Friday, May 30, 2014

Beatnik Cafe - Herbs & Spices tape (1991)

I would have probably cast aside this San Diego trio as just another dime-a-dozen, acousti-pop also-ran were it not for mouthpiece Steve Harris who croons uncannily like Andy Sturmer of Jellyfish.  Given that Herbs... was most likely a DIY demo tape, Beatnik Cafe didn't have anywhere near the resources their relatively renown contemporaries did.  Nonetheless, some of these rather economical songs were angling toward Bellybutton territory, particularly "Spanish Fly," which bears the same infectious lilt as "Baby's Coming Back."  Coincidence?   Compared to what I normally present on W/O, the Beatniks might ring a little too clean cut and peppy to your liking, so consider yourselves warned.

01. Beatnik Cafe (demo)
02. Spanish Fly
03. Hard to Be
04. Lyin' Here Lonely
05. You Can Call on Me
06. I Know You
07. What Would You Do
08. Father's Day

Hear

6 comments:

Damian Stachelski said...

If you could reupload the files for this, that would be awesome!! Thank you!!

Unknown said...

Ha ha ha! I played bass in Beatnik Cafe. I just typed in the name to see what would come up. After leaving the band I moved to Japan and have been here ever since. We had less than no money. I had to pay off years of debt once I found a real job. My bass sucked so hard it was bowed and I had to pluck it with a pick to get any sound out of it but I couldn't afford a new one. I hear Steve is still going strong with The High Staxx and The Styletones and his solo work. I contributed to his last solo project. I met Steve at "Live at SOHO" an open mic that I ran for years at SOHO Coffee shop in Hillcrest. It's pronounced with a long "i" sound as in "live music". Cheers, David

spavid said...

Hey, thanks David. Interesting. Let me know if Beatnik Cafe had anything out besides the tape.

Unknown said...

There was a tape recorded before I came on board and I used to have live recordings that got erased over the years. I bet Steve still has some. I gave him our live show tape years ago and never got it back!

OldieBG said...

David. I was going through old pictures and found a newspaper clipping from the San Diego Union Tribune. A Picture of 3 guys captioned Beatnik Cafe: Steve Harris, Todd Rattan and David Baldwin. I suppose I kept it because my name is David Baldwin. Also, I play guitar some.

Unknown said...

Hi Dave Baldwin (AKA OldieBG). Yep that was me. That would have been around 1992 or so? We played only two years. Fun to hear that someone has an old clipping of ours.