Dear listener, we’re getting close to Halloween, and this week I wanted to deliver music by a dead band that was a little cool and a little creepy. In the late 1990’s, when industrial rock was at its absolute peak, my favorite band far and away was Nine Inch Nails, and I still consider Trent Reznor to be a positive musical influence in my young life. Years after the 1990’s, it was fun for me to actually track the career progress of people who worked with Reznor in the recording studio because, generally speaking, I would also dig the cut of their audio jib as well. One of those talents was Dave "Rave" Ogilvie, a Canadian producer, songwriter and mixer who had also worked with the likes of Marilyn Manson and Skinny Puppy. Dave ended up creating one of the most ambitious but ultimately short-lived industrial rock projects which went by the name of Jakalope. Haven’t heard of them? Can’t say I blame you. They’re deader than the prospect of yet another P. Diddy ‘White Party’ happening anytime soon, and they never managed to snag the roaring heights of mega-success. What they did right was execute an elaborate attempt at marrying blistering rock and dulcet pop, and they made it sound and look pretty damn good. Just above you will locate my favorite of their songs AND scary music videos, Feel It from their 2004 surreal odyssey, It Dreams. Want more? No problem, I got tons more details just below. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find any good pictures of ‘the band’ online, so you’ll just have to scroll down and suffer through an image of its young and talented original lady vocalist, Katie B, who I’m sure you will agree was and is EXTREMELY hard on the eyes…
Katie B had a fresh pop-girl face, an excellent and unique voice which I grew to appreciate (she sings through her nose a lot, it’s quirky and cute) and she possessed the drive to bring her musical ambitions to life. She and Dave met when she was working as a phone-jockey receptionist at a production studio in Vancouver. The two apparently hit it off in a very professional and friendly manner and noticing she had talent bursting out of her breeches, Dave invited her to audition as the vocalist for an open-ended project he had in mind for putting pop and rock in a blender and hitting frappe. After ONE audition, Katie B landed the role and was immediately tasked with lyric-writing responsibilities, which she did serviceably despite being greener than grass in terms of industry experience. Probably as a favor to Dave, industry-titan Trent Reznor himself came aboard this project for help producing, and so this little endeavor actually ended up sounding like a NIN sub-project to me. The concept was simple; take a popstar-looking young lady and drop her into a gritty but luscious industrial backdrop. It worked. It worked exceedingly well, and their first two albums sounded beyond good in terms of stylistic sophistication and overall imagery. For its time, this was a sound and look that was truly avant-garde; mixing a modern pop culture look and style with bitchin’ guitar solos and distorted sounds and images. I really wish Dave and Katie would have stayed together over the years in a collaboration capacity, because I’m pretty sure that their studio work would have absolutely evolved into a household-name over two or so decades of brewing. As it happens, touring for this group was limited and within a few short years Katie was looking to branch off and do her own thing. Jakalope managed to break into the charts from time to time, producing some material that was a breath of fresh air compared to the utterly generic and imminently forgettable pop-rock trash that dominated the air waves at the beginning of the 2000’s. They became increasingly popular in their native Canada, especially after one of their tracks was featured as the opening theme on a show I’ve never seen called Degrassi: The Next Generation. When Katie decided to start a country music career in 2007, that is when the band entered a prolonged decline and ultimately a total crash. They tried to release one more album in 2010, this time with the very multi-talented vocalist Chrystal Leigh, but I gotta be honest. It kinda-sorta sucked, and I would recommend you avoid it at ALL fucking costs. Their final album, Things That Go Jump in the Night was an utter trainwreck for me personally and just made me nostalgic for the sound and vocals that put them on the map in the first place. In Katie B’s time, this was truly a brilliant but imperfect gem and a completely different kind of musical experience. Just below you’ll find Upside Down from their 2006 album Born 4, plenty more obscure audio acts to post this year, my friends.
Katie B went on to become Katie Rox, a sometimes-solo country music singer-songwriter who has been involved in a Canadian all-lady country group called Nice Horse. Get ready for this… Dave ‘Rave’ went on to pretty much help out in the studio with various pop music projects; anybody remember that annoying Carly Rae Jepsen song Call Me Maybe? That was Dave’s work, and no, I’m not kidding. Funny, the places people end up! Image source: Help me find HQ images of my favorite band please : r/HelpMeFind
