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Hotel Augusta

by James Eleganz

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1.
One more ride for me in my Mustang Driving downtown like a mind-losing man I used to be the king of an antique Lala band Brunette memories dragging me down In the heart of darkness, I can hear you but you’re fading away night after night And everything I see, anywhere I go, I feel you by my side Girl, I do believe in love Can’t you see the kindness in me? There’s nothing I can say, nothing I can do to change the past Can’t you see the kindness in me? Your heart belongs to rock’n’roll And you easily fell in a junkie romance Too much booze, too many drugs, a suicide fairy tale I don’t care about the style or color of your hair And we don’t have to look like Nancy and Sid But you and I can change the rules with a second chance Girl, i do believe in love Can’t you see the kindness in me, anymore? There’s nothing I can say, nothing I can do to change the past we shared Can’t you see the kindness in me? Girl, I do believe in love Can’t you see the kindness in me, anymore? There’s nothing I can say, nothing I can do to change the past we shared Can’t you see the kindness in me? Can’t you see the kindness in me?
2.
Saw your picture in the paper And i see you’ve married good And i know that he can give you All the things I never could But I know that he can’t give you What you need most of all So the door is always open And the light’s on in the hall Yes, the door is always open And the light’s on in the hall And you know that i’ll be waiting If you ever come to call When night falls on that mansion And you’re lying in his bed When he begs you for attention Will you think of me instead ? When he reaches out to touch you Is your face turned to the wall Well, the door is always open And the light’s on in the hall Yes, the door is always open And the light’s on in the hall And you know that i’ll be waiting If you ever come to call Yes, the door is always open And the light’s on in the hall And you know that i’ll be waiting If you ever come to call
3.
Falling in love was never the plan Sadness and tears, waiting in vain I couldn’t face myself anymore I used to live as a rambling man No one to care, guitar in my hand For your precious love, i made up mind I will quit the road, leave it all behind For your precious love, i made up mind Down on my knees, you found me on my knees. Begging for a sign from goddess Erzulie An angel’s voice from above Unveiling your face and your precious love For your precious love, i made up mind I will quit the road, leave it all behind For your precious love, i made up mind For your precious love, i made up mind I will quit the road, leave it all behind For your precious love, i made up mind Your precious love I’m ready for your love I’m ready for your love I’m ready for your love Your precious love I’m ready for your love I’m ready for your love Your precious love I’m ready for your love I’m ready for your love I’m ready for your love Your precious love I’m ready for your love I’m ready for your love Your precious love
4.
Paper Doll 02:52
Bunny, Bunny Lee You’re getting high, high and low All down the line on fiction row Bunny, Bunny Lee Stuck inside a world of fantasy You’re losing touch with reality, (Oh Bunny) Open your heart! Be my next paper doll Open your heart! Be my next paper doll Mary, Mary Lou Walking down the streets of desire, You come and fuel my hidden fire Open your heart! Be my next paper doll Open your heart! Be my next paper doll You are my little paper doll You are my little paper doll You are my little paper doll You are my little paper doll Open your heart! Tell me your life Open your heart! Tell me your life Open your heart! Be my next paper doll Open your heart! Be my next paper doll
5.
