Magic Ears is proud to announce the pre-sale release of our latest album on the Magic Ears Music label:
The 25th Anniversary Remastered Reissue of “BLOWJOB” by Dore Soul, a fantastic 1990’s alternative rock band from South Florida.
Below, check out the liner notes from the album, which can be heard and purchased by clicking HERE.
Even if you weren’t a fan of the band back in the 90’s, this album is well worth a listen.
Great music is timeless…
I’ll never forget the first time I saw Dore Soul. It was at a fundraiser for a friend’s sister whose husband had died suddenly in 1992. It was at a dank, dark rock venue in Deerfield Beach called The Ambassador Club.
They hit the stage and completely grabbed the room and refused to let it go for the next 45 minutes. As I watched them, I remember thinking that this is what it must’ve felt like to see The Rolling Stones when they were just starting out.
I wasn’t that far off, as lead singer Carey Peak and lead guitarist Jim Hadzopolus were the Glimmer Twins of the South Florida original music scene for the next half decade, writing some of the catchiest and most rockin’ songs the scene has ever produced.
The two of them jousted with each other on stage, shoving back and forth, seemingly ready to throw down at any moment. All the while drummer Gary Norton slammed away at the drums like a jackhammer. You almost didn’t notice Derek Sullivan holding down the bottom on bass, and he seemed to like it that way.
At the height of the best years in the history of the Miami/Fort Lauderdale/West Palm Beach music scene, Dore Soul was one of the most popular acts.
And it was with good reason.
Their songs bridged the gap between what was considered alternative/college rock and straight up pop rock. The songs were smart, lyrically earnest, catchy and played with tremendous energy.
In their prime, on a good night, they were the best band in South Florida. There were, of course, off nights. Nights when the combustible nature of Peak and Hadzopolus would overwhelm their better angels, and things would veer off course and crash into a ditch.
But those nights were far outnumbered by their many great performances. Peak was one of the best frontmen I’ve ever seen. Period. He could sing. He could engage the crowd. He was a madman willing to climb, hang from and jump off anything.
Meanwhile, Hadzopolus cranked out riffs and leads that sounded like two people playing instead of one. I still have no idea how he pulled it off.
In short, they were my favorite South Florida band, and they still are.
Later, I found myself writing about the music scene for XS Magazine, a weekly alternative rag that was a key part of the success of the scene before it was co-opted by an asshole who won’t be named here. Before that happened, I wrote music features and reviews.
My editor handed me a cassette copy of “Blowjob” and asked me to review it. I popped it into the player and was immediately transported back to that night at The Ambassador. It was fresh and fun and captured the essence of the band. It wasn’t mixed exceptionally well, but the performances and quality of the songs made that almost irrelevant.
I gave it a glowing review and almost simultaneously “Breathe” started getting heavy airplay on WKPX in Broward and WVUM in Miami. Along with “Cigarratello” by The Holy Terrors, “I’m Not Average” by The Goods, “Mr. Malcolm’s Chronicles” by I Don’t Know, “Crackerjack” by Collapsing Lungs and “Insane” by Six Silver Spiders, “Breathe” was an honest to goodness hit song in South Florida.
It was on constant rotation on both stations (even though WKPX DJs were banned from saying the name of the album), as well as a staple on the ZETA and WSHE local shows, and that airplay helped push Dore Soul to the height of popularity, making them a top draw in the region.
Dore Soul was one of a handful of bands that transcended the stupid Broward-Dade battle that was waged unnecessarily for about five years.
They were too good for it matter.
After the review, I became friends with the band and became best friends with Peak. In mid 1993 when I started my own band, The Baboons, Dore Soul gave us opening slots on some really big shows. This helped us become one of the bigger draws in town until I left the band in mid 1994.
It wasn’t surprising that they would help a new band, as they were always about supporting the scene. They set the right example by attending other bands’ shows and were also tireless promoters, flyering until late into the evening at venues such as Squeeze and The Edge.
Never afraid to speak his mind, Peak was a go-to interview for most music journalists here.
When I started booking Squeeze in 1994, Dore Soul was always a top choice.
Oddly, while lesser bands were getting signed, Dore Soul remained unsigned. To this day, it makes no sense. They had the most hit potential of any of the popular bands in town. Perhaps it was their iconoclastic ethos. Perhaps it was just bad luck.
On their second recording in 1994, “The New Shit,” the band took far more control of the recording and mixing, and they were evolving as songwriters. While superior in many ways to “Blowjob,” it was an unfortunate afterthought for a band that wasn’t meant to live beyond a few precious years.
In 1996, Peak, Hadzopolus and Norton evolved into the C-60s and were signed to Spongebath Records. Sadly, by the time their debut album dropped in 1998, the alternative/college wave had crested and they never found the audience they deserved.
It is with pride and pleasure that Magic Ears Music presents all of the studio output Dore Soul recorded during their all-too-short lifespan.
Because the original source recordings have been lost to the ages, Magic Ears worked from the already mastered recordings, which had been digitally transferred from DAT to WAV files. As such, these recordings have only been lightly remastered.
But that hardly matters, as their music sounds as fresh today as it did two-and-a-half decades ago, and most fans have only heard the hissing cassette version of these songs anyway.
There is a treasure trove of 4-track recordings that will be released in the future, but for now I give you the 25th Anniversary Remastered Reissue of “Blowjob” with “The New Shit” added as bonus tracks (along with one four-track version of “Shoot The Horse”).
Enjoy!
— Adam Matza, owner, Magic Ears Music
Again, you can click here to listen to and purchase the 25th Anniversary Remastered Reissue of “BLOWJOB” by Dore Soul.
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