***Repost from, ummm, sometime earlier. Just remembered this is – surprisingly – still sitting around. Just noticed that today is the street date for a Third Man reissue of the band’s follow-up to this record, “Go Go Harlem Baby”. So, obviously time to trot this back out again, and post it on eBay as well.***
So, stumbled across this sealed cassette in a local shop the other day, and it brought back all kinds of memories. Firstly, straight outta Chapel Hill, NC, circa late 80’s/early 90’s. I lived there during this time, and man, what a great time to be there as there was just loads of great bands in the south at that time and the Flat Duo Jets were just one of ’em. Another was Snatches Of Pink, who also found themselves signed to Dog Gone Records, which was a super tiny indie label started by R.E.M. manager Jefferson Holt. Snatches also found themselves truly mismanaged by, ummm, me. Hey, I loved the band and wanted to do whatever I could to help ’em. But I quickly discovered that management was not for me. That said, I still did what I could as, to this day, I love those records. (In what should be more than an aside – Snatches drummer Sara Romweber – who also happened to be Let’s Active’s original drummer – was/is brother to Flat Duo Jet mainstay Dexter Romweber and Sara now currently backs up her brother in the Dexter Romweber Duo. To this day, one of the more bad-ass drummers I’ve ever seen. Really.)
Anyhoo, Flat Duo Jets were live legends, tearing it up wherever they could play. And this, their debut, was recorded live-to-two-track in a Triangle garage. (Because dude, that’s how it was done back then!). Now, the band was primarily a guitar/drums duo, and this was almost a decade prior to the first White Stripes record (not to mention the slew of guitar/drum duo’s that have followed – I’m looking at you Black Keys…oh, hi there, I really like your band), but for this record they busted the budget and added a stand-up bass player. (BTW, Jack White has publicly and repeatedly paid his respects to Romweber in the past, including the 2010 release of a Duo single as part of Third Man’s Blue Series and having just reissued the band’s sophomore release, “Go Go Harlem Baby”).
Wow, that post veered all over the place, no? So, this cassette, not to mention the album and cd, are just super tough to find. I see that someone sold back-to-back copies of the cassette on eBay for, I think, $32.50 each and is now attempting to sell one for $75. For sealed vinyl, sure? But a cassette? Uh, good luck. I have one posted on Gemm, Musicstack and now, eBay, for $35. A very reasonable price to pay for some unhinged rock and roll.
musicstack…http://www.musicstack.com/item/371407121
gemm…http://www.gemm.com/ddc/search.pl?&a_refno=GML1449401075
eBay…http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=380378214776#ht_722wt_1348
graypunk 