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2008 UPDATE: I've posted here the first new Jacket Weather song since 1984, (titled "JW08") at the top of my music player. Check it out!
The JACKET WEATHER: when shadows move 1982-1984
24 song re-mastered CD with booklet is NOW SOLD OUT!
We DO have a LIMITED NUMBER of original 1983 vinyl EPs for sale:
“For kids in the 1960s, the moment of inspiration was when they heard The Beatles for the first time,” Jacket Weather frontman Timothy Gassen says. “For me, when I heard Kraftwerk’s ‘Computer Love’ for the first time in 1981, I was hooked on making pop sounds with synths.”
Gassen formed the pioneering minimalist-electro-wave act Jacket Weather in 1982, mixing dual Casiotone keyboards, real bass and drums – with the desolate imagery of the Arizona desert. “I loved the contrast of the synths with human percussion and the sensual backdrop of the desert,” Gassen adds. “We thought the tension of my cold, distant vocals and synths with the bombastic rock rhythm section made our sound unique.”
Described in their day as a cross between Joy Division and Young Marble Giants, with some Wall Of Voodoo mixed in, Jacket Weather etched their own minimalist sound. Staccato, expressionistic vocals accent the snake-like mingling of the Casiotones, while a steady dance pulse backs the eerie mixture. Equally enraptured with Euro-synth, English post-punk and Los Angeles punk-wave, Jacket Weather found inspiration from such opposites as Our Daughter’s Wedding to the Suburban Lawns for their Casiotone symphonies.
The band recorded a cassette album in 1982, released a six-song vinyl EP in 1983 (titled “When Shadows Move”) and also recorded a complete album that remained unreleased – until now. The impossibly rare EP has been a long-time quest for indie record collectors, with copies fetching more than $300 each on eBay.
Original session producer Gassen (who has gone on to a career in indie rock and film) recently found all the master tapes – from early demos, to the EP tapes, to the unreleased album – and re-mastered and assembled them all into the album that has been unheard for close to 25 years.
As an extra bonus for the 2007 CD release, Gassen also found and mixed the six original songs recorded by Reptile House, the more traditional rock band that Jacket Weather became in 1984. These songs remained unmixed and unreleased until now, and give their own unique peek into the 1980s New Wave underground. They also bridge listeners to Gassen’s next two decades of record-making with garage-psych kingpins The Marshmallow Overcoat.
But it’s the dark and mysterious (Casio) tones of Jacket Weather that finally take center stage, a quarter-century since they first drifted through the Arizona night.
WE HAVE FOUND A SMALL BOX OF THE ORIGINAL, RARE 1983 EPs! The new CD featuring these tracks and many more is now SOLD OUT, but we'll make the remaining 1983 vinyl EPs available for sale here very soon! We'll also make the CD songs available soon as digital downloads. Check back here soon!
Head over to PCMP for more band and ordering info!
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