by Joe Fielder
We caught up recently with The Movies-alum Jessica Gelt about her new band Last in Class, who have the Monday night free residency at The Satellite through October.
Here's Jessica on the background of her bandmates and seven of the group's songs:
I'm super-excited about the band, which features singer/songwriter Emily Wilder on vox and guitar (Wet & Reckless), Charlie Wadhams on drums (Rex Aquarium, Sweet Hearts, The Movies) and Chris Watson on lead guitar (Russian Bones, Juliette and The Licks). The music has been compared to Gun Club and Bleached, but I like to think it's got its own thing going. Part punk, part pop, all heart.
The caveat for all these songs is that they are all written by Emily Wilder who is the best lyricist I've met since Timothy James of The Movies. She refuses to use cliche twists of phrase in her songs and the result is a certain freshness that you don't often come across.
"Stop"
This song thrives on a stop-and-start rhythm. It's a playful song. Like most Last in Class songs, this is a love song of sorts. And just because it's a love song doesn't mean that it's about the love of a person. It can be about love of a sound, or of a combination of notes, or of a particular frame of mind. We had difficulty making this song come together in a cohesive way because of all the weird changes. But now that we have it down it's one of our favorite songs to play.
"Tied to the Moon"
Emily wrote this last fall after we both got a little too excited during a full moon party. Sometimes life can just get you so riled up that you feel like you're going to float away. Or maybe that's not life, maybe it's just whiskey.
"Drug Song"
A great musician and friend named Laura Jordan co-wrote this song with Emily a long time ago. The two were living together in a little post-heartbreak shack in Silver Lake, if I remember the story correctly. (Em tells me so many stories--and I, her. We are each others' diaries, but we don't always keep our facts straight.) This song is now called "Cigarettes" because that's really the only vice the whole band keeps trying to kick. That and, whiskey.
"Broken Backs" I can't say too much about this song because it's pretty personal. Let's just say that there were tears involved, and a lot of steps. Someone might have carried someone else down some steps and a back was possibly hurt. Not broken, mind you, just hurt. There was probably a broken heart in there somewhere, though. Broken hearts hide in most of these songs. It's what makes them sing.
"Untie Me"
Have you ever been so in love that you just want to smash the other person's face in? In a good way, of course. Well, that's kind of what this song is getting at. It's a "I'm really into you" anthem. So much so that I want to put your head in a blender and drink it--kind of thing. C'mon, we've all been there, right?
"Walk Me Home"
The title of this song says it all, "Walk me home!" Sometimes a girl has got to be walked home. Sometimes she shouldn't be out on the streets scraping up her knees (that's a lyrical paraphrase, too). Emily and I live in Echo Park, just a few blocks away from one another, and we walk each other home. A lot. Other people walk us home, too. We have relied on the kindness of strangers.
"Don't Settle"
Searching for the perfect someone is a universal in music, and that's what this is about. Except that it's a plea to not accept anything less than the very best. Don't settle. The right love--the real love is out there. And that's true for everyone. For Last In Class, at the moment, that love is each other and our music.
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