First, I just want to say: Jukebox the Ghost is playing the Washington Social Christmas show we’re co-throwing on Dec 15th, so we jumped at the chance to do a big, juicy, lushly illustrated feature on them. Especially after witnessing the local trio with a penchant for balloons and undeniable hooks at RNR a week or so a go. And why? because DC needs more of this kind of melodic, piano and vocals going hand in hand, everything-is-just-peachy-keen (but NOT sickeningly sweet) music. You can thank us later.

So here goes: A full speed listening party of their debut EP and an interview they feel will give their manager heart palpitations, which definitely means you want to read it….

BYT: So, hi Jukebox the Ghost. What’s up with the name?
Tommy:Well, it was a result of a concentrated effort to think of a new band name. We operated under a different name for two years (”The Sunday Mail,” ugh) before deciding to change the name — We’d just had a long haitus and had a lot of new material, so we wanted a new identity along with it. I got the Jukebox part from a Captain Beefheart song where he was ranting about jukeboxes. I’ll let Ben explain the other half….
Ben:The other half is from the book Pnin by Nabokov - - this great little line about how the main character doesn’t believe in an autocratic God but rather a “Democracy of Ghosts” that forms committees and makes decisions for the world accordingly. I like that way of thinking: very civil, very organized and, to me, a beautiful alternative. So we combined the two words. Jesse wanted us to be a “the” band. So he got squished in the middle.

BYT: Describe your music without once mentioning Ben Folds Five…
Ben:Describe the music once without Ben Folds Five? We kinda sound like that song Brick by Ben Fo…oh shit. ok, let me try again. How about this… Piano, guitar, drum trio that dabbles with happiness, faux-apocalyptica and sounds like the musical-love-child of Beethoven, Phish and NOFX. Also we sound like Billy Joel, Elton John, Something Corporate, Coldplay, Rufus Wainright, Jack’s Mannequin, and ever other piano rock band in history, save for Ben Folds Five. Damn, I mentioned them again….

BYT:Song you wish you’d written.
Ben: I really do wish I had written “The Nightmare Before Christmas” - - all of it. . . maybe some small changes, but damn is it good. (and a recent, rekindled obsession)
Tommy:“Ana Ng” by They Might Be Giants. That song is just absolute perfection.

BYT: So, you all met at GW and just graduated. What are your fondest memories of the country’s most expensive college?
Tommy:Breaking onto nearly every roof on campus….Some nice views of the District in Foggy Bottom, if you can get up high enough. They had to change a bunch of locks because of us.
Ben:Tommy once made the analogy between sandwiches and college. You can buy a 20 dollar sandwich that tastes great or an 8 dollar sandwich that tastes pretty good….Either way, its a fucking sandwich. College sucks. Skip it.

BYT:Speaking of that…the least fond memories….
Ben: All the fun we had! YAY!

BYT:What do you do now that you’re graduated?
Tommy:We live in a house, play music, and work crappy jobs for extra cash. Life is good. Ben jerks a lot. (HI MOM!)

BYT: Sounds like a dream come true.So, somehow we managed not to feature you before this (slap on the wrist) but I feel you are EVERYWHERE NOW. Just in the last few months you’ve played with everyone from Le Loup/Exit Clov to Tokyo Police Club to Ra Ra Riot to that special Christmas bonanza this weekend we’re helping throw. What gives? When do you think people started paying attention?
Ben: What happened? We got indietastic? We started wearing girl pants, dressing only in black, hand-knit sweaters, I (Ben) kinda look like the guy from flight of the concords - so I guess that helps. Tommy looks like Trey from Phish, which I guess helps too, and Jesse looks familiar to everyone, though no one knows why. But really, I think we stopped sucking and got a cooler band name.
Tommy:I’ve never thought we were a very ‘hip’ band, so I can see why we might fly under someone’s radar. We’ve also only been playing under our current band name for a year and a half, so we’re new in that sense (though we’ve been playing together for over three years). And yeah, we stopped sucking. So I guess it’s good that people overlooked us for awhile, it gave us enough time to become a good band.

BYT: Speaking of stopping to suck….The EP is amazing (cue: Listening party) tell us all about it:

Good Day: This song is about one day on an imaginary street where you could place all the people you love around you. Those you don’t want to see as often you put farther down the street, those you want to see everyday you put next door etc. etc. Basically, a song about nostalgia, childhood, fear of growing up and the angelic, untroubled perfection of one imaginary day.
- Ben

Hold It In: Quirky shit. A song centered around wordplay, particularly the turning of the phrase “hold it in” . Unfortunately, this invites near constant parodies from friends and family — Most of them usually end up having something to do with bodily functions i.e. “I drank a lot of coffee and theres no toilet in sight…Only thing that I can do is hold it in, hold it in.”
-Ben

Beady Eyes:This is one of six songs from our upcoming full-length that relates to the apocalyse. I was using a lot of images from the Book of Revelations for this song (an pretty wild read…some excellent and horrifying images, if you’re interested in shit like that), and this one in particular references a part where a very angry god rolls up the sky like a scroll, and everyone hides under rocks to avoid his gaze (who wouldn’t?). The rest of the song is describing a whole collage of events taking place just before the end of the world.
-Tommy

Victoria: A song about a girl (aren’t all?) whose name has been changed to protect the theoretically innocent. The song was written in the basement of the Victoria Rooms concert hall in Bristol, England - connection made? It also uses the Rhythm Changes chord progression in its entirety. “I’ve got rhythm…i’ve got music, i’ve got my girl who could ask for anything more….”
-Ben

