DJJD Volume 15

Created By:  Jonathan Dysart (DJJD)

Original Creation Year:  2006

Year of Re-master:  2010

Song Listing

Side A

1.    Icky Thump:  The White Stripes

2.    Sexx Laws:  Beck

3.    Why Don't You Get a Job?:  The Offspring

4.    Woman:  Wolfmother

5.    Undone (The Sweater Song):  Weezer

Side B

6.    Hangman: Anne McCue

7.    Industrial Disease:  Dire Straits

8.    Sexy Boy:  Air 

9.    Beautiful Machine Parts 3-4: The Apples in Stereo  [Not available on YouTube]
10. I Need Some Sleep:  Eels

Side C

11. Summer in the City:  The Lovin’ Spoonful

12. Hole in My Shoe:  Traffic

13. Crimson & Clover:  Tommy James & the Shondells

14. Pictures of Matchstick Men: Status Quo

15. (Listen to the) Flower People: Spinal Tap

Side D

16. Cherry Blossom Girl:  Air

17. Don't Want to Say Goodbye:  The Raspberries

18. Dream of Unwin:  Wizzard

19. In My Life:  Johnny Cash

20. Music Box Dancer:  Frank Mills

Origin of the Album

DJJD GOES PSYCHEDELIC!!

Well, mostly!  Let’s just say there is a troubled past to the creation of this album.

            I was still trying to open up the creative juices that were a bit dormant after DJJD Volume 11.  I had some ideas for DJJD Volume 12 and DJJD Volume 14, but they were mainly collection of songs based upon the same musical theme – one is of female artists and the other were soul / funk music (taken more from a Time Life advertisement. I had a bright spot with DJJD Volume 13 simply because I tied to the unlucky number “13”; I could not decided whether it be a dark Gothic or blues album, so it became both.

            For DJJD Volume 15, I was going through the iTunes Music Store.  iTunes was now categorizing many songs into different genres (i.e. Disco, Heavy Metal, Soft Rock, etc.).  I found a category of Psychedelic Rock.  There was not a lot of songs to select at that time, and many of them I already had in my manufactured CD collections or in my DJJD CD collection; for example:  “Journey to the Center of the Mind” by the Amboy Dukes (DJJD Volume 5).

            I downloaded some of the best ones that the list contained.  But it was not enough to make a complete album, so I had to improvise.  My first attempt of creating this album was a mess.  The second half of the album (containing most of the psychedelic songs) was quite strong, but the first half of the album was not listenable in my opinion.  It had no chemistry whatsoever, even though there were some songs in there that were high points.

            It was not until after creating DJJD Volume 18 (where I was breaking out of my creative slump), where I got the inspiration to revamp this album, especially the first half of the album. 

            I pretty much gutted out the first half of the album and added a lot of songs that I got inspiration from DJJD Volume 18 and DJJD Volume 5.  Even though most of these replacement songs were technically were not psychedelic, they did add some chemistry and energy that the album did not have before.  This was the album that I was introduced to a great French contemporary electronic band called Air.  I also added one new song to the second half of the album to boost it up its already decent lineup.

              Finally, I had an album that can stand up on its own, even though it is not totally psychedelic.  There were no major changes in the remastering of this album, except for the album cover and remastering the songs themselves.

Concept and Theme of the Album

                        Like I mentioned above, this originally was going to be a psychedelic album, but it’s now more of a pseudo-psychedelic album.  It does contain some alternative rock, hard rock, and some bluesy rock.  But those songs help solidify the album. 

Concept and the Album Cover

             I really could not think of a good album cover, except for finding a psychedelic picture for the album.  I decided to use a blue fractal picture for the album after the revision was completed.  I just added the album title and applied some plastic texture on the album cover.  

            When I was remastering this album, I was not really satisfied with that album cover.  I wanted it to make it more genuine to the original sixties psychedelia, so I refer to my Steve Miller Band album “Children of the Future” for reference. 

            I found a better fractal picture that had more of a 3-D look to it, like looking into the abyss.  From there, I added a multi-layered frame, which consists of different colors of the same psychedelic frame displaced upon each other.  I then found a psychedelic font from the internet and used that for the album title and the song listing on the back-album cover, using various bright colors that you would find in those times – DUDE!