Electric Junk Hits The Street

Electric Junk Band @ The Atomic Stage, Hampdenfest, Baltimore, MD
September 15, 2007

The Electric Junk Band knows how to distribute their creative cycles. With feet and spare drum sticks to go around all the percussive time-keeping elements are spread around the trio. Even the guitar strings and Realistic synthesizer are subjected to a good smack from the mallets from time to time. Even breath is harnessed into the service of sound with harmonicas and a kazoo.

The slip-shod roughness and deliciously unpolished sound gives this Delta Blues outfit surprising charm and credibility. Pushing through an equally rough patch of technical issues at the onset of their set, with various parts of the band popping between extremes of amplified and inaudible, the quirky unpolished gem began to emerge before the backdrop of the setting sun behind the Falls Street traffic light cycles. At the fringe of the Hampdenfest - a street fair for a community that revels in fringe - capping off both the Avenue and conclusion of the festival it was hard to imagine a more fitting final impression than this abundance of quirk and rattle.

Artscape/Exotic Hypnotic: The Electric Junk Band

The Electric Junk Band @ Artscape/Exotic Hypnotic, Langsdale Auditorium, July 20, 2007, Baltimore, MD

The Electric Junk Band is a trio of would-be one-man bands as each individual incorporates at least one drumming element. Trevor Choflet stomps with one foot on a tambourine as he plays the steel guitar and sings. Eric Franklin keeps at least one mallet in hand as he plays guitar, at times hitting a tom-tom with a cymbal on it or just drumming on the keyboard of a nasty old Realistic synthesizer. And Bob Wagner stands at a stripped down drum kit though he's just as likely to turn on a speaker with a loaded trash can lid sitting on top or play an ad-hoc bass made from a fingerboard and a kettle. Their music is the blues. And they play it with a lot of heart. The restless, "junky" quality of their sound combined with a laid back beat leaves one waiting for the wheels to come off at any moment. They're like an old, old car that leaves a trail of nuts and bolts in its wake and a small swimming pool of oil in the parking lot yet always has just enough to get where it's going.