A Matter of Time: This is technically the last piece of a three-part sequence from our upcoming full-length. This song, the conclusion of the saga, is about emerging from a bunker after the apocalypse, and finding a world more supremely awesome than you can possibly imagine (flying cars? unicorns? you decide.). The chorus is god’s message to the remaining humans, blasting out from giant, holy speakers from the clouds: “Keep on pissin’ to keep on drinking and keep on eating to keep on shitting — Time will wear you down.”
-Tommy

BYT: Nice….while googling you I saw you were saying the full length was planned for November. November came and went…what happened? (I heard you were shopping said “already recorded” album to labels….what’s the status on that? We welcome all gossip.)
Ben: Well we were waiting. We released the EP to build “buzz” (that inexcapable band fueling substance). . . and then that did that. We were hoping for label involvement, but that took a while and now that we have decided to release it ourselves - - it will be out in mid january- black cat CD release party on the 26th! (How’s that for a plug?)
Tommy:If you want the real lowdown, Ben got into a very deep but short-lived relationship with Rick Rubin. Ben thought things were getting too serious, so he cut off the negotiations. So now we’re talking with Army of Me about going back in time and recording an album for us.

BYT:You recorded the album with the Army of Me. How was that?
Ben:Fantastic! We didn’t even do any of our own vocals or tracking! Army of Me was great for doing work in the studio for us - - Actually, Army of Me is Jukebox the Ghost. Wait, did you mean our producer who also happened to have worked with Army of Me and helped make our album sound like real music? Yeah, he sucked.
Tommy:I’m going to assume you mean Ted Comerford? He was awesome. The recording process was an absolute whirlwind. This might not seem impressive to someone who doesn’t know much about album-making, but we tracked all 12 songs (including two multi-song pieces) in 8 days.

BYT: OOOOOh you are all so clever catching me in my pathetic speedy research “skillz” or lack thereof.
-You’ve all been here since you were 18. What did you all do in the underage days? (the children of today need your help)
Tommy:DC does need some help in the underage department — Other than the Black Cat (and now, I suppose, the Rock and Roll Hotel), there’s not a whole hell of a lot of places where young people can see or perform music, which I think is really damaging to the local music scene. Because we couldn’t get booked at any clubs (all the entry-level ones in DC are 21+), we played a lot at Staccato, a bar that didn’t card on weekdays. We only played there on Thursday nights because of that. It’s gone now — I assume for some reason relating to that. That place was great.
Ben:I didn’t really have friends until a few months ago. So i spent most of my time … (HI MOM!) . . . and playing slime volleyball and this stupid bike game on addictinggames.com (how’s THAT for a plug?)

BYT:Some say that you provide the happiest, poppiest music in DC right now. How do you feel about what else is on offer? Where do you fit in snuggly? Who are some of your local music favorites and why?
Tommy:I think the D.C. music scene is terrifically exciting right now. We all love Exit Clov, Le Loup, Georgie James, Travis Morrison and These United States, and have become good friends with all of them. I mean, it’s not as genre-centralized as DC music has been in the past, but it’s awesome. I think the diversity is nice. I mean, having Q and not U, Black Eyes, and the Dismemberment Plan gigging all at the same time must’ve been beyond awesome, but I like the diversity of music out there right now too. We fit just fine because there’s no category to fit into right now.

The best kept DC secret is….

Tommy:The Drunken Sufis and the Fart Nuts. They played one show together at the Velvet Lounge, and nobody has heard of the Fart Nuts ever since. Some people think the Drunken Sufis sacked ‘em, but I’m not sure. It’s probably for the best. (by the way — http://www.myspace.com/drunkensufis)

BYT:Ok, onto some more career-oriented questions. You guys opened for Kanye AND Lloyd Banks. Who had bigger bodyguards?
I don’t remember, they all beat the crap out of us pretty bad. (Tommy - who wasn’t in the band for the Kanye gig)
Ben:Actually, Kanye had the bigger of the guards - - So big in fact that i never saw him. Just the guards. A large posse, if you will — gold-chain-wearing and huge. But then we didn’t even stay for their set. i was eating a burrito and heard it from down the street at ‘the Burro’ in Foggy Bottom (How’s that for another plug!!!!)

BYT:Those dudes aside, who would you die to play with?
Tommy:I guess I’d have to die in order to play with Buddy Holly, so I guess it has to be Buddy Holly. Or Jerry Garcia. Or Frank Zappa.
Ben:I hear Tchaikovsky was awesome live

BYT: We think that was mostly hype, we don’t know anyone who saw him live. Speaking of wishes….what is it that you want for Christmas?
Ben: Another dog that wont get hit by a car.
Tommy:Another car because I totaled mine after I plowed into some dog.

BYT: Dog plowing aside….What’s next for you all? (including: What songs will you all play on Saturday?)
Tommy:Our setlist for Saturday is currently being guarded by professionals, and will be taken to the 9:30 Club in an armored van. If we told you, we’d have to kill you.
Ben:
1. Good Day
2. Hold it in
3. Ben Folds Five
4. Five for Fighting
5. Some other piano-led band cover

BYT:And right after the next….
Tommy:Full-length CD release show at the Black Cat on January 26th….How’s that for yet another plug?

BYT: Plug away…. And finally a message for kidz…..
don’t forget to take the tags off of all your holiday giftz!

(all photos: Shervin Lainez)

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