I had about three or four different friends who would regularly make cassette tape mixes for me just like John Cusack in that High Fidelity movie, and over the years I’ve been introduced to many, many terrific groups (many of which I have mentioned here on this blog!)!
Now, it doesn’t happen very often, but once in a while there will be a certain group or artist that will appear on ALL my friends mixes at one time. None of these friends know each other, and a couple of them don’t even live here, but somehow, sometimes there is something in the air and ALL my friends will get “turned on” to a new artist simultaneously! Even stranger was that most of the groups didn’t have radio or TV airtime, so most of these songs reached my friends through “the vine” as it were!
Some of the groups I remember appearing simultaneously on two or three cassette mixes at the same time were groups like Suddenly Tammy, Throw That Beat In the Garbage Can, Voice of the Beehive, and more recently groups like Bishop Allen.
Anyway, back in 1991, one of the groups that appeared on a bunch of tape mixes was a insanely wacky and catchy group called Too Much Joy. Apparently, their album Cereal Killers managed to make its way to three friends of mine at the same time, and they in turn, all attempted to turn ME onto it…and I liked it, I liked it! With Songs like “Long Haired Guys From England”, “My Past Lives” and “Crush Story” , this was certainly a GREAT way to be introduced to the band, to be sure!
Afterwards, I would see TMJ appear regularly on tapes and I got to know other songs like their zany take of “Seasons In The Sun” and the downright cracked “Take a Lot Of Drugs”, but the song that really stood out for me and became my favorite track from the group was a ditty called “Sort of Haunted House”.
Although the song appeared on the Mutiny Album somewhere in the middle, my friend Gerg had used the song as the cassette mix closer, and what a melancholy closer it was! Filled with catchy guitar picking, groovy bass riffs and that traditional Dark Humor TMJ was famous for, it instantly won me over the very first time I heard it!
The song is about a guy whose house is haunted by the memory of his late girlfriend, He welcomes her ghost because he loves and misses her, but as the song progresses, we find she got killed by a stray bullet when he shot her lover in their house! He is riddled with guilt and wants to be punished, but when he gets acquitted of the crime, he decides to make amends by killing himself. He wants to join her wherever she is, stating, “I join you now, in Heaven or in Hell”, but in true Too Much Joy black comedy fashion, adds the thought, “I pray HE’S not there as well!” Hahaha!
As I recall, the album Mutiny didn’t fare that well, and many blamed it on Too Much Joy’s change from a zany punky band to a more insightful (if not still decidedly skewered) outlook, but whenever I hear this bittersweet, brilliantly crafted song, I always feel that they were heading in the right direction!
A perfect song to get you all into the Halloween Spirit!
