Caught in the Carousel

Letter from the Editor - February 2007

By Alex Green

I have to tell you something about the Jasmine Minks. It has to do with how in high school I didn’t go to the Junior Prom. I wanted to ask Kim Stansill, but she had already agreed to go with Teddy Engstrom, the floppy-haired surfer who drove a convertible with a Misfits sticker on the back. I was crushed. I had been in love with Kim since I was a freshman; I had been playing songs for her on my radio show all year and I had put the word out on the waterfront that I was going to ask her by telling all of her friends about my plan.

So when news of the Engstrom merger came about, I was devastated, of course, and decided the best way to deal with the situation was to stay home on prom night, kneel in front of my stereo and lean into the fresh and tragic tilt of my universe.

As we all know, every tragic tilt needs a solid soundtrack, so that night, up in my bedroom, I pulled out the usual suspects: The Queen Is Dead, The Head On The Door, Seventh Dream of Teenage Heaven—you get the idea—and it didn’t take long for me to achieve a kind of beatific misery. One by one, numbers like “I Know It’s Over” or “On A Night Like This” amplified my aching heart and after a few hours I was weak with melancholy, wounded by love so deeply I had reached a heightened state of flimsy hopelessness. It was really something. I think I may have even been moaning. When my supply of gloom themes had been exhausted, and I had grown weary of envisioning Teddy and Kim kissing kind of hard in the back seat of his convertible, his hands two lone dorsal fins loosening her bra and diving, shark-like all over her, I knew I needed something even darker and more numbing to get me through the night. I reached into my backpack and took out the Maxell XLII tape of Psychocandy by the Jesus and Mary Chain that my friend Easton Landis had let me borrow especially for this occasion. “It’s so loud, it’s not,” he said. “It’ll make you understand why you never needed to go to the prom in the first place.” “And,” he added, “you’ve got to check out the band on the second side.”

Easton had obviously been blaring Psychocandy before he gave it to me because the tape was at the end of Side 1, and rather than rewind the whole thing and interrupt my steady stream of despondency with a few minutes of dead air, I put on the second side just to keep it all going. The tape was labeled “The Jasmine Minks” and it went to work on me immediately. Whether it was the jittery Joy Division grind of “Forces Network,” the gruff beauty of “Cry For A Man” or the moody and acoustic “Cold Heart,” whose sentiment suggested a post-punk update of “I Am A Rock,” there was something about the tension of the compositions, about the turn of the melodies that made me forget about my misery, about the junior prom not happening, about losing a girl I loved to the guy I’d never be. It’s not that the Jasmine Minks had some kind of overt, get happy message—their songs were about traffic and the oppression of modern industrialism and political revolt and the urging of independent thought—but they all had such guts that I found myself wanting to do something big in what had been an otherwise small life. Up to that point my major achievements were as follows:

1 Figuring out how to get the Playboy Channel for free using nothing but duct tape, a lighter and some Nyquil.
2. Hitting a tennis ball into the open window of the girls’ locker room.
3. Cheating my way through geometry.
4. Not getting busted for playing Black Flag’s “Wasted” on my radio show, in spite of all of its overt profanity.

In other words, there was room on my resume’ for things to happen and the Jasmine Minks made me want to fill it up. I had no idea what to do with my newfound nerve, but until I figured it out, the great thing that had happened (the thing that happens so rarely, now that I’m 124 years old), is that I had found a new band that changed my life. Finding a new band that gives you confidence, hope, knowledge, strength and comfort, is like falling in love, understanding the universe and feeling like you’re never going to die. But all at once. If you were to somehow film it, I imagine it would look not unlike Popeye’s arms after a quick infusion of spinach. The Jasmine Minks were the real deal and I rode the momentum of their music for as long as I can remember. Even now, hearing “Ghost Of A Young Man” or “Where The Traffic Goes” I still get that same energizing thrill.

So here’s what ended up happening: I’m told the Junior Prom was a blast in spite of the deejay playing “Forever Young” by Alphaville four times—two of them in German. The story was that Kenny Ramirez’s metal band Hell Shot stormed the stage, got the deejay in a headlock, hijacked the turntables and played two cuts from their album Anthems For Demons. “Mistress of The Night” and “Fucking In Silence (Part 2)” blared loud and strong until the authorities stormed the stage, freed the deejay and kicked Hell Shot out of the prom. My spies told me Kim Stansill and Teddy Engstrom were oblivious to all of this; they slow danced all night (even to the fast songs) and ended up dating heavily for years. They might even still be. They might as well be, because in my version of teenage hell they’re still riding around in his convertible with “Astrozombies” blaring.

That’s the thing I was going to tell you about the Jasmine Minks, but there’s more. Yes, the ‘Minks, those fiery sons of Scotland, got me through a tough night. When I was lovesick and forgotten, the Jasmine Minks melted away the fog of the most crestfallen boy in America, shook me from my stupor and threw me back into the world. But here’s the other thing—not only did I feel better that night, I felt even better the next day. And even better after that.

