Remember the Black Kids? They’re back and ready to teach your boyfriend how to dance at Johnny Brenda’s in August
Remember Black Kids? No? Then how about their should-have-been-a-hit song, “I’m Not Gonna Teach Your Boyfriend How To Dance With You”, that came out in 2007 (20 years ago in internet time)? Well, if you counted yourself as a fan, you’ll be happy to know the band is back and playing a show at Johnny Brenda’s on Wednesday, August 21. According to the band’s Facebook, they are “working on new music and hope to release album deux ASAP.”
The Story
In the event you don’t recall BK mania, the Jacksonville, Florida band, fronted by Reggie Youngblood, rose to quick blog rock fame during the Summer and Fall of 2007 with the release of their 8.4 “Best New Music” Pitchfork approved Wizard of Ahhhs EP. At the time, the band gave the EP away for free on their MySpace page and a breakout set of shows at CMJ had music bloggers and fans salivating over the band’s pop smarts. In July, 2008 the band released its debut album, Partie Traumatic, which Pitchfork near trashed with a 3.3 out of 10 score. Some sporadic touring followed, however the band sort of fell off the map.
The Update
One of the band members, Owen Cohen (recording under the name of Owen Holmes), formed Gospel Music, released a record in October, 2011 called How To Get From Heaven From Jacksonville, FL. At the time, the band stopped by XPN and did a session with Eric Schuman that you can listen to here. Owen is now recording under the name he was born with and working on his debut solo effort; listen to a song below. As for Youngblood, he recently released two videos, one of him dancing around his house or apartment to a Can song (“I Want More”), and a new “real” song, “Taylor Swift,” that’s heavy on the power pop and rock riffs (watch it below).
The Prediction
Given the band’s storied blog rock history, I’d file the upcoming show at Johnny Brenda’s under the heading of “highly anticipated;” unless of course, the attention deficit starved music blognorati have fallen into such deep cynicism no one actually does care anymore. But I don’t think that’s the case. Curious minds will want to know what’s up with this once-on the-brink-band.
Here’s that “Boyfriend” song.