Limited Control

In the early 1980's, right before he was a member of the Del-Byzanteens (see two posts below), Jim Jarmusch was tangentially involved in another act, called Dark Day, the brainchild of Robin Crutchfield, following his separation with no wave band DNA. By the time of their first album, "Exterminating Angel" (Lust/Unlust, 1980), the group consisted of Crutchfield, Phil Kline, Barry Friar and a revolving lineup of artists which included Steven Brown and Peter Principle of Tuxedomoon, Nina Canal, David Rosenbloom, and Jim Jarmusch:

Our first concert as Dark Day was played at The Mudd Club, with Nina filling in at the last minute on drums. Phil Kline was the guitarist, friend of writer/coworker Luc Sante at the bookstore where I worked. He was also best friends with Jim Jarmusch and was pursuing an interest in film music. David Rosenblum played bass. He was a coworker of mine, interested in pursuing his own musical directions with a band more into jazz-fusion.

Dark Day continued to play a number of gigs locally at CBGB's, Max's Kansas City, Hurrah's, Tier 3, The Mudd Club, and even a gig at Tracks with Jim Jarmusch guesting on synthesizer and Peter Principle (from Tuxedomoon) on bass. Then I became despondent. New songs weren't forthcoming. Phil wanted to continue gigging for the extra income. The only money he and Barry made from Dark Day was what we made doing concerts. I didn't enjoy live gigs and preferred studio work. Phil became involved in his own project, the DelByzanteens, and Barry got more involved in drugs. We drifted apart.

from Robin Crutchfield, "Darker Days As I Recall Them"

The first Dark Day single, "Hands In The Dark/Invisible Man" on the Lust/Unlust label, featured Crutchfield's singing and modified electric piano backed by Nina Canal (of the Gynecologists and more recently, Ut) and Nancy Arlen (of Mars). Give it a listen:

more info at:

http://www.myspace.com/rlcrutchfieldsdarkday
http://robincrutchfield.com/
http://cdbaby.com/all/robincrutchfield

I've already posted an entry about the Del-Byzanteens (the No Wave band that Jim Jarmusch was a vocalist and keyboardist in) here before (July 24), and I also have section on them in the Resource Page. To recapitulate:

They released a 12" ep ("Girl's Imagination", 1981), an LP ("Lies to Live By", 1982) and a 7" single ("Draft Riot", 1982), all by a British record company called Don't Fall Off the Mountain (a section of Beggars Banquet).

They played a number of concerts at clubs such as CBGB:s, Hurrah and the Mudd Club in New York City. Two of their songs were featured in Wim Wenders' 1982 film "The State of Things". At the time, The Hot Press said that their debut LP was "a debut equal to anything out of New York these past six years", and Melody Maker followed suit: "This is mighty stuff... You are strongly urged to investigate this record... outstanding". Like Jim, many of its members have gone on to become famous in their own right, making music (Phil Kline), art (James Nares), and writing (Luc Sante).

Thing is – while you'd be forgiven for suspecting otherwise, they actually made a number of really good songs, somewhere in the vicinty of... oh, I don't know, The Fall, Cabaret Voltaire, New Order, Violent Femmes, Talking Heads and early 80's British "new romantic" bands.

Problem is – it's not easy to get hold of their music. Their back catalogue has never been re-issued on cd, and even on ebay the old vinyls are a rare sight. "Girl's Imagination" was featured on the Beggars Banquet's 1999 compilation "Pspyched", and again on the Gomma compilation "Anti-NY" in 2001, while "My Hands Are Yellow (from the job that i do)" was released on "New York Noise" Vol 2 (listen to a snippet on the linked page), in 2003. And that's it! There's nothing whatsoever on iTunes.

Of course, with good googling skills, a p2p-application, good patience and a bad conscience it shouldn't be all that hard to get hold of something off "the cloud", but there are also slightly more legal ways (I assume) of catching their music. The "Official MySpace Page" for the Del-Byzanteens will let you listen to streams of six of their songs, of which one is a previously unreleased demo track ("Fascination"; dated 1986!), and the page also contains three downloadable mp3's (actually four, if you look closely!). Also, mp3 blog portals like The Hype Machine will usually find you a track or two.

The MySpace page also hosts a great picture gallery of photos and flyers, along with three video clips of the Del-Byzanteens on stage (at the Hurrah club), filmed by Merrill Aldighieri. And here's the best news so far --- on her website, only a few weeks ago, she posted the clip linked below, along with this note:

There are 3 full concerts of Del BYZATEENS in the Hurrah collection... A feature legnth DVD based on the Del Byzanteens live performances at Hurrah has begun. Look here for an announcement for the release.

("Here" being here)

So – the Del-Byzanteens, it seems, are surely though ever so slowly making it into the digital age. Let's hope the concert DVD will indeed soon see the light of day, and let's hope somebody somewhere realizes that the Del-Byzanteens back catalogue is more than due for a cd re-issue!

A blog called "The Playlist" has uploaded a number of mp3-collections called The Playlist Soundtrack Series. Volume 2 is called "If I were Jim Jarmusch", and includes music by artists whose music has been featured in Jarmusch's films, and tunes which The Playlist deems appropriately Jarmuschian.

"Jim Jarmusch's imaginary soundtrack involves a cross-country fishing trip with old childhood pals, Tom Waits, John Lurie and their taciturn chain-smoking companion, Jim Jarmusch."

01 - Reunited - Wu Tang Clan
02 - Miserere Nobis - Gilberto Gil
03 - Arriving At Kenny's - John Lurie
04 - Tell Me A Story - Iggy Pop
05 - Blue Veins - The Raconteurs
06 - Tell Me Now So I Know - Holly Golightly
07 - Yegelle Tezeta (cheating) - Mulatu Astatqe
08 - At Night - The Greenhornes
09 - Caramel - Cluster
10 - Black Flowers - Yo La Tengo
11 - Fishing - John Lurie
12 - Profissao Ladrao - Tom Zé
13 - King Tubby's Borderline Dub - Augustus Pablo & King Tubby
14 - Backwards Flute - John Lurie
15 - A Little Rain - Tom Waits
16 - King's Lead Hat - Brian Eno
17 - Musicawa Silt - The Daktaris
18 - Fishing With John - John Lurie
19 - Boys Are Boys And Girls Are Choice - The Monks
20 - How Does It Feel - Bobby Womack
21 - Knuckleheadz - Raekwon
22 - Red Hot Indians - Can
23 - This Is Not - Blonde Redhead
24 - Water Get No Enemy - Fela Ransome-Kuti And Africa 70
25 - Take It With Me - Tom Waits
26 - Le Wohl (edit) - Neu!

Grab it before the RIAA does:

http://theplaylist.blogspot.com/2007/04/soundtrack-series-volume-2-3-4-jim.html

This is probably a rather grey area, but then again I am - honestly! - just the messenger: in an anonymous comment to this blog post you'll find an interesting link:
http://hefiorels-eclectic-music.blogspot.com/2008/03/john-lurie-music-to-films-of-jim.html