Meet… Dreams Of Venus
When metal band Hades broke up, Jimmy Schulman, the bassist for the Bergen County thrashers, based in Paramus, said, “"I knew I wanted to start a band with only one guitar player and base it out of New York City."
That guitar player would end up being Addie Flaxx.
"I had been living in Boston and moved back to my hometown NYC,” Addie adds. “I was looking to do a no-bullshit thing, straight-up and raw. When I met Jimmy, it was love at first misadventure. We swapped party favors and band influences...then it was off to the races."
The two then recruited drummer Kirke J Blankenship, whom they met at a rehearsal studio. The place would close at 11:00 every night. Kirke would sneak them in at midnight. Rehearsals ensued. It took six months of substance-abuse before a sound emerged. Schulman likes to say, “we knew we had something different. The songs basically wrote themselves. Flaxx adds, “we were pretty inspired. Tunes were just pouring out of us like hot lava.”
All this was in the 1990s.
Unfortunately, the music industry tends to eat its young. The demo fell between the cracks.
Until now.
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Heavy psychedelic stoner rock. Lots of wah-wah pedal. Two-part vocal harmony. All accentuated by what Flaxx calls the “Wooly Mammoth” of Schulman’s bass. Voila! Power Trio Extraordinaire!
Schulman was first to rediscover the tapes and it blew his mind. “The songs held up!” He showed it to Flaxx. “At that point, it was a distant memory,” says the guitarist. “I was skeptical. But it sounded good…especially for a two-track.”
Long story short: two Euro labels showed interest. The result is Songs From The Essex Street Market.