LUSTER | JOANBastard
" Dave is like David Bowie to me."
Begun as a solo side project for Grifters frontman Dave Shouse, Those Bastard Souls became a proper band in 1998 when Joan and Dambuilders band mate Kevin March joined Shouse, Matt Fields and Michael Tighe to record Debt and Departure for V2 records. The band had been through many incarnations before settling into its final line-up, but Joan had been a key collaborator from the beginning. Of their pairing she says, �I had been a fan of Dave�s band and I guess he liked me too.�
Recorded in western Massachusetts, Debt and Departure is melancholy affair marked by Joan�s lachrymose violin and allusions to loss and regret, in general, and Jeff Buckley�s death in particular. "We�ve all gone through some crazy shit, above all Jeff Buckley�s death.� Debt and Departure has all the glammy retro references of its predecessor, 20th Century Chemical, and is as much an expansion on it that record as it is a low-fi requiem for the dearly departed. Stand-out tracks include �The Last Thing I Ever Wanted Was To Show Up And Blow Your Mind�, �Wake of Your Flood�.
