Steven Reker: Hey I’m Steven.
James Rickman: And I’m James.
Steven Reker: And we are People Get Ready.
James Rickman: Steven actually hosts a fair amount of dinner parties at his apartment, and they always turn into dance parties…
Steven Reker: They do.
James Rickman: …But they’re nothing like the dances that we do in our shows. More like Cyndi Lauper, and less like strapping a guitar to your back and dragging it around to a cacophonous din of feedback.
Takeshi Terauchi – “Sukara son Karabushi”
Steven Reker: For the first song for our dinner party, I picked Takeshi Terauchi. The name of the song is “Sukara son Karabushi.”
He’s an amazing Japanese guitarist from the 60’s who just rips it — he has this guitar style that I’ve completely tried to emulate since I’ve heard it. It’s just wild and frenetic, and just… he plays so hard. I was working at a bar and some DJ put one of his tracks on, and I just had to stop working and be like, “What in the world is this? This is blowing my mind!”
It just makes me want to drink. So I thought, “Might as well start a dinner party with a few drinks, a little bit of wild guitar work, and go from there.”
Tom Waits & Crystal Gayle – “Picking Up After You”
James Rickman: For the next track I would like to draw from one of many many records I stole from my parents growing up. It’s a Tom Waits/Crystal Gayle duet called “Picking Up After You.”
It’s on a soundtrack to the movie “One from the Heart” — it’s a Coppola movie that I’ve never heard of outside of having this one record. And it’s all these boozy and silly love duets. Like on “Picking up After You,” Tom Waits sings: “Tell me; how long have you been combing your hair with a wrench?!”
Crystal Gayle — that totally pristine voice. Tom Waits– rasping, honking away. I don’t know, very different universes, and yet there they are; it totally works. There’s something magical about it.
It’s really better for a dinner party. Not so much for when you’re canoodling with your baby. That’s a whole another podcast that I hope you guys start: “Canoodling With Your Baby.”
Black Marble – “A Great Design”
James Rickman: The next track I chose is “A Great Design,” by Black Marble, which is a Brooklyn band.
For me it’s kind of a late night jammer. I work at a bar, and often put this record on for closing. Kind of feels like… a little sexy, synthy, and a little dark. It’s great.
People Get Ready – “Hot Fruit”
Steven Reker: If we were to pick a song off our new album, “Physiques,” to play at this dinner party, “Hot Fruit” would be our dessert course.
James Rickman: I once explained “Hot Fruit” as if, um… you went to the beach with Philip Glass and you were like, “Hey let’s play Frisbee!” And then you play frisbee with Philip Glass.
