans of The
Dan Emery
Mystery Band helped to finance the manufacturing of the Love
and
Advertising disc.
119 fans can't be wrong! Pick up your
copy
of
Love and Advertising by The
Dan Emery Mystery Band
now for the low, low price of: $8.98 +s/h*
 View
Shopping Cart / Checkout
Accepting Credit Cards and PayPal
This offer valid through the IndepenDisc Music Club,
but not in most stores.
*Shipping
&
Handling charges:
USA - $3.00
for the first 2 CDs
ordered,
Add $1.50 per each CD after.
Canada - $5.00 for the
first
CD ordered,
Add $2.00 per each CD after.
Everywhere else -$7.00
for the
first CD ordered,
Add $3.00 per each CD after.
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