New album: Joey Joesph || Do You Bongo?

Joey Cook used to play in psych indie pop outfit Pomegranates, but currently records and performs as Joey Joesph – which I keep reading as Joey Joseph. Despite several releases preceding Do You Bongo, it is the first post-Promegranates work I’ve heard from Cook/Joesph. The record is hard to overlook though. Opener Bellezebub immediately grabs your attention with its Warm Sodaesque retro powerpop. From there on out, Do You Bongo is a delightfully weird mesh (mess?) of sounds and styles. There is proto punk, glam, power pop, synth pop, rock’n’roll, psychelic rock, and new wave. Psychedelic Baby Magazine sums it up as “rock & roll through a lens shaped by Saturday morning cartoons, half-remembered AM pop, and home-recording hero worship,” and that makes totally sense once you’ve listened to the record.

As such, you probably won’t like all of the songs on Do You Bongo, but the gems here (like Bellezebub, Little Brother, Rock & Roll Music, I Feel Nervous and Bongo 3) make the trip worthwhile nonetheless. Cool concept, cool execution.


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