Durand Jones & the Indications Share A Pair of Golden Oldies Soul Covers
Durand Jones & The Indications
Durand Jones & the Indications are "stockpiling" material for its
sophomore album, according to drummer Aaron Frazer. But that isn't
keeping the Indiana soul troupe from putting out new music.
The
group has recorded a pair of obscure covers -- Penny & the Quarters'
1970 hit "You And Me" and E.J. & the Echoes' "Put A Smile On Your
Face" from 1967. A gold-label 45 featuring the two songs (pressed to
look like an old Cobra Records disc) was offered as a pre-sale incentive
for the new deluxe edition of the group's self-titled debut album and
sold at gigs. It's also been re-pressed by Colemine Records and the
songs are available for download on all services.
"You And Me"
"Put A Smile On Your Face"
"Put A Smile On Your Face"
"We find inspiration in different places within the soul world and
outside of it, too," Frazer tells Billboard. "To me, these are
everything that we love about those obscure soul 45s -- humble
recordings, but the performances are really sincere and special and
captured a moment. We just tried to do that justice." Guitarist Blake
Rhein adds that, "A lot of people who love the songs already who are 45
collectors are like, 'Omigod, I can't believe you did that song!' But
there are more people who never heard the songs before, so we get both
reactions -- people who are excited to hear them redone by new bands and
also that feeling of bringing what we feel are amazing songs to a new
audience."
"Put A Smile On Your Face," in fact, is a song
frontman Jones often sang simply for fun. "I like that song a
lot," Jones says "I would be singing that song all the time, whether it
was in the shower or warming up my voice or something. It's just a very
encouraging song to me, and any time I ever felt down and out I would
sing it for some inspiration to keep going. (Rhein) heard me singing it
all the time and just said, 'We should record that,' which was fine with
me."
The group members hope the two covers, as well as the bonus
material on the debut album's deluxe edition, will tide fans over while
the group -- currently on tour in Europe -- spends much of the summer on
the road. "I feel really excited about where we’re at, and I think this
tour has been pretty illuminating," Frazer says. "It's been really
encouraging to see the crowd size growing. To see familiar faces and to
have those people tell us how much the show has improved from the first
time they saw us. They can see us growing as a band. We have a lot of
work to do, but we're super happy with how things are going." And,
Frazer adds, the group is looking forward to giving that audience more
new music in the not too distant future.
"We're basically at a
point where we're sitting down to create a time table, create our
schedule and hopefully we'll be heading into the studio for a first
pre-production session soon," he says. "We can't wait to get this next
album under way and put more of our own music out there."
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