Sparkling with enchanting allure and interstellar chair lifting out of the computer speakers, a pop song filled the room with a glow like a lighted dial on a timeless clock. With its endearing female vocals shimmering over a lunar terrain of cavernous craters and deeply submerged reverbed guitars, the sound flew high over the holding patterns below. The song continued to climb above the jet stream, before reaching a cruising altitude somewhere out near the orbit of “Telstar” by the Tornados and the spacecraft magic of Joe Meek.
After being introduced to these suspending sounds through a WFMU archived internet edition of Joe Belock’s “Three Chord Monte” radio program, I immediately had to find out more. A song, which roamed between blue skies and black spaces like that 1962 #1 hit from my dad’s stack of 45s unearthed from my grandma’s moldy Southern Indiana basement so many years ago, demanded tracking down before it got away! The playlist revealed that the vista-opening song was “Jukebox on the Moon” by the Lost Patrol. The customary Google search pointed right back to WFMU’s web site and to Bob Brainen's program in particular. I found his archives contained a live on-the-air performance and their other songs glimmered with the same darkness dispelling light created when the moon reflects the light of the sun.
Soon, a package arrived from over the mountains and across the paved over oceanic desert floor, which contained silver rings for the stereo. The post-space age music revealed itself to be as atmospheric, sweeping and spacious as my present dusty locale of Arizona, yet thankfully corralled with a sense of classic pop structure synonymous with the New York return address on the maize package. Further spins attested to the band’s ability to find the elusive space where the exotic meets the cosmic and consequently giving them the rare distinction of being favorites with both WFMU listeners and NASA researchers.
The most striking element of the Lost Patrol is their confluence of original sound. Behind this large expanse is the contrasting duo consisting of Danielle Kimak Stauss and Stephen Masucci. Both are multi-instrumentalists with Danielle mainly handling the keys and percussion and Stephen on electric, acoustic and lap steel slide guitars. While the closest contemporary band in a similar sonic solar system might be Friends of Dean Martinez, each band sounds light years away from each other. The prominent electric leads played over blankets of acoustics recall the innovations of the Shadows, while the twang and lap steel give the songs a Western feel as heard on those historic Duane Eddy/Lee Hazlewood recordings. Danielle’s voice summons the coolness of Siouxie Sioux roaming through a little long lost Grace Slick spaciness and brought back down to earth with a touch of Ronnie Spector’s splendor. Underneath the musical overlooks and sonic scenery is the integral schematic that keeps the sound sustained longer than an ephemeral shooting star. “My main guitar for live and recording is a sparkle blue 1966 Mosrite,” explains Stephen. “I also use Kubicki Ex-Factor bass from time to time. My rig is pretty modest: A Fender Deluxe Reverb amp, Roland SE-70 effects unit along with a small pedal board with a Midi switcher, volume pedal, Boss Blue Box and a tuner. I tend not to stray too far from this set up in recording, so live we can sound pretty much like the CDs.”
With Stauss’ dreamy lyrics shooting across the twang and strum like a meteor shower watched away from the glare of the city’s lights, the question arises which aspect is the first evening star to develop on the duo’s broad creative horizon. “Usually the music comes first in that I set the atmosphere and Danielle runs with it,” answers Masucci. “The inspiration can come from anywhere.” With the band’s ability to render the wide world and beyond, it comes as no surprise that projected images on the wide screen are its primary influence. “I've had a few songs in a couple of Hal Hartley films as well as a few things that didn't get released yet,” comments Stephen. “Film is our single biggest influence and we try to carry that out into our live shows.” If there is some lost drive-in movie theater, this band could provide the soundtrack to both the projected images of the screen stars and also to the flickering suns above.
In the past year, the band has been venturing out, racking up Astrovan miles and gaining momentum on the live front. Recent appearances at the renowned Maxwell’s in Hoboken, NY, in the country music city of Nashville and at the NASA Goddard Space Light Center in Maryland exemplify the venue variety pack approach of the band. “Although most of the recordings have been just Danielle and myself, until this spring, live we perform as a four piece. Danielle sings and does live percussion, I do all the electric guitars, Joe Pascarel does all the acoustic guitar stuff and Carrie Ingber plays bass. We use a drum machine for both recording and live shows, although we will be soon performing with live drums,” happily notes Masucci. Stephen’s day job, which involves building custom recording studios and equipment, bought about a significant turn of events that lead to an unforeseen and paramount meeting of musicians. “Dennis Diken (drummer for the Smithereens & superb music writer) started out as a client, but became a fan of the band,” enthuses Masucci. “He's really championed our cause and will be doing some shows with us…remember the "live drummer" thing...we're honored, he's amazing to play with, one of the world’s truly gifted drummers.” The live drums should act as a dome light in possibly placing this band on the map somewhere on the direct route connecting both the audiences of the regular planetarium presentations and the midnight laser show crowds.
In a world where satellited mainstream music has all the power of a dropped magnet, the Lost Patrol has quietly departed and arrived back with a release for each of the last three earth years. They launched their self-titled CD EP in 2000, which included “Voulez Vous,” a single that was also included on the 2001 Nashville New Music Conference sampler. By 2001, the band had gelled enough to release “Creepy Cool” as their first full-length recording. “Creepy Cool” extends their explorations with their teeming formula of vocals and instrumentals with two sonic detours. Stauss’ vocals project and roam against the Northern skies filled with dexterous Western twang and reverb--resulting in an alluring and overlapping sound that drives and drifts like the tide being pulled between the sun and moon. The electronic adventuring “All This Time” and “Andre in the City” bends the disc into new territories away from their signature sound. “Danielle wrote and plays all the instruments on “All This Time” and “Andre in the City” is a Moog piece that I did,” explains Stephen.
With its title lifted from a Tennessee Waffle House menu, the “Scattered, Smothered & Covered” EP landed in early 2002. Possibly their strongest release to date, overall the disc evokes a drive through a hushed desert with black cacti contours and mountain range silhouettes underneath a dome of sky filled with the indirect luminaries of white Christmas light-like stars. The disc blasts off with three haunting vocals numbers before yielding to the driving instrumental “There and Back” which induces a desert mirage of a battery of bikers with Davie Allan pole-positioned on a chopper. The Hale-Bopp pop of “Jukebox on the Moon,” originally rendered by Ginny Millay, concludes and shoots the proper EP to its zenith point. “Jukebox on the Moon was discovered on a Dave The Spazz (DJ on WFMU) compilation tape,” recalls Stephen. “We were invited to play a show at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center and it seemed like a natural, so I came up with the arrangement. It fell together pretty naturally for us.” Living up to its “Scattered” title, a magnificent and unidentified instrumental brings the darkhorse duo back to earth with a triumphant sparkle. With their linear time skipping momentum and T-Minus clock counting down, the band is recording constantly and will most likely release a payload of EPs--ready to be played on portable players, computers, car & home stereos and Waffle House’s jukeboxes all over the world!
The Lost Patrol’s out-of-this-world sound connects the space from the nearby stereo to the faraway reaches of the solar system. Like a glowing Texaco sign standing tall against a starlit Route 66 night, they find their center of balance somewhere between the expanse of the rustic frontier and the guitar-shaped constellations.
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