09 February 2015

Psyched Up Janis "Enter the Super Peppermint Lounge" (1998)

Enter the Super Peppermint Lounge
release date: Feb. 12, 1998
format: digital
[album rate: 3,5 / 5] [3,46]
producer: Craig Leon
label: EMI-Medley - nationality: Denmark

Track highlights: 1. "Special One" (live) - 3. "In the Sun" - 4. "Evil Beauty" - 5. "I Think You Suck" - 7. "Tonight When You Are Gone" - 8. "Picking Stars"

3rd and final studio album by Psyched Up Janis is like the two previous albums produced by Craig Leon. At this point the band had been reduced to a duo consisting of singer, guitarist and now also drummer & percussionist Sune Rose Wagner and bassist Jacob Jørgensen. The album was recorded with legendary studio musician Hal Blaine on drums - but on one track only.
The album is slower and more quiet compared to the two previous albums and it reveals a substantial change of style. All music is, as always, written exclusively by Sune Wagner, and the compositions show a final move away from grunge rock presenting itself as a more Phil Spector-inspired collection of songs with strong bonds to the '60s 'surf rock' tradition - listen e.g. to "Evil Beauty". Basically, this has more in common with the first albums by Raveonettes than the first two albums by Psyched Up Janis.
After this, the journey of school friends Jørgensen and Wagner came to its end. Another two final albums by the band were released in '99 to mark the end of the road for the band: Hi-Fi Low Life - a compilation of demo-recordings almost entirely performed by Sune Wagner and the live album The Quiet Album.
Psyched Up Janis disbanded in the Fall of '99, after which Wagner went on to form Tremolo Beer Gut with Jesper Reginald (aka Yebo, of Thau), who handled drums on Beats Me (1997) together with guitarist Jens Ole Lembcke (also Thau) and Swedish bassist Per Sunding (from Swedish indie pop trio Eggstone). The quartet released three albums from 1999 to 2001, and still of Dec. 2001, Wagner then formed a duo together with bassist Sharin Foo called The Girl On Death Row - this duo would be renamed The Raveonettes for the their ep debut, Whip It On (2002).