Oh, and I never gave Easton’s tape back.

So here’s the big news:

This month, to help celebrate Caught In The Carousel’s design re-launch, we’ve got an exclusive interview with the Jasmine Minks’ singer/guitarist Jim Shepherd and we couldn’t be more pleased. Sitting down with Jim was just marvelous—he’s smart, kind and generous and as a result, this interview was a real treat. Not only that, but Jim has given CITC an exclusive, previously unavailable Jasmine Minks song called “Running“ which was recorded twenty years ago.

It captures the raw, melodic charm of this great Scottish outfit and I’m proud to say, you’re hearing it here first. Jim has also given us “Breaking Out Of The Circle,” which is a track from his new EP We Make Our Own History. Download away. And you should buy Jim’s EP because it’s fabulous—you can get it from I Wish I Was Unpopular Records (www.iwishiwasunpopular.com).

To say the least, we are positively thrilled.

More exciting Carousel news:

We’ve hired two more wonderful writers: Daniel Galleno and Brandon DiSabatino. Just who are these guys? Well, we think they’re two talented and brilliant individuals, but we’ll let them tell you everything in their own words:

Brandon DiSabatino:
"I currently (resentfully) reside in the small, deracinated and culturally isolated backwater berg known as Bowling Green, Ohio. The principle source of money and sustenance is provided by my employment as a housekeeper and shuttle driver for the Quality Inn, and I would wave a word of caution that you should never, in any event, seek shelter under its crude and slanted roof. Why I moved there has been lost amidst a sigh of passing months, all passively spent enclosed in a small and windowless apartment that sits along the main drag (conveniently across from a record store that has been the bane of my living expenses). I can vaguely trace reason for residence to the fact that I was attending Bowling Green State University, became intensely disinterested in the creative writing program, suffered some prolonged and anxious breakdown forcing a complete lapse of judgment, and decided out of mere convenience (or complacence) to remain within the town, despite my status as a drop-out. As a means of staving off the urge to mount a clocktower with a high-powered assault rifle, I write and record music compulsively. Due to the nature of my own contrariety, I am the sole member of the band "Poptones," for which there is a myspace page and nothing much beyond that. I'm taking the last tentative steps necessary to complete an album under this banner, and shall thereafter do my utmost to gain interest in my music. I'm in another band with no confirmed name as of yet, though the list of potential candidates seems to grow by the day. I'm also working on a novel called "Within A City Plain," and am completely ignorant as to when it could ever possibly be completed."

Daniel Galleno:
“If you were to get “caught in my carousel” right now, you would probably find a career retrospective of the Jesus and Mary Chain (so glad they patched things up), The Stone Roses (because Alex did such a good job with his book) as well as Johnny Cash’s Live At Folsom and The Killers’ Hot Fuss. But, that’s just today and I spend a lot of time in my car. Musically, I played piano for only two years in grade school and own a guitar I can’t play very well, so I’ve tried everything else. I’ve written music reviews, news features and interviews for online publication on Yahoo! through the MediaX Corporation, as well as the print magazines Comfusion and BLVD. On the latter (an automotive magazine), I served as Music Editor. Other stints in the biz, have included station manager for KSMC, where I reworked the station image and function through on-campus concerts, on-air interviews and the benefit CD project Something New For Your Old Radio. This CD featured artists such as Common Rider, Dave Aaronoff, The Little Murders, Cynthia Lloyd, Puckett, The Killjoys (Australia) and Chris Harford, among others. I was glad to serve as the project’s assistant manger and am thankful to all the bands who contributed to our cause. I also met the Bay Area band Luminar during my time at KSMC and managed their efforts for a few years. Through it all, I have enjoyed the journalistic side the most, and so I find myself here at Caught in the Carousel. I look forward to covering new bands and giving you more reasons to fill your carousel, Ipod, Walkman, turntable, or whatever it is you use.”

You’ve probably noticed CITC has changed its appearance quite a bit—and here’s why: We’ve got so many great things happening that we wanted to herald them immediately, so now all new articles, interviews and reviews will be announced on the front page of the site. In other words, we’ve transformed from an online music portal, to an online music magazine. What we’ve got lined up for the future we have to keep under our hats, but you’ll know soon enough. Bookmark us. Things are happening. One of those things that we can tell you is that we’ve reached an agreement with www.oliosonline.org, which is an excellent site, to carry David Porter’s comic strip “Pretty Sure.” Dark, cynical, caustic and utterly brilliant, “Pretty Sure” has been a longtime Carousel favorite, so we’re delighted and proud to carry it on our site.

And don’t forget our MYSPACE site: www.myspace.com/caughtinthecarousel

…and did I mention the Jasmine Minks?

We’re glad you stopped by. Take some cookies on the way out, and let us know how you liked them: alex670@earthlink.net

Ps. Long live Barbaro. The horseracing industry should be ashamed forever—not just for Barbaro, but for every horse in the history of this dreadful enterprise.

Alex Green
Editor, Caught In The Carousel
Alex670@earthlink.net