JEPPE PLEASE COME HOME

My friend Jeppe is a big gay Danish genius. He loves seedy cities and sleazy people, and is embarking on a solo career while on hiatus from his other band, Junior Senior. You may have heard Junior Senior's 2003 smash hit "Move Your Feet", or their most recent album Hey Hey My My Yo Yo which became the #2 album in Japan. Maybe you've seen Jeppe DJing at the Akbar in L.A., touring the world, or in the pages of BUTT Magazine. Now get ready to embrace Jeppe as his own, alien pop force. He just released a preliminary track on his MySpace page, a cover of the Fine Young Cannibals' "Johnny Come Home" in a head-tossing gesture, setting the stage for his forthcoming sound. While Junior Senior has long produced upbeat, hi-NRG pop songs urging listeners to keep their chins up, believe in themselves, and dance-- I always knew Jeppe's beaming exterior encased a soul of industrial darkness and sexual angst. His favorite band growing up, as you can read on his blog, was Depeche Mode. I've toured the cruising spots of Echo Park at ungodly hours of the morning with Jeppe listening to Soft Cell and Yaz, and watched Marc Almond videos with him until dawn.

Jeppe's treatment of "Johnny Come Home" wails like Dave Gahan, stomps and claps like Yaz and rollicks with the momentum of my favorite Pet Shop Boys songs. Perhaps living in Berlin has influenced Jeppe to pull out his synthesizer and surrender his hulking frame to the hauntings of Krautrock and Berlin electronica. I think he eclipses the original track and gives the song a desperate urgency that it previously lacked. GO JEPPE! He's coming back to California this Thursday to DJ at Club Rhonda in L.A., and if I had planned better I'd be going but I'm not and you might have the chance. Do it or die.

JEPPE - "Johnny Come Home"