Chelonis R Jones

anyone know of any Seattle shops carrying these?

http://www.sanandamaitreya.com/interviews/ttd_sans_ego.html

http://www.askmen.com/toys/interview_100/111_terence_trent_darby_interview.html

Hopefully it makes up for your Superpitcher interview.

Definitely glad I paid for 2nd Anniversary Mix aka the CD I cannot stop listening to. By far my favorite thing in this whole vein; I like it more than the Mei Lwun mix, even, if just because the aesthetic is so consistent throughout. (Mei Lwun got a liiiiittle tacky at the end of the mix I thought, although the beginning is perfect.)

Stick with Body Language, I think it's an album that really grows with relistens, and the stuff that initially seems quite abstract (like the Guido Schneider "On & On" remix) eventually seems really catchy and populist! Sorta.

Actually one odd thing is that each time I've heard one of the tracks on the mix in another context, I've gone back and loved that part of the mix a lot more.

The Booka Shade album is v. good, worth it for the astonishing opening track "Vertigo" alone, though I also really like "Double Identity", "Memento", "Something Physical" and a few others heaps. It could do with a few more anthem tracks though (one of the most anthemic tracks on the vinyl, "Ain't Got Much To Lose", was left of the CD version).

Which made Chelonis R Jones’ emergence on Germany’s Get Physical label last year feel like quite an event: with a brace of anthem-ready tracks such as the bouncy falsetto One & One, the catty spoken word Blackout! or the devastating ballad I Don’t Know, Chelonis quickly established himself as the pre-eminent diva in a scene whose Chicago house revivalism has tended to the dry and techy side. Not that he necessarily likes this label:

“Chelonis R. Jones is an entirely different can of beans altogether! I have dangerous depth to my concept. I started as painter/novelist! This has nothing to do with diva, it's a fact! There is no one in vocal house singing the shit I'm singing; most don't have the balls, anyway! They keep going on about "everyone must be free"/"peace and harmony is the key" blah blah blah! I am a special case: I lived on the streets, for crying out loud!”

On his first album – bearing the unsurprisingly portentous title Dislocated Genius – Chelonis puts distance between himself and the diva with a succession of brittle, paranoid electro grooves and deadpan performances that recall Green Velvet, although again, such comparisons are not particularly welcome. This side-swerve into alienated eccentricity was a deliberate move for Chelonis:

“I was in a hospital to treat my wars with manic depression. I am well aware of my blessings and my curses; everything has its price! That's why my CD is quite dangerous to the average disco club singer... People can take a single look into my eyes, and just feel that I've been through it and mean every word and action! The public is not so stupid as most attest! I chose to keep the shady parts, even the mistakes, and paid close attention to leaving it all in the mix; that is the ultimate secret of Dislocated Genius. I chose not to polish/censor/whitewash or perfume my debut! I did nearly everything to get the CD adored, despised or banned.”

“I come from an extreme 70's/80's indie rock background, and this accentuates my eccentric position in vocal electro-pop. Until last year, I had no idea who Green Velvet was! I listened to no dance or electronic music whatsoever while working on Dislocated Genius... I just kept it harshly real, which most others aren't daring to do. I could've just sat back and sold my ridiculous face: people always compare me to the same 4 black musicians all the time. You know who they are! It gets tiring...flattering, but still tiring.”

Chelonis’s insistence on his own uniqueness perhaps reflects the convoluted path which has led him to his current incarnation, a path which took him from California to New York to Germany in the pursuit of a variety of vocations: “I was painting and songwriting in rock groups up until the very moment I met the highly charming Arno Kammermeier of Booka Shade; the rest is...history.” Booka Shade, the duo responsible for much of the music produced on the iconic Get Physical label, are Chelonis’s main production foil: “I guess, in a way, they were/are my sound/trend police hahaha. They know what's hot, and obviously what's not. I adore them for helping shape such a respectable start in the electropop ( yes, that's what it is) world. My ideas are presented in demo landscapes, they re-tone the hues and trim pastures.”

Between his already established anthems (“you are so kind to consider them club hits... I still wonder about this”, he avers) and the singular vision of his album, Chelonis is quickly earning the status of hot property, most recently providing guest vocals on the new Royskopp album. But, he insists, this modicum of notoriety hasn’t changed him: “Oh, I'm still the same, still a struggling artist. I don't drink crystal with Diddy… I'll never be number one, I'm not interested. Innovation is the key!”"

e.g. quite a few people here (who are more ambivalent w/r/t Poker Flat than I am) seem to rate label-owner Steve Bug's recent Bugnology very highly, but I rarely listen to it...

Chelonis is great.

bugnology is too perfect!

that is one of my favourite cds i think. even though i have never seen it on cd, if you see what i mean.

http://www.s-e-n.ws/cms/upload/images/pokerflat/news/pokerflat_news_205_pfrcd15_70.gif

sorry try this, and you will see what that is

I see what people mean about 'availability' re: this label. Mind you it is "limited edition".

i met chelonis in berlin. (i interviewed him for the german newspaper die tageszeitung...no clue if it's come out yet.) he's a really nice guy...we totally bonded. also: he's a huge smiths fan!

now that pfork has claimed all these blogger dudes for "this week in...", could i make a motion for tim finney to make a "this week in tim finney's electro-house bobbins" column? I, for one, would certainly pay tim in gifts, ala experimental videos/mixes and other doohickeys for such a column. All in favor, beg "please please please"...

me first... "please please please"

:(((((((((

Hint, hint, I want them up. But, if somebody else wants to do them for me.

also, this is one of the best albums i heard this year.

ONLYILISTENTOMYINNERVOICESONEDAYTHEY'REGOINGTOKILLMEALLTHOSEVOICESTHEYCOULDLASTWHENI'MAWAYTHOSEVOICESVOICESVOICESVOICESVOICES

dammit i was coming here to post the spelled out stuff and jaxon beat me to it by oh 3 months.

i was driving around with a friend last week with "middle finger music" playing and he complained (with this really bitchy tone of voice) that it was very "electroclash". so i mumbled something about prince and turned it up. what i should have said was something along the lines of how DG is post-electroclash and wipes the floor with nearly all of it.