More I need more More to be alive More to save my life Down Falling down Down into my soul, Down without control Don’t you believe me when i say I crossed the line between Jeckyll and Hyde? It’s time to keep you safe As i begin to chafe You better disappear My shadow you should fear Stay behind me Don’t get closer You could infect yourself Stay behind me Don’t get closer You could infect yourself ‘cause i’m a real wild one Sometimes i’m up in the air, i feel like God I’m on tour everyday... just like Mike Watt If you give me the key, I’ll drive you crazy Get out of the van, Get out while you can Stay behind me Don’t get closer You could infect yourself Stay behind me Don’t get closer You could infect yourself ‘cause i’m a real wild one
6.
Loving you by mistake Sorry for your loss Never felt an earthquake ‘til you came across, you came across, you came across Loving you by mistake I apologize One day in Silverlake I can’t forget your eyes, can’t forget your eyes, can’t forget your eyes I may be wrong but I gotta try No remorse, no regrets On the day I die Loving you by mistake How can i survive? Without your body shake On Mullholland Drive Loving you my mistake Found the missing part Couldn’t see the rattlesnake Hidden in your heart, inside your heart, inside your heart I was wrong but I had to try No remorse, No regrets on the day I die
7.
I’m driving my car to the C.C. Motel Heights My baby is waiting there for me I’m driving my car through the flashing neon lights Sunset is still like “Model Shop” Nineteen sixty five The building year of my Chevelle Coming from South-Ontario Nineteen sixty five I’ve found a new place to dwell Searching for the roots of my own C.C. C.C. C.C. oh! C. C.C. C.C. C.C. oh! C. Tennesse Whiskey Old-Time friend for the ride The bottle never let me down Tennesse Whiskey George Dickel by my side Bringing me back to your arms Too late to avoid a boar The red Chevy bangs the beast and rolls on down the ocean cliff Too late to avoid a boar Ain’t got time to call the priest Jonah is back inside the whale C.C. C.C. C.C. oh! C. C.C. C.C. C.C. you’ll never see me
8.
So long babe I’ll be back soon Take this knife Go find a place to hide a place to hide Get to the shore Forget the hill A sandstorm is on the edge of town The edge of town I’m gonna find him Your only child And bring him back Put your trust in me Trust in me So many stories, So many lies Spreading coast to coast The Devil’s wrath Too many stories? Too many lies? Somebody tell me if it’s wrong or right Ochre sky A burning Smell Nothing moves except a ripping flag a ripping flag Ain’t got no choice I gotta run before the doom I need to find the way a way out Never again To look in your eyes My time has come The Devil always wins He always wins So many stories, So many lies Spreading coast to coast The Devil’s wrath Too many stories? Too many lies? Somebody tell me if it’s wrong or right The Devil, the Devil, the Devil’s wrath The Devil, the Devil, the Devil’s wrath The Devil, the Devil, the Devil’s wrath The Devil, the Devil, the Devil’s wrath
9.
You are the Holy Grail, my Lord Glory be to the sinner and his sins Forever and ever, I pray to you An everlasting love, always true You are the Holy Grail, my Lord Part of the mystery up above In the jigsaw puzzle of my memories One piece is missing, I’m not complete You are the Holy Grail, my love Quicksand of my happiness down low Sometimes I feel, so confused by the ghost beside me in leather shoes Have you ever been real? Were you ever real? You are the Holy Grail, my love Queen of the kingdom of my thoughts I fear the day, we meet again The war is over, what about the pain? Have you ever been real? Have you ever?
10.
Every time I tell you I care about you You don’t believe me Won’t even touch me Don’t wanna seek you Don’t wanna seek you anymore Don’t wanna seek you Don’t wanna seek you anymore The game is over Guess who’s the loser I better let you go I’m too old to follow Don’t wanna seek you Don’t wanna seek you anymore Don’t wanna seek you Don’t wanna seek you anymore You’ll never be free You can’t see beauty You’ll never be free You can’t see beauty

