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JoHn KiNg - My New LoOk
free & legal MP3s of John "I was in Humidifier and Spent" King's
early solo bedroom projects - myspace.com/thejohnfking

My New Look CD cover art

I first heard John King's music in 1985 in the back of my friend Chet Krayewski's '71 Nova. They sat near each other in homeroom at St. Agnes High School in Uniondale, NY. It was the last day of finals, a halfday, and we were on our way to buy booze with altered drivers licenses. It was Kilgore Trout's (not to be confused with any number of Vonnegut-inspired bands since then) first demo tape, John on voice, his sister Colleen on guitar, and a guy named Vinnie on the Casiotone belting out a tiny powerpop masterpiece which drew on the Buzzcocks, Dead Kennedys, the Cure, and Devo for its inspiration. John and I met soon afterwards at a beach party and solidified our friendship by drunkenly misspelling KILGORE TRUOUT in 10-foot-high letters in the sand.

After we went our separate ways, I received tapes (and later vinyl and CDs) every time John released something new, which was often, both with college band HUMIDIFIER and Jersey City-based Merge artists SPENT, but the rarest and most cherished recordings were those which he made in his own time alone with his trusty Tascam 4-track. In one place for the first time, these songs are more personal and experimental, reflecting John's changing sensibilities, assembled chronologically to trace his development as a self-taught musician and songwriter. Most of these songs have never been heard by any but a small circle of friends. It is time to widen that circle:

myspace.com/thejohnfking

Track list with links to lyrics, realaudio samples, and full-length MP3s

you've changed

abstract art

at the farm

set up

the floating hospital

ten to ten

little bit o' soul

so simple

the song remains

dead friend

inside looking in

big discovery

fwb

skin

utterance

batman & robin

kathie

repetition etc.

best defense

bought to you buy

hindsight

breakfast club

patron saint

my business

straw hats are cool

marvin & the toxic playground

About the cover:
"My New Look"--drawn by John in high school, it is a blueprint for self reinvention. Hands hidden behind fence because he could not draw them, why no face is open to interpretation.
nothing here folks

John King Visual Discography

Mailbag:

X-Originating-IP: [152.172.61.42]
From: "David Michaels" <humidifier (at) hotmail.com>
To: ***@zverina.com
Subject: Re: John King
Date: Thu, 15 Jul 1999 12:13:56 PDT

Man, you are an asshole! Here I am trying to spend my free time trying to find a job online and you have to send me this stuff! I'm probaly the biggest Humidifier fan and now I have to spend my valuable time downloading all these John King songs when I should be job hunting.


send your fan mail to king (at) gogoweb.com