With the vast amounts of music being released today, it’s not uncommon for a worthwhile album to fall between the cracks. Sometimes it happens to entire bands. That’s certainly been the case for the overlooked, underappreciated, but always enjoyable Life in a Blender.
For over a quarter century, Life in a Blender has served as the vehicle for prolific singer-songwriter Don Rauf, whose quirky vocals and left-of-center lyrics have entranced audiences from Brooklyn to Berlin. “Bent by the Weather,” the group’s 10th full-length album, delivers more of the same: tuneful, oddball indie-rock from the mind of a true American original.
These days, the band finds itself spread out over the Greater New York area, but its roots remain in Jersey City.
“We started at 80 Waldo Ave., just above the cemetery,” Rauf recalled of the Historic Jersey City & Harsimus Cemetery on Newark Avenue. “And we came back to the same place a few years ago to play Goatstock there. We knew Eileen Markenstein (the late organizer who rescued the cemetery from insolvency and disrepair) well.”
Over its career, Life in a Blender played a long list of long-gone venues throughout the area, from Maxwell’s to Uncle Joe’s, but has a special fondness for one.
“When we were living in Jersey City in the ‘80s, we became friends with Bert Stinchcomb, who I think still lives on Grove Street,” Rauf said. “He owned the Majestic Theater, which is now Razza Pizza. We did a show there when the theater was dilapidated but still beautiful. We played on the stage with Tiny Lights and Bob’s Drive-In. That was 1988, maybe? Anyway, I still love Jersey City.”
The band even released a five-minute Jersey City theme song, available at https://lifeinablender.bandcamp.com/track/jersey-city.
Rauf and high school friend Dave Moody (originally bassist, now cellist) started playing together in the 1980s, picking up drummer Ken Meyer, guitarist Al Houghton, bassist Mark Lerner, and violinist Rebecca Werner Tompkins in the ‘90s. The lineup has remained remarkably consistent over the last 18 years.
Like so much of the music we’re hearing in 2024, “Bent by the Weather” began to take shape during the pandemic. Rauf sequestered himself in his basement with a piano and gave birth to several of the songs you’ll hear on the album.
A lost love who plays in a band takes center stage in “Rowan and Martin,” while the next track explains how love can leave you feeling hollowed out like “A Crater on the Moon.” “Place at the Table,” one of the album’s standout tunes, has a bright, splashy, almost Bob Fosse vibe. But the song’s inspiration – Rauf watching his aged father, lost to the throes of dementia, blankly ask if his life’s hard work has to end so emptily – can tear your heart in half.
“Alexy Muldano” ponders an earnest acquaintance with the couplet: “You come with open eyes / Your mind an open place / You’re like my sandwiches / You’re open faced.”
“Fountains of Bellagio” philosophically ponders the inevitability of failure in Las Vegas. “A Terrible Truth” struts and caws like a fight song for Team Weirdo.
Rauf belongs to that school of singers whose charms might best be described as “non-traditional.” Not quite in or out of tune, always approaching words and melodies from an oblique angle, he sings the way Andy Kaufman made you laugh. His way.
Similarly, Life in a Blender songs don’t belong to a genre so much as transcend the concept. There’s measured indie rock, screaming punk, chamber pop, cabaret show tunes, and free jazz skronk among the album’s 11 diverse tracks.
Life in a Blender is a band worthy of your attention, born in Jersey City and still going strong.
“Bent by the Weather” and other LIAB releases are available to download or stream at https://lifeinablender.bandcamp.com.
JAEFRMJERZ GETS BUSY (600)
JaeFrmJerz takes us on a whirlwind tour through his Jersey City on “Busy 600,” an eight-song collection produced by Session600 that clocks in at a thrifty 15 minutes. These 180-second bursts of rhyme, delivered with precision in Jae’s froggy voice, are set against atmospheric jazz samples, tinkling piano, groovy horns, and soulful female backing vocals that add a film noir vibe.
On tracks like “Shedding Skin,” “On the Curb” (with guest Grimm Doza and “Vintage Pieces,” Jae’s looking for respect and some weed, boasting about his skills at the mic while navigating the mean streets of his neighborhood. On “Saul Goodman,” the sleazy TV lawyer becomes a metaphor for relentlessly pursuing success against the odds.
From start to finish, the album hews to the Jersey City template: stream-of-consciousness rhymes about making it through the day, smoking soul jams on the turntable. No guns or hard drugs, and no disrespect to the opposite sex either. This is Chilltown. We got business to conduct.
“Busy 600″ is available to stream or download at jaefrmjerz.bandcamp.com.
Jim Testa is on Facebook at facebook.com/Constant-Listener-Jim-Testa-On-Hudson-Music-108591071738628. He can also be reached at jim@jerseybeat.com.