about

James Eleganz' second album takes us far, far away. If the first one, “The Only One”, recorded in the Joshua Tree desert and released in 2019, evoked the great outdoors, this one is closer to the urban jungle – thanks to its Berlin recording session. And its dreamy music and ten songs fly away from overly obvious references. It feels good.
Right away, you're struck by James' voice, his deep, hushed tone, his simple, catchy melodies and his perfectly delivered English lyrics. Are you sure this guy is French? Behind him, the music is sumptuous, both familiar and totally original, world-class. No wonder, when you know who makes up the backing band for this album: Larry Mullins, also a producer, is on drums, Geoffrey Burton on guitars, and... Bertrand Burgalat on bass. Three exceptional musicians, at the service of a talented singer-songwriter.
Larry Mullins has already produced James' first album. A real complicity was born between the two musicians, as the singer tells us: "His particularity is that he played with Iggy Pop and now he's with the Bad Seeds. For me, these are my two legs. And I wasn't wrong because we quickly realized that we were both fans of a lot of things that were completely unrelated but essential to the relationship”
Larry Mullins assembled the crew, played drums and directed. One of the album's most original sounds comes from the incredible guitar parts of Geoffrey Burton, a tremendous musician who played with Arno in the late 1990s and on Bashung's Les grands Espaces tour, but also with Iggy... His playing, originally very rock, has evolved a lot: "Now he's gone into something very sonic, with a lot of pedals that he masters perfectly. Sometimes you get the impression that he's a synthesizer, almost sound design, loops that are superimposed, he has his own universe”
The other prestigious and fundamental guest is Bertrand Burgalat: "Larry had always told me that Burgalat was one of the best bassists in the world, he considers him a genius, because he was a drummer for Tricatel for years, in sessions and on tour. Bertrand didn't know me at all, and Larry didn't want to play the demos, he said, 'Geoffrey, Bertrand, they're geniuses, if we start giving them direction, we're going to channel that genius, and that would be a shame.'" Well done, because their genius is being expressed!
Behind all this, there is the omnipresent shadow of one man, Iggy Pop, a fundamental artist for James Eleganz since his beginnings: "When I was 16 or 17, I was given the video tape of the concert at the Olympia in 1991. When he did 'I Wanna Be Your Dog', it changed my life, I thought, 'I can do this'. He's a surrogate father to me. And on that gig, it was Larry Mullins on drums."
So much so that James' first band, an electro-rock group from the early 2000s, was called Success; a “Lust For Life” track on which he ended his shows. And that on his first solo album, he offered a re-reading of "The Horse Song", a track from the unjustly underrated “Zombie Birdhouse” album...
Yet James' music has little in common with Iggy's, except perhaps for the depth of their voices: "For me, it's more of a foundation. After that, my tastes have evolved enormously, I listen to very different things. I'm a huge fan of Daniel Johnston, it speaks to me a lot. Vincent Gallo's solo album, When, is for me one of the most beautiful. It has absolutely nothing to do with Iggy Pop. But there is a sensitivity... I really like fragility and mistakes, people like that, a bit broken”.
The other link between James and his mentor is probably to be found in the songs themselves, through the themes and lyrics. James conjures up the great myths of America and rock'n'roll: Los Angeles and its eternal film set, Sid and Nancy's junkie romances that mix fame and failed love affairs against a backdrop of alcohol, drugs and suicide ("Kindness In Me"), but also pop culture, the road, the life of a wandering musician, guitar in hand, who is reluctant to leave his loved one ("Precious Love").
Unlike the lyrics of many French singers who are fascinated by these worlds but merely repeat clichés, the credibility of James' lyrics is total, reinforced by the presence of Larry Mullins, who invested a lot of time in the songs: "The first thing we talked about was my lyrics. Being a non-native, I have wording and imagery that is very poetic to him. Larry is never credited on the records he's made, but I credited him on all the tracks and on the lyrics. We're artistically linked, it's like I put words to the songs in his head.
The album was made during the confinement in Berlin, where Larry Mullins lives and where he was stuck with an American passport: "Obviously, there's an imaginary world around Bowie and Iggy, but the tracks weren't written for that. The challenge was to try to give a more urban, more European sound to what I had written. There's a lot more keyboards, synthesizers, on this album”
If the city influenced the sound of the album, it also gave it its title: "The confinement was worse than in France, we found ourselves in a beautiful hotel, where we were the only guests! We did all the arrangements, the synthesizers, together, and on the last day of mixing, Larry said to me, 'for me this record will always be the Augusta Hotel'. The album was supposed to be called Night Thoughts, but I thought Hotel Augusta sounded much better”

It's not easy to describe the music on this album, you'll have to listen to it. It is surprising. From the beginning of their collaboration, the palette was very wide: James Eleganz imagined doing "something like Television, more punk nerd", while Larry Mullins recognized in the structure of his songs the influence of country music... The range of sounds and references is even wider today on Hotel Augusta. Iggy Pop. Nick Cave. Bertrand Burgalat. Daniel Johnston. Vincent Gallo. Alain Bashung. Television. Country music. Sid & Nancy. Berlin. California. Are you lost? That's a good sign. Have a good trip.

Stan Cuesta

credits

released October 7, 2022

All Songs by James Eleganz except "The Door Is Always Open" by Dickey Lee and Bob McDill

Recorded and mixed by Ingo Krauss (Candy Bomber Studios, Berlin)
Mastered by Tom Meyer (Master and Servant, Hamburg)
Produced by Toby Dammit
Photo: Lætitia Waegel
Cover design: Pascal Blua

Label & publishing: ZRP

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James Eleganz Dinard, France

What’s left of the Berlin of David Bowie and Iggy Pop? With this question in mind, James Eleganz imagined his second collaboration, with Larry Mullins alias Toby Dammit (Iggy Pop, Swans, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds) as artistic director. Together, they created James Eleganz’s new album “Hotel Augusta”. It establishes James Eleganz as an artist to be reckoned with for many years to come. ... more

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