Friday, April 6, 2012

Rusty James - Save The Last Dance For Me LP

Love (1996)

When I get a new record, it lives at my desk for a while. I have a 12" case and a 7" case there. I take a picture for this website, give it a few high priority listens and the eventually it gets filed into the main collection. When I was going through the records at my desk this weekend and was filing them in their permanent home, I realized I never took a picture of this record when it came into my possession a few months ago. Now, I wouldn't even go so far as to say this record is mine. In my mind I'm just babysitting it for now. @AlanRappa gave me this record so I could make MP3s of it for him (and for me), but he didn't want it back when I tried to return it. Well, rest assured it will be well taken care of while I'm keeping an eye on it for him.

I can't say I know much about Rusty James. They're a German band from the mid 90s. This is the only full length they released, they also released 1 7". I do not know where Alan heard of them originally, but I do remember him looking for this record when we went to England in 1997 (though I can't remember if he actually found it on that trip or if he came across it later). Well I can say that this is a really strong record, and it's sad that the band only released 1 full length. It's super melodic, slightly melancholic rock. You might want to stick that emo tag on it, but they have way more energy than the typical emo band of the time. They remind me a bit of that Australian band Caustic Soda, but Save The Last Dance For Me is far superior to anything that band released. Amazingly I found a couple of songs on YouTube, so you should check them out. The first one has a pretty long movie sample at the start of the track, but trust me it's worth it once the music kicks in.

Rusty James - Birthday:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=t_x4orXEphc

Rusty James - Bow:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=x-NC6lZfpR0

2 comments:

  1. Thanks for taking care of this record (and for the MP3's). I don't recall where I heard of the band, but I'm guessing it was probably a review in Maximum Rock n Roll which is where I got the bulk of my new music from back in the day.

    And yep, I did score this on our UK trip. I still remember listening to it in Dave & Becky's house (and promptly falling asleep in the middle of it from being so exhausted).

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  2. Rusty James are ex Members of Age (also Love. Records) (LP and 2x7")! Most of the Members still make music nowadays.
    They were actually very actively playing live shows back then and really were one of the few german Punk bands that really did nothing else but music and toured really hard.
    If you are a fan of Rusty James, there are 2 or 3 More unreleased songs. Don`t know how you can get unreleased songs, but someone should put it online- just for the fun of it - just in case you are one of 2 People who still has one of the Copies.

    After the band Age split up we all moved into a Huge house in Bremen with members of Mörser, Systral, Carol, Springhill members, Love Records and Seasaw (fanzine!), some people from the band Iconoclast stayed also at this HC punk house for a few months. Hanging around with people from Abyss, they released a Split 7" together.
    Believe it or not, but Dirk, One of the Rusty James Guitarist and singer on the 7" Song also played in Systral (Per Koro Records!) which originally was his one man band in his great Studio "Kuschelrock" where most of the Love Records, and ACME for example, where recorded.
    There are a lot of US based bands who used to tour with them (either Age or Rusty, can`t remember), like Econocrist, Downcast or Jawbox for example.
    It was one of these bands with a huge fan base in all of germany who traveled with them while on tour.
    They also sold like 8000 Age LP´s and like 6000 Rustys 7" and LP in a relatively short time. Which was a lot back then where everyone was happy to get rid of a 1000 7"´s ;)
    There is also another great video of Rusty James but the thief who stole it back then doesn`t have the balls to upload this beast at youtube. (Please do - if you come by...hehe)
    There are also lost Age Videos in some old boxes under old Houses roofs somewhere, if someone will ever find these, please upload that stuff for that it will never get lost (in your Garage!) ;)

    There are wild rumours about this band and their Members ;)

    The Rusty James members in person don`t know this one also:
    They are well known in parts of Japan and China where they have a huge fan base nowadays!
    I know, because i released their Shit back then, and still get orders for their records which is unbelievable like 10 years later.

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