ON REPEAT: Jocelyn Enriquez, Handsome Boy Modeling School, Erika De Casier & They Hate Change, Panchiko, Automatic, Sneaker Pimps, Say She She

FoOoOoOor...gEeEeEttt...meEeEeEEE NoOoOoOt!

Hello. Not much to say up top besides there’s a brand new episode of The John Gentle Show with David Brown (the chair-pants guy from Jury Duty, among other great works). Check it out on the Best Show Patreon!

Here’s where I keep these as a little playlist of Spotifys, and if you haven’t subscribed to this already…

Handsome Boy Modeling School (feat. Grand Puba & Sadat X) “Once Again Here to Kick One For You”

I love this. This beat has been in my head all week. Handsome Boy Modeling School is joined here by 2/3 of Grand Nubian, and a perfectly flipped sample by Three Dog Night:

I made an offhand mention to HBMS a few weeks ago, and I realized I hadn’t done a proper listen of this group in a while, despite it being the most “Brettcore” music out there. The duo of Prince Paul (aka Chest Rockwell, who was behind Stetsasonic and some of the best De La Soul), and Dan “the Automator” Nakamura (aka Daniel Merriweather, in love mode, and a key member of Gorillaz and Deltron 3030).

“I was hanging out at Tommy Boy and I was on the phone talking to Paul,” Nakamura says, recalling the day of the project’s near accidental genesis. An A&R for the record label interrupted to ask what they were discussing, to which Nakamura quipped “Handsome Boy Modeling School,” casually mentioning it was their new group. Of course, it didn’t exist, but that didn’t stop him from talking it up as a sort of “hip-hop Chemical Brothers.” Tommy Boy had already made a name for itself in rap, though at that time it was also home to dance music sensation Amber and former House Of Pain rapper turned alternative folk singer Everlast. Even without hearing a single note, as no such note had been recorded, label president Monica Lynch immediately saw the potential and signed the duo.

“We were just going to find music that was the soundtrack to our daily lives of being handsome men,” Huston says, launching into a mock dialogue that encapsulates the nature of their partnership. “Does this makes you feel handsome? No. How about this? Oh, that’s very handsome.”

Together, they collaborated with a wild list of people on their two albums: John Oates, RZA, Cat Power, Mike D, El-P, Miho Hatori, Franz Ferdinand, Róisín Murphy, Julee Cruise, Sean Lennon, Lord Finesse, Pharrell Williams, Rahzel, The Mars Volta and fucking Father Guido Sarducci. And of course, they get their name from this, presented in the lowest resolution known to man:

Snippets from this episode are all over this record and it’s better for it.

Erika De Casier & They Hate Change “ice”

Erika has taken the next step in her Y2K R&B evolution, doing a collab with rappers—in this case, Tampa’s They Hate Change. Tampa sucks as a concept but it still weirdly seems kinda nice in contrast to Copenhagen in winter. Weird shit, man.

Automatic “Turn Away”

Earworm!

Panchiko “D>E>A>T>H>M>E>T>A>L”

Forgive me if you’ve heard this one: Here’s a song from roughly 1999, by a group of teenagers from Nottingham. though it only gained attention in the past few years. It was picked up by some 4chan user in a charity shop, I’m sure attracted by the total hottie on the cover, and posted this to the board:

hey hey

I picked this up because it looked interesting

I wasn’t able to find any references to it, online, whatsoever. even with super obscure bands, you might expect to find some an old myspace page or mention in some forum.

does anybody recognise the album?

I half expected it to be noise pop or some vapourwave wankery. listening to it, now, track 1 is like hella lo fi shoegaze with noise panning back and forth.

this isn’t some viral marketing bullshit. I’m just curious if anyone can shed some light on it and I’m slightly excited by the prospect of owning a rare album

peace

The record only had the kids’ first names (Owain, Andy , Shaun & John) and scarce info. Suddenly this caught on as those invested in the search for this band—or outing this guy for “some viral marketing bullshit”—began to grow. Eventually, someone searched a barcode on the EP to Oxfam, and looked up andybody named Owain that lived nearby. They found him, now in his late 30’s, on Facebook, and someone asked:

Hello, you’ll probably never read this, but are you the lead singer of Panchiko?

and he replied:

Yeah.

And despite his bandmates literally spread all over the world (one lived in Korea), they reconnected and here they are at SXSW with added Sega Saturn samples:

Weird shit, man.

Sneaker Pimps “Low Place Like Home”

Yes, Sneaker Pimps is now just in my rotation after featuring them a few weeks ago! I dig this song though, particularly singer Kelli Ali’s voice. Apparently they fired her out of “concern about being stereotyped as a faddish female-fronted trip-hop act.” Good thing they did, we wouldn’t have the huge, legendary Sneaker Pimps song catalogue we have now.

Also sometimes Noel Fielding plays guitar for the band? Weird shit, man.

Say She She “Forget Me Not”

Another earworm! I keep singing this while dogwalking. It’s not in my range! I do it with headphones and do it out loud. People definitely hear this. Now that I see there’s a dance to it I’ll probably do that too.

Also they do their dance on Doyers St. at 1:54 right next to one of my favorite Chinatown spots, Tasty Hand-Pulled Noodles. I miss it so.

THE GOLD STANDARD

Jocelyn Enriquez “Do You Miss Me”

I’m sure I heard this song a million times growing up but my Freestyle deep dive unearthed this dance pop hit. It wasn’t exactly a freestyle track so it landed in my “on review” playlist (songs that make it here graduate from that one—it’s a whole system).

The real treat is when the bridge happens and the beat goes from a typical club beat to a weird sci-fi synth that continues through the song. The sound continues through her follow-up hit, which appeared on the soundtrack to A Night At The Roxbury, which I strangely loved as a little boy.

She also was a part of Stars 54, who did the very nice Gordon Lightfoot cover that was on the 54 soundtrack. Fun fact: my brother worked on that movie and mentioned to someone he had a crush on Neve Campbell and then that person told Neve Campbell and she made fun of him.

The song, written by Glenn Gutierrez, became a Bay Area hit before a national one, peaking at #49 in the Billboard 100—it’s also apparently HUGE in the Phillipines, as Enqiruez became a Filipino-American icon and inspired a lot of artists with her success.

She also inspired a very bad pop-punk cover.