The Joggers

First, a word to other bloggers / podcasters: Steve Albini wrote a famous piece on the problem with the music industry, basically making people crawl through a long pit of caca. That's how I feel after looking for a new file host for the mp3s on this blog. I was going to try and stay all-free and was going with fileden.com, which has now been unaccessible for several days, delaying the two of my one-two punch. I won't often hawk products or services, usually nothing but music, but let me throw a big shout out to Liberated Syndication. After wading through a shit-storm of spam and bad deals and geeks with computers in their bedroom setting up "file hosting", and the inherent problems with anything free (can't just get your money back, heh), I must say the deal these guys have is the best. They specialize in media and podcast hosting, and for five bucks a month you get 100MB a month (that's right - your previous month is archived on a slightly slower server, but kept FOREVER, and you get a NEW 100MB every month) plus UNLIMITED BANDWIDTH! If they can keep this up, it should easily become a favorite hosting spot for mp3 & vid blogs, and again, after weighing a buttload of alternatives, this is one bandwagon I jump on gladly. So basically, I'm going to leave the previous Christmas Mix on fileden.com so it should be the only limited-time offering from this blog. All mp3 links from here on out should work as long as this blog is alive!

And now that I'm all set, if you are one of the three people to still be reading this in the early stages of the blog, let me now at the outset promise I will post at least once a week. No matter what, even if it's just diggin out an old classic or some new bootleg, I will post something (hopefully new to you) every week.

Now, on with the music. I can't promise the music here will always be brand-new, but I can promise it will be good. Usually really good. And in the case of Portland's Joggers, if you pay attention and sometimes give it some time, I can promise that it will be great. It's sometimes hard to pin down favorite bands, but the Joggers' talent is so awe-inspiring, their depth so mind-boggling, their voice so unique yet rocking, that I can say without hesitation that they are my favorite current band. They are simply the band I've been looking for. But don't take my word for it, that's what this blog is for! A lot of mp3s from the two official Joggers releases have appeared on blogs, so I'm only going to put up a song from each of those just in case you're unfamiliar with them and aren't one of the Joggers hounds here for the rarer stuff.

First off is the Cajun Gems, an offshoot of the Joggers featuring singer/guitarist/songwriter Ben Whitesides and bassist Darrell Bourque. It's like a much folkier Joggers, with banjo and pickin', and it is available exclusively from the band for eight bucks. Listen to the two songs here and go to the Cajun Gems site and listen to those as well, and realise that there is a total of 22 of these gems on the disk! This is the one indie DIY recording you absolutely positively have to have in your collection!

Cajun Gems "Forest Park"

Cajun Gems "Japanese Banjo"

The Joggers' first release (not rhino picture, see bottom of post) was self-titled and contained eight songs. It is now completely out of print and very hard to find. Four of these songs later appeared on "Solid Guild" and the song "Devil Wears Earplugs" appeared on the Startime Records comp. I'm putting up two of the unreleased songs, and leaving one to still give completists something to strive for. [edit: see below]

Joggers "Silent Film Laser Show"

Joggers "Reading Degrees"

And here's one from the first and second albums, which again you can cut out the middle man and buy from the band themselves!

Joggers "Hot Autism"

Joggers "Since You're Already Up"

Don't forget to check out their Myspace page for their straight-up cover of the Yes classic "Long Distance Runaround". The Joggers are currently at work on their third album, leaving 0.032% of this country's population in breathless anticipation.

This is hilarious... This post is over two and a half months old, my second ever, and someone just now asks about the whole tracklist that I should have put up to begin with, [see comments] and I suddenly realize what I dumbass I am. I never claimed otherwise, only to be a dumbass with good musical taste! There aren't four songs from the Joggers first s/t album on "Solid Guild", there are only three, therefor there were actually two songs from the s/t album (released in 2002) that I didn't post. I should smoke only after I'm done with posting... anyways, out of sheer embarassment, and out of the realization that I paid a lot for this and even if a copy comes up again you might not win it, and because it's totally out of print, here's the last two remaining tracks, so putting together the three ("3") remaining tracks from "Solid Guild" and the song from the Startime Records comp will let you assemble the whole thing.

Joggers "First Straw"

Joggers "Cabin Fever"

Edit (again): The Joggers first s/t album mentioned above is now for sale exclusively through their website! along with the even rarer Stateside EP, so I'm taking down these songs, but check out the Joggers Merch page for both the LP and EP and even more mp3s.